A day out at Adelaide Zoo
Travel Location: Oceania,Australia,South-Australia,Adelaide
Yesterday was spent leisurely walking around Adelaide Zoo. The first animals you come across as you entre the zoo are the Barbary Sheep. Rather strangely, in the next enclosure are the alligators! There were two in the enclosure – the first was smaller, and didn’t seem so threatening. The larger one, although half submerged and standing completely still, terrified me. The five foot wall didn’t quite seem tall enough to contain the two animals, should either of them decide to leap out and eat someone (don’t laugh – crocs have been known to jump so why not alligators?!). From here we moved on to the reptile house. This was a collection of various snakes, lizards and frogs from around the world; with various degrees of venom and ferocity. There was a snake skeleton on display and I couldn’t believe quite how many bones snakes have! Outside the reptile house was the Aldabra Tortoise enclosure. They fascinated me as I wasn’t sure how they could just i) grow so big, and ii)live so long. They seemed pretty chilled out – slowly mooching around their enclosure, nibbling on the odd bit of grass or plant here and there.
Next we saw the Australian Animals enclosure. This had a variety of animals including the yellow-footed rock Wallaby, Red Kangaroos, & Emu’s. They were all pretty chilled out, just lazing around and having a sleepy day. Although the Red Kangaroos were lying down, they are apparently almost six feet tall when standing up and are perhaps the biggest type of Kangaroo in Australia (don’t quote me!). Following the trail around the corner lead us to find the Tazmanian Devil enclosure. Unfortunately, due to it being midday and pretty hot, we didn’t get to see any. I imagine that they were probably all searching for some respite from the heat in their underground burrows. There was a Koala asleep in a tree in the next enclosure with several Echidnas (small hedgehog/porcupine type things) running around below it. They seemed to enjoy the warm weather and were happily digging around and chasing each other across the enclosure.
Next came the Giraffe’s – we arrived as the keeper was feeding them some carrots. Not something usually found in their natural diet, but probably pretty tasty just the same. There were also some meerkats in an enclosure in front of the Giraffes. They seemed pretty content to stand watch for the possibilty of food. Their patience was rewarded when the keep dropped two big chunks of what looked like steak into their little enclosure. I have never seen something so small try to tear apart something almost the same size as itself! We walked past the beavers who seemed pretty excited and were pacing back and forth, anxiously looking for their keeper. I assume it must have been their lunch time too, although we didn’t see anyone materialise with food to appease the series of squeaks coming from their enclosure. Opposite the beavers, in a rather plushy enclosure were the ring-tailed Lemurs from Madagascar. They were just chilling out in a series of human-like positions. Just lazing in the shade, dealing with the heat. We stood and watched them for a while – getting to see them groom themselves and their tails in a bizarre manner!
From here it was on to the nocturnal house. This housed various types of animals – all of which (yes, you guessed it) were nocturnal. There were several types of fish and various small rodents that darted across their sandy enclosures. There was also a Bilby (I have no idea what it is – looks like a really little kangaroo type thing) asleep under a infra-red lamp. There were some bats flying around in one enclosure – including the world’s largest carnivorous bat. They were pretty scary looking close up, with large ears and an enormous wing span. They mainly eat small lizards, rodents etc. Opposite the Nocturnal House was a large avairy with a collection of African grassland Birds and Exotic birds from around the world. Several of them had beautiful plumages, and then there were Owls! From here we moved on to see the red pandas and the big cats which consisted of a lion, two lionesses and a snow leopard. All very beautiful to look. They seem incredibly large and powerful when you get up close to them. We got there just before feeding time, so the lionesses were getting pretty angsty. One leapt up and growled at a female tourist who was trying to take a picture. The keeper came with big hunks of meat and dropped them into the enclosure via a hatch type thing. The biggest lioness got her share first, followed by the smaller lioness. The male lion (he was housed seperately due to his having seizures) was getting impatient waiting for his dinner. He too was rewarded with a big chunk of some unfortunate animal. The noise they made when biting throught the flesh and bone made me quite thankful there was a metal fence between me and the lions! After seeing the lions eat, I too felt strangely hungry and went off in search of food. After a ‘cup-o-chips’ I felt ready to walk round the rest of the zoo.
Following the path next lead us to a large, fully enclosed avairy that was full of all sorts of birds. It ranged from ducks, peacocks, parrots and ‘honeyeaters’. All sorts of weird and wonderful birds sat up amongst the trees, or bathed in the waters at the bottom of the avairy. They made all kinds of sounds – from shrill chirping, to squarks, hoots, clicks, everything! It was noisy and also quite surreal to hear them all calling out to each other in their various ways. The strangest thing was probably the peacock – not because it is particularly exotic, but because I’d never seen one sitting so high up in a tree before. I just imagined they stayed on the ground as their tails are so heavy. Other birds that I saw dotted around the Zoo included Flamingos, cassowarys, pelicans and a whole load of birds from Asia.
Next we wondered up to see the small penguins get fed. These were the type of penguins that I’d hoped to have seen on Granite Island. They were pretty cute little things – unfortunately two rather large seaguls decided to torment them. They spent most of the time being chased and pecked by the seaguls before the keeped came out with a bucked of sardines for lunch. We were surrounded by school kids on a trip and I was getting really annoyed because I was too tall to stand at the front! Damn kids! I did get a fairly good view of them though and have attached a picture somewhere!
From here we moved on to see the last of the animals, including the Sumatran Tiger, Siamang (primate), Orang Utans, African Wild Dogs, Binturong (don’t ask!), dwarf Mongoose, Tapiers, Chimpanzees and of course, the Australian Sea lions. It was a pretty exhausting day at the end – the heat was getting to me and we called it a day after 4 hours of looking at animals and taking in all the information about them. Very strange not to see any Elephants at the zoo!
The Zoo wasn’t that busy and it’s probably due to the fact that everyone is waiting until next month when the unveiling of the newly acquired Giant Pandas (Wang Wang and Funi) takes place. The two giant pandas are a gift to Australia from China and the whole of SA is excited because Adelaide Zoo will be the first in the whole of Australia to have Giant Pandas. The whole of SA has gone panda crazy – there has been a ‘panda countdown’ on the news each night – counting down the days until they arrived. They are now in quarantine for another 2 weeks until mid december when they will go into their new home. A farmer in SA has spent the last 2 years growing bamboo specifically for them to eat. Lets hope they were worth the wait!
Katie x
