A few seconds later the young girl turned and grinned at her parents - and the leopard seal opened her mouth and bumped her nose on the perspex. And my flash was recharging so I missed it.
It looks like a living dinosaur on this photo; I would have loved to see the GSO but I have very fond memories of seeing the late Brooke in the old pools so I can't complain. Oh boy she was one beautiful seal!
The leopard seal exhibit is quite nice. You start off the viewing at the land part; here there are around three viewing windows (and some nice views of the harbour). Next, you walk over the actual pool on a metal bridge. You then walk into the underwater viewing area which is themed as a sub-antarctic research ship. Here you can see them underwater. In this area there are also interactive graphics and games themed around conservation of Antarctica and reducing pollution in the oceans.
The exhibit itself is rather nice. There is a decent land part, which produces a snow machine to make the animals feel more comfortable. The pool is very deep and has various fake seaweed and barnacles on the edges and around it. I think the water in the pool is also cooled to cold temepratures, considering that the leopard seals were stranded from the wild. It is quite a simple, yet effective, exhibit that meets the needs of the seals, such as cooling temepratures.
There are two leopard seals at Taronga, both of which were stranded in the Royal National Park, just south of the zoo. The male is 'Casey' and the female is 'Sabine'. I think both are around six or seven years of age. Taronga has been trying to breed them for the past few years, but considering the male was young when he was stranded, he did not learn the mating call, so the female has not been interested. Taronga has been trying to play wild male's mating calls for Casey to try and make him learn his own. It is quite a difficult task.
And you should definately come to Taronga! There is a great variety of native Australian animals, a nice reptile collection, a really good nocturnal house (for natives) and some of the big species (gorilla, chimp, giraffe, Asian elephant, etc.) as well as some of the not-so-common-species in Australia (Mueller's gibbon, dhole, Kodiak bear, Francois langur, Andean condor, etc.). You would probably be more interested in the natives though!
