Taronga Zoo Great Southern Oceans

Such as..?

 

glyn, well i guess i'll have to wait until i head to either seaworld or taronga again before i can safely comment any further on this one. but suffice to say, i think it was a pretty bold claim.

see, you cant say taronga has better seal exhibits vs seaworld. in order to justify your claim as "southern hemispheres premier marine mammal facility" you must put GSO against seaworlds best marine mammal exhibit, and that may not necessarily be their seals. could be polar bears shores, dugongs or dolphin cove...

anyhow we'll leave it there... (ps - i'm just busting your balls )

 

its cool Pat, i know your just pissed because you Victorians are stuck with no leopard seals.
with the exception of shark bay and polar shores at seaworld most of this park' animal attractions arent outstanding.
i guess premiere marine mammal display could have been a bit bold, but considering the scale of the development, range of species, technology employed, innovation and the research projects behind the development i think it puts GSO at the fore of marine mammal exhibits. there are remarkable displays for a range of species in many other countries but i truly think GSO will set a new benchmark.

 

well sorry for the delay but i went to GSO yesteday and it was amazing!!!!! it takes up heaps of space so there is a bit of walking where you cant really see anything but the pools make up for it! the best bits in my opinion are the leopard seals were you can see them above the water with a bridge over the pool and then underwater in a similar was that aquariums do with there tanks as in a wall made of glass. the pool is massive and has a device set up in it so people can wathc while they do the sonar resarch on the seeals. the other highlight is deffinatly the penguins. 0the first time you see them its at beach level and then you walk down into the reascerh vessel and there is a glass roof in one section and they swim above your heads and the there is the underwater veiwng as they dive down in front of you. they say it can hold up to 50 birds and i think that its full potential wont be reached till they get the numbers up because its just a long winding exhibit so the birds are a bit too sapced out atm. anyway ill put some pics up now so you cann all see it

 

i got the map of it from the teele the other day, the peguin exhibt wraps around sort of in an l shape- with a river (not really peguin habitat, but good enrichment) then a large sandy area. Is the sandy area bove the under ground interps veiwable- carnt wait for your pics!

 

it is from the top of the hill looking down but you cant really see into the beach and the night house from inside the actual exhibit if that makes sense

also the crested are in with the fairy penguins still which is interesting because you can compare them side by side underwater

 

It looks better than I expected it would when I went last year...

A few things though; as you pointed out in your photos so many sails..! And they could have saved a lot of money by using less/thinner rockwork, the leopard seal pool looked small for animals of their size...

Will look even better when the plantings grow in..!

 

we need to remember the location of the exhibit- it's extremely open, and on teh side of the harbour- very windy area, and sun exposure, the thick roak work can act as wind barriers whilst vegetaion grows, and the sails are for sun, and cover all behind the scences areas- to allow animal privacy as walkways are nearly surrounding all holding areas, for example, the leoprd seals holding is directly belwo the main entrance to the facility, and the hsade cloth covers each pen individually, and the larger exhibit ones may overlap in these areas.

also a note- leopard seals are sub-antatic to antattic sepcies, and are not used to the intese sun you wouldget on an exposed hill- hence more shade cloth. It may be tacky, but at least zoos are thinking of the aniamls- carnt wait to hear what keepers think of the exhibits.

 

Antarctic..? While that may be true they do have to end up on the Australian coast somehow so they are obviously not too phased by a bit of sunshine but I take your point...

My minor critism (and it is being very critical) of the sails and rockwork is that they could have mixed it up a bit while staying within the theme, on the whole love it and wished I was going this September rather than last....

 

firstly, on behalf of everyone, thanks for the pics torie - fantastic! i've been waiting for GSO to open before i next visit sydney and now its open i'll be having to make my way back up there to the harbour city.

actually i haven't been back since i moved back to melbourne. in fact, even though i lived not far from the zoo - i never visited once whilst living there!

as for GSO, i'm sure i'll have my usual artistc issues with some of the landscaping. although its expected for an exhibit of this type - it seems very old-school concrete and blue paint. i would have liked to se more use of real or mimicked sydney sandstone and use of sculpture under the water also but overall i'm sure i'll really dig it. excited to see it!

 

@torie: thanks for posting the photos so fast! You have some cool shots...

The sails will definitely be polarizing, as some folks will like them and others will think that they are somehow tacky. As long as they provide shade and act as potential windbreakers then that is a positive thing for the captive animals.

The penguin exhibit in particular appears to be top-notch, and I've never quite seen anything like the overhead shot of the birds underwater. The seal theatre only holding 1,000 people seems to be a mistake, as on holiday weekends surely the zoo is packed to the rafters and the theatre will probably be too small for the shows.

I agree with NZ Jeremy with his concerns over the size of the leopard seal pool (for all 3 leopard seals?) but overall Great Southern Oceans is still another huge step towards confirming Taronga Zoo as one of the world's great zoos. What's next? South American exhibits?

 

the old only held 500 or so i beleive if that, so this new one double capacity, and the zoo does run 2 shows each day, rotating theseals peforming.

Next- well there is a $90 mill carpark (3 levels) being built at the moment, which also includes redevelopments of the entrance, including the inner nd outer plazas, with cafe's, shops, utilities, hertitage developments, and lndscape. Should open beginning of 09,

also, the new elephant breeding facility is udner construction, which will doubl elephant capacity, and is the home for the bull. It is about $7 mill and will open end of this yr.

I have my speculations africa is next, as in the last annual report, it snuck in that the new africa precint will open to public in feb 2010, but thats all it said on a timeline of sorts. Other than that no information on africa has surfaced.

 

Sorry if this has been asked but I can't bothered re-reading the whole thread but did the bottom entrance re-open at the same time..?

 

No, it has been open for a while, gso's opening was delayed a bit for some alst minute adjustments, but i beelive the bottom areas has been completed, and open for maybe a month or 2.

Its great, a marble floor, roof to floor underwater vewing window as you enter, full shop, and new ammenities, not to mention new interp, such as lots of historic information.

 

Sounds good..! I'll have to go back after the next big exhibit is completed...

 

hey guys,
i have some more pics of the leopard seal pool that i will have to put up tomorrow becuase im about to go out and that should clear some of your qustions. as i said im going out now but i will read the post more tomorrow and answer any pratical questions anyone has!

 

Taronga is nearly unreconisable.

I have been going through old maps i ahve last night in a clean up- the zoo has changed so much. The lion pits for examble ere chaged 4 or 5 times, from pits, to moated, to pits again, to glass fronted open, to what w have now, it's remarkable what has happened, and what is happeneing.

 

How much has Taronga Zoo actually spent over the past decade? I've been reading about totals of $90 million for carparks/entrances, $54 million Great Southern Oceans, over $40 million for Wild Asia, millions more on Backyard to Bush...wow. Is there a zoo on the planet that has spent as much money as Sydney's in the past ten years? Maybe Los Angeles would be second....

 

don't most modern zoos in warm climates keep sails above their seal pools these days?

melbourne certainly did (until it demolished the pool), and i'm sure their new precinct will be no exception.

its not only to give the seals shade, but keep the water cool i believe.

 

and who really cares!

as long as they do not distrupt views

animals are happy

and they are somewhat appealing! such as tarongas!