Cairns’ Animal Adventures

Queensland’s Far North city of Cairns is a beautiful place. With clean, contemporary architecture, hidden inner-city oases and the sweeping expanse of its main, white-sanded beaches, Cairns is truly paradise on Earth! The real diamond in the gem mine though is Cairns’ amazing natural surrounds. With the Great Barrier Reef, Kuranda, Cape Tribulation and the Daintree nearby, there’s no limit to the areas of stunning natural beauty you can explore. Of course, each of these areas is also a thriving ecosystem, perfect for animal lovers to visit in order to indulge their fascination with all of the feathery, furry or scaly inhabitants of the Cairns region.

It’s probably not the best idea to venture alone into Cairns’ crocodile and snake infested wilderness, but with Cairns Tours, you don’t have to. We make it easy and affordable for animal lovers to plan an awesome day out, in a safe and visitor-friendly environment. Here are a few of the areas that we operate our animal-filled tours in:

Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest

Between the delightful Daintree Village and amazing Cape Tribulation, the Daintree Rainforest looms large, with its lush, humid foliage creating a haven for wildlife. This stunning and protected ancient rainforest has been home to some of the World’s most unique species for approximately 140 million years, and – while many of these species have long since become extinct – there’s still thousands of species dwelling within this extremely important ecosystem.

With a range of interesting and truly unique creatures to see – including kangaroos that live in trees and giant birds, taller than a man – you could explore this region for years and still not see it all. The Daintree contains approximately a quarter of all Australian reptile species, a third of our native frogs and mammals, half of the bird species that exist in Australia and way above 10,000 insect species – and that’s just what’s already been found! It is thought that there are still species that have yet to be been identified, so maybe you’ll get lucky and find one.

Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the largest and most diverse aquatic ecosystems in the world, so it’s no wonder wildlife lovers flock here by the millions each year! For each visitor to this unbelievably gorgeous reef, there are just as many inhabitants hidden within the colourful coral and under the clean, white sand. From microscopic organisms to behemoth mammals and everything in between, there’s millions of species that either live in or visit the Barrier Reef.

While you’re diving within the 350 different types of coral and 10,000 varieties of sponge during one of our tours, you may encounter some of more than 1800 fish species, 125 shark species, 4000 mollusc species or some of the many amazing whale, dolphin and porpoise species (there’s around 30 species!) that live and breed in the warm tropical waters. Out of the World’s seven sea turtle species, six of them live on the Reef; then there are the birds – hundreds of amazing bird species delight birdwatchers daily at the Reef. No matter when you go – or how many times you visit this amazing place –, you’re bound to encounter many of the amazing creatures that call the Great Barrier Reef home.

Kuranda

Crocodiles thrive within the Cairns region, and there’s no better place to see these apex predators up close than at Kuranda’s Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures! If you’re looking for a day of reptilian action that involves learning about, feeding and searching for these ferocious ancient creatures, then one of our tours to Hartley’s is sure to make you happy.

With a full-day itinerary that includes encounters with crocs, snakes, cassowaries, koalas and other mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles, there’s so much to do. Regardless of whether you opt to do everything at once, or return for a second day of croc-feeding, riverboat cruising, koala feeding or picnicking with the plethora of wildlife, you’re sure to leave Hartley’s with a bounty of knowledge and a new respect for Australia’s deadliest creatures.