A 29-year-old dad-of-three has more than 100 wild animals at his private zoo home in Mount Egerton, Australia.
Michael – the founder of a wildlife education company, The Rookeepers – has been running the zoo for the last seven years.
Watch the family who lives with more than 100 wild animals
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Video Credit: Rumble
Michael says his main aim is to inspire as many people as he can and to encourage them to look after our ecosystem and our habitats.
Michael told Barcroft TV: “I just love having lots of animals around, they’re an extended family. I’ve been working with animals for about 10 years now.”
“My main mission for this business is to go out and just inspire as many people as possible – whether it’s students or adults into just looking after our ecosystem and our habitats and just really caring for these animals.”
“If we don’t care for these animals in the next hundred years, we’re probably not going to be here.”
Michael’s zoo has Australian wild animals, including crocodiles, snakes, koalas, turtles, frogs, and lizards. The zoo also has a few endangered animals like polar bears and endangered snakes.
Michael says Australia has one of the worst extinction rates in the world and he wants to raise awareness about taking care of the endangered animals.
He said: “We’re pretty lucky to have them and we try and breed them and ensure their population for future generations. It’s not uncommon to have endangered animals here given what’s happening to the world.”
“Everything is disappearing. We’ve got to act on that, that’s why we try to educate kids, create awareness and create change.”
His favourite out of the 100 animals that he has at his zoo is the two-year-old koala named Winnie.
He said: “Winnie is absolutely beautiful, really, really hard to get. And they [koalas] are endangered as well. There used to be 8 million of these guys – now, there’s only about 80,000 left.”
“It’s expected in the next 30 years that you won’t see these guys in the wild. It’s quite a shame. Winnie will come in and sit on the couch at night and watch TV with us. She used to sleep on my chest in bed with me at night. I don’t know many people that have koalas that sleep in bed with them.”
Michael’s partner, Tegan Waterhouse and their daughters Yarra, 2, and Zali, 3 help Michael to take care of the animals at the zoo.
Michael said: “I love all the animals, they’re my passion. It is a pretty big responsibility to educate kids. We’re out there, educating the future biologists and conservationists and zoologists.”
“Hopefully one day they can pick the passion up and go out and follow in their footsteps.”
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