Day 89 - Taronga Zoo, Sydney, NSW, Australia

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Saturday 15th February, 2014. Taronga Zoo,Sydney, NSW, Australia

After breakfast we made our way back to Circular Quay determined to make it to the zoo today. The weather was very iffy and it had rained hard overnight. There were more ferries today than yesterday - we suppose because it is a Saturday. We crossed over to the zoo wharf and caught the bus up to the zoo entrance at the top of the hill. Taronga Zoo is set on a hillside with stunning views (not today though) over Sydney Harbour (Taronga is an Aboriginal word meaning beautiful view). Andy had advised us to start at the top and work our way down. This was the plan.

Taronga Zoo was officially opened on 7 October 1916. It is managed by the Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales, under the trading name Taronga Conservation Society. The zoo is divided into 8 sections covering 21-hectares(52-acres) and is home to over 2,600 animals of 340 species We set off, armed with a map of the zoo and umbrellas. Just inside the entrance we found the fibreglass 'Wild Rhinos'. We had seen them all over the city and also in the Blue Mountains and at Manly. The strap line for this conservation effort is "Join the Charge". A herd of 125 colourful Black Rhino and calf sculptures have "charged" into town to createa spectacular scultpure trail through the streets and parks of Sydney. Dubbo and surrounds. They will be on display from February to April to raise awareness of the critical plight facing rhinos through poaching and habitat loss. In the wild Rhinos are being pushed towards extinction - one Rhino is killed every 11 hours by poachers. On 14th May these artworks will auctioned to raise funds for Taronga Zoo's Rhino Conservation program.

First we saw Monitor Lizards, lots of different types of frogs, toads and freshwater crocodiles. The Sailfin Lizard was really beautiful. They have enlarged scales on their toes which allow them to run over water at high speed to escape predators. The huge "sail fin" on their back and tail is used for swimming. The Green-and-Golden Bell frog is named for its bright colour. It is one of the few frogs that are active during the day and they love to bask in the sun. It lives in or near water where it feeds on insects and smaller frogs - cannibal!

We continued on to the giraffs which are one M's favourite creatures in the whole world (the other being Whales - and there aren't any of these here!). We had missed the giraffe feeding but watched these weird, majestic creatures for some time. We passed the Ring Tailed Lemurs and looked inside an enclosure labelled Southern Cassowary Bird but couldn't see the elusive beasty.

We stopped and took a look at the zoo clock. THe face of this clock is living as it is planted with about 6,000 plants, usually of 4 different species. The face is replanted annually. The voice of the cuckoo sounds once on the quarter hour, twice on the half hour, three times on the three-quarter hour and the number of hours on each hour.

We next made our way over to the indeginous animal section where we saw all the usual suspects, Koalas, Echidnas, and Platypus (M was euphoric!), In February 2003, Taronga became the second zoo in Australia to breed the platypus. We were able to walk through an enclosure with free roaming Red and Grey Kangaroos and an Emu.

We navigated our way next to the "Wild Asia" section. In 2000, TCSA commenced a 12-year $250 million master plan, the majority of which is being spent at Taronga Zoo. The first major master plan item was the Backyard to Bush precinct. Under the plan, the Zoo received five Asian elephants from the Thailand Zoological Park Organisation for breeding purposes, education, long-term research and involvement of conservation programs. The plan has met opposition from environmental activists in Thailand, who blockaded the trucks hauling the elephants to Bangkok International Airport for their flight on 5 June 2006. The elephants along with other Asian rain forest specimens are housed in this "Wild Asia" precinct which opened in 2006 and aims to immerse visitors in an Asian rain forest environment. The male elephant, called Gung, is housed separately from the females an juveniles. We were lucky enough to catch Gung being 'put through his paces'. This involved lifting each of his feet in turn, standing on his back legs, and kicking a football among other things. This was all good fun but the keepers explained that there was a reason for these "tricks". Apparently it is easier to check Gung's teeth, toenails and general all round health if he can be taught to co-operate in this way. Playing these games facilitates this and provides a bit of break from the monotony of the day for the elephant - as well as entertaining the visitors.

We went on a bit further past the Gorillas until we came to the female elephants and their calves. On 4 July 2009, Thong Dee, an Asian elephant, gave birth to a male calf named Luk Chai. He is the first calf ever born in Australia. Thong Dee, and his father Gung, were two of the eight elephants imported into Australia to participate in the Australasian Conservation Breeding Program. A further two calves were expected to be born at Taronga in the following two years. The baby elephant is a major tourist attraction, with thousands of visitors attending the zoo just to see them. A baby Asian elephant was thought to have died during labour on 8 March 2010. The calf's 18-year-old mother Porntip was in and out of labour over the week beforehand, after a pregnancy lasting almost two years. Zoo keepers and veterinarians were concerned about the progress of the labour, with Porntip showing unusual movements and behaviour. An ultrasound revealed that the calf was unconscious in the birth canal, and the zoo announced on 8 March 2010 that the calf was believed to be dead. On 10 March 2010 at 3:27 am the male calf was born. It was subsequently named Pathi Harn, a Thai expression meaning "miracle". Pathi Harn's father is Bong Su, of the Melbourne Zoo, and was artificially conceived. In October 2012 Pathi Harn critically injured his keeper by crushing her against a pole - so much for the "miracle".

After the elephants we went to see the Sun Bears which are from Sumatra. Here there is another sad but uplifting tale. Sun Bears have a yellow or white marking on their chest which looks like the sun as it rises an sets - purely coincidentally they enjoy sunbathing! Resting high in the trees during the day they climb down to the forest floor at night to search for food which includes fruits, small mammals, honey and insects. The Sun Bear at Taronga is called Mr Hobbs. He was taken from his mother by poachers when he was very young. In fact he was rescued from the menu of a restaurant in Cambodia where his paws were going to be served up as a delicacy. A rich diner purchased him before he could be eaten and he found his way to Taronga in 1997. Mr Hobbs may pace because he is excited about his next feed or because he is anticipating something new but, it could also be a product of his traumatic start to life, resulting in behaviours that persist even when conditions are improved. Many hours of work go into creating challenges for him. Keepers work hard at making feeding time interesting by hiding, smearing and burying or wrapping his food. We watched him stick his long tongue into some kind of a drum in order to get at the foo inside. We loved Mr Hobbs.

We followed the path until we came to the Tapir. Tapirs are ancient mammals; they evolved and spread throughout the Americas and Asia more than 20 million years ago! Now only found in South and Central America and South East Asia, Tapirs are all struggling with the loss of suitable habitat. All tapir species have a fleshy and muscle-filled 'nose' that they use to gather food. They also use this proboscis as a snorkle when they spend time under water. Young tapirs are similar too - the babies of all species have a mottled coat which camouflages them in dappled sunlight. We saw a Malayan Tapir which has a distinctive black and white coat. It was also huge - much larger than we expected. The black and white coat helps them blend in to the rainforest where they live. Malayan Tapir are endangered in the wild. After the last Ice Age (so its not all our fault!) their habitats were reduced to the islands and peninsulas of Malaysia, Myanmar and Sumatra. Their forest habitat is now under pressure so fewer of these ancient mammals are able to find a safe place to live and breed. Taronga supports safe habitat in Bukit Tigapuluh, where many species, including Malayan Tapir are protected by Rangers that patrol the forest in Wildlife Protection Units.

We left the Tapir and came to what we initially thought was an empty pen with a pond. M was about to walk away when D spotted a Pigmy Hippo. It was dead cute. We walked on and found something called a Binturong aka "bearcats". They are so called because of their appearance - like cats they have sharp meat eating teeth but surprisingly at least half their diet is fruit and leaves. These animals (we had never heard of them before) are found in trees deep in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia and Malaysia. We passed by some beautiful Spotted Deer which we had previously seen in the wild on a trip to India.

Further along the contour of the hill we found the criticcally endangered White=Cheeked Gibbons. They mate for life but unusually for Gibbons the males an females do not look alike. They live in small family groups in the evergreen forests of China, Laos and Vietnam. They are born a fawn colour but as they age they go black with white cheeks. Once the females are of breeding age they go back to the fawn colour - how odd is that?

After the small clawed otters, we passed the elephants again on the way to the Antarctic area where there was Seal Cove Pool with a view to Great Southern Oceans (which they love - apparently), little penguins and Australian Fur Seals. We reached the bottom of the hill and took the gondola (bubble) back to the top - just because we could! The gondola lift was installed in the mid-1980s and it allows visitors to view the zoo from above and Sydney Harbour. It runs from the bottom of the park close to the ferry wharf, and transports passengers to the top end of the zoo. We walked back own checking out the Salty Crocodiles and Ring Tailed Lemurs which we had missed on the first pass.

We got the ferry back to Circular Quay. We took some photos of the Harbour Bridge in the murk. We also had a good View of Admiralty House which is where the is the Sydney Residence of the Governor General. It is also where the Royal family stay when they are visiting Sydney.

We caught the bus back to Rozelle and had a cheap schooner in the pub. A good, if a little damp, day out.

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