The Wildlife Games (2 page)

‘SO, TODAY'S GOING TO BE A BIG ONE.
Am I ready for it? You betcha! It's 6.30 am and the sun is already up and looking perky. I've had a great night's sleep, I've had breakfast, I'm dressed and I'm talking to a rhino. You can't be more prepared than that!'

DJ looked at his favourite human, and gave his left ear a flick.

Bindi sighed. ‘I know. You can tell, can't you, DJ?' She looked around her, and sure that no-one else was listening in, continued. ‘I'll admit to being a teensy weensy bit nervous. But keep it to yourself, okay?'

DJ was the type of rhino who was very happy to keep a secret.

Bindi went on. ‘It's just that it's been a while since I've done this kinda thing. I know, I've done lots of other stuff, but it doesn't stop me from getting a little scared when a whole new TV show's about to begin because I thought it up!'

DJ nodded and stared at Bindi reassuringly. She leaned over and patted his horn. ‘Of course, I haven't forgotten it's a big day for you too, mate.'

It was true. For DJ and his fellow rhinos, today was a very big day. But perhaps because he was a massive 2035 kilograms, he wasn't particularly fazed by all the excitement that had been building around him.

Along with the filming of
The Wildlife Games
, today was also the day that the new African Savannah was going to open at Australia Zoo. It had been years in the planning. There had been giraffes that needed to travel from across the country (and you can imagine what size containers they'd need to do that!); a beautiful rhinoceros called Cabelle, who travelled across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand, and was pregnant with a gorgeous female that would be named Savannah; zebras – Stevie, Zac and Michael – that had travelled from Werribee in Victoria, looking particularly
gorgeous in their black and white livery; a pair of Aldabran tortoises settled on the nearby Madagascar Island; to say nothing of the massive amounts of landscaping that had gone on, and the placement of the amazing Queensland Bottle Trees, which were similar in look to the African baobab tree.

Bindi's dad, Steve Irwin, had planned for this African Savannah before he passed away in 2006, and it was incredible to see all the hard work had finally paid off. The zoo was expecting thousands of visitors through the gates today, and all the animals had been told by their keepers to be on their best behaviour!

This coming together of two major events had caused a few headaches, but it had been decided that everyone would cope. The film crew and contestants
would work around the crowds coming to see the new exhibit, and everyone would finish the day realising a planning miracle had taken place.

Bindi and DJ's heart-to-heart was interrupted by a call over Australia Zoo's loudspeaker. ‘Bindi, are you out there?'

It was Terri. Bindi knew that she and her mum had a special relationship. After all, how many mums called their kids over a zoo loudspeaker?!

‘Okay DJ, sounds like I'm needed back at base. Have a wonderful day.' Bindi gave her old friend a goodbye pat. ‘I'm sure you'll wow the crowds like you always do, mate! No fighting with Inyeti and remember to roll in the mud if it gets too hot, okay?'

Bindi took out her walkie-talkie and clicked the receive button. ‘Hi Mum, I'm here. Just had a quick catch-up with DJ, over.'

Terri swapped the loudspeaker for the walkie-talkie and her voice crackled over the air. ‘Good to hear, honey. Is he looking forward to today, over?'

Bindi grinned. ‘He's never been better, Mum. Tip-top terrific, over!'

‘And how about you, B? Are you feeling fine about today, over?'

Bindi could hear the note of concern in her mum's voice, and didn't want her to worry. She ignored the kaleidoscope of tiny butterflies that were flittering around her tummy and took a deep breath. ‘Can't wait, Mum. It's gonna be a bonza day, over!'

‘Well, the make-up artist has arrived and the hair stylist is 20 minutes away, so I suggest you give DJ a good-luck kiss and get back to the house so we
can get this show on the road, over!'

A roll in the mud certainly wasn't going to be a part of Bindi's preparations for today! She quickened her pace but before she rounded the corner, away from the rhino enclosure, DJ raised his head and gave a supportive grunt.

Bindi smiled to herself. With highly supportive four-legged friends like DJ, what could possibly go wrong?

‘This is wrong. All wrong!' screamed 13-year-old Anastasia Hunter three hours later, as everyone within a four kilometre radius jammed their fingers in their ears to drown out the noise.

A brolga over in the wetlands area squawked
in reply. To him, Ana's outburst sounded like a mating call. Had anyone been able to decipher his squawk, it may have sounded a little like: ‘Over here. I'm over here. I'm the cute guy with the long neck. Come find me later.'

Back in the food hall, which was doubling as the waiting area for the day's contestants, Mrs Hunter, Ana's mother, grimaced. ‘Ana, you look gorgeous. The training gear has been designed and coloured to suit your complexion, your runners are top class. You are not only going to blitz the other contestants, you'll look fabulous doing it!'

Anastasia pouted. ‘Do you think so? Because I'm not sure I like the way the culottes taper off below my calf. I really think they would accentuate the curve of my legs if they were a bit shorter.'

A sporty-looking boy nearby, wearing a beaten-
up pair of trackpants and an old T-shirt, rolled his eyes while the boy's father stifled a guffaw.

‘I think the dirt smudge on your trackie dacks emphasises the small hole you have on the shoulder of your shirt, Jason,' said Todd Singer to his son in a half-whisper.

Jason kept a straight face. ‘I'm glad you said that, Dad, because that was exactly the look I was going for.' Jason cricked his neck and did another set of biceps curls. ‘How long to go now?'

His dad checked his watch. ‘Still an hour before filming starts.'

Jason winced. ‘But I'm ready to go now. Man, I hate waiting.' He looked around him restlessly, checking out his competition.

Apart from the ‘I'm so beautiful I could cry'
girl, whose mother was now doing last-minute alterations to her culottes, there were two other contestants, excluding himself.

To Jason, neither of them looked like a real threat. There was a boring-looking boy with his head in a book, and a girl sitting on the sofa, eyes closed, legs crossed in a lotus position, looking like she was meditating. She was obviously taking this pre-performance preparation seriously; maybe she was the one he'd concentrate on beating.

The ‘talent wrangler' – who had introduced herself to the contestants earlier with, ‘Hi, I'm Tara, I'm the talent wrangler, and you guys are THE TALENT!' – reappeared carrying a clipboard, a phone, a walkie-talkie and a harried expression. ‘Okay, talent, I mean kids, youth, whatever, say bye to your parents for the day.'

She turned to Jason and Ana's parents. ‘So we'll see you at the gala dinner at the end of the day, where we'll announce the winner, okay?' Mrs Hunter gave her daughter a big hug. ‘I know you'll win, sweetheart.'

Ana grimaced. ‘Bye, Mum.'

Jason's dad winked at his son. ‘See you at the finish line, son.'

Jason grinned. ‘See ya, Dad.'

Tara listened to a request come through on her walkie-talkie. ‘Yes, coming now, over.' She gathered up the kids. ‘Okay, talent, come with me.' She made a swinging gesture and her phone flew out of her hand. The boy who had been continuing to read his book reached out and grabbed it before it fell on the floor.

‘Here you go, Tara,' he said as he returned the
phone with a wide smile.

‘Right, uh, thank you, ummm –' Tara scanned her clipboard – ‘Declan?'

The boy nodded and returned once more to his book.

Jason Singer noted the boy's lightning-quick reflexes, and glanced at the cover of his book. It was a book by someone named William Scott Wilson, called
Ideals of the Samurai
. Hmm. This was bad news. His knowledge of Japanese samurai was limited. He knew they were super flexible, looked wise, hardly spoke and could defy gravity. Well, in the films he'd seen they'd defied gravity. Whether that actually happened or not . . .?

Jason reassessed this opponent. Declan obviously had good hand–eye coordination, seemed comfortable with the girls and probably
practised martial arts. Jason decided he'd better keep an eye on him too!

BINDI CHECKED THE DAY'S
schedule in the admin office of the zoo. Everything was under control. Filming didn't start for another hour, which was great, because she didn't want to miss out on feeding the gorgeous Australia Zoo crocodiles in the Crocoseum, which was Australia Zoo's 5000 seat auditorium.

She glanced out the window and saw lots of zoo visitors wandering past, pointing out the extraordinarily large reticulated python or checking out the maps in their hands, working out the next exhibit to visit.

Minibus the wombat was being walked on a leash, and a little girl with pigtails was giving him a pat, wearing the biggest smile on her face. Bindi remembered being that little girl, and feeling the simple joy of having a beautiful
Australian animal to pat. Of course, as she'd grown up the animals she treasured became a little bigger and they definitely had sharper teeth!

The walkie-talkie that was hooked onto her belt crackled to life. ‘Ten minutes 'til showtime, Bindi. See you over at the prep room, over.'

Speaking of which, she needed to prepare for croc feeding! She raced over to the room where Terri, Robert and Wes, the zoo director, were waiting to discuss the plans for the morning's show.

Since she'd turned 13, Bindi had been allowed to feed the crocs on the tailwalk ramp, and it was a major thrill to do so. She'd seen her dad do it for years. Then after he'd passed away, Terri had begun to feed the crocs – it felt like
a rite of passage for Bindi to get the chance to do it now.

Robert came out to watch, and Bindi knew her brother was itching to be able to feed them too, but for now his job was to keep an eye on what was going on, and tell a few jokes. She really admired his ability to look so comfortable in front of an auditorium full of people, and his improvised comedy routine was getting better by the day.

‘Okay, gang, we'll be feeding Mossman today,' Wes said. ‘Keep on your toes. He can be unpredictable, as you know.'

Terri added. ‘And Bindi, you know how hard he hits, so listen to Wes.'

‘You can't host The Wildlife Games with a croc hanging off ya,' added Robert helpfully.

Bindi grinned.‘Good point, little buddy, I'll try to remember that.' She ruffled her brother's hair.

Robert walked over to the window overlooking the Crocoseum and saw the Major Mitchell cockatoos doing their last fly-by around the auditorium. ‘Time to get into position.'

The Irwin family and Wes raced downstairs to their entrance as the voice over the loudspeaker began the countdown.

‘Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one . . .'

The smoke machine released a large plume, then someone yelled ‘You're on!' and the team ran out, ready to begin the croc feeding show.

The four Wildlife Games contestants – Declan,
Anastasia, Jason and Mimi – were in the auditorium watching the show. As Mossman the crocodile lunged out of his pool at Briano, one of the croc handlers, all of the crowd gasped.

Except for Jason.

‘Yeah, that's no biggie. I wouldn't be afraid of him. I've seen larger crocodiles than that when I've been camping with my dad,' he said, puffing out his chest. Jason looked over at the other contestants to see if they were impressed.

Ana just rolled her eyes at him and turned back to the show. Mimi didn't take her focus off the show, almost as if she was imagining herself a part of it.

Declan glanced over at Jason and raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that right?'

Jason was about to go into detail about his last
camping trip and all the staggering acts of bravery and courage he'd been a part of, but the other three were now watching as Bindi moved to the feeding platform. Mossman the crocodile swam slowly but determinedly just under the water to wait for her to dangle a delicious piece of fresh meat right above his sizeable snout.

Jason chewed on a fingernail. No worries. There was sure to be another chance to psych out his opponents.