Last week I went on a trip to South Australia which involved seeing four new zoos for me. For the first time since I was very young, I would be seeing major zoos I hadn't seen before. My thoughts on each are below. My frame of reference here is generally the south-eastern zoos.
I saw Monarto in perfect weather - bright blue skies and bright green grass. The result was that the zoo looked amazing, although I suspect it looks fairly good anyway since I was highly impressed overall. Particular highlights included the vast carnivore exhibits (one for lions and one which I think rotates between hyenas and hunting dogs) and the excellent African Waterhole mixed exhibit. In comparison to WPZ and Werribee, Monarto is helped by having some variation in terrain (both of those other zoos are very flat). The chimp exhibit is looking great - probably slightly smaller than Taronga's. The buses are a good idea but it's not that difficult to trek around the zoo on foot through extensive rehabilitated bushland. My one disappointment was the aviary, a complete afterthought buried away where it would get almost no traffic; in comparison to the obviously expensive exhibits for everything else, the obvious cheapness of the aviary was a bit annoying. But perhaps it's in preparation for bigger things to come.
I hadn't seen any new species at Monarto, but Adelaide was a different story so I was really looking forward to seeing this zoo. This is also the only one I was really able to do a proper photo survey of, so check the gallery. My overall impression of Adelaide can be summed up as "compact and old-fashioned", neither of which are necessarily criticisms. Adelaide has considerably less space than Taronga or Melbourne, but by squishing everything close together I don't think it has many fewer species. The old-fashioned comment is because a lot of the exhibits reminded me of Taronga and especially Melbourne around fifteen years ago, with lots of the kind of thing those two zoos have replaced still around at Adelaide. Only a few were really in dire need of attention, though. Adelaide was also extremely well looked-after (a quality evident throughout South Australia, actually), and was by far the least smelly zoo I've been to.
On the new species front, I suffered a horrendous shock when I arrived to signs announcing that the Giant Pandas were off-display all week. Given that I was 1100km from home and unlikely to be here again soon, this was absolutely agonising and I was left peering forlornly at a tall tree that a sympathetic volunteer had said the female was sometimes visible from. No such luck. The rest of my new species all made appearances, though, which was good compensation.
One of my favourite things about Adelaide was its emphasis on birds; it had a commitment to aviaries that I don't see echoed at Melbourne or Taronga lately. I was particularly struck by an African aviary that didn't really have anything that wasn't pretty common in aviculture, but just the fact that none of the other zoos had any similar exhibit had me sitting in front of it for quite some time (St Helena Waxbills, firefinches, Namaqua Doves, Masked Lovebirds, Yellow-bellied Canaries and Orange-bellied Waxbills, and supposedly Grenadier Weavers but I didn't see any). A walk-through lory aviary with four species (Red, Chattering, Dusky, Black-capped) was also terrific, but really all the aviaries were great. Seeing the Hyacinth Macaws and Palm Cockatoos was also a particular treat.
The reptile house was sadly closed still, but the nocturnal house was good to see. I liked the idea of starting off with a few aquaria in the partial darkness with a few rare species of fish (and also Western Swamp Turtles). The bilby was off-display (as was the treeshrew in the outside exhibits), but it was great to see the sloth and the ghost bats were very active. It was interesting to see that Adelaide's exhibits all have the floors of the exhibits at around two feet up, a contrast from Taronga and Healesville - not necessarily better, but just different.
Adelaide also had some very effective mixed-species exhibits, of which my favourite was probably Malayan Tapirs and Dusky Langurs. The langurs had a simply enormous fig tree at their disposal, and as I saw several sitting in branches directly above the public walkway I'm not sure entirely what was stopping them escaping. But it was an outstanding display. The meerkat exhibit directly in front of the giraffes was also an effective idea.
By far the oldest area of the zoo was the carnivores, and I believe this area will soon be redeveloped. This is good to hear, because (apart from an awful siamang cage next to the nocturnal house, which I believe is also not long for this world) these were the worst exhibits in the zoo. The lion exhibit is fairly miserable (and when the wonders of Monarto are only 50km away I'm not sure why it's necessary), and most of the small carnivores (serval, coati, fennec fox) were in enclosures that were rather small for my liking. This area reminded me a lot of Melbourne's small cat alley. On the other hand tigers and sun bears had very nice accommodation in the "Immersion" area. The Immersion area also included very good exhibits for Orang-utan, Mandrill, Hamadryas Baboon, Siamang and White-cheeked Gibbon (the latter two on islands).
The last thing I want to comment on is the tamarin display. The Golden Lion Tamarins had access to a wire tunnel that extended outwards from their exhibit and around in a loop through the garden behind the path. I understand this is a new development, and I thought it was simply terrific. The tamarins seemed to enjoy it too, and made frequent use of it. It was such an innovative display, especially given tamarins usually get a fairly standard kind of exhibit.
The next day I got up to Gorge Wildlife Park. I should say at the outset that Gorge was unfairly disadvantaged in my eyes, as at the previous two zoos I had enjoyed simply gorgeous weather and at Gorge it was cloudy with an icy wind. Of course, being a private park I don't hold it to the same standards as Adelaide and Monarto, but I still think Gorge is very much a mixed bag.
Most of the exhibits fall into the range of "adequate but unspectacular". These include all of the monkey cages (including one for Australia's last White-fronted Lemurs, which frustratingly stayed out of sight the whole time), some of the older aviaries, and most of the native mammal enclosures. The walkthrough macropod areas were looking nice but a little over-populated, and the fixation on albinos and white animals was rather odd. The zoo also had a bit of an ibis problem, with hundreds free ranging throughout the park and really making quite a mess. Given some of the aviaries are rather overcrowded (notably the wetland one with spoonbills, Glossy Ibis, cormorants etc. - although I saw both spoonbill species on nests here), the smell at some exhibits was a bit confronting (especially after Adelaide the day before). The indoor walkthrough aviary was an odd idea, but there seemed to be a mouse problem (the smell was very strong) which I would have thought rather negates a lot of the purpose.
Gorge seems to be updating their aviaries (there are still a number of rather horrible cockatoo flights around), and the newer models are looking great. These include an Australian outback aviary, one for sun conures, another mixed aviary with macaws, and three for different species of cockatoo. All are large, well-planted and well-constructed. Other highlights were a meerkat exhibit any major zoo could be proud of, an unexpected bilby display, and nice little exhibits for otters and Common Marmosets.
The undoubted standout, though, was the reptile house, a simply outstanding exhibit which I can't praise highly enough. It's very small (probably about half the size of Mogo's), but manages to squeeze in a lot of species through clever design. The aesthetic is of a ruined jungle dungeon, with tree roots growing down between each of the major exhibits (around five, with iguanas and snakes). Within these trees were included a number of smaller exhibits, and it's hard to describe exactly how this was done but it was incredibly effective. There were also tunnels through the walls that were occupied by hopping mice (who had larger off-display accommodations as well). The reptile house was still unfinished, with a central open-topped area under development, but it is a great achievement and other zoos should take note.
The fourth zoo was actually Altina, which I got to on the way back. I wasn't quite sure what to expect here, given the extremely unusual visitor model. As some people would know, Altina is only open by appointment and is then viewable as part of a twice-daily tour group, first through a small exhibit area and then, by horse-drawn cart, out around the paddocks. While it is a bit irritating not being able to take things at your own pace, this is more than compensated for by basically being a behind-the-scenes tour, seeing each of the animals at feeding time and therefore getting a much higher activity-to-exhibit ratio than normal for a zoo. I cannot imagine how Altina makes any money with this system (although the park was clearly booming), and can only assume that the owner's other business, a cement firm, is very successful.
I came away from Altina very impressed. While the open-range exhibits lacked the grandeur of the government open-range zoos, they were clearly doing just as well and in fact are housing a large number of the populations of several of the species they exhibit. The carnivore exhibits (for lions, hyenas, hunting dogs and Maned Wolves) are all very nice and it was great to see that things like deer and wild cattle, which the big zoos have all lost interest in, were well-represented. (I particularly liked seeing the Hog Deer - this was a first for me.) The smaller exhibits around the visitor centre were all clearly very new - they included indoor exhibits for freshwater and saltwater crocodile and alligator, as well as typical but well-looked-after exhibits for Red Pandas, Meerkats, Common Marmosets, capuchins, Tasmanian Devils and Common Wombats. A pair of islands were apparently being prepared for lemurs. Altina is a great little zoo and as a country we are of course indebted to them for saving Maned Wolves in our zoos - interestingly the guide mentioned that the zoo would soon be sending wolves to the National Zoo and to Nowra.
Overall I had a great time seeing all these zoos, and they were all thoroughly worthwhile experiences.
I saw Monarto in perfect weather - bright blue skies and bright green grass. The result was that the zoo looked amazing, although I suspect it looks fairly good anyway since I was highly impressed overall. Particular highlights included the vast carnivore exhibits (one for lions and one which I think rotates between hyenas and hunting dogs) and the excellent African Waterhole mixed exhibit. In comparison to WPZ and Werribee, Monarto is helped by having some variation in terrain (both of those other zoos are very flat). The chimp exhibit is looking great - probably slightly smaller than Taronga's. The buses are a good idea but it's not that difficult to trek around the zoo on foot through extensive rehabilitated bushland. My one disappointment was the aviary, a complete afterthought buried away where it would get almost no traffic; in comparison to the obviously expensive exhibits for everything else, the obvious cheapness of the aviary was a bit annoying. But perhaps it's in preparation for bigger things to come.
I hadn't seen any new species at Monarto, but Adelaide was a different story so I was really looking forward to seeing this zoo. This is also the only one I was really able to do a proper photo survey of, so check the gallery. My overall impression of Adelaide can be summed up as "compact and old-fashioned", neither of which are necessarily criticisms. Adelaide has considerably less space than Taronga or Melbourne, but by squishing everything close together I don't think it has many fewer species. The old-fashioned comment is because a lot of the exhibits reminded me of Taronga and especially Melbourne around fifteen years ago, with lots of the kind of thing those two zoos have replaced still around at Adelaide. Only a few were really in dire need of attention, though. Adelaide was also extremely well looked-after (a quality evident throughout South Australia, actually), and was by far the least smelly zoo I've been to.
On the new species front, I suffered a horrendous shock when I arrived to signs announcing that the Giant Pandas were off-display all week. Given that I was 1100km from home and unlikely to be here again soon, this was absolutely agonising and I was left peering forlornly at a tall tree that a sympathetic volunteer had said the female was sometimes visible from. No such luck. The rest of my new species all made appearances, though, which was good compensation.
One of my favourite things about Adelaide was its emphasis on birds; it had a commitment to aviaries that I don't see echoed at Melbourne or Taronga lately. I was particularly struck by an African aviary that didn't really have anything that wasn't pretty common in aviculture, but just the fact that none of the other zoos had any similar exhibit had me sitting in front of it for quite some time (St Helena Waxbills, firefinches, Namaqua Doves, Masked Lovebirds, Yellow-bellied Canaries and Orange-bellied Waxbills, and supposedly Grenadier Weavers but I didn't see any). A walk-through lory aviary with four species (Red, Chattering, Dusky, Black-capped) was also terrific, but really all the aviaries were great. Seeing the Hyacinth Macaws and Palm Cockatoos was also a particular treat.
The reptile house was sadly closed still, but the nocturnal house was good to see. I liked the idea of starting off with a few aquaria in the partial darkness with a few rare species of fish (and also Western Swamp Turtles). The bilby was off-display (as was the treeshrew in the outside exhibits), but it was great to see the sloth and the ghost bats were very active. It was interesting to see that Adelaide's exhibits all have the floors of the exhibits at around two feet up, a contrast from Taronga and Healesville - not necessarily better, but just different.
Adelaide also had some very effective mixed-species exhibits, of which my favourite was probably Malayan Tapirs and Dusky Langurs. The langurs had a simply enormous fig tree at their disposal, and as I saw several sitting in branches directly above the public walkway I'm not sure entirely what was stopping them escaping. But it was an outstanding display. The meerkat exhibit directly in front of the giraffes was also an effective idea.
By far the oldest area of the zoo was the carnivores, and I believe this area will soon be redeveloped. This is good to hear, because (apart from an awful siamang cage next to the nocturnal house, which I believe is also not long for this world) these were the worst exhibits in the zoo. The lion exhibit is fairly miserable (and when the wonders of Monarto are only 50km away I'm not sure why it's necessary), and most of the small carnivores (serval, coati, fennec fox) were in enclosures that were rather small for my liking. This area reminded me a lot of Melbourne's small cat alley. On the other hand tigers and sun bears had very nice accommodation in the "Immersion" area. The Immersion area also included very good exhibits for Orang-utan, Mandrill, Hamadryas Baboon, Siamang and White-cheeked Gibbon (the latter two on islands).
The last thing I want to comment on is the tamarin display. The Golden Lion Tamarins had access to a wire tunnel that extended outwards from their exhibit and around in a loop through the garden behind the path. I understand this is a new development, and I thought it was simply terrific. The tamarins seemed to enjoy it too, and made frequent use of it. It was such an innovative display, especially given tamarins usually get a fairly standard kind of exhibit.
The next day I got up to Gorge Wildlife Park. I should say at the outset that Gorge was unfairly disadvantaged in my eyes, as at the previous two zoos I had enjoyed simply gorgeous weather and at Gorge it was cloudy with an icy wind. Of course, being a private park I don't hold it to the same standards as Adelaide and Monarto, but I still think Gorge is very much a mixed bag.
Most of the exhibits fall into the range of "adequate but unspectacular". These include all of the monkey cages (including one for Australia's last White-fronted Lemurs, which frustratingly stayed out of sight the whole time), some of the older aviaries, and most of the native mammal enclosures. The walkthrough macropod areas were looking nice but a little over-populated, and the fixation on albinos and white animals was rather odd. The zoo also had a bit of an ibis problem, with hundreds free ranging throughout the park and really making quite a mess. Given some of the aviaries are rather overcrowded (notably the wetland one with spoonbills, Glossy Ibis, cormorants etc. - although I saw both spoonbill species on nests here), the smell at some exhibits was a bit confronting (especially after Adelaide the day before). The indoor walkthrough aviary was an odd idea, but there seemed to be a mouse problem (the smell was very strong) which I would have thought rather negates a lot of the purpose.
Gorge seems to be updating their aviaries (there are still a number of rather horrible cockatoo flights around), and the newer models are looking great. These include an Australian outback aviary, one for sun conures, another mixed aviary with macaws, and three for different species of cockatoo. All are large, well-planted and well-constructed. Other highlights were a meerkat exhibit any major zoo could be proud of, an unexpected bilby display, and nice little exhibits for otters and Common Marmosets.
The undoubted standout, though, was the reptile house, a simply outstanding exhibit which I can't praise highly enough. It's very small (probably about half the size of Mogo's), but manages to squeeze in a lot of species through clever design. The aesthetic is of a ruined jungle dungeon, with tree roots growing down between each of the major exhibits (around five, with iguanas and snakes). Within these trees were included a number of smaller exhibits, and it's hard to describe exactly how this was done but it was incredibly effective. There were also tunnels through the walls that were occupied by hopping mice (who had larger off-display accommodations as well). The reptile house was still unfinished, with a central open-topped area under development, but it is a great achievement and other zoos should take note.
The fourth zoo was actually Altina, which I got to on the way back. I wasn't quite sure what to expect here, given the extremely unusual visitor model. As some people would know, Altina is only open by appointment and is then viewable as part of a twice-daily tour group, first through a small exhibit area and then, by horse-drawn cart, out around the paddocks. While it is a bit irritating not being able to take things at your own pace, this is more than compensated for by basically being a behind-the-scenes tour, seeing each of the animals at feeding time and therefore getting a much higher activity-to-exhibit ratio than normal for a zoo. I cannot imagine how Altina makes any money with this system (although the park was clearly booming), and can only assume that the owner's other business, a cement firm, is very successful.
I came away from Altina very impressed. While the open-range exhibits lacked the grandeur of the government open-range zoos, they were clearly doing just as well and in fact are housing a large number of the populations of several of the species they exhibit. The carnivore exhibits (for lions, hyenas, hunting dogs and Maned Wolves) are all very nice and it was great to see that things like deer and wild cattle, which the big zoos have all lost interest in, were well-represented. (I particularly liked seeing the Hog Deer - this was a first for me.) The smaller exhibits around the visitor centre were all clearly very new - they included indoor exhibits for freshwater and saltwater crocodile and alligator, as well as typical but well-looked-after exhibits for Red Pandas, Meerkats, Common Marmosets, capuchins, Tasmanian Devils and Common Wombats. A pair of islands were apparently being prepared for lemurs. Altina is a great little zoo and as a country we are of course indebted to them for saving Maned Wolves in our zoos - interestingly the guide mentioned that the zoo would soon be sending wolves to the National Zoo and to Nowra.
Overall I had a great time seeing all these zoos, and they were all thoroughly worthwhile experiences.
