The Wildlife Games

by Bindi Irwin

  Jason tried to convince the make-up artist they didn’t need make-up. ‘We’re guys. We don’t do make-up!’ But the make-up artist had a job to do and she wasn’t going to let anyone interfere with it. She painted orange and black tiger stripes on the boys’ cheeks.

  Declan winked at Jason. ‘Don’t worry, mate. It makes us look more manly.’

  Jason nodded. ‘Yeah, more ferocious and carnivorous than those vegetarian zebra girls over there.’

  Mimi and Ana rolled their eyes at the boys.

  ‘Yes, everyone, this is a partnered obstacle course,’ explained Bindi. ‘We have the tiger team and the zebra team – costumes and face art should make which is which self-evident. There will be a range of obstacles to overcome, and the biggest obstacle of all will be that one of the partners will be blindfolded. And you get to choose which team member will do the course blind.’

  Ana and Mimi looked at each other. ‘Umm, what would you prefer?’ asked Mimi.

  ‘Obviously I have a lot more faith in my ability than yours, so I think you should be blindfolded,’ said Ana, not interested in mincing words.

  Mimi agreed, and the blindfold was put on her.

  Declan and Jason decided that Jason would wear the blindfold. Once the four contestants were ready to go, the crew brought out the first set of obstacles.

  Bindi dispensed with a last-minute tip. ‘Verbal communication with your blind partner will be important in this challenge. And your time starts . . . NOW!’

  THE TWO PAIRS STRUGGLED TO find a rhythm but after a few stumbles, they began to run as fast as they could. Their first obstacle was a gate two metres high that had been rolled into position and secured. They had to climb over it, which took a lot of coaching by the seeing partner. Once over, there was a jungle gym with swinging rings. At the same time, the two contestants had to reach and grab each ring, staying in time with one another, before moving to the next ring. Bindi stayed close throughout, giving advice and encouraging them. At the end of that part of the challenge, they were allowed to ditch the jumpsuit and swap blindfolds. So now Mimi and Jason were in charge of Ana and Declan.

  They rounded a corner and Ana pulled up short, screwing up her nose.

  ‘Oh my gosh, where is that terrible old barn smell coming from?’ she asked, noticing the eau de saddle cologne getting stronger as Mimi directed her towards a fence where two camels were tied up.

  Declan laughed. ‘I don’t think we’re about to go on a horseride, Ana. I’m guessing we’re in the presence of camels!’

  The seeing partner needed to help the blindfolded partner onto the camel, and then jump on behind them. It was not easy, and poor Jason and Mimi had their hands full trying to heave up their partners. Bindi was on hand to help the contestants into the ‘saddle’, but there was much hilarity and camel jostling before they were ready to take off on a bumpy ride through the avocado orchard.

  It was extremely hard work for both teams. Without sight, the blindfolded team member had to be super aware of their partner’s instructions, and get into the rhythm of the camel’s gait.

  ‘This is sooo uncomfortable,’ shouted Ana halfway through the orchard trot. Ginny was ahead of both camels with Bindi, shooting from the back of a golf buggy. She was able to do a close-up of the camel’s expression and it was very clear he was thinking unkind thoughts about his ill-mannered passenger!

  ‘You’re doing great, Ana,’ reassured Mimi, who was possibly equally as uncomfortable but doing her best not to show it.

  Jason, on the other hand, was loving every minute of it. ‘Yee-haa! Giddy up, camel.’

  Declan was having a pretty good time too. Not being able to see anything was not stopping him from keeping up a constant stream of enthusiastic chatter. ‘I never realised my first ride on a camel would be blindfolded. Are we ahead of the girls, Jas?’

  ‘You bet we are, Dec. Giddy up!’

  The camels trotted the two teams over to the back of the elephant forest, where the elephants spent their time when the zoo was closed. The two pairs had to dismount, say goodbye to their camels – or ‘Good riddance!’ in Ana’s case – and then race through the bushland, the sighted one leading the blindfolded one, to arrive at the finish line, which was the back entrance to the elephant daytime enclosure.

  The two teams were neck and neck until Jason decided he’d be better off piggybacking Declan, and the two boys raced into the lead, only to be stymied at the last minute by a loose shoelace that sent both boys sprawling.

  Mimi stopped to help them up and make sure they were okay, which Ana knew was a tactical error, but she quietly forgave her. She also wanted to make sure the boys, whose company, if anybody tortured her, she’d admit to enjoying, had survived the fall.

  The boys were now covered in dust, the stripy make-up was smudged and all of them smelled like a mixture of sunscreen and camel. The footage of the last 200 metres was priceless. In the planning stages, the team had thought that this last run would be an all-out fight for victory. But the truth of it was that the contestants were panting, laughing and running hard, goading each other on, looking like four friends racing into the ocean for a swim.

  Jason managed to reach the finish line first, with Declan pulled along closely behind. Mimi and Ana were only seconds behind them. All four of them collapsed in a heap, still giggling. Ana and Declan ripped off their blindfolds and took a few moments to readjust to the daylight.

  Bindi walked over to them with a broad smile. ‘Well, guys, that looked like so much fun I wanted to be a part of it!’ she said with a laugh.

  She handed cool towels to the contestants to wipe their faces. ‘Jason and Declan are joint winners of this challenge,’ said Bindi, as Mimi and Ana mock-groaned in disappointment. ‘But Mimi scores extra points for compassion. She stopped to make sure the boys were all right, and in the Wildlife Games, that makes you a winner.’

  Ana and the two boys cheered Mimi’s success.

  Mimi blushed with enjoyment. ‘This is the most fun I’ve had with people my own age, like, ever!’ She looked around at the group, a little breathless. There was a moment’s silence. ‘I just said that out loud, didn’t I?’

  Ana leaned over and gave Mimi a hug, and said teasingly, ‘Out loud and on national television, no less.’

  After they’d finished cleaning themselves up, Bindi took them over to the Asian elephants and they got a chance to get up close and personal, feeding them and even giving their feet and enormous toenails a scrub.

  Ana sighed as she buffed Sabu’s toenails, sweeping her fringe out of her eyes. ‘Now I know what it’s like to be on the other end of a pedicure,’ she said seriously, causing the others to burst out laughing.

  ‘What?’ she said.

  Declan smirked. ‘Well, I bet you haven’t likened yourself to an elephant too many times in your life.’

  Ana looked wide-eyed for a second, about to deny the claim, before she giggled. ‘Well, I’d be happy to be compared to the gorgeous Sabu. I mean, look at her. She has natural charisma, poise and personality. Actually, thinking about it, she and I are really quite similar.’ She gave Sabu an affectionate pat and continued to buff.

  Bindi was watching Ana from a short distance away. Tara came over. ‘Is that the same Anastasia Hunter we had at the start of the day, Bindi?’ asked Tara suspiciously.

  Bindi nodded. ‘I know, I was thinking the same thing. She seems a lot more . . .’ Bindi paused, trying to think of the right word.

  ‘Human,’ said Tara, coming to the rescue.

  Bindi nodded. ‘We knew she was driven and committed, but it’s really nice to see this warmer, sweeter side too.’

  ‘Who knew the Wildlife Games would actually wear down the contestants’ competitive streaks, and reveal them as not only high achievers but really nice people too?’

  Bindi thought for a momen
t. ‘It isn’t really a surprise, you know. Australia Zoo is special. We know it. And once anyone has spent a bit of time here, they know it too.’

  FOR CHALLENGE NUMBER FIVE, the contestants split up. Ana went over to the tiger enclosure, Jason to the snakes, Declan to the crocs and Mimi to the cassowaries. There were crowds waiting to hear each of them speak for five minutes on these animals and why they found them particularly special.

  Declan, who thrived in this type of scenario, took top honours by overrunning on his speech for an extra 15 minutes. He was such a good speaker, the crowds were fascinated by his knowledge and his natural comedic presentation style.

  Ana happily spoke about Sumatran and Bengal tigers and their plight against extinction. She also decided that there was time at the end of her presentation for a gymnastics display. (It was beginning to become apparent that everything she did involved a gymnastics display – not particularly relevant to tiger conservation but entertaining nonetheless.)

  Bindi traversed the zoo, making sure she saw all four contestants speak to the crowds. She was even able to grab her friend Josie and Josie’s cousin Andrew and show off ‘her contestants’ to them.

  Mimi, although initially quite nervous, enjoyed speaking about the cassowaries, as they were native to Far North Queensland, where she was from. When she spotted a group of Japanese tourists in the crowd, she repeated her speech in Japanese.

  Josie giggled at Bindi’s expression while the friends watched Mimi’s talk. ‘You look like a proud mother, Bindi.’

  Bindi smiled. ‘I feel like one too. Do you know how nervous Mimi was at the start of today? She’s come such a long way!’

  Bindi, Josie and Andrew rushed to see the tail end of Jason’s talk over at the reptile house. Jason was having a ball, his audience entranced.

  ‘So it was pitch black, Dad and I were in the tent, Dad was snoring like a steam train, when I sensed a change in the air around us. I have this sixth sense when it comes to wildlife, you see, and I could tell, in between Dad’s snores, that a reptile had entered the tent. I knew that in the area we were camping, a few hundred kilometres north of Townsville, every venomous snake you could imagine was within reach – take a look at some of the beauties that are here around us. Does anyone want to take a guess at which snake came to pay us a bedtime visit?’

  A young boy in the crowd pointed to the fierce snake with big eyes. ‘Was it this one?’

  Jason dropped his voice to a dramatic whisper. ‘Oh, mate, I would’ve woken my dad up quick smart if it’d been a fierce snake. Did you know that the fierce snake produces, drop for drop, the most toxic venom of any snake in the world? One bite possesses enough punch to drop 100 fully grown men.’

  The young boy looked up at his dad, scared and excited all at once.

  Andrew turned to Josie and Bindi, impressed. ‘That guy knows how to tell a yarn, doesn’t he?’ he said.

  Bindi laughed. ‘You bet he does. Although I’m guessing the crowds may know a lot more about Jason than they do about our reptiles by the end of it.’

  A few members of the crowd burst into spontaneous applause as Jason revealed his visitor was, in fact, a taipan!

  Entertainment factor high, education factor, well, fair to middling!

  THE DAY’S ACTIVITIES WERE drawing to a close. The last challenge was the one Bindi was most looking forward to. Once everyone was ready to go, the group headed out of the zoo and over to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, which was situated across the car park from the zoo itself.

  Bindi’s plan had always been to finish the day where the whole idea had begun. It was seeing Dr Dianne work so hard that had made her want to raise money for the hospital in the first place, and now it was time for the contestants to see what had inspired their day’s activities. It wasn’t so much a challenge as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

  While all the crowds and shows and excitement of the zoo went on only a few hundred metres away, the wildlife hospital kept on doing its job at all hours of the day and night, out of the limelight.

  Once the contestants had been introduced to the staff, and the film crew had set up, the contestants were shown around by volunteers who helped out at the hospital on a regular basis. They spent an hour showing the kids what they did at the hospital – from cleaning out the koala cages, to changing a bandage on a monitor lizard, to cutting up fish innards and feeding a cormorant with a damaged wing. Mimi and Ana were both drawn to a little joey in an incubator crib who had been pulled from its dead mother after a car accident. The joey was being closely monitored, as there was no guarantee that it would live. If her mother hadn’t been killed, the joey would have stayed in her pouch for another three months, at least, and so no-one was sure he’d survive without his mum.

  ‘But do you think he might survive?’ Mimi asked the kind-looking volunteer who was stationed next to the crib, keeping watch and expertly knitting using a soft red wool.

  The volunteer looked over at her charge. ‘I hope so, dear. We’ll do our best for him.’

  Dr Dianne came over and gave the volunteer a warm smile. ‘And has Agnes told you what she’s knitting?’

  Ana took an appraising look at Agnes’ handiwork. ‘It looks like a coat for a doll.’

  Agnes shook her head. ‘Oh no, dear. It’s a joey pouch, so when this little man is ready to leave the incubator, he’ll have a nice warm home that’s his alone.’

  ‘Oh, that is just so sweet!’ said Ana.

  Agnes smiled and returned to her knitting, regularly glancing over at her tiny patient.

  Dr Dianne took the group to an outside area like a stable, where there were recuperating koalas in four of the enclosures.

  ‘Why are there so many koalas here?’ Jason asked, perplexed. ‘What can go wrong with a koala? Apart from getting caught up in a bushfire, I guess.’

  Dr Dianne explained. ‘Well, the poor koalas have quite a lot of negatives stacked against them. Bushfires are definitely one threat. Another is that with new housing developments going up all over Queensland, the koala’s habitat is getting smaller and smaller, which means the little marsupials have to travel across roads to reach the trees and new leaves that keep them alive, and they’re just not fast enough to get out of the way of cars.’

  ‘That’s so sad,’ said Ana.

  Dr Dianne agreed. ‘And then there are the dog attacks that come as a result of living close to suburban areas, and on top of all that, they’re prone to a condition called chlamydiosis, which is a serious and sometimes fatal disease that is endemic in most koala populations all over Australia. It can cause a variety of symptoms including blindness, infertility, urinary tract infection and pneumonia.’

  Jason was looking a little shell-shocked as he paid close attention to a little koala who had four large stitches across his head, and was missing a chunk of his left ear. ‘I had no idea that such a well-known Australian icon was under attack from so many directions.’

  Mimi and Declan had moved a short distance away and were with Bindi, checking out a little microbat that was in a small wire cage covered with a black cloth. ‘Fraser here had a torn wing,’ whispered Bindi. ‘Dr Dianne operated on him yesterday.’ She carefully lifted a small corner of the cloth so Mimi and Declan could take a quick look.

  ‘I had no idea the hospital looked after such a big range of creatures,’ said Declan.

  ‘It was my dad’s wish that any animal that was brought into the hospital needing help, big or small, would be treated with the same respect and care as any other creature,’ said Bindi solemnly.

  Jason came up to the small group. ‘And that’s why your dad was totally awesome,’ he said.

  Bindi smiled. ‘It’s true. He was totally awesome!’

  Once the group had finished the tour they were each given surgical gloves and masks and assisted Dr Dianne on an operation. The patient was
a large feisty pelican nicknamed Chopper. He had a fishing hook caught in his bill that was making him very unhappy. All four contestants were thrilled to be able to help out, and humbled by the work the vet and her staff and volunteers did.

  Ginny filmed the entire procedure. All four kids worked together beautifully as a team, and handed Dr Dianne the instruments she asked for, checked to see that Chopper remained breathing throughout the operation and carefully helped move the patient so the vet had better access to the fish hook. It was really something to watch, and so different from the calamity and mayhem of earlier.

  The camerawoman thought back to the start of the day, and how much these kids had achieved. Editing all of the day’s footage would be a large job. She felt the team had captured so many special moments throughout that they probably had enough for five shows, not just the one-hour special that had been agreed on.

  Terri and Robert sneaked in to watch the contestants help the vet with her operation. Bindi gave them both a big hug. She’d done it. It had been a perfect day and she was so proud of everyone involved!

  THREE WEEKS LATER

  ‘Shhh, shhh, it’s about to start,’ said Mimi quietly.

  No-one heard her and the room remained full of chattering people.

  Ana stood up and looked around the room. ‘Everyone BE QUIET!’ she yelled, and the room was immediately silent. She sat down again and stared at the large TV screen that had been set up in the conference room at the back of the Crocoseum.

  Declan nudged Jason. ‘Hey Jas, hand me the popcorn, mate.’

  Jason’s eyes were glued to the TV as the opening credits showed each of the four contestants in a quick montage over the opening music. ‘Hey, did you see me? There I was!’ His hand sought out the bowl and passed it to his friend without his eyes leaving the screen.

  Declan laughed. ‘Thanks.’ He was less interested in seeing himself on the big screen. He was pleased that the Aurora Network had organised this advance screening so he’d get a chance to see Bindi and his fellow contestants again – especially Mimi. Although it was only one day, he felt like he’d spent months with these people. They’d emailed and messaged each other almost every day since the games, and he was pretty sure they would all continue to be good friends for many years to come.