The zoo is only about fifteen minutes away by ferry and is located on the side of a rather large hill. Pamela (who is afraid of heights) was very brave and bought us tickets to go to the top of the hill on the skyrail. The line to buy tickets was quite long, but that was okay because there was a window into the tank of a very inquisitive seal (located in a gift shop, funnily enough).
The seal was very interested in what everyone was doing (especially the little people right next to the glass). He was doing more people watching than we were doing seal watching!
I also took the opportunity to purchase a hat (because I left mine in Florida). How times have changed, this hat was the first thing I’ve purchased on this trip! Ten years ago I would already have acquired four or five animals. (I admit I did have to work rather hard to resist a stuffed Red Panda...)
The zoo has a beautiful view of Sydney. Dad couldn’t resist taking a photograph.
The skyrail was quite fun because you were above many of the animal enclosures and we got a sneak peak at some of the habitats and animals. Pamela was very brave about the whole thing and only flinched once!
Once we got to the top of the zoo Pamela let me chart our course. Since Dad and I don’t get to see Australian animals very often we started with the marsupials. There was a neat indoor exhibit where they’d turned all the lights off so you could see nocturnal marsupials like ring-tailed possums. Once your eyes got used to the dark some of them were quite easy to spot. There were a bunch of little tiny gliders running around one habitat, but their feet were stuck to the glass! I didn’t know anything other than a gecko could do that!
The coolest thing about Taronga Zoo are all of the walk-through habitats. There were lots of them scattered throughout the zoo, some had lots of birds, some had a mix of marsupials, birds, and lizards.
One of them had a Rock Wallaby in it. We didn’t see it right away, but as we were about to give up it moved, and it turned out it was only about two feet from my head! It was very unconcerned about the humans wandering through its exhibit and posed for pictures.
We also got to see a Grey Kangaroo and Emu (classic Australian animals). After that we saw the Tasmanian Devils, which I think are actually quite cute (when they’re not snarling). Pamela didn’t seem to agree.
Sadly, scientists fear Tasmanian Devils might become extinct in the next 25 years. For once this isn’t due to human involvement. There is a type of cancer which is very contagious between Tasmanian Devils (because they fight over food so often and bite one another). If scientists can’t come up with a cure for this cancer the wild population of Tasmanian Devils might disappear.
The one we saw in captivity didn’t seem worried about imminent extinction however. It was doing its best roadkill impersonation.
For lunch we stopped at Cafe Harbour View. Unsurprisingly it had a beautiful view of the harbour and city. Pamela was less than thrilled with her sandwich, but Dad and I actually quite liked our chicken caesar salads. The dressing was unusual, almost sweet. But mostly the view was nice.
After lunch we saw lemurs (Dad’s favorite), gorillas (there were 8 in the exhibit!), and the Asian elephants. Last year (and the year before that) a baby elephant was born. This year’s elephant was named the Malaysian word for “Watermelon.” While we were there the two little elephants were playing with each other. And then zoo keepers came in with lunch! They strung up large hay bales and the elephants started to munch contentedly.
We wandered through the Rainforest section of the park. We saw a member of the largest bear species on earth (Dad pictured with the real one, me with the mock version). We also saw some playful otters and a tapir going on a scavenger hunt to find all the treats left by staff in its enclosure.
By that point we were all getting tired so we decided to call it a day. Pamela’s only regret was that we didn’t get to see the monkeys. We saw a few white cheeked gibbons (fun fact: all white cheeked gibbons are born blond, after six months they all turn black, but six years later all the females turn blond again. Isn’t that wild?!). I think Pamela will just have to bring Karina to the zoo so she can work on her photography skills and Pamela can see the monkeys.
We waved goodbye to the seal at the gift shop (exit through retail!) and caught the ferry home.
Dad and I have a very early morning tomorrow so we’re canceling our dinner reservations at Est and are seriously considering going back to Chat Thai for dinner...
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