Nature Park > Papua New Guinea > Oceania
[Visited: August 2023]
- Although I am definitely not fan of zoos, I decide to visit Nature Park in Port Moresby because locals tell me it is a place not to miss. Outside the National Museum, several cars stop when they see me walking alone on the street - the third is so convincing and friendly he ends up taking me to the Nature Park. He knows the people, and although I am in the biggest city of the South Pacific, it feels like I am in a village. The park turns out to be well set up, and doesn't really feel or look like a zoo. It has large aviaries, where birds can move freely. I see all kinds of birds, one even more colourful and amazing than the other. Many are endemic, and I haven't seen them before. I am especially happy to spot the Bird of Paradise, the national bird of Papua New Guinea. They are stunning and unique, and I spend a long time watching them, listening to their singing and calls, and seeing them fly with their impossibly beautiful plume behind them.
- But there is much more. There are crocodiles, the cassowary (a flightless bird reminding of an ostrich but different and with a unique head), there are several displays with snakes, frogs, and other reptiles. I read about how many snakes get killed even though only a few are really dangerous to men - and often only if cornered. There are signs explaining that the extensive usage of feathers for the making of those colourful and traditional decorations and bilums (Papua New Guinean handbags) is endangering some of the species in the country - thus hopefully raising awareness about the precarious situation of some of the species in the Nature Park. On one of the fields, people are playing rugby: it is a weekend and this also just is a place to go for locals to have a good time and relax.
- Then, I come to various types of tree kangaroos, which I had never seen before. At first, I think they are bears: their thick, hairy fur, their strong arms with claws which allow them to climb, and the way they walk instead of hop, doesn't make them look like kangaroos at all. Further on, there are also wallabies. This section feels more like a zoo, and my dislike of keeping animals in enclosed spaces comes to the fore - even though, most of them have quite big areas to walk around and live in. Then, I see a yam house from Kiriwina island, and I remember seeing them myself on the island seven years before. I see a very long, traditional canoe, all painted in bright colours and decorated with figures. Nature Park also has a small section on Papuan culture then. There even is a wedding house. When I come back a week later, to show my travel companion around, we stumble upon a wedding and wish the couple a happy life together.
