I have just come across a reference that Taronga zoo is no longer using the cable car from the ferries up to the top of the zoo. Apperently you have to use the buses. Is this true?
personally i have this intense phobia of cable cars. the bigger they are the worse i feel. its like i'm in a little box that i can't get out of and if the cable snaps i don't even have the option of flapping my arms and gliding to safety. they are aweful things and the taronga one should be decomissioned before it breaks and lands straight on top of a lovely elephant!!
Patrick - don't ever go to Ocean Park in Hong Kong ... the only way of getting to the main part of the park (it's not really a zoo - although it does have quite a good aquarium), is via a massive cable car that traverses some pretty spectacular terrain. I quite like the cable car at Taronga - it gives you a different perspective on the zoo. I've only been on it 2 or 3 times though over the dozens of trips we've made to Taronga.
i cant wait for southern oceans to open at taronga...just reading about it is exciting. the recent relocation of ostrich to taronga got me thinking about other 'basic' animals taronga 'needs'...lemurs, mandrills, cassowary and colobus monkeys would be a good start
they used to have madrills, my records say they left when taronga got gorrillas there abouts they went to a private zoo ive never heard of. yes coloubus, with gorrillas, apparentally the exhibit is designed to be multi species
the gorilla exhibit was designed originally for a bachelor group of male gorillas from the U.S and guenons mixed together. obviously the plan didnt work out that way... the mandrills were still at taronga in a behind-the-scenes facility until a few years ago. i would like to see them in the old guenon exhibit-with colobus in with gorillas and lemurs somewhere else-maybe the sun bear exhibit which could be empty when they go to bear canyon. as excited as i am about the southern oceas exhibit the daggiest part of taronga and yet arguably the most popular and recognised precinct is the african waterhole area-it really needs an overhaul. i know the african tropical savannah is going in there but i really think it should be a generic 'jungle trails area' drawing together species from asia, africa and south america to link the asian biomes with other regions of the world. giraffes should be in dubbo
i think if properly designed, giraffes have a place at taronga. cherryenne mountain zoo built a fantstic giraffe mixed exhibit in the side of a hill stepper than taronga. it is a great exhibit, this is what taronga should do. it has inside viewing at eye level, and a huge boababb tree, with hog veiwing and small rodents. on the hill there is a 3 story colubus exhibit, and it is really kool. research it ppl, great place. i also think, though controversially, taronga has a place for rhinos, kwannza (?) looked happy there when i was there, and it the exhibit was done properly every 6 months a dubbo rhino could go there, it would assisit dubbo as there are to many males. my plan i took to taronga was to take the old ele exhibit and turn it into an extension of tropical rainforest, if it was poosible to move the urlers gibbon, i would put pygmy hippo under tht nice fig, maybe with some primates, and bongo and okapi ( in the old ele exhibit. (i know see the ele exhibit has greater place as tht, an ele exhibit) leaving a place for rhino, giraffe, zebs, eland maybe, ostrich, small brids, etc at a new african waterhole. i would then make a asian higlands, linking to the current asia, take the snow leopard exhbit as a start, connecting to red pandas thar. the 2 tiger canyons for breeidng tigers- move lions to waterwhole- sun bears in bear canyon, dholes as well in the asian forest section. meerkats to savannah as well (also at tht zoo i was talking about). then south america can have the tapir (who is living in the african waterwhole lol), and the peccaries, maybe a manned wolf or 2, and this can all go down bottom of ele exhibit instead of the proposed new guinea. does anyone have a plan to the masterplan- a map or there alike
a couple of years ago i had a different illsutration of the taronga zoo masterplan. but i deleted it!!! tarongas a great looking zoo. absolutely world class, but that hillside, all that rock - it is forever going to place tight limitations on what the zoo can and cannot do. i was enjoying watching melbournes gorillas the other day, and i gotta say that area just looks fantastic. the surrounding "rainforest" is coming up for 20 years old now. it looks great. but what makes the melbourne gorilla exhibit arguably the best in the world is the fact that you can view it from all sides... unfortunately, whilst i will always admire those fern covered rockwalls at taronga, they can never do anything like that.. ...except maybe with the chimps since they are on the top of the hill.... and if i could have one exhibit to re-landscape on a small budget though, i'de love to show them what they could do with the chimp exhibit! its massive, could look fantastic, yet they have done virtually nothing with it in all these years! you could start by rendering those bloody brick walls!! they don't need to be all fancy mock-rock, i'm over that and it looks tacky anyway. but pleaaaase, cover those bricks! how about a nice ochre colour, to give it a sort of african mud-wall kinda look? then take the current viewing platform with its crappy latticework and tear it down and replce with an african-style hut. add more deadfall and hotwire more protected areas so to grow more plants and make it look like an actual rainforest... thats it..
What is behind that brick wall? I've wondered why the zoo puts up with that, as you say a simple render would do the trick. More vegetation is definately needed, if only round the edges to make it look like a clearing in a rainforest.
i think its the chimp house behind there. there is also, if you notice , a small series of windows at the back looking into the exhibit. for keepers maybe? a render would make a huuuuge difference. when i was discribing a cheap refurb i was thinking of the ape house at the jo'burg zoo. whilst maybe the tribal elements are a bit much (it sorta works though), the ochre walls and rustic african vistor platforms makes all the difference, too what would otherwise be a very tarongaesque looking exhibit. check it out: Exhibit
Yes, you're right Patrick - facing the exhibit, on the left behind the wall is the chimp night dens. On the right behind the wall is a walkway (off-limits to public) between the chimp display and the off-limits area of Serpentaria.
well arent i the lucky one. i have the whole masterplan, on A3 from page one to the end. sorry guys and thats why i know taronga will be the best zoo when its finished
