yeah thats right glyn, they had record levels and from what i believe they have managed to remain pretty high too. this is something melbournes is much better than taronga at doing, promoting itself. whilst no doubt, sydneys zoo has had a huge amount of exposure regarding the new elephant exhibit, melbourne is great at developing a huge amount of community support behind it. it may have something to do with the fact that unlike taronga, who has a proportionally high number of foriegn tourists, melbourne seems to get a fair degree of locals. i remeber a taronga keeper telling me, without any knowledge of where i was from, how he wished taronga had just half the amount of public support melbourne has.
when trail of the elephants opened, their where advertisements on TV and large billboard posters all down the main mall in the city. it helped that people had waited a good decade for their new exhibit, and that they were excited not just to see the new enclosure, but the zoos orginal elephants happy inside it..
in a way i'm supprised that melbourne hasn't seemed to learn from its success' here. despite a bit of media attention there has been no advertising campaign, announcing either the arrival of the new elephants, or more importantly the opening of the new orang-utan exhibit.
the orangs alone could drum up almost as much excitement as the gorillas did when their rainforest opened.
it helps if zoos promote themselves more like a business does, with an emphasis on it being "your zoo"...
afterall, it is the public that pays for them...