Author: Matthew

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A trip to Melbourne Zoo (29 December 2017)

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.

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A trip to Melbourne Zoo (23 December 2017)

Once again we headed into Melbourne Zoo in the hope of capturing some good photos on the new Carnivore’s Trail. As usual we arrived prior to the gates opening and queued up with other keen visitors. Once inside our first port of call was, naturally, to try and photograph the snow leopards. The animals, like us, are still getting used to the new enclosures and for some, including two of the snow leopards, still adjusting to smells, sights and sounds of Melbourne Zoo. Seeing little evidence of any movement in the snow leopard enclosure, we moved on with the intention of returning later in the day.

A little further down the trail is the fantastic new Sumatran Tiger enclosure. Here we eventually noticed Indrah hiding out in the back among the foliage showing how well she can camouflage herself.

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A trip to Melbourne Zoo (21 December 2017)

After many months of waiting, Zoos Victoria’s Carnivore’s Trail finally opened to the public on 19 December, but with high temperatures and thunderstorms forecast for the day, we decided to miss the opening and wait for more favourable weather. Attending the opening of Kangaroo Country the next day (20 December) was already scheduled, so we had to wait for Thursday 21 December to visit. Thankfully, the weather was suitably pleasant and things looked good for checking out Carnivore’s Trail.

As usual we arrived just prior to the gates opening. Once inside, we headed straight for Lion Gorge and the start of the Carnivore’s Trail. This magnificent new addition to Melbourne Zoo includes an incredible enclosure for the rare and vulnerable Snow Leopards. The photo below, made from 50 individual photos, is just one of the superb one-way viewing windows into their enclosure. The one-way glass in the viewing windows allows visitors to look into the enclosure without disturbing these beautiful cats.

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A trip to Melbourne Zoo (26 November 2017)

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.

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