Volume 3, No. 4. February 28, 2003
Illusive
goals
An aspiration to
support wildlife conservation efforts—something that came about totally
by happenstance—is becoming an integral part of the entertainment offerings
of Wonderland Sydney in Australia. Last Saturday the park incorporated a tiger
into its award-winning illusion show, and by the end of the year Wonderland
officials hope to begin displaying non-native animals in its Wildlife park.
The roots of this effort go back 12 years when Wonderland Sydney, then six years
old, opened its Australian Wildlife Park, an 11-hectare (27 acre) area with
some 700 native animals. Then, at the end of 2001, the Sydney area suffered
a series of brush fires, keeping people in their homes during the Christmas
season, a time when Wonderland should have been enjoying its heftiest gates.
“Because we had no one in the park we sat down as a company and thought,
‘What can we do to help?’” said Renee Ferenc, the park’s
publicity officer. Because the property was surrounded by the fires, Wonderland
offered itself as a rescue center for wildlife caught up in the flames, and
the park became a triage center for veterinarians treating burned animals. That
effort instigated “huge media attention,” Ferenc said and a resulting
flood of donations. “We had people throwing money at us for the animal
rescues, and we didn’t have a foundation set up to accept their money.”
The park therefore formed the Wonderland Conservation Foundation last May. For
its first campaign the foundation raised $20,000 (US$12,000) for one of the
country’s own endangered animals, the cassowary, a large, flightless bird
that’s universally regarded as the ugliest fowl on earth.
The new campaign is looking outside the continent by raising funds for tiger
conservation efforts, and for that effort the drive has two key allies. One,
Jonathan Minor, Director of Life Science and the Australian Wildlife Park, is
an American who has established a reputation for bringing exotic animals to
Australian theme parks, including Tiger Island at Dreamworld in Gold Coast.
He joined Wonderland four years ago and started working on plans to introduce
non native animals to the park.
The other ally—rather allies—are Tony and Juleen, who perform the
park’s “Spellbinding Sorcery Illusion Show” and last fall were
named the International Illusionists of The Year (THE
LOOP, November 8, 2002). The two are great admirers of Siegfried and Roy
and had always wanted to include a tiger in their own act. With the expertise
of Minor on hand they have done just that. The new act—in which Juleen
enters a cage and transforms into the tiger—was introduced to the public
February 22, and with it the fund-raising campaign encouraging guests to drop
$1 coins in specially designated boxes.
The act has proved popular in the first week, as has the campaign, Ferenc said.
Juleen especially enjoys the act because in another part of the show she turns
into a snake, and she clearly prefers being a tiger (she was never transformed
into a cassowary, proving that even illusionists can’t make the truly impossible
possible).
Meanwhile, Minor hopes to begin transforming the Wildlife Park’s collection
by the end of the year, Ferenc said. “Now the direction of the Wildlife
Park is to extend it into an exotic display with animals all over the world
that we’re trying to save or promote through conservation,” she said.
“That’s the vision.”
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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