Monarto Zoo, South Australia » Monarto Zoo

Monarto Zoo, South Australia
01-01-2004

Today I took my kids to Monarto Zoo, an open range Zoo just about 60klm out of Adelaide on the Princes Highway.

Entry was $16per adult and $10 for kids over 4. (kids under 4 were free).

The Visitors Centre has a great interactive attraction for kids, skeletons, bones, furs, freeze-dried animals, you can pick them up, feel the fur, open the skulls mouths etc.. They also have an adult giraffe skeleton which was fascinating.

The only live exhibit that you can see on foot is Meerkats.

The rest of the Zoo is toured by bus, they have a range of impalas and they have White Rhinoceroses, giraffes, 2 male lions, 5 cheetahs, and more which I forget.

The bus trip is about an hour. The lions are exciting! they lock the doors first and put up a barrier to hold the doors shut. The two adult lions came right up to the bus.

Well worth a visit.

Regards,

Duncan.

02-01-2004

Hey Dunc, we went to Monarto Zoo on Tuesday - the lions are great aren't they !!

I have been a bit critical of Monarto Zoo in the past, but with the continual expansion and the large numbers of interesting animals they have now, I think it is a great zoo.

Hint: last tour of the day (3:00pm or 3:30pm) often allows you to see other things like the lions being let into their night enclosures, which was preceded by them running through the tall grass, chasing the keeper who was bringing their food - I got some great photos (pity about the windows needing to be closed !).

I'll write more about my trip in a couple of days when I have more time.

I'm off to the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo tomorrow - so I'll have even more to write about !

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30-12-2008

Monarto has come a hell of a long way in 4 years.

30-12-2008

Agreed. I spent all day there, most of which was walking along the paths to various exhibits.



Hix

01-01-2009

Impalas??? Surely you mean blackbuck.

Are the bison, prewalski's, lemurs and hyaenas on display?

01-01-2009

@tetrapod: check the dates on these threads, as Duncanrm posted his brief review of Monarto Zoo 5 years ago! The new South Australia website shows all of the animals on display, including the hyenas and apparently huge chimpanzee exhibit.

01-01-2009

When I was there in December of 2007 the Bison and Przewalski's were on display in the drive-through part (photos in the gallery), but I don't recall seeing hyenas or lemurs.



Hix

01-01-2009

they heyna went on displauy last year, andthe kemurs are off display, but are now back at AZ i beleive.

01-01-2009

When you say "last year", do you mean 2008?



Hix

01-01-2009

I do indeed. they are on teh west side of the track inside the wild dogs. I have some photos somewhere i need to upload

03-01-2009

Yes 5 years is a while ago... not very observant.

07-01-2009

Yeah it's blackbuck at Monarto, not impala

The new chimpanzee exhibit is still under construction (Dr. Jane Goodall was supposed to open it on her tour in October 08, but instead she did an inspection of the construction site and planted a tree next to the exhibit). One of Taronga's male chimps is being introduced to Tsotsi, Adelaide's male chimp. The Taronga chimp arrived in Adelaide a week and a half ago, haven't heard how its going yet.

The lemurs have all been moved down to Adelaide Zoo, and their first day out on exhibit was either Christmas Eve or Chrissie Day, can't remember. They're in the old Syrian Brown Bear exhibit, which has had a makeover for the new residents.

I love Monarto, and it is changing and improving all the time. But I guess as an Adelaidean I'm a tad biased

10-01-2009

Thanks for the update on the chimps, I'm quite interested in how Tsotsi's going to be with the other males as he was just with the two females before. Is the chimp from Taronga Zoo Sandali?

Monarto Zoo is wonderful, and it just seems to be getting better and better. The Serengeti should be great as well. Would the baboons from Adelaide Zoo be going there then?

11-01-2009

I believe it is Sandali, but I'm not 100% certain.

I also don't know whether the baboons would move to Monarto, but if they did then there might have to be some major changes to their exhibit in Adelaide to make it suitable for other animals - I imagine it would be very hot in their mock-rock exhibit.

Sorry I can't be more helpful - anyone else know more?

15-01-2009

There are plans posted at the Adelaide zoo (near teh old Elephant House) that show the current baboon exhibit being retrofitted to house Komodo monitors as part of the larger Asian region. That would be a perfect animal for that sun-baked bowl of gunite.....