So I have finally got round to writing up a trip report of my Sydney weekend on the 23-25 November. The reason I went over there of course was because one of Taronga's long-beaked echidnas has been put on display for the first time in about ten years. They are endemic to New Guinea and I am unlikely to be getting there any time soon; the only ones outside New Guinea are the one in Moscow, which I'm probably even more unlikely to get to than New Guinea, and the two at Taronga. I didn't really have a choice did I? As well as the zoo I was also visiting the Sydney Aquarium, the Wildlife World and the Manly Oceanworld.
I was going to do a touch of birding in my spare time but there were no birds in evidence at the airport, and also none from the train on the way into the city. In fact it wasn't until I was at the ferry terminal waiting for the Manly Ferry that I saw my first feathery beasts, namely silver gulls (which I'd already seen this year in New Caledonia) and feral pigeons (which I'd also seen this year; funny that). Walking from the disembarkment point up the road to the Manly Guesthouse where I was staying, I saw rainbow lorikeets (likewise also seen in New Caledonia), an Australian magpie (seen earlier in New Zealand) and finally a new year bird, noisy miners (a type of honeyeater). I was picked up by Hix for the drive to Taronga, seeing sulphur-crested cockatoos along the way (sigh, also already seen this year, in New Zealand). There was no active birding at the zoo of course but I did incidentally spot a few birds (dusky moorhen, Australian wood duck, common kookaburra, white-browed scrubwren and magpie-lark), as well as a baby water dragon in the enclosure for the De Brazza's guenons. On the drive back to the Guesthouse a group of pied currawongs flew past to add to the day's short list.
There's heaps about Taronga Zoo on the forum already so rather than a review I'll just go over the best bits. Hix was showing me round the zoo which was mighty handy as it meant I could head straight for the interesting animals (none of those boring elephants and giraffes for me). I think for me the zoo should have been done over two days instead of the part-day I had, because I could easily have spent all of one day just at the aviaries, and most of the next in the nocturnal and reptile houses. First stop was the koala house. Now I know that koalas are actually one of the most boring animals around but the Taronga koala house is one of the zoo's iconic structures, actually the first thing that comes into my head when I think of Taronga, so I had to give it a look-see. Koalas don't move much but zoos are really about people so seeing a few bare branches over a bed of sand or concrete in the way that most zoos display koalas is a bit of a poor show; Taronga on the other hand has a very attractive half-domed exhibit where the bare branches are underplanted with tree ferns and shrubs so it looks much more natural.
The nearby horseshoe aviaries for native birds were very nice in terms of being well-planted with lovely birds inside such as green pigmy goose, bee-eaters, painted buttonquail, regent bowerbird, etc. They are definitely one spot you could spend a very long time just sitting and taking photos. The Wollemi aviary and Palm aviary were likewise most excellent. Neither the platypus nor short-beaked echidnas showed in the Wollemi, and neither did the rock wallabies but that's all right because I'd seen all of those species before. Taronga displays its birds very very well on the whole. I think the South American aviary (macaws, conures and a solitary curassow) was the only "bad" display I saw, being mostly bare concrete and cut branches. I missed the condors entirely because I forgot the zoo had them!
I liked the Reptile House a lot although as Hix has pointed out the visitor area is quite narrow and in holidays must get clogged with people. Even on a Tuesday (when we were there) the visitors were getting in our way a bit. I didn't end up taking many photos at all in there, mainly because I couldn't be bothered changing the lens on my camera so just used my little point-and-shoot job. Seeing Corroboree frogs (not in the Reptile House itself) was a highlight; amazing little frogs they are!
The Great Southern Oceans area was fantastic I thought. The leopard seal pool with its underwater viewing was very impressive in its depth, although the seal itself was asleep on shore and refused to go swimming. The little blue penguin (sorry, fairy penguin) enclosure was also fantastic, having an indoor viewing window, an overhead viewing window (would have made for some good photos if any of them had been in focus!) and a long outdoor pool with a surge machine. Far and away the best little blue penguin enclosure I've ever seen. All too often they get relegated to a little shallow paddling pool where they just sit forlornly on shore wondering what the hell they're doing there. The three Fiordland crested penguins have now been reduced to just one, the two old ones having recently passed on. I didn't manage to get any photos of the Fiordland as it was swimming too fast and unpredictably for me. The only disappointing part of the whole Southern Oceans exhibit was the small and entirely-uninspired pelican enclosure.
I stopped by the gorilla enclosure simply to look at the males that are coming to New Zealand and see what their exhibit was like. The silverback's a very big boy!
The Nocturnal House was the main reason for the zoo visit, and it was without doubt the absolute highlight of the visit. I love nocturnal houses and Taronga's didn't disappoint. The northern quolls with their new litter were great, the yellow-bellied glider was an eye-opener (I had thought they were only the size of sugar gliders - I was wrong!), the great big black-footed tree rat, the bilbies, potoroos, bettongs, bush and plains rats, common ringtails, red-tailed phascogales....the list could go on and on. I really think Australia has the best night animals in the world. The feathertail gliders were simply amazing. I've searched for them in the wild before without success (quite how you're supposed to find something so fast and so small up in the canopy is beyond me!) so actually seeing them in the flesh was brilliant - especially the way they literally run across the cage's glass front like geckoes!!! Just stupendous. Those feathertails would have been my favourite animal at the zoo if it hadn't been for the long-beaked echidna. That's an animal I have always wanted to see. The one in the house is the male. He sort of looks like a ponderously-mobile beanbag with a beak. Really really odd animal. Most of the other visitors passing by thought he was a kiwi! I tried getting some photos and some video but without any acceptable results. Hix on the other hand (eg http://www.zoochat.com/34/zaglossus-mist-189053/ )..... The only thing missing from the nocturnal house were the ghost bats, recently deceased, which was a shame as they were another animal I had always had a yearning to see. Next to the Nocturnal House is the Platypus House. The water rats were out, but the platypus was not. Taronga is the only place in the world where one can observe all three types of monotremes together, but I was destined to just see the long-beaked echidna that day. In the end I didn't see the platypus at the Sydney Aquarium nor the short-beaked echidnas at the Wildlife World, so the trip ended with just the one monotreme after all.
What else can I say about the zoo? I liked a lot the way they have signage up everywhere showing the old cages (eg, how the Wollemi aviary is built on the site of the old monkey cages), and also the old elephant house with its old photos, and the tiny old indoor bear cells (by the red pandas). All pretty brutal looking exhibits by today's standards. It certainly helps the average visitor realise how far the zoos have changed.
Definitely will be returning to Taronga Zoo in the future.
Some photos in the gallery Taronga Zoo Gallery
I was going to do a touch of birding in my spare time but there were no birds in evidence at the airport, and also none from the train on the way into the city. In fact it wasn't until I was at the ferry terminal waiting for the Manly Ferry that I saw my first feathery beasts, namely silver gulls (which I'd already seen this year in New Caledonia) and feral pigeons (which I'd also seen this year; funny that). Walking from the disembarkment point up the road to the Manly Guesthouse where I was staying, I saw rainbow lorikeets (likewise also seen in New Caledonia), an Australian magpie (seen earlier in New Zealand) and finally a new year bird, noisy miners (a type of honeyeater). I was picked up by Hix for the drive to Taronga, seeing sulphur-crested cockatoos along the way (sigh, also already seen this year, in New Zealand). There was no active birding at the zoo of course but I did incidentally spot a few birds (dusky moorhen, Australian wood duck, common kookaburra, white-browed scrubwren and magpie-lark), as well as a baby water dragon in the enclosure for the De Brazza's guenons. On the drive back to the Guesthouse a group of pied currawongs flew past to add to the day's short list.
There's heaps about Taronga Zoo on the forum already so rather than a review I'll just go over the best bits. Hix was showing me round the zoo which was mighty handy as it meant I could head straight for the interesting animals (none of those boring elephants and giraffes for me). I think for me the zoo should have been done over two days instead of the part-day I had, because I could easily have spent all of one day just at the aviaries, and most of the next in the nocturnal and reptile houses. First stop was the koala house. Now I know that koalas are actually one of the most boring animals around but the Taronga koala house is one of the zoo's iconic structures, actually the first thing that comes into my head when I think of Taronga, so I had to give it a look-see. Koalas don't move much but zoos are really about people so seeing a few bare branches over a bed of sand or concrete in the way that most zoos display koalas is a bit of a poor show; Taronga on the other hand has a very attractive half-domed exhibit where the bare branches are underplanted with tree ferns and shrubs so it looks much more natural.
The nearby horseshoe aviaries for native birds were very nice in terms of being well-planted with lovely birds inside such as green pigmy goose, bee-eaters, painted buttonquail, regent bowerbird, etc. They are definitely one spot you could spend a very long time just sitting and taking photos. The Wollemi aviary and Palm aviary were likewise most excellent. Neither the platypus nor short-beaked echidnas showed in the Wollemi, and neither did the rock wallabies but that's all right because I'd seen all of those species before. Taronga displays its birds very very well on the whole. I think the South American aviary (macaws, conures and a solitary curassow) was the only "bad" display I saw, being mostly bare concrete and cut branches. I missed the condors entirely because I forgot the zoo had them!
I liked the Reptile House a lot although as Hix has pointed out the visitor area is quite narrow and in holidays must get clogged with people. Even on a Tuesday (when we were there) the visitors were getting in our way a bit. I didn't end up taking many photos at all in there, mainly because I couldn't be bothered changing the lens on my camera so just used my little point-and-shoot job. Seeing Corroboree frogs (not in the Reptile House itself) was a highlight; amazing little frogs they are!
The Great Southern Oceans area was fantastic I thought. The leopard seal pool with its underwater viewing was very impressive in its depth, although the seal itself was asleep on shore and refused to go swimming. The little blue penguin (sorry, fairy penguin) enclosure was also fantastic, having an indoor viewing window, an overhead viewing window (would have made for some good photos if any of them had been in focus!) and a long outdoor pool with a surge machine. Far and away the best little blue penguin enclosure I've ever seen. All too often they get relegated to a little shallow paddling pool where they just sit forlornly on shore wondering what the hell they're doing there. The three Fiordland crested penguins have now been reduced to just one, the two old ones having recently passed on. I didn't manage to get any photos of the Fiordland as it was swimming too fast and unpredictably for me. The only disappointing part of the whole Southern Oceans exhibit was the small and entirely-uninspired pelican enclosure.
I stopped by the gorilla enclosure simply to look at the males that are coming to New Zealand and see what their exhibit was like. The silverback's a very big boy!
The Nocturnal House was the main reason for the zoo visit, and it was without doubt the absolute highlight of the visit. I love nocturnal houses and Taronga's didn't disappoint. The northern quolls with their new litter were great, the yellow-bellied glider was an eye-opener (I had thought they were only the size of sugar gliders - I was wrong!), the great big black-footed tree rat, the bilbies, potoroos, bettongs, bush and plains rats, common ringtails, red-tailed phascogales....the list could go on and on. I really think Australia has the best night animals in the world. The feathertail gliders were simply amazing. I've searched for them in the wild before without success (quite how you're supposed to find something so fast and so small up in the canopy is beyond me!) so actually seeing them in the flesh was brilliant - especially the way they literally run across the cage's glass front like geckoes!!! Just stupendous. Those feathertails would have been my favourite animal at the zoo if it hadn't been for the long-beaked echidna. That's an animal I have always wanted to see. The one in the house is the male. He sort of looks like a ponderously-mobile beanbag with a beak. Really really odd animal. Most of the other visitors passing by thought he was a kiwi! I tried getting some photos and some video but without any acceptable results. Hix on the other hand (eg http://www.zoochat.com/34/zaglossus-mist-189053/ )..... The only thing missing from the nocturnal house were the ghost bats, recently deceased, which was a shame as they were another animal I had always had a yearning to see. Next to the Nocturnal House is the Platypus House. The water rats were out, but the platypus was not. Taronga is the only place in the world where one can observe all three types of monotremes together, but I was destined to just see the long-beaked echidna that day. In the end I didn't see the platypus at the Sydney Aquarium nor the short-beaked echidnas at the Wildlife World, so the trip ended with just the one monotreme after all.
What else can I say about the zoo? I liked a lot the way they have signage up everywhere showing the old cages (eg, how the Wollemi aviary is built on the site of the old monkey cages), and also the old elephant house with its old photos, and the tiny old indoor bear cells (by the red pandas). All pretty brutal looking exhibits by today's standards. It certainly helps the average visitor realise how far the zoos have changed.
Definitely will be returning to Taronga Zoo in the future.
Some photos in the gallery Taronga Zoo Gallery
