One of the best things about being a Zoos Victoria member is the fact that you can go in anytime without needing to buy a ticket for yourself. On this occasion we invited our good friend Chloe and her partner Alex to join us as both of them hadn’t been to any of the zoos in years. Unfortunately Alex had to be at work, but Chloe was able to make it. As an added bonus, we lent Chloe our Nikon D3200 to play with so she could experience the joy of photography with a real camera instead of using her phone.
Our first stop was to visit the lemurs as Chloe hadn’t seen the new Lemur Island. The lemurs, however, were still stirring from their slumber.
Although one was awake enough to try and check out what was in a nearby pram…
Fortunately there was nothing for him to find in the pram and no harm was done, but this is not always the case. Despite the signs at the entrance to Lemur Island, some people still bring in food and the lemurs are very quick to find it and steal it, most of which is not good for them.
As we left Lemur Island, we heard the Rainbow Lorikeets well before we saw them enjoying their breakfast. These beautifully coloured birds can be very noisy at times, but are such an important part of plant pollination in the Australian ecosystem.
Next stop was to visit the male lions in the new Lion Gorge. One of the three boys was in a particularly playful mood, chasing the ducks that were in the pond and his brothers.
We spent a considerable amount of time watching and enjoying the boys playing before heading off to see the PhotoArk exhibition, which was also one of the main reasons we wanted to have Chloe and Alex come into the zoo with us.
Following the visit to the PhotoArk Exhibition, it was time for a visit to the reptile house. While I tried (unsuccessfully) to capture a better close-up shot of the death adder (image below is from a previous visit in January), Sanja and Chloe went off photographing the other reptiles.
After the reptile house, it was time for coffee and a snack at the Giraffe Lookout Cafe. While we enjoyed our caffeine fix, the giraffe chewed on their breakfast and the local sparrows looked out for crumbs around the tables. With our coffee needs fulfilled we headed off to visit the Red Pandas.
These very cute and photogenic animals love to spend much of their day high in the tree tops, dozing and who could blame them on a cool spring morning. Seeing the Red Pandas up in the tree tops curling up in their tails made us all feel like it was a little cooler and so we headed off towards the Trail of the Elephants. Along the way we met two retired teachers visiting from the US. We walked together and chatted for some time about differences and similarities between our two countries, our zoos and our education systems. Needless to say we made each others day and had lots of fun discussing their travels. It wasn’t long before we arrived at the Orangutans.
Orangutans are critically endangered and their major threat to survival comes from the clearing of land to make way for the production of palm oil. Many of the products we buy on the supermarket shelves use palm oil as an ingredient, but this usage is often labelled as something like "vegetable oil". Thanks to campaigns like those of Zoos Victoria’s "Don’t palm us off", public awareness of the impact of such land clearing practices are on the rise. Hopefully soon the labelling of such products will be legislated (at least in Victoria, if not Australia) to clearly identify whether or not the palm oil ingredients used are sustainably harvested or the result of land clearing practices.
As the old adage states, "Time flies when you’re having fun" and it wasn’t long till we realised that more than half the day was gone and soon our 5 hour parking limit would be reached, so we headed towards the exit, taking one last visit to Lemur Island.
By this stage the boys of the lemur conspiracy (yes that’s the collective term – conspiracy) were a little more active and enjoying some of their enrichment treats.
All in all, a fantastic day for everyone. Chloe discovered the joy of photography with a Nikon DSLR. Once again we must give thanks to the wonderful staff of Zoos Victoria, including the lovely keeper who took this shot for us in the lemur enclosure.
