Taronga Zoo Taronga Taronga Taronga

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Coquinguy

Well-Known Member
Went to Taronga Zoo today....bit of a mixed review. Guy Cooper take note.
The recent torrential rain has left many exhibits a muddy mess.
Most of the zoo looking good but got the feeling today that maybe a little more thought could go into maintaining the new exhibits.
Creatures of the Wollemi looks run down. Mossy handrails. Reptile exhibits emptyish. The small bird component is lacking.
Backyard to Bush. Great concept. Just a shame it has never, to my way of thinking, reached its full potential. Not enough animals. Not enough roos in the walkthrough section. Barn half empty....
Wild Asia. Looks great. Elephant paddock is a bit bare in parts but the lower paddock is showing signs of recovery. And the palms which were dead have been removed and the remaining ones look good. Elephants having a fantastic time, utilising both the upper and lower exhibit. Binturong, langur, tapir, otters and fishing cats all on display. Pheasants magnificent. Need some finches or something in the palm aviary.
Dholes. Poor things. Theyve churned their second exhibit up something shocking and its all muddy now. Looks terrible.
Moore Park Aviary looks amazing. Shame the gibbon island, central seal pools, heritage aviaries and the bull elephant paddock look like ****.
African Waterhole. Where do I start? Make this the next priority. The bongo exhibit has never been the same since the breeding group left? Single male, always hiding.
Rhino paddock empty.
Safari Lodge area, which had been turned into a nice interp centre on zoo conservation. Subsequently destroyed by boisterous children. Needs either fixing or closing down.
Gorilla exhibit. Muddy. Mulch it or something for God's sake.
Sick of empty exhibits. The old tamarin exhibit. One tree shrew! Seeming as though you cant see the tamarins in Amazonia put some marmosets in there or something.
Food prices. Maybe my budget just got tighter, but since when did having to pay a ******** of money for ****** tasting food become OK. I know its A Sydney thing but its not worth it.
And finally. GREAT SOUTHERN OCEANS. Just to prove I dont love Taronga unconditionally.
Designers can get things right, in the main. Or they can get it wrong, in the main.
Wild Asia and Creatures of the Wollemi, on the whole are good developments. Give or take the size of the elephant paddock which I can look past because of the deep hole which will be the Elephant Breeding Facility.
B2B is an ongoing disappointment. Under utilised. And I feel GSO may be the same. $54 million!!!! For what??? There were some magical exhibits in the precinct, but overall, too many dead-zones, and fundamentally, empty of animals!!!!
Biggest development in the history of the zoo. I saw 3 seals, some penguins (more later) and 4 pelicans...............
Originally there were aviaires slated for the development. These fell by the wayside. But now, there is a massive 'heath area' void of animals and bypassed by visitors who choose a rustic bridge. Seal theatre looks amazing...Off show pool fanastic and quite innovative but on the whole this entire upper section is empty of animal life and quite a letdown.
The boardwalk section continues on. The path to nowhere. In one section near the pelicans it meets a staircase, neatly segmenting a whole section of garden which becomes, essentially, another dead zone.
The pelican display is really well done, but they are the only animals in the middle area. The walkway continues on to the rustic bridge which gives amazing views out over the exhibit itself, and onto the harbour. The bottom section is the only thing that saves this exhibit. The penguins are amazing, amazing amazing. But the whole submarine thing??????? Austere, under-interpreted and empty of animals. Where are the marine invertebrates? The fish? The weedy sea-dragons? Anything to give this area a bit of woomf! From the underwater viewing gallery the penguin shores exhibit continues. Great, except the penguins only use about a third of their enclosure.
The leopard seal pool is good. Nice and big. But this is where the exhibit gets tricky. You are promised underwater seal viewing. But where is it? You can jump on a fabulous lift and go back up to Wild Asia........or turn back as we did and go back in the submarine and stumble upon the leopard seal underwater area. This pool is good but I am slightly disappointed by it. Preliminary plans showed pools pierced by simulated bergs and rock crevices. But hardly any of this. Maybe if they put less money into fake star fish and limpet shells and more into actual exhibit features Id have been more impressed.
So overall, the biggest exhibit in the history of Taronga Zoo still raises the bar of marine mammal exhibitry immensely, but on the whole I wasnt overwhelmed, which I was expecting to be for this price tag.
$54 million has got NSW taxpayers 3 seal pools. A seal theatre. A penguin enclosure. And a pelican pool. 2.5 hectares of not much. The exhibit themselves are amazing but the whole thing could have been tied together so much more cleverly.
About the best thing to come out of it is the restoration of the Moore Park Aviary and Aquarium fascade. Still, the seal pools and penguin exhibits **** all over anything Ive ever seen ;)
 
Oh and the Kodiak Bear exhibit. Maybe a conscession of old age, loads of sand to make slopes connecting the banks to ease the jarring of old bear joints.
But on a sand note....Have I read too many Dave Hancocks books? But why do Zoos spend tens of miilions of dollars on recreating habitats such as an Asian Wetland or a trail of the elephants or whatever and then, for example, dump loads of beach sand into what is supposed to be an aviary for Asian wetland birds????? Totally spoiling it.
 
Yes please...I haven't been since the olympics but am going while i'm up there for WYD.
 
wow glyn- a comprehensive reveiw- would like photos- and a shame about GSO. I was at zoo close to 3 weeks ago, long before any down pour, and i must say, it looked extremely nice.
 
yeh i was a little underwhelmed.....still, for the avarage pleb visiting the zoo will be mind-blowing. just thought they could have done better for that price tag.
a birds of the heath aviary......a walkthrough structure would have been good, as would have been some small aquatic exhibits in the 'research vessel', which looks far from indestructible to me.
 
i can't believe you went to Taronga during school holidays!
I never go on weekends or summer. Always during the week. I try to get there early and go straight to Wollemi before the crowds. You mentioned it looks shabby. I like the lived in look its got going.
What about the java sparrows in the Wetlands avairy. Do you think it's to many or not?
 
I went to wollimi and for teh first time ver saw the paltupus out in teh day- both of them actually- i was so excited. Wollimi looks good, but again, a few morw animals, though the day i went it had the echidnas walkinga cross the trail, and a wallaby on the cliff as ya exited- very clsoe, and great for the visiotors that wallaby rock did exactly what it was designed for.
 
ZOOBOY EXACTLY. sydney's eastern suburbs have one of the most threatened habitats in NSW, the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub. Taronga already represents this eco-system in the bush birds area....but here it could have SHOWCASED the EBS. raising awareness.
within Sydney, including Manly where the Little Penguin colony lives there is such a diversity of wildlife species living in the coastal habitats. Stacks of birds, bandicoots, echidna and more lizards than you could poke a stick at....
Now, Java Sparrows. Yes, too many to the point they are flying out of the air-lock entry/exit vestibules. Was going to tell someone then got over it. That aviary has too many birds in it. Some of these species should go to the Palm Aviary to hold peoples interest there longer.
As for WOLLEMI. When it opened I thought to myself that if Taronga could maintian this standard of design innovation throughout the rest of the masterplan than it would be amazing. Unfortunately this hasnt happened and the massive capital injection that was Wollemi is starting to look, to my eyes, a bit forgotten and run-down. The mix of birds needs livening up. I am getting sick of lorikeets, mandarin ducks and whistling ducks trning up in just about every aviary at Taronga Zoo, even though these in many instaces these displays are supposed to represent specific ecosystems and now have Atypical avian reps.
Many of Taronga's exhibits are showing signs of being 'animal sick'. Compacted soil, muddy, plants stripped down or non-existent, too much hot-wire, fake rock being exposed, too much unnatural enrichment items. I think the zoo needs to allow more time for plants to be established before introducing animals for starters, so that ultimately they dont end up displaying animals from, for example, rainforests in what look like trampled down kid playgrounds with no relevence to natural habitats.
 
How has the elephants exhibit held up. Melbournes was doing okay with just mekky and bongy but as soon as those thai girls came it has turned into a giant sandpit.
 
species which could have ended up at GSO......
beautiful firetail. wrens. bronzewing pigeon. new holland honeyeater. turquoise parrot. quail. silvereye. banded rail. plover. pied oystercatcher. terns. cormorants. CORMORANTS!!!!!
weedy sea dragon. leafy sea dragons. crabs. sand goanna. jacky lizard. red crowned toadlet. wallums froglet. echidna..bandicoot. blue ringed octopus. fish. fish. fish. a whole heap of heath creatures, tidal creatures, sea creatures.
 
elephant exhibit OK. certainly no where near as green and lush as when they first arrived. went through the honeymoon period for about a week........5 thai elephants and an acre of verdant green lawn surrounded by palms. Then the palms started dying, then one of the figs (on a side note the massive fig tree in the old elephant exhibit has been fully transplanted, copper log tree guard and all) karked it, the grass died off and a massive shower of rain last June sent alot of dirt into the moats and surrounding exhibit....
Now.
water quality in the moats is good. I think the established reeds and papyrus help this a bit. The plants surrounding the exhibit have really taken off, but the area for the elephants itself is now mainly just red dirt. Not that the elephant seem to mind, they run around constanylu squelching in the mud and tossing the logs around.
One thing I do hate is that little garden in the upper exhibit just next to moat. The grasses in it look so ugly and windblown, and do nothing at all for the naturallness of the exhibit. Would have been better as a few square metres of animal space.
 
Oh Zooboy I totally agree. On the whole there is nothing wrong with the enclosures themselves......its the precincts. As the masterplan pulls together I am hugely impressed. But when the twelve years is up. Id like to go in and have a HUGE clean up, touch up and then say WERE FINISHED ;)
 
lol i can not agree more! Though we are not on track for 12 years, and i hope they dont rsuh it, no other zoo in the world can have so much crdit to it's name for the overhaul and mega precints atronga has built and has planned. No otehr zoo has the immese sense of history and modern 21st century zoos. I am proud to say my tax dollars went to such a great project. I hope the stanard keeps up, and taronag becomes the best zoo in the world. I am certainly proud of it.
 
Of course, and ill challenge you to find a zoo that is. Give it time, and hopefully it will come around like a fine wine- matures with age- not to mention a fine collection of animals.
 
yes but by the same token. for the above mentioned funding agreement, taronga should be alot closer to perfection than it is at times ;) and alot more 'perfect' than most
 
lol Zootopia- in pursuit of the perfect zo. I think that was the best motto it ever had- shame it's been dropped.
 
how about all thsoe zoo pics- been refreshing the agllery every few mins to find if you have put some up!
 
im watching bad boys 2 and am too engrossed in the car chase. sorry boys and girls. tomorrow night. over and out glyn
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top