Went to Melbourne Zoo on Sunday afternoon for a quiet stroll around. As always, an easy and enjoyable way to kill a few hours....Updates......... New Pygmy Marmoset enclosure constructed in the rebranded, more generic (and less geographic) gorilla forest (it seems Melbourne is orientating the visitor experience away from an African rainforest and more towards a jungle within melbourne frequented by the famous gorillas and other animals in lieu of the departure of the pygmy hippos departure to Sydney). Fischers lovebirds in the aviary at the entrance to the forest, guenons in one of the old orang pits (with the rest boarded off), otter and carp in the hippo pools. Tree shrews in the arboreal primates Red Lory have been relocated from their aviary in TOTE to the aviary near the peccary Ring-tailed lemurs in a nicely done-up island near the bears No jaguar or clouded leopard on display, nor coati or 2nd red panda Seal development site levelled and going ahead well from the look of it Baboons still in deplorable enclousure Patagonian Cavy replaced with quokka Trail of the Elephants looked amazing; both the animal and visitor areas. Was blown away by the orangutan sanctuary. Some redevelopment work is going on down in the old hoofed stock paddock, though im not aware what it is for. The old macropod walk-through has been closed, im hoping to extend the giraffe's enclosure and there is excavation to the left of the water recycling plant. Any ideas???? Small cat collection is....well.............small. A sign of the times I guess....serval, fishing cat and binturong. Gotta get used to it guys lol Overall thought the zoo looked really good. Looking forward to the marine precinct opening to balance the zoo out a bit more, as currently all the really outstanding attractions are on one side.
Nice update Glyn. I've never quite seen a zoo like Melbourne, where the overwhelmingly better exhibits are all stacked up on one half of the grounds. It can be disappointing to compare the two halfs of the zoos, but hopefully as you say the seal precinct will add a splash of life to the "lesser half".
compared to the other zoos I have gone to (not many) Melbourne is a very unqiue warming zoo although it may not be as magnificent to the eye with Taronga or Singapore the exhibits have their own great vibe, I always love going there,
I visied Melbourne Zoo in the first week of the holidays and I just though I'd post a few things that have changed. -The Frican rainforest has had a lot of it's plantings removed and thinned out so some parts are looking pretty bare. I don't think any exhibits are being added so it could just be an attempt to tame the gardens and get them back under control. -Tree-top monkeys and apes has really gone down hill pretty quickly in the last few years. There are a total of 6 species on display nowadays. Spider monkey, gibbons, black-and-white lemurs, capuchins (who have two exhibits joined by a tunnel), ebony leaf monkeys and colobus monkeys. Even the buildings are looking a little worse for wear and some of the plantings around here have been thinned out so its looking quite bare. -The baby tigers were great and they're getting pretty big too. -The gardens around the butterfly house have been completely removed and new plants added. It's quite a nice looking building now that you can see it. -The elephant herd looks reall good now that there are two babies of different ages as well as four adult females to look after them and great big Bong-Su. The aviary before the orang-utan exhibit had been turned into an elephant themed gift shop so you couldn't see in. -A yard has been made at the end of the giraffe exhibit and looks like it could be used for seperating some of the species in the giraffe exhibit. -The trees in the bongo exhibit have been cut down. -There is a display I've never noticed before about invasive weeds in part of the Australian bush. I think that's about it.
