The Curassow was in the Macaw aviary last week. We saw it at 8am so it might be the "morning person" that you are not. The Tapir do alternate - a Malayan was out overnight and was replaced with a Brazilian by about 8.30am.
Thanks for the info Steve, good to know the Curassow is still around, will make an effort to get there early next time to try and see it.
I have enjoyed this thread zooboy28 I too love Amphibs. birds and mammals but I'm happy to see fish even if only in a pet shop, I prefer the exotic over the norm though. As we here ion England shudder through another cold snap and very prolonged winter I'm also feeling the 36 degree heat and envy it at least in my minds eye! Though I personally have never been to Melbourne -I only managed cairns and Sydney on my one and only trip down under- my partner has and he liked it so one day....... I hope you have time to keep posting, especially the new species section I find that interesting too. By the way what does 4WD mean?
Day Four Unfortunately we couldn’t spend all our time living it up in an inner city hotel and visiting zoos every day, and so on our third day we relocated via taxi to a hotel within walking distance to the university I am going to be studying at. And once we had checked in, we walked to the uni, which was quite exciting! It’s a much bigger campus to the one I went to in New Zealand, and it took a while to figure out where the biology department was located, and longer still to find my supervisor. Due to a family emergency he actually had to fly to Europe the next day, meaning I would have to settle in without him, but he very generously offered his car to us to use while he was away. This made it heaps easier to search for a house to rent, which we found and moved into within a week. It also made it easier and cheaper to get things for the house, such as fridge, washing machine, bed, couch, etc, etc. Excitingly, this also allowed us to visit IKEA, which is pretty awesome! And also the Chadstone Mall, which is the largest in Australia and provides hours of fun I should also briefly explain what I am studying here, although it is still in the very early stages and little is definite. Essentially it is looking at the evolutionary histories of freshwater fish in the central Australian arid zone, and making predictions for their futures. This will require a fair bit of field work, and many litres of sunblock, in the area around Alice Springs, but also at other study sites in South and West Australia. As well as house hunting and shopping, I also spent a bit of time at the university, mostly doing admin stuff like officially enrolling, etc, etc, but also checking out the campus, which has lots of trees and open green spaces, where I have seen a number of birds. I gather that these are all common species, but many are not found in NZ, so are very interesting to me. Most I have seen in captivity (Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Pacific Black Duck, Crested Pigeon, Wood Duck, Rainbow Lorikeet), but there are a couple of new species too: New Species: Little Raven, Bell Miner, Noisy Miner.
We might charge you a gold coin for the most minor of thing, but we will easily loan you our cars. We are not a bad bunch out here.
the default corvid in Melbourne is little raven. Australian ravens are there as well but aren't that common, so little raven is most likely.
@Hix, Chlidonias: Pizzey's field guide states that Little Ravens are the most common urban corvid in Melbourne & Adelaide, and the Australian Raven dominates in Sydney (and I think it said Perth too). So that's what I was basing my ID on. Noisy Miners are everywhere, they are uncannily like Indian Mynas, which are also common. Bell Miners are less common, but at some places (the Melbourne Zoo, Botanic Gardens) they are abundant, although using their calls to locate them isn't very easy. @nanoboy: The locals are pretty friendly actually, except on the road, where they turn into the most aggressive drivers I have seen anywhere except Rome. Its kinda fun though... @Chlidonias, Zooish: I see how it seems weird that I'm studying fish, but its a bit more complicated than that. First off, I don't mind seeing fish in aquariums, but they aren't (usually) as exciting as higher vertebrates to me. I also know relatively little about them, but my research should teach me quite a bit. Secondly, the research is more focused on the evolutionary histories, and various aspects of this, rather than on the taxa specifically. Essentially, the study could be done using mayflies, freshwater crayfish, mussels, etc, but fish have various advantages over these taxa which make them more useful. I hope that kind of explains it, although there is probably still a little irony there.
Day Eight. Healesville Sanctuary is a collection of native species located east of the city in the Yarra Valley, run by Zoos Victoria (which also manages Melbourne and Werribee Open Range Zoos). We reached it after about an hour’s drive, and were one of the first visitors on this overcast Sunday. Rather than just paying the admission, we used our Melbourne Zoo tickets as partial payment of an annual membership pass that covers the Zoos Victoria properties, and some other major zoos. Was a bit miffed about having to pay a $15 “joining fee” on top of the $71 student and $90 adult prices. Healesville makes excellent use of its woodland surroundings, and has some very nice exhibits, a strong conservation message, excellent signage and a very comprehensive collection of local species. Some parts of the sanctuary are themed to specific habitats, e.g. high country with dingoes and relevant birds and lizards, while other parts are taxonomic, e.g. Land of Parrots, but most of it isn’t themed and could be more cohesively presented. The standout species for me was the Superb Fairy-wrens, which crowded around our feet like pigeons, but otherwise acted more like mice, in the walkthrough Woodland Birds aviary. The nocturnal house (Animals of the Night), Lyrebird Aviary, woodland aviaries & reptile enclosures, and Australian Wildlife Health Centre were all very well done exhibits, with the High Country birds and dingo exhibits the best overall. The Platypus is the species on the Healesville logo, and their exhibits have been reviewed on ZooChat before. Suffice to say, we saw no platypus in the indoor part (World of the Platypus), and the relatively new outdoor exhibit is now off-display, although three tanks at the front are used for a new presentation “Tales from Platypus Creek”, which was nothing stunning. A young female platypus used in the presentation was very active, but too far away to get a good view of. There were a number of seemingly abandoned exhibits, which isn’t at all inspiring, and the Kangaroo, Koala, Wombat, Tasmanian Devil and Reptile House enclosures were average. The most disappointing exhibit was that for the Leadbeater’s Possum, which is prominently marked on the map, but is actually off-display, with no chance of seeing this rare species. I also missed the Spirits of the Sky bird show, and would like to do the “Fighting Extinction” tour ($25pp) next time I visit, as these both look worthwhile. Overall, Healesville is a beautiful wildlife park, with an excellent collection, but hasn’t quite reached its potential yet. New Species: Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko, Marbled Velvet Gecko, Burton's Legless Lizard, Gippsland Water Dragon, Alpine She Oak Skink, Guthega Skink, Black Rock Skink, Common Tree Snake, Lowland Copperhead, Bar-shouldered Dove, Brush Bronzewing, Black-breasted Buttonquail, Inland Dotterel, Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Superb Lyrebird, Superb Fairy Wren, White-naped Honeyeater, Apostlebird, Black-throated Finch, Orange-bellied Parrot, Common Ringtail Possum, Golden Bandicoot, Eastern Barred Bandicoot, Northern Quoll, Red-tailed Phascogale & Black-footed Tree-rat. We left Healesville Sanctuary after four hours, and drove down to the town of Healesville itself, where we found the visitors centre. After much consultation, we got directions to the Maroondah Reservoir, which was only five minutes away and had “lots of birds”. The dam here is pretty huge, 41m high and 300m long, and contains 22,000 million litres of water. At the base of the dam is a large picnic area, with many exotic and native trees, and a number of car parks. From one of these, we walked up to the top of the dam, and then across it, Beyond the water were the forested Yarra Ranges, which we could observe from a lookout above the dam. From here we walked back down to the car through woodland of Mountain Ash and Manna Gum, with many tree ferns in the gullies. We didn’t see quite as many birds as we had hoped, although we did see quite a few – Magpies, Cockatoos, Moorhens and Miners being most common. New Species: Australian White Ibis, Crimson Rosella, Grey Fantail.
a "joining fee" on top of the membership price seems like a bit of a scam actually. Either add it into the membershp price or don't have it at all. The indoor platypus house at Healesville is my favourite platypus exhibit that I've seen; pity you didn't see any in there. Did you see many wild birds around the sanctuary? There were all sorts when I was there, they kept distracting me from the caged ones!
Thats what I reckoned, it was an extre $30 we hadn't expected. The indoor platypus exhibit was really nice, and I think it would have been great if I'd seen one in there. The Melbourne Zoo indoor exhibit is much smaller, but the individual in there on my visit was extremely active and awesome to watch. We did see a few wild birds, although mostly common species (ibis, magpies). There were some wild Superb Fairy-wrens too (I think that what they were anyway), but they weren't as friendly as the caged ones. I didn't notice a huge abundance of wild birds though, would have been about the same as at Melbourne Zoo.
Next time, listen for the call of the yellow tailed black cockatoos. You are bound to see a few in the trees.
Have also had an LBJ that I photographed in one of the gullies ID'd as a Brown Thornbill, so that is another new species
Day Fourteen. Today we were heading south-east of Melbourne, to explore the Mornington Peninsula. We drove south on this overcast Saturday, arriving at Moonlit Sanctuary at 11 am, located near Pearcedale at the top of the Peninsula. Here we booked night tours ($34 for students, includes day entry) and bought a bag of wallaby food, before exploring the entry building, which includes a shop, café and reptile collection. The reptiles were mostly pythons, with a couple of lizards, as well as a few amphibians, inverts and Spinifex Hopping Mice, and were kept in standard glass tanks, although some of the pythons had taller enclosures. These were all furnished nicely, although some of the glass was a bit dirty. Outside were the first aviaries, for various cockatoos, as well as simple enclosures for Emu, Lace Monitors and Koala. The Dingo enclosure was nice, but the best enclosures in this area were the very large aviaries for pairs of Barn Owls and Barking Owls. The female Barking Owl had only been recently introduced, and didn’t appreciate visitors coming too close, which some obviously thought was very funny. The path led away from this main cluster of exhibits, and up past some rather dry wetlands to the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat enclosure, where we had excellent views of a very active wombat bustling around her spacious enclosure. We then entered the “Wallaby Walk”, following a roped path winding through 2-3m scrub. This was a very peaceful area, and the macropods inhabiting it are free to come up to visitors or stay away in the very private surrounds. There are five species in here: Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Red-necked, Tammar & Swamp Wallabies and Red-bellied Pademelons, of which we saw and fed all but the Swamp. There were also a large number of Purple Swamphens and a few pairs of Cape Barren Geese, some of which were keen to be fed and others who would rather maim you. The “Wallaby Walk” won the 2012 ZAA award for best small institution small-scale development. Near the end was an aviary for Tawny Frogmouths, and a superb new aviary, divided into three parts, for White-browed Woodswallows, Orange-bellied Parrots and Black-winged Stilts. The final part of the sanctuary includes large aviaries for Satin Bowerbirds, Musk Lorikeets & Superb Parrots, and a standard low-walled Tasmanian Devil enclosure. Nearby, an aviary-style Spot-tailed Quoll enclosure is being constructed, in a similar style to many of the smaller aviaries at Melbourne Zoo and Healesville. The path loops back to the entry building by the wetlands, which are used by a variety of wild waterfowl. Moonlit Sanctuary is a young collection (11 years) and has a lot of space to grow a great native collection. While many of the older enclosures are rather basic, the newer ones are very nice and of a high quality. We departed Moonlit after almost 2.5 hours, and headed south to Crib Point, where we had lunch at a small marina, and watched Australian Pelicans and gulls strutting around the mud flats. We continued south, before noticing signs for Coolart Homestead and Wetlands, which sounded interesting, so pulled off the main road to check it out. This state-owned property includes the magnificent 1895 mansion, expansive grounds and gardens, and a number of different wetlands. Upon entering, we collected a map and bird ID guide, and set off to see some birds. The first wetlands are surrounded by tall rushes and grasses, and are quite lush looking, although we saw few birds here, just ducks and ibis. The lagoon was quite different, being in a more wooded area, and with piles of logs for birds to perch on near a large hide. Here we saw more ducks, coots, herons and a Hoary-headed Grebe. A Laughing Kookaburra was perched nearby, and we also saw some Common Bronzewing Pigeons, with these and the grebe being new species. We continued driving down the coast to Flinders, a small town where we saw a flock of Galahs feeding under some trees. At the beach, we walked out to the end of a long pier, from which we could see large stingrays on the sand and Phillip Island in the distance. After a little more driving, we reached the southern tip of the Peninsula, Cape Schanck, which is part of the Mornington Peninsula National Park. There is a lighthouse here, as well as various walking trails to look-out points and beaches below. There were some great views to be had here, and a number of birds inhabited the coastal shrubland, including Superb Fairy-wrens and Grey Shrike-thrush (another new species). Most awesome of all however, was an Echidna – my first wild Australian mammal – ambling through the bushes and then out onto the trail right in front of us! It was surprisingly big and an amazing experience for us. From Cape Schanck, we drove north across the Peninsula to Rosebud, and then up the coast to Mornington. Along the way we stopped at a few beaches, seeing the brightly-painted beach houses that line the sand, and enjoying the soft golden sand. At Mornington we bought fish and chips, and found a picnic table overlooking the ocean where we ate them. As well as the usually attracted Silver Gulls, Indian Mynas and Rock Pigeons, a couple of rats also came out to eat spilt ice cream on a path below us. After tea, we continued up the coast to Frankston, where we had dessert, before turning east and heading across to Moonlit Sanctuary. We arrived a little early, but this gave us time to change from shorts and jandals to jeans and sneakers, which were much more suitable for wandering around in the cool night air. The night tour started at 8.30pm, and it was just us and a couple with five kids having a birthday party. This wasn’t ideal, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it, and we still got to do and see almost everything. The tour started in the entry building, with the very knowledgeable guide showing us the geckos and then bringing the Jungle Carpet Python out for us to hold. Very cool. We then got lanterns, and headed outside, where we fed the free-ranging macropods and then watched the Tasmanian Devil get fed, before entering the Southern Bettong enclosure to feed these awesome little critters. In here was an additional enclosure holding Feathertail Gliders, which scampered across glass. We then entered the Tawny Frogmouth aviary, which also contained a colony of hungry Squirrel Gliders. These were soooooooooooooo cute. And they gradually got confident enough to come down from the branches to our shoulders, where they perched and ate corn from our fingers. We then saw the Owls, Emu and Koalas before the tour ended after about two hours. While the tour would have been better without the kids (shouldn’t have gone on a Saturday), it was still a great experience, especially the hands-on stuff. I do recommend ZooChatters visit here (both during the day and at night), as they do have a few species that are rarely kept in captivity, and the night tour does provide good encounters with a number of interesting species (both captive and wild!). New Species: Rough Knob-tailed Gecko, Spotted Tree Monitor, Victorian Carpet Python, Barking Owl, Southern Bettong, Red-bellied Pademelon & Feathertail Glider.
