Background to this trip - So in 2017 I was lucky enough to be invited to a family wedding in Sydney. I decided to accept the invite and make a holiday of it and well as do some zoos. I won't do full reviews because most of the zoos I'm covering have been talked about on here many times before. So I'll just do highlights and general thoughts instead. This week my adventure finally began with a 23 hour flight from the UK to Sydney. On Wednesday (26th September) I kicked off with the first zoo of the trip.. Taronga. So for those that don't know, Taronga is situated in Central Sydney and is home to one of the largest collections of native Australian wildlife anywhere in the world. The good points: I LOVED the Australian Nightlife house. I think it was my favourite exhibit of the collection. All of the species showed fairly well. The Long Beaked Echidna was a particular highlight. He'd just been fed when I arrived and was hence very active. I thought the Bilby's were brilliant (another new species). I think the only no show in the house was the Long Nosed Bandicoots. Which was disappointing but not a terrible surprise Great Southern Oceans - a really good exhibit. One of Taronga's stand outs in my opinion. Reminded me very much of Living Coasts (in the UK) in terms of its layout and design and species. Watched the Sea Lion show in the hope of seeing the Australian Fur Seal. Lucky I wasn't disappointed and he was included in the display. The show itself was pretty standard (conservation message, please pick up litter on a beach etc) but nicely done. I got two Penguin life ticks in this exhibit in the form of Little Blue and of course the Fiordland Crested's. Both beautiful species but I struggled with the layout of the Penguin exhibit. Can you view them from above (apart from the Fiordland's small side exhibit) or is viewing to the main Penguin exhibit restricted to just underwater through the glass window in the submarine area? I think it's a bit of a design flaw if that is the case The not so good: Tiger Trek - The video as you enter the exhibit is pointless and a waste of space. They could have used that room for many things. Reptiles, maybe some Asian fish or even a small mammal exhibit. I get that it's supposed to be there for theming but it doesn't work. Your just standing round awkwardly waiting for it to end. The Tiger exhibits themselves are OK. I wouldn't say outstanding in anyway or particularly big. The theming takes up a lot of space that really should have been used for the Tiger's. Am I right in thinking they ditched both Snow Leopard and Lions to build TT? I know they're talking about bringing back lions when the new African area is finished but it's surprising for a Taronga's size to only have one big cat species on display currently The Sun Bear exhibit - Perhaps I've been spoilt having seen the exhibit at Chester (easily world class). But it looks forgotten about when compared to Tiger Trek. Its not huge but I think they could make a lot more of it than they do. One suggestion to maybe tidy it up a bit, maybe fill in the moat and replace it with glass viewing windows. A question for regulars - do they have another enclosure (maybe offshow?) for the Bears or do they share or rotate the main enclosure all the time? Just wondering how it works or would work with a nesseccary seperation etc. Tasmanian Devils. Or lack of. Where on earth are they kept? Couldn't find them anywhere and they're not on the paper map either. Overall - I generally liked Taronga. The native species collection is outstanding and something to be treasured. I can see that they've started work to replace some of the older ABC exhibits (Giraffes and Gorilla's etc) but hope they don't go overboard on the theming such as they've perhaps done with Tiger Trek One more question - what is the long term plan for the Elephants? Are they going to keep two seperate groups long term or relocate the entire herd to Dubbo permanently? I didn't spend much time at the Elephant exhibit but I gather they're now down to 1.2 at Taronga following Tukta's loss? Still to come - Sydney Wildlife World and Sydney Sea Life. Plus a few other places
Great mini-review of a zoo that I really liked when I visited! The Australian Nightlife house was also the highlight for me, and I also loved Great Southern Oceans as well. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on Sydney Sea Life, as I loved it (Platypus and Dugongs!), but I'm not sure how many others do.
Thanks for the mini-review and I was in Sydney for a week back in 2007 and so I'm eager to read about your travels. Cheers!
Great write-up and looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip! In response to questions (I haven't been in yonks so others will probably know more): -The penguin exhibit was always mixed when I was there, but it's possible that it has been split. It is a very confusing design but I think it is all one big exhibit. - I haven't been to Tiger Trek yet (haven't heard good things), but yes, they lost lions and snow leopards, as well as the old exhibits for meerkats, fennec foxes, pygmy hippos and dhole. - The sun bear exhibit was built for Kodiaks. I believe the two bears are generally kept together but there was an exhibit behind that one they originally used that might still be there (it would be off-show due to the African construction). - Tasmanian Devils normally live in a little exhibit just up the path from Backyard to Bush. If they weren't on your map though it was likely closed for some reason. It's on the website map now. - Don't know about the elephants but I'm sure someone else will!
@Nisha which sea life are you going to in Sydney? I remember the kodiak exhibit and its inhabitants. In fact I have a photo somewhere. If anyone is interested I will post it.
Sydney Sea Life/Aquarium - 30th September So my main reason for visiting the Sea Life was to see the Dugong. I'm not terribly interested in fish and I've done enough Sea Life's in the UK to know that pretty much all of them contain the same set of species. But I decided to give it a go The not so good: Due to the mentioned wedding the day before and hence a late night - it was approaching 12pm by the time I reached the centre. The queue was somewhat long and it was very busy. For some reason they have a system to use the same entrance and ticket areas for all three attractions (Madame Tussaudes, Sea Life and the Wildlife World) which I'm sure works fine when it's quiet but today it was ridiculous. So I joined the line and was waiting for approx 40 mins to get a ticket (this was in the queue for the self service machine rather than a desk). Once I finally had my ticket I had to queue for another 20 mins to finally enter the Sea Life. I had to plead with the woman on the door to let me go straight in rather than pose for a stupid souvenir photo that I had no intention of purchasing anyway. This seemed to be part of the problem when entering because they wouldn't let people through until they'd taken these photos....... Hence some of the later queue. The Penguin exhibit - I skipped the boat ride due to the queue (you guessed it). But had a look through the viewing windows. It doesn't appear to be very big from the outside. That's before they put the boat ride in which takes up more room. All of the Sea Life's I've seen with indoor Penguin exhibits (usually for Gentoo's) have been on the small side but this one just looked very dull and uninspiring. Question - Are the Kings a breeding or bachelor colony? Have they successfully bred them? The good: Pig! He was amazing. The highlight of the day and more than worth the queues. Spoke to one of his keepers as they fed him and she went on to explain that its unlikely he will be replaced or joined by additional Dugong in the future. Merlin (Sea Life's parent company) believe that they are too high mantinece and expensive to keep. So they wouldn't accept another rescued individual even if they were offered one. Shame really but money talks of course... Summary - So I wouldn't likely return to Sydney Sea Life in the future unless their was a specific reason for the visit. At the moment most of the aquarium looks fairly tired and it isn't a cheap day out. Coming next: Sydney Wildlife World
Any news on the Taronga Zoo chimpanzee @Nisha? I haven't visited 'Tiger Trek' for myself, but a lot of people I have spoken to share your views; many also mentioned the decrease in mega fauna, most noticeably the absence of big cats. Like Melbourne Zoo, Taronga once had an impressive collection of cats.
I don't know the Taronga chimps well enough to identify them @Zoofan15 but I can tell you that they all seemed to be in one group. Both sides of the exhibit open
When I was I last at the SeaLife there were several king penguin chicks so I assume they are a breeding colony.
