Bens View on Sydney Wildlife World » Sydney Wildlife World

Bens View on Sydney Wildlife World
27-01-2007

Well i didnt really enjoy my day there, but god was it a learning curve.

The first that that had me saying um... was the fact that the zoo is open until 10pm was the first thing wrong, but that wasnt the half of it.

for those of you who have been (i think it was just Glyn...) you will know the layout, but i will talk it anyway until i get around to scanning the guide book ($4, an okay investment)
When you walk in the first thing you see in an interactive display of a 'Keeper', with very little knowledge on english. here you can see a variety of insect and arachnids up close and pat some insects, this very had very little knowledge of the bugs she was handling trying to convince me that a spiny leaf insect was a female goliath stick insect. she wlso seemed very un aware at the flying habits of rhinoceros beetles or anything in general, afdter talking zoos for about 5 minutes i had to tell her what an Open Range Zoo was.

you continue along to the butterfly exhbit, which they could have put something in, even a wallaby would have added some more interest to this HUGE space (huge in the size of SWW)the to great, well awesome insect exhbits including a giant bull ant colony and a huge spider window.

after that you continue to the reptiles also great exhbits. Including Thorny Devils with a live food colony in their exhbit.

After these exhbit i was very happy. they made SWW look great. THen came flight canyon, now some of you might know i am a bit of a birdo, lol. well this whole exhbit annoyed me, the exhbit was tall, with little ground room, with most of it taken up by the ponds. I was expecting a great variety of birds, but was dissapointed, there were Emerald and Rose Crowned Fruit Doves, QLD Brush Turkeys, Rainbow and Musk Lorikeets, Doubbled Barred Finches, Red Browed Firetails, SATIN Bowerbirds and an Eastern Yellow robin, oohh and i think i also saw 1 peacful dove. because the aviaries tallest trees are plams that offer nearly no perching opurtunities. all the birds where crowded in the bottom.
THe GUide book and postcards show photos and say that the following birds are also in this exhibit. Noisy Pitta, Button Quail (I presumme black breasted) Regent Bowerbirds, Eclectus Parrots, Honeyeaters (thats as specific as the book says) and Bush Thicknees (Curlews). now anyone with a basic knowledge of Birds knows that Thicknees cannot be kept with other ground dwelling birds as they will kill and eat them, a brush turkey would be okay. plus the robin and most of the finches wouold not last long.

I am really tired to i will just do the nocturnal area then talk about the most appauling exhibits.

Nocturnal house was good, except i was told tha potoroos were bettings, but it was a nice area, liek any nocturnal house, they are all pretty uniform.

Pics aswell tomorrow

27-01-2007

ben i am really sorry to hear you did come all the way over from adelaide and missed out on taronga and instead went to the aquarium
im 100% sure you would have liked taronga alot better

27-01-2007

yeah well i missed out on teh aquarium aswell, only got to SWW.

too bad
27-01-2007

hey mate, how much longer you in sydney for? you should get to the zoo if you can

27-01-2007

already home, only had a week there and was camping in the Lower Barrington Tops Nat'Park for half that week, but that was great seeing Wild Lyrebirds, Eastern Yellow Robins, Golden Whistlers and Eastern Whip Birds.

27-01-2007

hey thats funny, they arent far from my place. what were you camping there for? scouts?

27-01-2007

and how nice are the lyrebirds. did you see any wild scrub turkeys? im not sure if they are indigenous to that park but they are found as far south as sydney and are definitely around. the park also is the southermonst limit for a riflebird species, and theres also ground parrots and bristlebirds.
but i would have been more than happy with a golden whistler or robin, they are both so beautiful

27-01-2007

I am a cub scout leader, but was just camping with my freinds. There were Turkeys would have been nice to see a bristlebird aswell, but if i saw a ground parrot i would have been in awe. they are beautiful birds i have inly ever seen a mounted specimen and pictures, its a pity no one holds them, but i believe there is someone in NSW who is being granted to take some from the wild to breed, we was involved in handraising some that were released.

27-01-2007

They had a yellow robin at SWW but it flew into the glass when i was there

27-01-2007

i wish that happened. ground parrots, along with freckled ducks, orange bellied parrots, firetail finches and a few other threatened species are species i would like to see become more established in mainstream aviculture. im not suggesting for a second that youll walk into a kitchen and see a ground parrot histling in a cage, but a simplification of the current licensing procedures which differ so much state-to-state into a better, more effective national approach could see these species held by more people.
i feel that avicultralists in this country represent an 'untapped resource of knowledge and skill, and could really benefit the future of these species (what i think is the govt should use licenscing fees to establish breeding centres for these species, build up numbers rpaidly then get them out into the main industry within a few years) a pipe dream i know

27-01-2007

i like yellow robins. whats the birdlife in SA like? i know you have plenty of endemic species but you guys also have alot of the same bird types too, dont you?

27-01-2007

Ohh indeed glyn, Freckled Ducks and Beautiful and Red Eared Firetails are also held in captivity, i beleive in WA, SA and VIC. NSW laws are very very strict, fancy keeping only Hopping Mice and Plains Rats!

Yeah we are pretty bird filled, bu tit is the same species everywher, hills is all Red Brows, Diamond Firtails and Noisy Miners. with a few parrots thrown in.

At teh St Kilda mangroves there is a large variety of water birds. Including Red Capped Dotterals, a great little species

27-01-2007

lol. i know weve had this discussion before, and weve all agreed to disagree on some points on this forum but i honestly think the rarer a bird species is, the more reason for making it available to mainstream aviculturalists...or at least a bit easier to obtain.
and i mean, whilst feral populations of birds like red browed firetail have been established in perth, no one is going to be liberating orange bellied parrots in sydney are they?

27-01-2007

yep
i think all exotic birds would have been better off in private hands if Flamingoes where originally in private hands there would not be 3-4 left in the country now, same with curasows. But with Peacock pheasants that was a different story one guy had the whole population he went on holidays they all died in someone else care! so they need to be spread out. no hoarding of species, which zoos do all to ofetn and people too

27-01-2007

what? we had peacock pheasants here? well i guess when it comes to private aviculturalists zoos have to thank them in part for many of the exotic species we actually do have.
on the other hand, private aviculturalists in this country would benifit, particularly in regards to managing exotic species, from the establishment of a more aggressive regulatory body that could foster communication between private holders. many exotic species are in such low numbers that they continiue to go extinct. we need a body to coordinate this, though participation in this scheme would obviously be up to the individual, as they are not bound by law or other professional aggreements.