Taronga Zoo

This was one of those magical days where everything falls into place and dreams come true. Although I knew I was in for some special treats, my day at Sydney's famous Taronga Zoo far exceeded expectations.

A 15 minute ferry ride from Sydney, Taronga is known as the zoo with a view. In part, that's due to the zoo being high up on a hill. A bus takes one from the ferry at the early hour I arrived for my tour. The Skyfari cable cars wouldn't start for another half hour.

Tour check-in brought the first couple of surprises. There would only be five of us on the tour with two guides. The other four were a lovely family who live about 15 minutes from me.

First stop was the education center. In what I feared was a bad omen, we got the room with reptiles and insects. A few snakes, two blue-tongue skinks, a couple other lizards, some turtles and a few unattractive insects were shown and often brought out for us to touch and photograph. The fun started when the possums, Mr. and Mrs. Larry were taken out. Such sweet creatures! Incredibly soft fur, too. Then we were off into the main zoo before the hoards of school children took over the building.

The tour covered Australian animals only and was quite extensive in doing that. We saw everything and were up close and personal with several species. To the envy of other visitors, we got to go into an enclosure with koalas. Although we couldn't touch, we could go as close as we liked and take as many pictures as we like. Then we went in with some echidnas and quokkas. Echidnas are the only close relatives of the platypus in that they are both monotremes (egg-laying mammals), but the two species couldn't look less alike. While playtpus (which I saw more of at the zoo) are sleek aquatic creatures. echidnas look a lot like hedgehogs and walk with a pekinese-like waddle. Quokkas are small marsupials in the kangaroo family. Although very shy, we got to tempt them into touching and photo range with their favorite flowers.

In another area I made a new friend. There's a section of the zoo with kangaroos and wallabies that people can walk among. There's also an emu, as I discovered when I noticed something looking over my shoulder. After rubbing against me, he followed me around for several minutes setting the tour group and others into fits of laughter. He lost interest as I got engrossed in watching a wallabie and her joey. The baby was going in and out of the pouch which I'd never seen before.

Other treats on the tour were seeing two kinds of dingos, seeing some wild kukaburras (sp?) that had flown in looking for food, watching dilbies running around, and meeting a baby wombat. The Tasmanian devil wasn't acting very devilish. Turns out that much of the name comes from its devil-red ears. There were lots of very small marsupials and rodents whose names escape me at the moment.

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting. A review of my pictures will help fill in some blanks. I'm still having trouble getting pictures up with file size being the current issue. A few from yesterday are posted on my yahoo site, but most will probably wait until I get home.

After the tour, I told one of the guides that I was supposed to meet up with someone from the marine mammal team. Of course, the correspondence with that person was the one thing I forgot to print out. She got on the radio and said everything was all set. "All set" was quite an understatement.

The guides took me up a back stairway to the marine mammal facility where I was greeted like a long lost friend and introduced to the team. Then I was introduced to the animals. I never thought I'd be so close to Australian and New Zealand fur seals or an Australian sea lion. The poor California sea lion must have felt quite ignored. After a general review of the animals, a male Australian sea lion came out for a visit followed by a male Australian fur seal. Both were incredibly well trained and friendly. These were species I saw for the first time yesterday and today I got to pet them.

There was one more pinneped treat. Taronga Zoo is the only zoo in the world with a leopard seal. This is the result of a rescue. In what was no disappointment, I only saw this animal from a distance. Leopard seals are not a species I'd ever want to get really close to.

From the seals, it was on to some primates. The orangutan exhibit is lovely and one of the residents was particularly cooperative with my camera. First it demonstrated how it used a stick to get food out of a hole. Then it came closer for some beauty shots. The success of Taronga's gorilla program was evident by the babies. One is only a few months old.

Taronga is truly a magnificent zoo and the entire tour party was in agreement that it is better than San Diego. Everything is beautifully done and the range of species is amazing. The breeding programs are very successful. For example, Taronga is the only zoo to have successfully bred platypus.

A few other notes. Hands were washed frequently. All lenses for my still camera got use and I got some great video as well. Food was some better-than-expected Asian noodles.

When my feet could take no more, it was back to the ferry, this time via the Skyfari. The best views yet of Sydney Harbor and its landmarks. On arrival back at Circular Quay, I stopped for some vey yummy gelato at the same place I had gotten my morning juice mix and the guy there remembered me. On the short walk back to the hotel, I met my second Aussie dog. This one was very friendly. The one yesterday came running when our eyes met, but he was a bit mercenary, guiding me into his owner's shop and then barking at me.

Tomorrow morning will be a city tour and then maybe a harbor cruise. With nothing scheduled for the rest of my time here, I can play it as it comes.