Description of the attraction
The David Flea Wildlife Park is located near Burley Heads on the Gold Coast of Australia. Founded in 1952 by the famous Australian naturalist David Flea, today the park is home to many animals in the most natural ecosystems recreated for them. The main task of the park is to tell about the need to protect wildlife and, first of all, those species that are under threat of extinction. There is also a rehabilitation center for sick and wounded animals and children left without parents. Each year, about 1,500 animals pass through the center, most of which are then released into the wild.
After exploring the outskirts of Brisbane and southeast Queensland, Flea decided in 1951 to establish an animal sanctuary at the mouth of the Tallebudger River. To this end, he acquired a piece of land there, and in 1958 and 1965 he expanded his possessions. Flea Animal Sanctuary, as it was originally called, was established as a location for research and educational projects. Platypuses, snakes, wild dingo dogs, hawks, crocodiles and alligators were kept in enclosed enclosures, while bandicoots, bilbies, flying foxes, rare oriental bristle beaks, sea eagles, wallabies and koalas could come and go as they pleased. To secure the future of the reserve, David and Sigrid Flea sold most of it (37 acres) to the Queensland state government in 1982. A year later, they sold another 20 acres, and finally, in 1985, the entire territory of the reserve, which became a wildlife park, came into the possession of the state. Sami David and Sigrid Flea continued to live in the park and take care of the animals. In 1997, the park was named after its founder. Today, the park contains strange cassowaries from the rainforest of northern Queensland, playful platypuses, freshwater and saltwater crocodiles, tree kangaroos, red and giant marsupial flying squirrels. The House of Nocturnal Animals is home to some of the strangest beasts of the Australian continent - a rabbit bandicoot from the central deserts, a black-headed python, a narrow-footed marsupial mouse
