Alice Springs Desert Park gets egg-citing as black-breasted buzzard shows off special skills and more

A bird of prey’s ‘natural instinct’ is helping one Red Centre park get festive, with punters being encouraged to spend this Easter a touch differently. Watch the video.

The Alice Springs Desert Park has launched its Easter program in style, enlisting the help of a bird of prey’s “natural instinct” to get the season cracking.

From Good Friday to Easter Monday, Desert Park business development manager Holly Wyatt is encouraging people to head down and spend Easter differently this year.

Alice Springs Desert Park business development co-ordinator Holly Wyatt holds a plaster Easter egg which a black-breasted buzzard later cracked. Picture: Gera Kazakov

“So we have an Easter Bilby and Friends treasure hunt where kids can get an activity book and roam around the park and find some treasures and then receive some goodies at the end if they manage to figure it all out,” she said.

Ms Wyatt said the park had brought six new bilbies into the world as a part of a national bilby conservation program.

Bilbies have been getting in on the Easter fun at Alice Springs Desert Park. Picture: Gera Kazakov

Currently, the Federal government has listed bilbies as a vulnerable in the Territory, while they are extinct in NSW and endangered in Queensland.

There will also be special talks in the bilbies’ home – the nocturnal house – Ms Wyatt said, with some “special encounters” also planned.

“We don’t do them very often, but there’ll be a great opportunity to do an exclusive echidna encounter or a dingo encounter,” she said.

Another encounter on offer is watching the black-breasted buzzard smash open an emu egg.

A black-breasted buzzards cracks a plaster Easter egg at Alice Springs Desert Park. Picture: Gera Kazakov

Park staff put an Easter twist on one egg for visiting media at the park, but Ms Wyatt said the buzzard would crack open an emu egg for those going to the bird show.

“It’s not taught by anyone on park where it grabs a rock and cracks open an emu egg and it’s something that’s just embedded in their knowing,” she said.

Originally published as Alice Springs Desert Park gets egg-citing as black-breasted buzzard shows off special skills and more