Taronga Western Plains Zoo Western Plains Zoo

M

Monty

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I went to a conference at Western plains Zoo last weekend and have just got time to write a report. Unfortunately we got little little time to spend around the zoo and I had to leave as soon as it finished.

We had breakfast there both Sat and Sun mornings so got to spend a bit of time watching the Spider monkeys and Ring Tail Lemurs while eating breakfast. The Ring Tail lemurs were interesting as soon as the sun came out they all faced it and exposed their bellies to warm themselves. As soon as the sun went behind a cloud they curled up or went about their business until the sun came out again.

On Saturday night we were having dinner at the zoo and a night time tour before. The group was split into two buses for the tour and they went in opposite directions. Everyone on the other bus said it was great but on my bus we were very disappointed. To start with our bus driver left the lights behind. We saw the hippos in the dark and if they were not just through the fence we would have not known they were there. I asked if they were breeding their hippos and was told they are trying to at the moment, but had not for 8 years. I expressed an opinion that it was a pity they had not bred more as it would not be good if they went the way of the Pigmy Hippo in Aus where the population is probably not going to last long. I then got a lecture about how they don't have Pigmy Hippos at Dubbo and have not been breeding them because they were not endangered so I did not continue with the topic.

Next we went past the Giraffes and saw one for a second in the headlights before we stopped and got a very basic talk on Giraffes while unable to see anything. We then had to detour to get the lights.

The Lions were next and were the best part of the tour. A child with the group ran to the night enclosures in front of the group and and the predatory reaction of one of the Lionesses was amazing. As he ran back and forward she followed him and the speed of her turns and the focus she had only on the child was intense. The male had not come out of the day exhibit so only the females where there. As our group had not looked around in daylight one person comented that it was a small enclosure, not knowing about the daytime exhibit. The woman doing the tour then, instead of just saying there is a bigger daytime enclosure, started going on about we have small bedrooms and this was like the lions bedroom and totally humanising the animals.

Next we went to the Galapagos Tortoises. I asked if the zoo had bred any as we were told those were 50 an 80 years old. She told me they can not be bred in captivity. I now know this is untrue and many places seem to be able to breed them.

Last we went to the Wombat who was very active unlike how wombats usually are in daytime.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with the tour and was glad I did not pay for it.

The dinner we had at the Zoo afterwards was terrific. It was one of the best meals out I have ever had so I would recommend eating there if you have the chance.

On Sunday we had 45 minutes of free time to look around the zoo. I went with a bloke who is in training to do the Kokoda track and we saw almost everything and did the hole 7 km (I was told) circuit in that time. The only animals we missed were the Elephants and White Rhinos. This was not sufficient time, but all we had. Next time I go I will spend all day there and actually stop a while at each enclosure. We did stop a while at the Siamangs as they were swinging an running about while calling out which was impressive. I am hoping to take my kids next time and camp there for the Roar and Snore. This would include a night tour (Hopefully better than this one) and a early morning tour as well as all day at the zoo.
 
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poor Monty, i know how u feel. i stayed at WPZ as part of a TAFE excursion in 2006 and was horrifed by how dumb our tour leader was.
one thing that stands out in my mind in particular was her answer to a question I asked about how long it would be (in pre-Kua times) before a female Indian Rhino would arrive in Australia to commence the breeding program.
the tour leader replied with something along the lines of it will be a long time because they are endangered in the wild and its "not easy to get animals out of the wild anymore".
she then derided the transfer or a sumatran tiger to Zoos SA in exchange for a guanaco as unfair and a bum deal and went on to disseminate a whole lot of other untruths. at the end i found out she worked in the office.
 
All this shows that you really need people who know what they are talking about. Personally I would have thought that they would need some training so that they didn't pass on wrong info. The ignorance of the guides that your two experiences have shown is amazing. On the other hand I had a great time with a zoo volunteer at Melbourne last time I was there. She really knew what she was talking about.
 
Every now and then the tour guide jobs are advertised in the papers here (all three local papers beinf run by the same company and all printed out of dubbo) They tend to look for people woith an RSA, and other hospitality experince. There is rarely anything in the ads about knowledge of animals and these were for positions of tour guides that were to stay the night at the zoo to conduct night and early morning tours as well as provide food and grog jusging by the RSA requirement. It is not surprising when all NSW government jobs are only given if they comply fully with ALL selection criteria. If a more than qulaified knowledgeable animal person who knew how to communicate with the public wanted the job they could quite easily be knocked back due to a lack of hospitality related experience.
 
As Western Plains Zoo is a zoo, i think its guides should have animal knowledge; as an education centre it is important that the right information is given out.
having worked in the liquor industry for years now I think advertising for someone with animal knowledge and then tacking the mandatory RSA on to their training package would result in better quality guides. Perhaps even putting the guides through a more comprehensive training package to try and eliminate the un-truths these 'guides' often pass on.
 
That's good to here because hopefully they will be able to hold and breed more tassie devils.
And I have a question...I was looking on Isis and it said that TWPZ hold 27 male blackbuck and 47 female blackbuck. I know Isis can be a little unreliable but this number is quite staggering and I was wandwering if anyone could verify it for me?
 
Well then that is a hell of a lot blackbuck. No wonder how most small zoos got them. And another question...Do they breed them or are the sexes kept seperate
 
they actively breed. i imagine some bachelors are out-back but they have at least three black bucks out with the main herd, plus offspring
 
snowleopard, not sure if you know whats going on in NSW at the moment but the state is in economic meltdown. we have our third premier in less than 4 years, and are currently losing $90 million a month as our state slips further into an economic meltdown.
if you want a bit of a laugh, just check out any of the ridiculous scandals that have plagued the party in the last twelve months. in short, WPZ is lucky to be getting any money at all, particularly because they have been experiencing a visitor shortfall for some years
 
I went to Western Plains Zoo on Sunday for the first time since I was 6 so it was more like going for the first time. It should have predicted it was going to be extremely busy from the get go because it was a long weekend but seeing as it's so big you don't really notice except when trying to find parking spots around the place. The weather was pretty good considering it's been raining all weekend and more this week 'cos there wasn't so much as a shower while I was there.


I had tickets for the Wild Africa Tour and we got there earlier enough to book tickets in the giraffe feed. So not only did I get to feed girraffes but also a black rhino.
The Wild Africa tour was well worth it, especially for a zoo fanatic because you get to see alot of the behind the scenes happenings. First off the bus drove through the elephant care area and we got to see the stables for the asian and african elephants and then we drove onto the Savannah. The tour is the only way to get to drive through the savannah at TWPZ so it was really interesting to see it from that angle. There was one very exciting thing I found out and took lots of photos of...Hippos are being introduced onto the savannah along with the girraffes, common eland, congo buffalo and sitatunga that already live there. For now he is restricetd to a small area and a crate but they hope to increase this area. Next we got to go out the back of the black rhino breeding facility and got a little talk about what TWPZ is doing for the breeding program and then got to feed Kwanza?? (I think that's his name) who came to TWPZ from Milwaukee Zoo. TWPZ currentley hold 9 black rhinos. After that we went to see some cheetahs and their back of house exhibits which was good and the cheetah that we were watching wasn't shy and actually hissed at us a few times but was mostly distracted by another cat in an enclosure close by. Lastly we went to the white rhino exhibits and they got fed on the fence for us to get a close view of. A new male had recently been introduced into the exhibition herd and kept getting put back in his place by the oldest female who had an 16 month old calf.


Now onto the rest of the zoo.
As you enter from the carpark there is a big lake called the savannah lake which holds black and white ruffed lemurs, white fronted lemurs, ring-tailed lemurs and black-handed spider monkeys on seperate islands and a new play area is being built along side the lake to keep the kids entertained. As you walk around the main circuit the first exhibit you see is tha painted dogs enclosure which is huge and most of the barriers are hidden by plants but so were the dogs and only a few feet could be seen sticking out from under a tree. after this is the black rhino exhibits that I think are the worse exhibits at the zoo but by no means are the bad. They are just basic pens with mud wallaows and fenced off trees. Next along is the dromedary camel and barbary sheep exhibit which is also very big and has a lot of rocks and a big sand wallow. All of the barbary sheep were having a great time rolling around in the sand and spreading it all over themselves. After this is three seperate exhibits for scimitar horned oryx, giraffe and addax. Both of the antelopes paddocks had too many trees and didn't really suit desert dwelling species. The giraffe exhibit however is massive and has lots of trees as well as a small bordwalk that protrudes out into the exhibit for the giraffe feeding experiences. It was amazing to not only be so close to so many giraffes (about 9) but to also get to feed them carrots. After this is the enourmous common eland paddock which held about 15 of these amazing antelopes. A short walk across the road from this is the massive (I've run out of mords that mean big so I'll have to start doubling up. :)) hippo exhibit which is split into three areas and I saw 3 hippos(2 in one exhibit and 1 in another). Next along is the white rhino yard which is also very, very big and had 4:1 white rhinos in it, one of which was the 16 month female calf and then comes the cheetah island that isn't so good for viewing but is great for the animals. Luckily for me the chettah decided to get up and go for a short walk while I was watching. Then come the three elephants yards and the savannah. The savannah has too small a viewing area for it's size and none of the animals are close enough to see well. I'm glad I ot to see this on the tour. The elephant exhibits are all pretty big and offer good enrichment for them. I saw both of the african elephants (Yum-yum and Cuddles) but only saw two asian elephants and they were seperated so I don't know why that was.After this is lot of large basic paddocks for Persian Onager, Banteng and Sambar, Water Buffalo, Zebras, Wapiti, Fallow Deer, Spotted Deer and Blackbuck, Przwelski's Horse and American Bison. After this is the Australian Section which has Dingos, Koalas, Emus, Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Red Kangaroos, Wallaroos and an exhibit for two smaller wallabies. Then into the South American area which has Maned wolves in a very private and secluded exhibit, Galapagos Tortoises in a network of exhibits but I only saw two and there are a lot of exhibits. Does anyone know how many G. Tortoises there are? And finally an enclosure for Brazilian Tapir, Common Rhea, Guanaco and Mara.
In the middle of the zoo are a smattering of exhibits but still a lot of room for expansion (the zoo still has double the amount of land currentley being used to expand onto.) There is a small Australian section for wombats, echidnas and a mallee themed aviary alonside a meerkat exhibit. There is a bongo exhibit set in some dense bush which offers alot of privacy and then there is the Asian Wetlands area. It has white-handed gibbon, sumatran tiger, siamang gibbon, asian short-clawed otters and Dora the Indian rhino. The Indian rhino and the otter exhibits are set in somewhat of a village but I think the themeing is too over the top.

Overall it is an amazing zoo and I think it takes top spot as Australias best open range zoo and could possibly be Australias best zoo in the future.
 
Good review Pat. It was certainly good weather. And I think you covered all the zoo - except the lions!

:p

Hix
 
Great review Pat! I enjoyed the comprehensive walk-through of TWPZ, and I'm glad that you were able to refresh your memory of the place.
 
Hix said:
Good review Pat. It was certainly good weather. And I think you covered all the zoo - except the lions!

:p

Hix
Click to expand...

I knew I'd forget something...:)


And it was my pleasure to write it. I actually kind of enjoy it.
 
PAT said:
I wrote tigers in between siamang and gibbons.
Click to expand...


Sorry mate, so you did. I'll have to slow down my speed reading!

I really enjoyed your review of a zoo that I've been visiting [in one capacity or another] for over 25 years.
 
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