After a wonderful morning at Werribee Zoo the previous day we had decided on a quick trip to Melbourne Zoo before heading off to a family lunch, despite the forecast predicting heavy rains. Indeed, we often like to visit the zoo when the forecast is for inclement weather as the crowds tend to be smaller and we therefore tend to get better photos of the animals. Plus, we often find the animals tend to be more relaxed and demonstrative, for example, as we passed the gorilla exhibit that was in the process of being cleaned, we could hear the piercing call of the white-cheeked gibbons as they called to one another.
Of course, not all the animals were so keen to move about in the cool of the morning. The ring-tailed lemurs were more interested in huddling together and grooming.
The otters it seemed, however, were still trying to sleep in.
The female tiger, meanwhile, strolled around a bit before settling down to pose and watch a few children running back and forth.
After a brief sprinkling of rain, she left the enclosure. We decided to wait to see if she would return again and chatted with a few other visitors, including two lovely ladies who had stayed overnight at the zoo for the "Roar and Snore" experience. After chatting for a while, they headed off for the Stick Insect talk while we remained waiting as we could see one of the tigers preparing to enter the enclosure. It wasn’t long before the big male tiger came out and began investigating all the scents left by the female and the smells that followed the rain.
While watching (and photographing) the male tiger, one of the friendly zoo volunteers chatted with us about the new Leopard Ridge that’s due to open in December as part of the Carnivore Trail. We seriously cannot wait to see this new exhibit as the ever elusive and beautiful Snow Leopards will be back on display. After all the excitement of hearing about the new exhibit, we decided to take a quick peek down at Lion Gorge to see how close things might be to opening. Of course, we took a quick detour on the way to check out who was on sentry duty among the Meerkats.
Arriving at Lion Gorge we found one of the three brothers had taken up a sentry-like position of his own (or was that “King of Pride Rock”). It seemed like he was also checking out when Leopard Ridge was opening, while his brother was content to wait at the base of a big tree.
The African Wild Dogs also seemed to be patiently waiting.
Family lunch, on the other hand, could wait and so we packed up our kit and headed home, knowing that soon we’d be back again.