Perth Zoo Review

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The next zoo that I visited after Caversham was two days later when I visited Perth Zoo.


At Perth Zoo there were a couple of things that I particularly wanted to see that I knew were not guaranteed sightings because they were often hiding. These were species in the nocturnal house, the Dampier Peninsula Monitor, and the Numbats, and as a result I ended up doing the zoo in a bit of a weird order starting with the nocturnal house which is at the other side of the zoo.

So I got to the zoo at about quarter to ten (the zoo opens at nine) because I wasn’t actually staying in the city itself but in the Perth Hills a little way away. I started by heading straight to the nocturnal house because I wanted to get there for the opening time of the nocturnal house to have the best chance of seeing everything. I passed lots of exhibits on the way of course, but I will talk about those when I get to them properly. So I was at the nocturnal house right when it opened at ten and most of the animals were very active. I did have to go back at the end of the day to see the Red-tailed Phascogales and Western Ringtail Possum, but other than those two I saw absolutely everything in the nocturnal house on my first time around, and the nocturnal house is absolutely fantastic. The enclosures are mostly really spacious and well furnished, even for the medium sized animals like the Northern and Western Quolls. The enclosures for Boobook Owl and Short-eared Rock-wallaby could possibly be considered a bit small but that is nit-picking, and the nocturnal house was absolutely fantastic. As well as the species already mentioned, there was a large variety of mammals as well as a few reptiles and amphibians. The other big highlight, other than species already mentioned, was the Dibbler, but there were Ghost Bats, Water Rats, Leaf-tailed Geckos, Feathertail Gliders and others, so see the species list for more details.

As well as excellent enclosures and diversity of species, there was also good interpretive signage and also taxidermied feral cats and foxes next to the Cane Toads showing the impact of introduced species. The other thing I noticed about the nocturnal house was that it was particularly bright. Generally in nocturnal houses I don’t even bother trying to take pictures of animals because they all come out terribly, but in the Perth Zoo nocturnal house I was able to get pictures of all the animals that stayed relatively still, and the red lighting seemed quite bright to be able to see the animals very easily which was good because so many of the animals were awesome.

Once I had finished with the nocturnal house, the next key thing I wanted to see was the Dampier Peninsula Monitor which is the world’s smallest monitor with a very restricted range in northern Western Australia. The species was only described in 2014, and the individual at Perth is one of very few collected and the only one in captivity, so definitely the most unusual species in the zoo. However, unlike the nocturnal house, there was no particular time to see the monitor because it would either be hiding in the sand or it wouldn't be, and if it wasn’t visible, I would ask a reptile keeper to see if they could help me see the monitor. So rather than rush to the reptile house, I decided to do the stuff on the way first. Coming out of the nocturnal house I started with the Amazonia section. This was just a small circle of exhibits, though all fairly large ones that seemed to be multiple cages joined together going around. Only three species were held here, and those were Golden Lion Tamarin, Common Coati, and Squirrel Monkeys.

After the small Amazonia section, I continued on to the first of the three big geographical sections at Perth zoo – the African Savannah. At the entrance to this section though was a fairly standard enclosure with Galapagos Tortoises, and then I continued past the sign with ‘African Savannah’ written on it and entered the African section. The theming throughout was very thorough. There was lots of mock rock, but relatively well done mock rock, and the planting was very good too with succulents planted around, a row of elephant grass, sausage trees and that sort of thing.

There were also speakers playing African birdsong here and there, and an even more authentic piece of theming were wild Laughing Doves all around. This is an introduced species in Perth that has become extremely common in recent years, but the presence of them was very noticeable in the African Savannah, and I didn’t notice them at all elsewhere in the zoo. In terms of exhibits, they were all very good as well. Of course there weren’t any particularly unusual species, or I should say things I thought of as unusual coming from Europe. And if this was an exhibit in Europe, I would be heavily criticising the lack of small mammals or birds. However for a zoo in Australia with the limited species available I think it wasn’t too bad a selection. In terms of smaller species there were Meerkats, Fennec Fox, Hamadryas Baboon, Guineafowl, and Madagascar Tree Boa and there were also Giraffes, Zebras, Lions, Spotted Hyaenas, Hunting Dogs, and White Rhinos. An antelope of some kind was definitely missing though. In terms of the enclosures themselves, they all seemed to be pretty good. They all seemed to be large enough and appropriate for the species and they were all themed nicely to fit in with the African feel. Viewing was also through glass or completely unobstructed so although none of the species held were hugely interesting for me, I liked the exhibit a lot. I did still spend time looking at the animals of course and watching them use their exhibits to get a better idea of how good they actually are rather than just first reactions of a pretty looking enclosure.

After the African Savannah, I was now back in the area near to the entrance where there is a large area with various things that don’t really fit anywhere else in the zoo. I didn’t actually do this area all at once but instead did the different sides of it when they were on my route around the zoo, and this is the obvious way to do it, but for concision I am going to talk about all of this area at the same time because I felt my Caversham Wildlife Park review got a little bit rambly.

So the area by the entrance is actually quite large and is dominated in the centre by a large lawn and there are things around that lawn. At the time that I was visiting there were lots of big animatronic dinosaurs around here which was a temporary exhibit that I think is gone now. It seemed to be extremely popular with small children though based on the number of children around them and also talking to friends and family who live in Perth and have taken their children to see the dinosaurs. What I thought was quite interesting was that each dinosaur had a sign giving a modern day equivalent of that dinosaur that lives at the zoo (as well as information about the dinosaur) so for example Baryonyx with the Little Blue Penguins being the modern day fish eaters, or the Dilophosauras and the Cotton-top Tamarins as the modern day crested animals. Rather basic I know, but the dinosaurs were obviously aimed at small children. The other sign with the dinosaurs that ties this all in rather nicely is one that says 'Today’s animals share many characteristics with dinosaurs… extinction doesn’t have to be one of them' that I thought was a rather interestingly delivered message.

The other non-animal things around this area are a playground, an educational centre thing called the 'Zoo HQ', a restaurant, picnic site, fairly large playground, and of course the entrance building itself with gift shop, etc. All fairly standard zoo stuff, but all nicely done. There is also a Botanic Walk which on the map is marked as part of the Australia section but isn’t particularly, and it’s a winding pathway through some lush vegetation with a stream and benches dotted around and at that time there were dinosaurs dotted around too.

There were of course animals around there, and coming out of the African Savannah and going around the edge of the lawn, the first are enclosures for Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroos and Southern Cassowary. These were both rather good enclosures, the Tree Kangaroo being particularly good, and there was a nice rainforesty feel along the path running between these two enclosures. There was also a cassowary chick which was nice to see. The next animal exhibits around were two islands in the middle of a lake, one with White-cheeked Gibbons and one with Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs. There was viewing to both of the islands from pathways all around the lake, and also with a main viewing platform on the other side of the Cassowary enclosures which also had a window looking into that enclosure.

Each island for the primates was very lushly planted with lots of things to climb around and it seemed that there must have been somewhere in the middle where the primates could escape from view because I didn’t see the lemurs at all, and only saw one gibbon. Also at the main viewing platform was a sign about wild birds that could be seen at the lake including common ducks, pelicans, cormorants, and things like that that you would expect to find. Rather oddly though, the sign also mentioned Black-faced Cormorant which I believe isn’t found in Perth.

The other animal exhibit around this area is a walk-in 'Tropical Birds aviary which seemed to be a random assortment of birds, mostly, but not exclusively, Australian, and mostly species that would be considered tropical, but it also included Mandarin Ducks and Golden Pheasants. The aviary was pretty good though with a big display about deforestation including some signs and a fake chainsaw, and it was lushly decorated with a large water area including koi. There was also a pair of Eclectus Parrots mating in the aviary which a Satin Bowerbird watched intensely.

The next part of the zoo, and the biggest part, was the Australian Bushwalk. The reptile house or 'Reptile Encounter' is the first exhibit here, and although it included a few exotic species (Reticulated Python, Corn Snake, Veiled Chameleon, and a couple of tortoises), it was mostly Australian species. The entrance to the reptile house was through a mock rock fronted building and a bit of a passageway with some pictures of rocky landscapes before entering the reptile house itself. This was a fairly standard reptile house, though all of the enclosures were, I would say, bigger than average for the species held, and with quite a variety of interesting species. The most interesting of course was the Dampier Peninsula Monitor in an enclosure right at the entrance to the reptile house, and rather than buried in the sand like I feared that it may be, it was just sitting on a rock in the open and even moved around quite a bit while I was watching it, including going into the sandfor a short period of time. While I was watching it, a volunteer in the reptile house came over to me to say the penguins were being fed in their enclosure nearby and it would be better if I came to the Reptile Encounter later because that is when I could touch a snake. I explained that I was particularly interested in the Dampier Peninsula Monitor, and she really couldn’t understand why I was so interested in this little lizard.

After I had watched the Dampier Peninsula Monitor, I had a proper look around the rest of the reptile house and there were quite a few interesting species around including Pygmy Pythons, Dugites, and lots more (see the species list). As well as the standard, though large and well decorated terrariums lining the walls, there were also a couple of open-topped enclosures in the middle of the room, one for skinks, and one for tortoises, as well as a stage where the reptile show is held, and also a large indoor enclosure for Perenties that is also connected to an outdoor enclosure. Just as I was starting to get towards the end of the reptile house, people started to gather for the reptile show where a keeper takes out a Woma Python to allow people to touch it while giving general reptile information. I stayed long enough just to see what the show was, but at that point the reptile house became too crowded for my liking as all the people left the penguin feeding to go to the reptile show, and I continued on to the next exhibit.

At this point I actually went straight to the Numbat enclosure because I knew I would probably have to make multiple visits to the Numbat enclosure to actually see them, so I wanted to allow for as many visits to the enclosure as possible during the day. That first time I went up and waited for about forty minutes and no Numbats appeared, so I then went all the way back to the reptile house to do the Australian Bushwalk exhibit in a sensible order, so I will continue with the review from there.

The next exhibit after the reptile house in the Australia section is the Penguin Plunge. This is quite a large walkthrough aviary with Little Blue Penguins as well as Bridled Terns. The aviary is very tall, and pretty good and nice looking, with lots of planting and underwater viewing for the penguins, though the area for the penguins was a little bit small as they can only access part of the aviary and most of it isn’t accessible to them. Continuing through the penguin aviary was the next exhibit which is a huge walkthrough Australian Wetland Birds aviary that I though was fantastic and one of the bits of the zoo that I personally liked the most. Between the penguin aviary and the Australian wetland aviary though is a little side room with a few tanks of frogs and a tank for Western Swamp Tortoise. The latter was a species that I was particularly interested in seeing, and there were signs about the conservation work that Perth Zoo does with the species.

After that I continued into the Australian Wetland Aviary itself which is shaped like a huge rectangle with the netting joining on from the penguin exhibit with a very large area of water and a boardwalk going around surrounded with planting of wetland plants with things such as paperbarks. There is quite an impressive variety of species too with everything on the species list going from Brolga to Royal Spoonbill which, as you would see, gives a nice selection of wetland species including waders of varying sizes, a mixture of interesting waterfowl, and two large species as well, and there is lots of space for all of them. I have uploaded quite a few pictures showing the different things in the aviary including deep open water, beaches, shallower areas for the waders, logs, fairly big trees, reeds and grasses and things, and the nice boardwalk going around. That aviary was just the kind of exhibit I really, really like in a zoo.


At the end of the wetland aviary were a few more exhibits. There was a slightly small enclosure for Freshwater Crocodiles, a row of tanks with small fish and invertebrates, and a very large enclosure with several aquatic turtle species, some fish including pretty large ones, and Merten’s Water Monitors. This was by far the largest water area I have ever seen for Merten’s Water Monitors which had an absolutely huge pool with underwater viewing of course, particularly to watch the turtles and fish. I would have loved to see a monitor underwater, and there are pictures of them doing that in the Perth Zoo Gallery, though when I was there they spent the whole time sitting on a log under a heat lamp. There was a land area too of course which seemed small compared to the water area, but I don’t think it was actually too small. I had visited Perth Zoo before when I was much younger, and I have a memory of this enclosure holding Saltwater Crocodiles then. That may be a false memory of course, but that enclosure wouldn’t have been too small for a small Saltwater Crocodile.

Continuing around from here, I next came up to the actual saltwater crocodile exhibit which was nothing too special and basically just a pool surrounded by grass and some vegetation and bits of decorations, however the crocodile in here was absolutely massive.

Still continuing through the Australian Bushwalk section was a little lawn area that then had dinosaurs, followed by a walkthrough aviary of birds of South-western Australia (Purple-crowned Lorikeet to Bush Stone-curlew in the species list). After that I entered the more heavily-themed bit of the Australian Bushwalk.

There was a lot of mock rock and planting and things like that to make it look like the Australian bush which, given the fact that the natural vegetation of the area was all that is needed, was quite effective. The mock rock was better than in some zoos that I have seen and mostly it wasn’t too over-the-top. The first enclosures that I came up to were for Emu, followed by the Dingo enclosure. Both were pretty good aesthetically, the dingo enclosure having lots of mock rock and a few plants, and the Emu enclosure being kind of like a sparse woodland, though for the animals they didn’t seem to be much different from any old enclosures, and the dingo enclosure particularly with big glass windows and lots of quite good rockery must have been fairly expensive compared to any old enclosure.

I then entered the walkthrough kangaroo and wallaby enclosure that holds four species – Red Kangaroo, Western Grey Kangaroo, Tammar Wallaby, and Western Brush-wallaby – and continues with the same thorough theming done with mock rock and native vegetation, including some cool trees that I think are called bottle trees. There weren’t too many kangaroos in there so it felt packed, but enough so that you would have no difficulty seeing them. So I thought it was a particularly good kangaroo walkthrough as far as they go, and definitely a lot better than a field with a couple of trees in it, that kangaroo walkthroughs often are. The kangaroo walkthrough is quite large and takes up most of the area of the Australian Bushwalk, but there are a few other enclosures dotted around along the way. The first was directly on the path going around the kangaroo walkthrough with the Echidna Enclosure. The main enclosure seemed to be pretty good, however all five echindas were huddled in one of the underground 'burrows' with a viewing window to look into them. There were also some signs talking about the successful breeding of echidnas at the zoo.


After a little bit more through the kangaroo walkthrough was the next enclosure which was down a path that branches off from the side and through a gate which leads to a walkthrough for Quokkas. This enclosure is, of course, smaller than the kangaroo walkthrough but much the same, and within this was the Numbat enclosure.

As mentioned already, I had already been to the enclosure earlier in the day and failed to see the Numbat, but this time I was successful and one numbat was running around hopping up on logs and down again, and feeding from a dish, staying in view for about ten minutes. The Numbat enclosure was a good size and seemed to be generally excellent with lots of logs and plants and places to hide as well as vantage points for the numbats to look around on and space for them to run around. Viewing for visitors is actually unobstructed and from a viewing platform within the numbat enclosure itself, however it would be quite easy to step over the low fence and into the enclosure for any visitor who wanted to, which may not be such a good thing. Aside from that though, the enclosure was absolutely excellent and the Numbat within was awesome too and fantastic to watch. After the Numbat enclosure I went back to the walkthrough kangaroo enclosure to continue around the Australian Bushwalk. The next enclosure around was the one for Tasmanian Devils which seemed to be the standard open-topped series of connected enclosures for Tasmanian Devils that can be seen in most Australian Zoos, though the devils were temporarily off-display due to ‘essential maintenance’ on the exhibit.

After the devils was the Koala Enclosure and rather than the, in my opinion, ugly and very artificial koala exhibits with koalas on structures made up of posts, this enclosure was a circular pit-style enclosure with natural trees for the koalas, and also Western Brush-wallabies on the ground below. I then continued through more of the same kangaroo walkthrough to the final enclosure in the Australian Bushwalk which for Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats, passing an animatronic dinosaur on the way. They were fairly good enclosures that seemed fairly standard, and there was also viewing into the wombat dens through windows, though one wombat walked around giving a nice view.

After this, I had one more big section of the zoo to do, the Asian Rainforest. There isn’t an obvious round route to do this bit, but I started from the bit near the nocturnal house so I could have a look for the species I missed from there at the start of the day, and I was successful in seeing the ones that I missed the first time, though many that I saw easily in the morning were nowhere to be seen on the second visit. I also started on this side because there was one small section of the zoo, in addition to the Asian Rainforest, that I hadn’t seen yet which was the Primates Section. The enclosures around here were all in a similar style with mesh fronted cages, but of course different sizes and decorated differently for the different species held. Though this area wasn’t as aesthetically pleasing as most of the rest of the zoo, the enclosures were all good for the species held, and the area was quite lushly planted with lots of big trees giving a nice feel to the place.

None of the species held here were unusual for me, being used to the diversity of exotic species held in Europe, but there were six species of primates held here - Cotton-top Tamarin, Pygmy Marmoset, Emperor Tamarin, Black-capped Capuchin, Ring-tailed Lemur, and Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur so it was a nice little collection.

I then continued through to the Asian Rainforest, and the first exhibit I came up to was the one for orangutans. There was a large viewing area overlooking the orangutan exhibit with lots of educational, interpretive signage however the enclosure itself was a little odd. It is comprised of lots of little sections separated by big concrete walls, and in each section are tall things (I don’t know how better to describe them) that the orangutans can climb up on and sit in with, ropes and things connecting them allowing the orangutans to go between them.

There was lots for the orangs to climb around on, and places for them to sit quite high up as well as ground space. There were also a couple of big fig trees around, and apparently they have recently been given access to those trees allowing them to use them. I did spend a while watching the orangs in their exhibit, I don’t usually pay much attention to apes in zoos but with such an odd enclosure I wanted to see how they used it and it seemed to be quite good… I think? It was a very different, and I must say rather interesting design.

After the orangutans, I came up to a cage holding Javan Gibbons which seemed big enough, though not particularly unusual or interesting, or particularly nice looking. The next enclosure after that was one for the bull elephant which wasn’t particularly unusual but would match the standard of a good elephant exhibit anywhere I think. But to be honest, I generally don’t pay that much attention to elephants in zoos.

And I then had a choice of which way to go (as is obvious from the map) and I would have to double back to see both bits. So I started by heading up towards the Sun Bear, and throughout the Asian Rainforest section it was shady with lots of big trees, and the theming was fairly subtle just in the style of the viewing areas with some thatched roofs and things and the decorations in the enclosures. Of course any exhibit trying to be themed to something as broad as 'Asia' isn’t really going to succeed in being completely authentic, and they weren’t all rainforest animals so that wasn’t accurate either, but it was still quite nice.


So I continued up to the sun bear enclosure, passing a tank for Red-eared Sliders on the way. There was a big viewing hut at the Sun Bear Enclosure with viewing through big glass panels, and signs about how they were rescued bears. The enclosure itself seemed fairly good, though not excellent, however I couldn’t see it in use because the only bear visible was sleeping in a log at the back. Along from the Sun Bears was a little area with four enclosures clustered around. There was a fairly large cage-style enclosure for White-cheeked Gibbons with lots of climbing things around, and the viewing deck was actually raised to a glass panel about halfway up the enclosure. Next to this was a typical tree for Red Pandas, and opposite were two further enclosures for Komodo Dragons and Asian Small-clawed Otters. Both had indoor and outdoor sections and the Komodo Dragon was staying in its indoor bit. The otter enclosure of course had a pond as well as trees and logs and things, and both it and the Komodo Dragon enclosures were fairly good. Everything around here was themed to go with the Asian Rainforest, including the dragon and panda enclosures, despite the fact that being a rainforest isn’t particularly accurate for either species.

I then continued further along the same path leading to the Australia section because although no species are marked on the map for here, I wanted to see it all anyway. There weren’t actually animal exhibits here, however there were lots of signs along the pathway about the different breeding programmes that Perth Zoo has because the pathway ran along the fence separating the off show breeding areas, and tops of greenhouse-looking buildings were visible over the fence. This pathway joined up to the Australia section, but I had already looked at all of that thoroughly so I headed back down the same path to do the other part of the Asian Rainforest.

There were actually only two animal exhibits on this pathway, but each covered a very large area. On one side was the Asian Elephant exhibit with a large seating area (the Amphitheatre) viewing the exhibit and viewing to it all along the pathway. It seemed to be a pretty good exhibit with several yards and enrichment items for the elephants like tyres, buckets, trees, pools, and a big pile of dirt, and the barn seemed to be pretty big. Along the pathway was lots of tropical vegetation continuing the rainforest theme, and unexpectedly for me while I was looking at the elephants in their enclosure, one elephant came walking along the path led by the keepers in one of the elephants’ daily walks around the zoo. This was the second time I had seen elephants being walked around a zoo after Whipsnade in the UK, but unlike Whipsnade which has loads of open space, this elephant walk was along a fairly narrow tree-lined path. Narrow enough that people had to stand off the path to let the elephant go through, so I saw the elephant very close. I’m surprised it’s not too dangerous to do this though.

On the other side of the pathway are the Sumatran Tiger enclosures. There are two circular viewing areas looking into tiger enclosures all around, and they seemed to be pretty good enclosures and not particularly unusual but they weren’t the best I have seen or anything like that. I must say I didn’t spend a huge amount of time looking at the tigers and observing the enclosures though. One other thing worth noting from along this path was the 'Bukit Station' which is a hut decorated to fit in with the 'Asian Rainforest' theme with various bits of educational signage, and a room where a film was playing.

So that is pretty much it for the zoo. After that I headed out and towards the exit, briefly looking at things along the way. One other thing at this time is that for the last half an hour that I was at the zoo the sky started to completely cloud up, and it began to look worryingly like it was about to rain, and a couple of minutes before I reached the exit a little bit of very light rain started to fall, and about thirty seconds before I got to the exit it started to rain properly. So I finished the zoo exactly in time!

So I don’t have very much more to add about Perth Zoo that I haven’t already said, but I thought it was excellent. There weren’t quite as many species as there could have been, and I would have liked there to have been more little bits and pieces dotted around, but everything that they had was done to an exceptional standard.

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