Hey MattyP, at Werribee I'd like to see: -Eastern Barred Bandicoot -Fat-tailed Dunnart -Plains-wanderer (!) -Squirrel Glider and at Healesville: -Mountain Pygmy-possum(!) -Leadbeater's Possum(!) -Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby -Helmeted Honeyeater -Lyrebird -Orange-bellied Parrots (Do they still have Numbats?) And I also wouldn't mind seeing Platypuses and Tawny Frogmouths again because they are just kinda cool^^
I'm not sure if plains wanderers are on display, I don't recall seeing them when I visited a couple of weeks ago. I know that there's a big breeding program for Leadbeater's possum, but not sure if there are any on public display. Mountain Pygmy possums hibernate throughout winter, so you won't be able to see them at this time of year. Numbats were there last time I visited, but were in the nocturnal house for some strange reason. I hope you have a great time visiting our country.
Sounds like I'm gonna be disappointed. I'll probably start sending some emails to see if animals are actually on display before I go to any of the zoos. It gets a bit annoying to go to zoos for certain species (that they advertise on their websites) just to then find out that everything is behind the scenes or not on display. (Happened to me at Sydney Aquarium, Auckland Zoo and Otorohanga Kiwi House. Maybe this part of the world and I aren't compatible zoowise.)
what did you miss at Auckland Zoo? Numbats should be easy to see at Perth Zoo (although you may need to wait a bit or return to the enclosure a few times because I think they only have one on display at a time)
but three times entry for Auckland Zoo (or, rather, the two extra entries) is surely more than the ferry for a day-trip to Tiri would have been? The takahe are easy to see, and if you stay overnight you have a good chance of little spotted kiwi too.
for the moloch, if that is your reason for going to Melbourne Museum, they are kept off-display and only brought out once a day for feeding (in the ant colony tanks). Check with the museum beforehand, if you can, for the timing. Otherwise you won't see them.
As of June 2016 Pata's linsang, ferret-badger and the two giant squirrels (black and cream-coloured) were still around. There are no weasels, with both mongoose and hedgehog mislabelled. There's plenty on display which would be of interest though, including hog badger, bonobo, a hybrid ruffed lemur, coral-billed ground cuckoo, green magpies, golden jackals, barbets, Koh Tao caecilian....
in the nocturnal house at Healesville (yesterday): *mountain pigmy possum *feathertail glider *spinifex hopping mouse *common ringtail possum *bilby *Leadbeater's possum and long-nosed potoroo *squirrel glider and eastern barred bandicoot *sugar glider All of them were very active and easy to see, despite it being 2pm on a Saturday with a lot of noisy visitors. The only not-so-easy one was sugar glider where I only saw one, and only on the second time round the house. Given how active everything was, around 2pm may be a feeding time. I went back in around 3pm and everything was still perfectly viewable. The orange-bellied parrots at Healesville were off-display (temporarily). They have them at Moonlit Sanctuary too, though, so you'll see them somewhere in the Melbourne area. The brush-tailed rock wallabies are easy to see in the walk-through wallaby enclosure. The helmeted honeyeaters are easy to see in the Endangered Species walk-through aviary, and also in a separate aviary next to the walk-through past the wallabies (the walk-through is labelled as "kookaburras" on the map). The lyrebirds were trickier. The male is new and shy. They are in a walk-through aviary. I saw him briefly but I'd seen three the previous day at Sherbrooke Forest so wasn't too bothered. There is a scheduled talk in the aviary at 1.15pm (I think) when you would be guaranteed of seeing them because they get fed then. ................... For the molochs at Melbourne Museum, currently one or both are fed at around 11.30am (no exact time) but they remain in the tank on display for several hours to feed.
Do you know what happened to the numbats at Healesville? I saw one in the Nocturnal house last time I was there a few months ago.
I asked Zooish about these on the Singapore Zoo thread a couple of weeks ago. In case you didn't see that (and I forgot to repeat it on this thread at the time), Singapore's giant squirrels died some time ago.
