Feeding Times at the Zoo

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I woke at 7am and went out to watch the sunrise, nippy but quite pretty. Then after breakfast and making a cut lunch, we opened the door to leave and were pleasantly surprised to see a Red Winged Parrot sitting in the olive tree right outside our door. He was beautiful.

Once he’d flown away we drove to Taronga Western Plains Zoo. We thought we’d take a look before committing ourselves to going in because it cost $33.50 each for Seniors (a lot more for normal!) which we were baulking at paying. It turns out that the entry fee is so high because some of the money goes into conservation and breeding programs both in Australia and overseas. One example is the new freely downloadable application they have produced for people to report breaches of international law such as ivory or animal parts sales, if they come across them while on holiday. We decided to buy the tickets.

We were able to drive the car around, then park in designated spots and walk to and around the enclosures. While fairly large, they were placed so that we could see most of the animals and often had a raised bank of soil for us to stand on. The animals were kept in by water-filled moats or electrified fences.

We saw most of the usual zoo animals – both Black and White Rhinos, hippos, giraffes, Asian and African elephants, a wide range of deer, a tiger, a lion, some bison, meerkats, lemurs, spider monkeys, and 3 sleepy Galapagos Tortoises who were resting on a pile of loose soil in a lovely warm house.

Some animals were more unusual, like the little Small-Clawed Otters who are the smallest breed of otters and very cute, as well as extremely fast in the water. We saw them having a lot of difficulty getting prawns down their throats.

Some animals were very noisy like the White-Handed Gibbons (who looked as if they were butlers in their white gloves), the African Wild Dogs (who decided it was a good time for mating) and definitely the loudest of the lot, the Siamang Apes. The male Siamang has a sac in his throat that inflates and makes the call resonate so it can be heard up to 4 kilometres away. It’s deafening up close!

The zoo had a number of feeding and talk sessions, which were interesting and made it much easier to see the animals as they came near the fence to be fed. We saw the Hippos (with a close up of VERY large teeth); the Giraffe talk, where people could feed them some carrots for an extra cost; the Elephants, whose fascinating keeper told us about the animals’ characters, particularly the grumpy Asian one – she obviously loved them all; as did the Tiger Keeper.

One of the highlights was in the Australian Enclosure which you could walk in and interact with the wallabies, if they would stay still (there were “No People” Areas for them to get away if they wanted to). We had no luck with the couple we tried to approach but then someone else found one of the Red-Necked Wallabies who seemed to love being petted. We had a go after they left. The sign said to only stroke their backs but this one obviously wanted to be scratched under the chin, like a dog, and held onto your hand to keep you there and licked it. She was lovely. We later found out from the keeper that her name is Jolene and she was hand-reared, which is why she loves people. The keeper, at the time, was guarding two greedy echidnas that she was feeding some mince soup to, so that the vegetarian quokkas in the same pen didn’t eat it and get sick so she had time to chat. Oh, and we saw a lovely fluffy but sleepy wombat (mustn’t forget him!)

We were the last to leave and were escorted out by a security car (we were just going anyway! Honest!)

It had been a good day, despite our initial misgivings.

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Photos

A Red-Winged Parrot
There are olive trees all around the Westview Caravan Park and this lovely bird was sampling some outside our door.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo
For a fee people could feed carrots to the giraffes.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo
The Siamang Ape male has a sac in his throat to magnify his already loud call, which can be heard 4 kilometres away. You can see it - the lighter colour under his chin. He's swinging across between 2 small islands and deafening us at the same time.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo
Two of the cute Small-Clawed Otters. It's not only their claws that are small!

Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo
American Bison enjoying feeding time.

The Australian Enclosure at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo
This lovely Red-Necked Wallaby is named Jolene. She was hand-reared and loves to be petted. She is holding onto Barry's hand and licking it while he scratches under her chin.

Comments

[Snap Shot Stacey]

Beautiful shot! He looks almost coy. :D

[dragonlady]

Coy Parrot
He was having a wonderful time eating an olive while it still hung on the tree. He left the stone hanging there once he'd finished.

[Snap Shot Stacey]

Think I can see a bald spot there dad. :p

[dragonlady]

Bald Spot
It's not quite bald but it is thin and with the sun shining on it you could see his scalp. He loved petting Jolene, too.

[Snap Shot Stacey]

Oh they're adorable! Send two over to me will you? Hehe

[dragonlady]

Adorable Otters
They were gorgeous. I didn't know otters could be so small. They were so fast in all their movements, too. I think Jazzy might eat them!