Description of the attraction
The Alice Springs Reptile Center is a privately owned property that houses the largest reptile collection in the Northern Territories state. Here you can see the perenti lizard, frilled lizard, moloch, large and small peonies and poisonous snakes, including taipan, false cobra, Australian spiny tail and the very dangerous king brown snake. The center is a popular tourist attraction that also hosts environmental education programs.
All "cold-blooded" inhabitants of the center are native Australians. Many were caught in the homes of local residents, in their yards, or brought from areas that were set on fire as part of a special program to prevent devastating summer fires. Some reptiles, by the way, were then returned to the wild. Center staff also make calls to homes where poisonous snakes are taken and caught.
Founded by Rex Neindorf, a former reptile trainer, the center opened in January 2000. Today it contains more than 100 reptiles, representing 30 species, which often appear on television screens in documentaries and on the pages of educational magazines such as National Geographic.
In 2002, the center opened an exposition dedicated to saltwater crocodiles, and in 2006 - an exposition of fossil remains, telling about the evolution of reptiles over the past 200 million years. Interestingly, the Australian Tourism Development Association became the sponsor of this exhibit.
Several times in its history, the inhabitants of the center were attacked by people. For example, in 2004, two 13-year-old boys broke into the center and attacked a crocodile with truncheons, breaking his teeth and inflicting several wounds. In 2008, another 7-year-old boy entered the center after closing and staged a real massacre that killed 13 animals! Spencer's 20-year-old monitor lizard, a tortoise, a bearded lizard and a moloch lizard, among others, died. The juvenile offender threw some animals through the fence into the enclosure to the 200-kilogram saltwater crocodile. Following this widely publicized incident, the Northern Territories State has seriously revised the punishment for criminals under 10 years of age.
