Wagga Zoo Wagga Wagga Zoo

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PAT

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15+ year member
I have visited Wagga Wagga Zoo once about 8 years ago and I was wondering if anyone has been recently and could give a review of any changes that have occured.
Here is a link to an information site about the zoo

Google Image Result for http://www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/resources/images/zooMap1.jpg

And here is a link to a map

http://www.wagga.nsw.gov.au/resources/images/zooMap1.jpg

I can remember it quite well so I'll give a review of what I remember.

It is set in the botanic gardens and has free entry so was perfect for my parents to entertain their kids for a while on the way to Sydney. You could buy food at the entrance to feed the animals but we gave it all to the goats 'cos they are the first animals you see as you enter. All of the exhibits are just your basic wire enclosures but seemed OK for the animals in them. My best memory is of the guinea pig enclosure which was a miniature castle that had guinea pigs all over it (there were also guinea pigs in the free flight aviary.) The farm seemed like the newest building there when we visited and had chickens, rabbits and sheep in a farmyard environment.
I can't remember the wombats or budgies so they might be new or I just can't remember that well.


And Sim if it's not too much hassle could you make a wagga wagga zoo section for this. :)
 
PAT - I think that you're pushing it a bit to describe this little park as a "zoo".

It has gone down hill since you last saw it.

Although it is encouraging to see that the current Council is spending some money on it now [after years of neglect] by renovating the walk-through aviary and building some new aviaries adjacent to it.
 
That's sad to hear as an 8 or 9 year old it was good and most of the animals were pretty tame. I fed my first alpaca there.
 
Aussie wildlife parks seem as if they are a dime a dozen, and due to the nice weather (unlike Canada) it is possible to be open year-round for visitors. There are innumerable little parks that have 95% Australian wildlife, with a few exotics also hanging around as well. I've seen a couple of beauties (Healesville, Cleland) but there are many more that I still read about on ZooChat.
 
snowleopard said:
Aussie wildlife parks seem as if they are a dime a dozen, and due to the nice weather (unlike Canada) it is possible to be open year-round for visitors. There are innumerable little parks that have 95% Australian wildlife, with a few exotics also hanging around as well. I've seen a couple of beauties (Healesville, Cleland) but there are many more that I still read about on ZooChat.
Click to expand...

I'd say Healesville, along with currumbin sanctuarary are in a different league to the many other native wildlife parks in Australia. They are both massive and have a huge variety of native fauna and a lot of species that you won't find in these smaller parks.
 
Well, my girlfriend and I made a 40km detour on our way home from Canberra yesterday to visit this place. I could only get her to stay for 20 minutes before she insisted on leaving, because it depressed her.

There are a few things that really concerned me.
1. As you enter, there is a sulphur-crested cockatoo aviary with my pet hate for bird aviaries - a fully enclosing roof that doesn't allow the birds to sit in the sun. But that wasn't the real problem. They had a sign saying "if you have birds to donate please leave them in the holding cage inside" - the "holding cage" was a small cage set inside the cockatoo aviary with a door that can be opened to place birds inside! The quarantine problems this causes are something that no self-respecting bird keeper, let alone a 'zoo' would tolerate.
2. The central flight aviary is an excellent exhibit - well planted and large - although a little under-stocked. And yet they had a series of dilapidated, dark and dirty aviaries outside it holding a variety of cockatoos and parrots. Most of those birds could very easily be placed into the main aviary where they could enjoy a much greater quality of life and liven the flight aviary up at the same time.
3. The same goes for the other two shocking bird exhibits. One, a relatively large aviary themed to look like a bush shack, is split into two halves. One contains budgies and the other cockatiels. The aviary has a fully enclosed roof and very little sunlight penetrates into these birds' permanently dark lives. All of them should immediately be placed into the flight aviary, and the shack aviary turned into something appropriate, like a shelter for barbeques.
4. A series of aviaries for pheasants that looked like they had seen better days. The aviaries themselves are small, but perhaps adequate for the 1-2 pheasants that occupied each. Nevertheless, the pheasants would again enjoy a much greater quality of life in the large aviary. Even worse, a couple of them had approximately 3 square feet fenced off with chicken wire, and had 3 chooks contained within that space. One of them that I noticed had wire that had been cut poorly, so that there was a piece of wire at an angle where it could easily impale a startled or stressed chook.
5. Donkeys and alpacas in small, fairly barren yards. I would like to know if these animals are taken for walks outside their enclosures. A daily walk out into the botanic gardens would be about a 200% quality of life improvement for these animals.
6. There were at least 43 macropods in three separate yards. We counted 24 red kangaroos, 12 eastern grey kangaroos and 7 swamp wallabies. There were also a couple of emus. None of the enclosures were as large as the recommended minimums I remember being suggested by the Marsupial Society of Australia for an individual or small group of large macropods. There appears to be no reason why these four enclosures, which all adjoin each other, cannot be linked up into one large walk-through enclosure.

To their credit, there appears to be signs of attention being directed at the park. The flight aviary is obviously new since the 2007 storm and there were quite new-looking aviaries for ducks and white peacocks. There's another new aviary currently under construction at the front of the park. But the problems with the park could be fixed in 72 hours and a lot of animals given better lives as a result.
 
Good review.

I have to go to a funeral in Canberra on Friday, so I might swing through Wagga on the way back and visit this place.

And I'll take my cameras.

:p

Hix
 
Well, I went to the funeral in Canberra, left at 1:30 for Wagga and got to the zoo at 4:05, to find the zoo closed at 4:00 and the gates padlocked.

So after a lot of swearing and several unseuccessful attempts to physically kick myself in the arse, I got something to eat, some petrol, and then drove the 4 hours back to Sydney.

For anyone planning on visiting - the zoo closes at 4:00 on weekdays and 5:30 on weekends.

:rolleyes:

Hix
 
Make sure you get there well before closing time - they don't appear to have a separate exit and I suspect closing time is when they kick everyone out and lock the gates (unlike other zoos when you can get out after they close).

But then, the zoo also has no admission charge.

:p

Hix
 
this is what infuriates me most - when obvious and inexpensive or free improivements are not being made just due to laziness or lack of imagination.

as someone who has a basic understanding of animals - it amazed me that it took melbourne zoo years and years before the primate keepers or whoever it was finally got off their arses and installed some branches for the colobus monkeys to climb on. radically improving the the amount of space for the monkeys in what couldn't have been more than a days work. i had complained about it here on the forum for some time before it happened and i secretly like to think someone from the zoo read it and thought "ooooh yeah"

thats what i do love about this forum. in the likely event the management of the wagga zoo googling "wagga zoo" they'll quickly stumble accross this thread - read it and hopefully take some of it on board.

but on the birds - CGSwans, thats disgraceful. as a bird keeper myself, i was sure to build my aviary with a clear plastic roof, in a loaction where they get plenty of sun, particularly in the morning when they like warm themselves after a cold night. keeping birds in permanent shade is just cruel, let alone unhealthy. also as you said - the idea that the zoo freely advertises to take unwelcome pets, through a drop off cage (what is it? a video store?!) with no quarantine is ridiculous....

boo wagga zoo.
 
Went there over the weekend and made sure to visit unencumbered by loved ones, family or loved ones. Wouldn't recommend going after a funeral, but the pheasants and staff were delightful. I was really interested in the macro pods and was particularly impressed by the chickens. Would definitely recommend for anyone interested in seeing it.
 
I visited over the weekend. Reading the previous reviews it seems that a lot has been taken on board.

As you enter the first exhibit is empty. It appears large with a good size pond and rock formation including a shelter built into the hill. I’m not sure what they plan on introducing to here but it looked impressive with secure fences. My daughter thought dingos would love it but I would think that any carnivore wouldn’t be able to be kept in a free zoo. The cost would be too large. Maybe some rock wallabies or something? Next enclosure is the Eastern Grey Kangaroos. Their numbers seem much more manageable now with about 6-8. Previous photos seemed like there were 15+ which doesn’t suit the size. Next is the Red Kangaroos which we counted 4. Again they looked happy basking in the sun. Nice open exhibit with a shelter if needed. Following to path along you will find the swamp wallaby enclosure. This also has a big pond down the bottom. There were ducks and black swans in there and about 5 wallabies sitting in the grass looking over the pond.

In the middle of the native animal enclosure there is an enclosure with the common wombat. It remained unsighted and we assume it was sleeping in the box located inside. There were three little shelters that it could hide in but only one that was big enough to hide completely.

There is another empty enclosure that the helmeted guineafowl were using for a bit of respite. Later they were found free roaming.

Next on the left is the emu exhibit, two emus were pacing the fence line happily checking out the guests. Between the emus and the deer there is a small aviary roped off getting renovated. The deer herd is smaller, there’s about 5 doe’s and a stag. To the right there is an enclosure with two donkeys. To the left after the deer there are two alpacas. The donkey, alpaca and deer enclosures are all very basic. Not depressively small but not massive either.

Then we reached the aviary row. 5 smaller aviaries that contained the following. Superb Parrot, yellow rosella, crimson rosella, eastern rosella and galah. All of these were very standard aviaries. Bus shelters with a cage. But all were well kept and had plenty of sunshine coming in. With native branches for perches. Lastly the guinea pigs were active in their little castle. From previous photos it has had the netting removed replaced with wire which doesn’t look as invasive. They have also got a lot less from previous posts which state it had around 40. We counted less than 10.



The farmyard section had some deer fawns and mother along with two little piglets, some rabbits which were labelled as European but just looked like domestic lop eared ones. But I’m no rabbit expert. Chickens and turkeys were in the middle enclosure. There was a lovely little pond which stated it had long-necked turtles but none could be seen.

The walk towards the free flight aviary had several smaller aviaries next to it. They contained a parrot species and a pheasant in each. First contained moustache parrots. Following that they have plum-headed parrots and silver pheasants, next contains Alexandrine Parrots and Golden Pheasants. Long-beaked Corellas and Ring-Necked Pheasants share then next enclosure. The Corellas like to say hi which was a little treat. Lastly Rose-Ringed Parrots and Nepal Pheasants were located in the last enclosure.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoos are located between the doors to the entry of the Free Flight Aviary. Inside the aviary we couldn’t find any information boards to state what species were located inside. We saw Budgerigars, cockatiels, king Parrots and several other species that were either too high up to identify or flying too quickly.


There was also a pond inside with small goldfish. Would have been great to have some turtles in there or some native fish.

Lastly the duck pond exhibit was under refurbishment but still had several duck species swimming around.

Overall it was a good was to spend an hour wandering around. I think the days of walkthrough kangaroo enclosures are done as expected, without full time staff monitoring it has its risks. No food was available to purchase which I think is a good thing I think. Avoids any animal welfare concerns with guests feeding the animals incorrectly or anyone hurting the animals. With it being a free council funded zoo I came away pleasantly surprised. It also appears that more works are progressing and can’t wait to head back in the next few years to see what they have done.
 
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