09/04/2012
Tarronga Zoo is a Sydney institution and rightly so, situated across the harbour from the Opera House and the Bridge It offers , not only a world renowned zoo, but also the most stunning outlook towards the city.
We went over on the dedicated ferry and embarked at the bottom of the hill, a bus takes you to the top, or you can ride up on the Sky Rail, and marvel at the views. We decided to leave the Sky Rail until our return and took the bus up the hill to the entrance.
The map we obtained of the zoo was well laid out, which enabled us to navigate around quite easily and we thought the gorillas, snow leopards and kangaroos we particularly good. Of course the Koalas were special, close up in their enclosures, they looked very cute, munching on the eucalyptus leaves. They were a lot bigger than I had thought and on their own soil it seemed fitting that they were the centre of attention.
After our day at the Sydney Show we took a leisurely pace around the extensive grounds. The setting for each group of animals was excellent, showing off each type of species to the best that a zoo could be expected do, given the circumstances.
There is an extensive breeding programme for some of the threatened species and its worth saying that, in my humble opinion, this is the point that nowadays most zoos are proud of.
One of the shows on offer is a little trick the elephant keepers play with one of the male bull elephants. They have him stacking tyres and various object, but his party trick is sighting a rugby ball, taking a run and booting it over the fence towards the crowd. A neat trick, which drew plenty of applause, but is this how these noble beasts should be treated? A vexing question.
As always, the never ending search for food took us to a cafe, which had a terrace overlooking the enclosures and general garden area. Ben suffered a pulled neck muscle after recoiling too quickly from a small peck from a Lorikeet, which had just nibbled a small piece of biscuit from my hand. The big girls blouse, it was only a defensive peck, not a full blown attack.
This poor lady suffered more than a neck spasm, on its next attack, her hair was used as nest building material.
After a good few hours looking at he chimpanzees and other exhibits, we descended on the Skyrail to the ferry quay for our crossing to Sydney.
Overall it appears to be a good environment to house the collection of wildlife. Zoo's in my view are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't. Of course the natural world is the best place to see animals, but with the encroachment of man and with the pressures of a global society to produce food and minerals, zoos perform a valuable task in conservation and education.
Another day had come to a close. The days were running out, but a storm was to hit Sydney that would cause chaos and disruption and Simon Cowell was to blame for it!!
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