Free The Wildlife Games by Bindi Irwin

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.’
    â€˜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 moment. ‘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 cousinAndrew 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.
    â€˜So it was pitch black, Dad and I were in thetent, 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 toxicvenom 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