During the summer school holidays, Zoos Victoria opens the gates an hour earlier which gives visitors a great opportunity to see some of the preparations that keepers go through in getting things ready for the day and catching some of the animals going through their own morning routines. Naturally we arrived prior to the gates opening even for the early opening in the hope that we might catch the Snow Leopards out and about before the day warmed up too much. As such, our first stop was at their fantastic new enclosure on the Carnivore’s Trail.
Finding the doors to the night dens closed and the keepers busy cleaning, we wandered around a little further to visit Indrah, the female Sumatran Tiger, in her new home. Here we found Indrah pacing about a little as if she was trying to decide whether to go for a swim, go hide out the back or lie down on one of her many vantage points to survey her domain.
Eventually she decided on sitting on one of the platforms and posed nicely for us, giving us plenty of opportunity to capture her beauty. We spent around twenty or so minutes alone with Indrah as if there was nobody else visiting the zoo.
After such a special encounter with Indrah we decided to wander back to visit the Snow Leopards, hoping that they might soon make an appearance. As we neared the enclosure nearest to the Coatis, we saw the keeper finalising her tasks and so we set up the cameras and focused on the gates to the night den. It didn’t take long for our preparation to be rewarded with a glimpse of Miska, the 18 month old female Snow Leopard. She spent some time sniffing around the door and looking out, giving us lots of chances for photos, but she soon decided to head back into the night den and out of sight.
Having finally seen a Snow Leopard on the Carnivore’s Trail, we headed back past Lion Gorge and watched the boys come out from their night dens to play in the early morning sunshine.
Next we headed across to the Hamadryas Baboon enclosure hoping to catch sight of the two youngsters we’d seen back in July. When we arrived we discovered that there was another new baby, only a few weeks old and still clinging to, and being shielded by, mum. The youngsters, on the other hand, were busy chasing each other all over the place while one of the older members of the troop played with a bucket like it was a sled.
Walking on we decided it was time to stop off at the Giraffe Lookout Cafe, rest with a coffee and have a look back at some of the photos we’d already taken. After recharging our caffeine levels, we headed for the Great Canopy Walk as we could hear the White-Cheeked Gibbons calling once again. As we were walking past the Black and White Ruffed Lemurs we noticed something moving on one of the rocks:
And one of the lemurs sitting in a basket while snacking:
Moving on we passed the sleeping Gorillas:
Although Kanzi, the nearly 3 year old, was still playing about and eating:
The White-Cheeked Gibbons were delighting visitors with their antics as the old and young alike went from awe to laughter, although a yawn from Jin, the black and white male, did frighten one youngster when she saw all his teeth.
After watching the Gibbons playing about we decided to take a walk along the Trail of the Elephants and catch up with the other Sumatran Tigers. We arrived to find Hutan, Indrah’s brother, pacing around in the sunlight, clearly waiting for something.
Not long after, the gate to the off-display area opened and he raced out. A minute or so later Binjai, Hutan and Indrah’s mother, entered the enclosure and began sniffing around, particularly near the back of the enclosure where she was hard to spot.
Hutan began roaring loudly as he interacted with what looked like a large blue barrel in his off-display area. Many visitors came past and could hear Hutan, but not being able to see him or Binjai clearly, kept walking on. We decided to wait a little while to see if Binjai might come out into the open and we were not disappointed.
After yet another magical moment with one of the big cats, we walked on towards the Orangutans.
These magnificent primates are critically endangered and under severe threat from habitat loss, mostly due to land clearing for palm oil plantations. We can all do our bit to help save the species by buying products that don’t use palm oil. Unfortunately, labelling of palm oil has still not been made mandatory in Australia, with many products simply labelling it as "vegetable oil". Zoos Victoria are leading the way with the Don’t palm us off campaign. Of course, it is not only the Orangutans who are threatened by land clearing for palm oil plantations but also tigers, rhinos and elephants. You can do your bit by emailing your local member (via the above link) and asking them to support the mandatory labelling of palm oil.
After watching the Orangutans for a short while we headed off towards the Japanese Garden to enjoy a picnic lunch in the peaceful surrounds. We met and chatted with some lovely people who were equally enjoying the serenity of the garden.
We finished our lunch and wandered down to Lion Gorge to hear the keeper talk. The three boys were eager to come back out for their lunch and raced to each pick up a hunk of meat the keepers had placed out for them.
As we watched the boys enjoying their lunch, Keeper Jess gave us a hugely entertaining and informative talk about the Lions and African Wild Dogs. We’ve met Jess many times in our visits and she has always been a great source of information for us, in many cases helping us plan better for future visits.
After the talk, we chatted for a bit with Jess and one of the volunteers about the new Carnivore’s Trail and the Snow Leopards. We learned that the keepers were now showing live streams from the night dens, to enable visitors to see the animals when not visible in the enclosure. Having already seen Miska, we decided to head across to the Reptile House for a quick look before heading up to the meeting point for a close encounter experience with the Ring-tailed Lemurs. We met another of our favourite staff members, Adam, who looked after us during the Nikon School events, just as rain began to fall. Adam took us through the safety instructions, but unfortunately the rain got heavier and the radar suggested it was only going to get worse. As such, the experience needed to be cancelled, both for our safety and primarily for the animal’s welfare. Whilst slightly disappointed on missing out on getting a close-up with the lemurs, we were so impressed with how Zoos Victoria put the animal welfare first and arranged to refund or rebook the experience for all of us. Naturally, we don’t mind having yet another excuse for going back to Melbourne Zoo.