Book collection to highlight Australia’s diverse landscapes and animals

TERRITORY Wildlife Park welcomed visitors for free who bore the last name of an animal yesterday

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TERRITORY Wildlife Park welcomed visitors for free who bore the last name of an animal yesterday.

In total 21 people out of 150 visitors walked through the Berry Springs based wildlife park with an animal surname.

There was a family of Foxes, a pair of Kirlews, two people with the last name Hawker and a duo with the surname Guppy.

The initiative was in conjunction with the NT News’ Great Australian Wildlife Book Collection.

Territory Wildlife Park visitor experience manager Simaon Ferguson it was a fun way to encourage people to head outdoors to learn about the Territory’s unique wildlife.

Territory Wildlife Park are having a promotion about families with animal surname's getting free entry to the Territory Wildlife Park this Sunday as part of a special launch. Pictured are Zoo Keepers Shael Martin with Ruby a Rufous Owl and Luke Hare with Errol a Black breasted buzzard. Picture: Katrina Bridgeford.

“It’s been a really fun project and it raised awareness of animals and the prevalence of animal last names. It was great to see the uptake in the Darwin community,” Mr Ferguson said.

He said as far as he was aware it was the first time the Territory Wildlife Park had done something like this.

“It was awesome that it was part of a national campaign that strengthened it. We will see what opportunities come up in the future,” he said.

“There’s a lot of backstory to a lot of surnames, not just animals, but professions. It’s good to get people talking about and thinking about last names so we understand the backstory to them.”

The book collection launched yesterday and looks into Australia’s wildlife and landscapes.

Fifteen books are in the collection which is run in conjunction with Discovery and Animal Planet.

The books feature beautiful imagery of the most iconic animals from a variety of landscapes across Australia and offers to help young readers understand different types of texts.

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You can collect today’s book in the series The Deep Blue, when you buy the paper from participating outlets.

The book takes a deep dive into our oceans to uncover some of Australia’s animals we rarely get to see. See terms and conditions, wildlifebooks.com.au

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