Traveling to a new place wouldn’t be special without meeting the local animals. Looks like Taronga Zoo was a perfect place to check out native Australian wildlife. Set in a natural foreshore bush land, Taronga which came from Aboriginal word meaning “water view”, operate ever since 1916. We went to the zoo on Saturday, as the weather forecast predicted its going to be a bright sunny day.
We started the trip on 9 am. Parked the car near Darling Harbor, we bought daytriper ticket which enables us using bus, train, and ferry around Sydney all day long with only one ticket. This ticket is highly recommended for tourist who wants to explore the city. We used ferry departed from Darling Harbor headed to Circular Quay. Within the trip, we chose to sat outdoor as the Sydney harbor’s scenery fascinated us. The trip overlooked at Darling Harbor, Sydney Harbor Bridge, The Opera House, The Rocks, and Circular Quay. The clear blue sky with no single cloud made the scenery even more beautiful. Thanks to the weather forecast, I couldn’t imagine if it was cloudy or rainy. Arrived at Circular Quay, we continued the ferry trip to Taronga Zoo.
Arrived at the zoo,
we joined other families who queue at the Zoo’s entrance. We just realized that it was actually a long weekend in Australia, since it was national ANZAC holiday on the previous day. Families from all over Sydney were gathered at Taronga Zoo, I guess. Paying the entrance fee for AUD 37 (minus 15% discount for Daytriper ticket holder) we enter the Zoo using cable car.
The short 5 minutes cable car trip gave us a beautiful scenery overlooking Sydney from Taronga Zoo’s hill. Arrived at the zoo’s entrance door, we got the zoo’s map that showed us how to find numerous Australian fauna inside the zoo. I really suggest visitors to make plan which animal they want to see the most, as there were so many animals, and also not to spend long time watching a kind of animal. I know they are all cute.
We started the trip by watching birds from Australia, we met Eclectus Parrot, Topknot Pigeon, and friends. Then we met Easter Long Neck Turtle, Wallaby, Echidna, Australian Pelican, Penguin, Seal, Bilby, Tasmanian devil, Koalas, Possum, Spider Monkey, and so many other Australian and Oceania Faunas. I also found Gorilla, Himalayan Tahr, Snow Leopard, Red Panda,
and other animals which came from other part of the world.
Not only had a perfect collection of local animals, Taronga Zoo also provided its visitors interesting knowledge related with Australia and its species. I read about Gondwana, a huge continent consisted of Australia, Africa, South America and Antarctica hundreds of million of years ago which then split and had different climate on each continent. I also found out that bears prefer to eat young grasses or plant in flowery stages than old plants, as bears stomach can’t digest foods with high fibre. Hmm.. It’s a great place to know new knowledge indeed ;))
We spent quite a long time watching Snow Leopard’s action. This big cat shows great natural attraction while they're playing hide and seek each other. They really like running and jumping inside the cage. Their amazing fur made me realized that somehow, there were so many people hunting for this cute adorable Snow Leopard in order to make fur coats. So mean!
We also spent quite a long time watching cute little penguins swimming in the water. I just found out that there were different kinds of Penguin in the world, from 50 centimeters height to
1 meters height. They are all look very cute, it made Reza wanted to bring their home ;))
We didn’t have enough time to see all animal although we stay from 11 am to 5 pm. The zoo closes at 5 pm, and we went home using ferry. Hmm.. Such a perfect safari trip ;)
Australia's Flag
Map of Australia