School holidays provide a great opportunity to take a weekday visit to Melbourne Zoo. Arriving just after opening time we headed straight for the Carnivore’s Trail, catching the lions still having a yawn:
A trip to Melbourne Zoo (9 January 2018)
We once again headed into Melbourne Zoo to take advantage of the early opening times and hopefully catch sight of Miska, the beautiful snow leopard, like we did on our last visit. Arriving shortly before the gates opened at 8am, we queued with other eager visitors. Once the gates opened we headed directly for the Carnivore’s Trail, passing by the empty Lion enclosure (the boys were still in their beds) we found that there were some necessary works going on and Carnivore’s Trail was closed until 9am, so we checked in on Isabella, the Philippines Crocodile.
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 (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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A trip to Werribee Open Range Zoo (25 November 2017)
Zoos Victoria had announced that the four lion cubs, two males and two females, who were born to second-time mum Nilo at Werribee Open Range Zoo on August 12, had now been named and would be on limited display as they still needed long rest periods like all young cubs (and kids). Having been advised that the best viewing times to see Asali, Ilola, Ato and Lwazi were before 10.30am, we headed down to Werribee early and arrived even before the gates opened thanks to some lighter than usual traffic.
Once the gates opened and our membership cards had been scanned, we made our way towards the lion enclosure in the hope of securing a good viewing spot. When we arrived, the keepers were still cleaning the interior glass and setting up food and enrichment for the lions, but we could hear the male lion roaring, clearly impatient for his breakfast. Watching the keepers placing these huge rib bones out for the lions gave us the opportunity to determine the probable best positions for good photos and to set up a third camera to record a bit of video while the magpies tried to steal a bit of meat off the waiting bones.
By the time things were all set, there were only about six of us at the enclosure and we were not disappointed when the pride came out of their night dens.
The big male lion immediately claimed a huge rack of ribs and headed off to the shade to eat.
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