Melbourne Zoo Visit to Melbourne Zoo

T

Triffle

Active Member
Returned to the Melbourne Zoo today for the first time in 10 months. Change has occured at almost every location throughout the zoo though nothing overly significant. In terms of mammals, in 2008 the zoo lost Jaguars, Clouded Leopards, Bobcats and apparantly Eurasian Badgers; while Red-necked Wallabies are no longer listed on ISIS and were not exhibited, so I assume this species has been lost also (anyone know why?). The Golden cat had no exhibit, so i assume it too has been phased out, or is off-display. The zoo has acquired Eastern Bongos, Brown Capuchins and Pygmy Marmosets, which i was aware of through zoochat. I was however somewhat sursprised to find when walking along the half empty small cat alley (the alley was actually quite small as the marine precinct development has overtaken most of the path and all the former garden opposite the cages) the caracel back at Melbourne! The zoo has not held this magnificent feline since around 1999-2000 period. I think it probably came from Adelaide.



While there has been plenty of development on the "visitors experience" (i.e. new authentic signage and ornaments, considerably more foliage in the Asian rainforest etc.) the actual exhibits are looking slightly dilapidated. There is now zero foliage or grass in the elephant exhibits (well they are elephants! but seriously grass always survived moderately in the 2 non-pool paddocks until the past year); the former hippo enclosures now only house carp (which the zoo describes as a pest species- which makes you wonder, if it is a pest, why should it get such a large area?!) and the other a number of otters. The exhibit with otters is partly closed off, has a low water level, little foliage: a long way from it's former brilliance! Hopefully this is only temporary and hippos will once again return. Even the mandrill exhibit was slightly disappointing: seemed to be less foliage and moat did not look great.

What has happened to all the birds?! The collection of birds in the Great Flight Avairy has gradually decreased over the years, but it seemed like a huge amount of birds had departed in the past year. The rainforest section was once teaming with birds. Now, when it is much easier to spot birds in this area as the vines on top of the avairy have been removed, i literally saw 5 birds over 5 minutes of searching before reaching the bridge. Similarly, the wetlands area was somewhat bare. In around 80-100 visits to the zoo, I have always, without fail, seen at least 10 wetland birds perched on a particular tree in this section (next to bridge, viewed from raised platform). Until today; 1 bird! The dry woodlands section actually featured birds, though no more than you would expect in this area. The finches avairy and all the avairies in the Asian rainforest were much less populated almost to the point of being bare. The Amazon avairy has re-opened but only features 4 Blue and Yellow Macaws. Not sure why the rest of the macaws, conures, parakeets, squirrel monkeys weren't exhibited also.

Finally, to the postive notes! The Snowleopards are now spread across 3 of the big cats cages, which appear to contain more vegetation than previously. Improvements to the "Bugs and Butterflies" area has resulted in the insects tanks being housed within a relatively dark tunnel. Originally i though the area must have gone, before i found the well camouflaged flap door, which sounds ridiculous considering the flaps are black against a violet wall; but only 3 other people even peeped into this area over around 10 minutes while mayhem ruled outside (summer holidays-wrong time to go even when it was raining!). The area now features around 20 tanks containg 15 species of "bugs"; including 3 species of tarantula which i think are new (or at least 2 of them), other spiders, grasshoppers, stick-insects, cockroaches, beetles, yabbies etc.).

The bongos have moved into one of the most versatile zoo exhibits. In past 10-11 years, the paddock behing the Giraffe/Zebra enclosure has housed Blackbuck/Axis deer, Ostrich/Giant Tortoise (I still don't understand why the latter species were in there when the exhibit has not changed in my memory), Congo Forest Buffalo, all the Macropods, Kangaroo Island Kangaroo and now Bongos. It is well sized but unfortunately placed as the viewing area is right in the middle of the Ausbush section; which confused some children too, whom asked their parents "Is that a kangaroo?" I did hear worse however (in sighting a Gorilla) "Daddy is that a penguin?!" The unused space from the old bison exhibit has simply been developed into a grassed exhibit for the Kangaroo Island Kangaroos. i hope this is only temporary as it lets down the connected Ausbush which is done so brilliantly.

Marine precinct coming along nicely, though i would be surprised if it finished this year. It appears a new functions precinct will be developed also as the construction site goes way beyond where the public initially had access to.

Overall a lot of small improvements are needed. More native birds, construct avairy for various species of african parrots (holds some off-display) re-aquire hippos hopefully!, move all otters back to original exhibit, improve foliage and water in hippo/mandrill exhibits, permanent exhibit at site of Kangaroo Island Kangaroo enclosure; more naturalistic, also housing quokkas and wallabies.

Marine precinct coming along nicely, though i would be surprised if it finished this year. It appears a new functions precinct will be developed also as the construction site goes way beyond where the public initially had access to.

Fortunately there is still plenty of room for large scale development. Former tapir exhibit unused (Originally thought Bongos would be in there). At least 3 Great Ape grottoes will surely be demolished and feature an Asian or African rainforest exhibit; heaps of room between Butterfly House and Tigers, which originally was to be the site for the Orang-Utans- possibly Sun Bear habitat? Nocturnal House? New Tree-top walk? Probably nothing with Melbourn'e lack of funds compared with Taronga. Imo, Melbourne does not need more major precincts after the Marine area, it just needs more in the existing precincts. There is certainly potential for Melbourne to one again become the leading zoo in Australia but clearly it needs at least half what the NSW government is contributing to Taronga from our government.
 
ive always liked melbourne zoo but it needs an all-zoo overhaul to bring the entire up to the standard of its more recent developments.
it also needs to seriously revise its collection planning and align the species kept at melbourne with those at werribee and perhaps delete some species, including giraffes and zebra and in turn expand its focus on rainforest species such as the asian elephants. giving them more space would enhance the viability of this program in the city campus; melbourne should feature the State's premier marine, elephant, bear, big cat and primate exhibits (as well as native wildlife and lesser species like herpes, aves n inverts) and continue developing Werribee as the landmark grasslands themed centre. after all, it is only half an hour out of the city.
 
Melbourne I personally think is a very nice cozy zoo, the exhibits are all quite decent though it's lacking an epic attraction ( world famous) would be nice to have a very large complex though,

oh yeah awesome another pygmy hippo!
 
glyn said:
ive always liked melbourne zoo but it needs an all-zoo overhaul to bring the entire up to the standard of its more recent developments.
it also needs to seriously revise its collection planning and align the species kept at melbourne with those at werribee and perhaps delete some species, including giraffes and zebra and in turn expand its focus on rainforest species such as the asian elephants. giving them more space would enhance the viability of this program in the city campus; melbourne should feature the State's premier marine, elephant, bear, big cat and primate exhibits (as well as native wildlife and lesser species like herpes, aves n inverts) and continue developing Werribee as the landmark grasslands themed centre. after all, it is only half an hour out of the city.
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Agree with all your points though it may be unlikely Giraffes will relocate- considering the Giraffe House is unfortunately heritage listed. I don't mind the old cages along the main drive being heritage-listed as it adds to the ambience of this area; and the old cockatoo avairy as it can still be used for birds. However, the elephant and giraffe house's heritage listing is inconvenient and annoying. Neither are spectacular, and nor could they be used for much else. Maybe a lighting bolt will hit these buildings, causing an explosion, their total destruction but no further damage to any other surrounding area.
 
we could get extremly lucky and the heritage site could be remade for another animal like Taronga.
 
realistically both could be incorporated into developments. theyre buildings, not entire precincts after all.
id really like to see melbourne zoo link its TOTE exhibit down to the current bongo and giraffe exhibits, perhaps linking some additional asian animal exhibits into it...
additionally, i would retain lions and either hyeana or huntong dog for a 'carnivore ridge' style exhibit but otherwise relocate the rest of the african mega-fauna to Weribee and expand the focus on asian highland species, PNG fauna etc
 
@Triffle: I really enjoyed your review, and I'm impressed that you've visited the zoo between 80-100 times. Another ZooChat member privately messaged me about a week ago in reference to a visit to the Melbourne Zoo, and he agreed with you that the elephant exhibit was looking beaten down and bare, the mandrill/pygmy hippo habitat was half its former glory (and especially now with the lack of hippos), the aviary was a tad depleted, and the row of big cat cages certainly has taken a major hit in 2008.

There is no question that there is considerable room for improvement at the Melbourne Zoo, and seeing Taronga's half a billion dollar campaign and mega-projects one after the other must be difficult for Melbourne fans like yourself. There are also intriguing comparisons between Dubbo and Werribee, as TWPZ is about 6 hours from Sydney while Werribee is about 30 minutes from the city of Melbourne. One would think that with an influx of cash the Melbourne/Werribee combo (and the excellent Healesville) could be one of the world's truly great zoo experiences. Sadly, there are barely any animals at Werribee, and Melbourne has fallen badly behind Taronga in the list of impressive zoos. With the amount of open space at the zoo is there any rumor of what is going to proceed after the marine precinct opens by next Christmas?
 
I remember around 7 years ago (i think) there was quite a lot of publicity that the Victorian Government was granting Zoos Victoria $28 million for major developments across the 3 institutions (2nd phase of TOTE, Orang's, Lions at Werribee, Playtapus at Healsville). Well Taronga spent double that on just it's marine precinct!

It is disappointing but certainly understandable why the NSW Government spends so much more than the Vic Government on it's zoological institutions; larger population (6.7 v 5 million statewide), stagnating tourism industry since the olympics- hence reason to significantly upgrade major tourist attraction- while tourism is okay in Vic particularly with the major sports events here that the Government focuses on (Aus Open- can't wait!, FI GP, spring racing carnival, Boxing Day Test) that Sydney has been playing catch-up to. But it would be nice if the Government contributed just a bit more- at least then the zoo could finish it's major precincts that still seem "incomplete": TOTE, Ausbush, African Rainforest (which has unfortunately become just "Rainforest").

It's more disappointing the zoo needs just small improvements for it to become a great zoo again. Clearly, more native birds are needed to be acquired for the Great Flight Avairy in particular, but also the Woodlands, Waterhole and Finches avairy. Before Ausbush Melbourne had quite an impressive aves collection; GFA was packed while there were several dozens of avairies, both pocket and medium sized, behind the Great Flight Avairy also. The Mandrill exhibit just needs to be re-vegetated and possibly more enrichment and it will be a fine exhibit again, while the return of the Pygmys will no doubt see their stagnated exhibits improved back to it's former self. The "rainforest" section should once more become the "African Rainforest", hence re-vegetating area, removing pygmy marmosets cage and relocating the animals near the tamarins, and contructing a small avairy for the zoo's African parrots which are held off-display. More cheap and cheerful avairies are needed in Ausbush, the Lorikeets should move to the Ausbush's minor ampithetre area, wallabies should be re-acquired and quokkas integrated into Kangaroo Island Kangaroo exhibit; with this enclosure made slightly more interesting then just grass. Gibbons are Langurs will hopefully move to the islands in the Asian lake once the pelicans relocate, while the paddy field avairy should perhaps become a new home for the Zoo's fishing cats; with an additional small avairy contructed near the exit point to the TOTE. I would also like that useless shelter at the end of the Orang-Utan Sanctuary removed. The donations area would be better served in the large building which is more crowded. Small, relatively inexpensive improvements which would significantly enhance the Werstern side of the zoo.

Once the marine precinct is complete, the Zoos Victoria's limited resources will probably go into developing Werribee; Gorilla/Chimpanzee exhibits, possibly baboons in Kubu River trail. At Melbourne, There is still room to develop large exhibits near the African and Asian Rainforests; the Great Apes grottoes, which you would expect at least 3 to be demolished, and the unused space between the Tigers and Butterfly House, which was the initial location of where the Orang's new exhibit was to be. I hope they don't use the grottoes area just for cafes and shops in an expanded zoo plaza and instead use the area to expand the Asian or African Rainforest. Hopefully a Sun bears enclosure can be developed in this area, hence fazing out Syrian Brown Bears.
 
My last visit would have been about the end of November and I would have to agree with most of what you say. Eurasian badgers were missing then and the bongos had only just arrived but couldn't be viewed because their exhibit had shade clothe around it.
The carp have been there a while and I can see any point of having them because that exhibit was always empty while they had pygmy hippos and when the hippos were shipped out the put otters and carp there. I would like to see cichlids like what some american zoos do but I guess Melbourne winters aree too cold.
It's good to hear that the macaws have been put back in their aviary but I had noticed a slight decline in the zoos bird species but hadn't realised how bad it was.
The insects area was being renovated on my last visit and I'm glad more species are exhibited because I never really liked the old tunnel because it only had 5 or 6 typrs of insects.
And I have been thinking about Melbourne Zoos species and more species then I expected have completely disappered. Agoutis, squirrel monkeys, badgers, most of the small cats (except serval, fishing cat and now caracal), grey kangaroo, red-necked wallabies and when the bears die/leave Victoria won't have any bears at all.
 
Not quite disappeared yet... jus completely disappeared from public view. Still have 1 badger, 1 golden cat, 1 squirrel monkey (didn't realise there was only 1 left- but hard to notice considering they always seem to be off-display!) and 3 agoutis. Have completely lost (in last year) clouded leopard, jaguar, red-necked wallaby and bobcat. In the next few years, Bears as you mentioned could disappear. Also add to that list porcupines, persian leopard and maned wolf. Melbourne still has a sub-species of Grey Kangaroo though.

It is not all doom and gloom... Bongos, marmosets, capuchins and caracal have arrived in the past year, while an influx of marine wildlife should occur in the next 12-18 months.
 
The seals, pelicans and penguins are all still at the zoo. And by the plans that you posted in the gallery it looks like there will only be one aquarium.
 
It is possible that the stagnation within the GFA is due to the demolition of the large banks of aviaries. I can imagine that alot of the surplus birds bred were then placed into the GFA. I like many recall the heady days of Melbourne Zoo in my youth. It definitely had a great collection, but from the sounds of things these days have passed.

On the subject of what to do with the historic buildings that held giraffes and elephants... don't be put off by the dimensions. Paignton converted their previous giraffe exhibit into a giant tortoise exhibit! To maximise the space, they put a new floor for upstairs storage.
 
Melbourne Zoo Visit

I visited Melbourne Zoo on Thursday for the second time this year because it's school holidays and I had a place to stay the night. I went in through the station entrance because I caught a tram and had to do the whole zoo in reverse to what I normally do it.

I started with Aussie Bush and the new kangaroo walk-through has been built and fits in better then I thought it would. While it was being built it looked like it was going to be a big empty, grassy exhibit but it has been made rusticly (is that even a word) and matches pretty well the the rest of this area. It holds kangaroo island kangaroos so now there are 2 walk-through exhibits for this species...the new exhibit seems pretty pointless but is nicer then the older one. The cassowarys have been moved into the great flight aviary and now there is a fence under the bridge that seperates the cassowarys into the rainforest half and the brolgas into the scrub/wetlands half. The bird numbers in the GFA seemed better then previous visits...copious amounts of pied imperial pigeons, quite a large flock of royal spoonbill, and a great group of glossy ibis really seemed to fill it up but there were still the usuals as well like red-tailed black cockatoos, wonga pigeons, blue-billed, freckeled and wandering whistling-ducks, eclectus parrots, radjah shelducks, major mitchells cockatoo and lots more that I can't remember off the top of my head. I had a great time watching an aviary that is usually quite boring because new species have been added and they had just been fed and were fighting over the baby mice. The aviary had grey butcher bird, bush stone-curlew, pacific baza and blue-winged kookaburra. and next to this was a aviary with a species of owl. Overall I was impressed with the bird collection.

Next I walked up past the savannah and went into the african rainforest. The gorillas were let out as I was standing there to explore their exhibit for food and I watched for ages as they searched averywhere for breakfast. There are still common carp in the second pygmy hippo pool and I could hear the asian short-clawed otters in the other one but couldn't see any. The tree-top apes and monkeys has had a little shuffle and now you can see black-capped capuchins there as well (I counted 8 including 2 young ones.) I saw the coolest thing when a pair of black and white ruffed lemurs saw a possum on the ground outside their exhibit and went ballistic...You should have heard the noise coming from the lemurs and the possum as it stood its ground on the other side of the mesh.

After the african rainforest is the asian rainforest and the first species is asian short-clawed otters again but this time in their right place and they were fending off some indian miners that were trying to fly into their exhibit. All else was normal until I got to the Orang-utans...Santan the Sumatran male was in with the bornean female and her hybrid daughter (santans daughter.) He is usually with the sumatran female and their son. I just thought this was a bit odd. The pointless aviary just before the orang-utans only had a peacock, a lady amherst pheasant and a parrot that I couldn't identify or get a picture of. There was also a label for the usually unlabelled owl opposite the second paddock..It is a masked owl named Lois.

After this I went to the older part of the zoo and there were a lot of changes as well as snow in the bear, red panda and snow leo[ard exhibits...The bears have had some platforms added to climb and rest on, wood chips put on the ground instead of concrete and the pool was filled. Also it looks as though the viewing area above the windows will be opened because it wass all cleaned out and there was only a small portable fence to stop people going up there. I saw the maned wolf active for the first time ever and the former indian porcupine exhibit has been completley stripped back right to the underground wire and part of the fence was pulled away. I also found lemurs on the island in the japanese lake that I've never noticed before.

For the holidays the zoo is having special crocodile themed events throughout the day. There have been a few reports on the news about baby crocodiles, banners around the zoo and the likes but nothing spectacular and it suprised me to hear kids all over the zoo pleading to their parents to go see crocodiles. It's amazing what a little PR can do. :) There are also amercian alligators in the reptile house where the freshwater crocs used to be.

That's as much as I can remember off the top of my head. :)
 
Thanks PAT. I haven't been to Melbourne Zoo for quite a few years now and it was good to get your update.

I was interested to see on the T.V. news the other night that a truckload of snow had been brought in for the snow leopards and other cold-climate animals, as you mentioned. Great enrichment!
 
Nice review Pat. It seems that the zoo has been content to add a lot of natural substrate for both the Hamadryas baboons and Syrian bears instead of demolishing or redeveloping the enclosures. Any word on the "Stories from the Sea" marine mammal precinct?
 
snowleopard said:
Any word on the "Stories from the Sea" marine mammal precinct?
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A lot of work has been done since my last visit and there are now two buildings up and seeing as I'm 6 foot 4 it is quite easy for my to casually peer over the fence. All I could really see was a hell of a lot of concrete and pipes. :)
 
Another visit to my favorite zoo and another review. :)

I entered through the station gate as is becoming normal nowadays and walked straight to the Australian Bush but on the way there I got the biggest surprise ever...I finallay caqught a glimpse of the Malayan Tapir and I was definatly not disappointed. She was walking around for about 10 minutes before she dissappeared out the back of her exhibit. Apart from that not much had changed in the bongo/savannah/Ausbush section of the zoo so I headed down to the African Rainforest because I couldn't wait to finally see a pygm hippo in their respective home. Monifa is only 9 months old but the thought that she isn't fully grown never crossed my mind...She's tiny. :) And then at the colobus monkey exhibit in the tree top apes and monkeys I got another surprise because there would have been about 5 or 6 photographers standing around trying to take photos and 3 FOTZ volunteers to answer peoples questions about what was going on. The black and white colobus monkey pair have had another baby on Grand final day last Saturday and I only got a brief glimpse through it's mothers protective grasp later on in the day when the photographers had moved on.

Nothing had changed in the rest of the African Rainforest or the Asian Rainforest and after that I walked down to the mismatched front part of the zoo and can say that all is stable here except for that the golden lion tamarins two joined aviary exhibits have now just been made into one bigger exhibit.

The back part of the undeveloped side of the zoo was pretty normal to except that three peccaries have moved into the Maned Wolf exhibit.

I was a very enjoyable day and I am begining to think that stories of the sea will be finished on time because it was looking excellent and plantings, sculptures & paths are already in place. I can't wait. :)
 
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