Location
– Elliot Avenue, Parkville Victoria.
Entry
Price – Adult $26.60AUD Children (4-15) $13.20AUD Pensioners
$24.10AUD
Opening
Hours - 9am to 5pm, Every Day - All year
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| Main promenade - Melbourne Zoo |
Layout
Melbourne Zoo, the oldest zoo in Australia,
opened in 1862. It is a large city zoo located four kilometres from the
Melbourne CBD. The main entrance is
located on Elliott Avenue with ample parking provided off Poplar Road. A tram
and rail entrance is also available at the back of the zoo.
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| Main Entrance |
The front main entrance opens up onto a
long central avenue, that if followed will lead you straight through the centre
of the zoo to the back tram and rail entrance.
The central promenade on the main avenue is the location of the zoo
carousel, gift shop, bathroom facilities and food store. Smaller loop paths run
off the main avenue leading you to the themed attractions and enclosures. These
are roughly themed into regional animal groups from Asia, Africa, and
Australia. A sea-life themed area is located close to the central circular
promenade. Food stores, rest rooms and
gift stores can also be found in some of these themed areas.
The zoo is well maintained with ample shady
open spaces for picnics and family activities. Lakes and landscaped rivers
provide refuge to many Australian native birds and turtles that can be seen
sunning themselves on logs and river banks throughout the zoo.
Extra
Activities
An
extensive program for meet the keeper and animal talks are scheduled daily.
Kids’ activities including Keeper Kids and Growing Wild are also provided. Free
guided tours can be arranged with zoo volunteers. Wild encounter experiences can be purchased
at reasonable prices – Close up encounters start at $25.00
Breeding
Programs
The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect is the
largest stick insect in the world and was thought to be extinct until it was
rediscovered in 2001 on an island called Balls Pyramid. Being flightless and nocturnal made this
little fellow vulnerable to attack by the large population of black rats that
have ravaged Lord Howe Island – but somehow at least a couple of individuals made
it across 25 kilometres of ocean to this
small bit of volcanic rock. There are now approximately 30 insects on Balls
Pyramid.
Melbourne Zoo is researching the rare stick
insect in the hope to reintroduce it back onto Lord Howe Island once an
extensive rat culling program is completed on the Island. This cull will hopefully also allow the
critically endangered wood hen – Australia’s third largest bird, to once again
flourish on the island.
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| The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect |
Stu’s
Favourite Bit
I think the only thing cuter than a meerkat-
is its pups. Melbourne Zoo has a couple of great meerkat enclosures that allow
you to get up close and watch these little guys play, dig, climb and enjoy each
other’s company. I was lucky enough to see the latest additions to the zoo’s
meerkat family - 5 cute playful pups.
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| Two of the Meerkat Pups |
Stu
review and tips
I have a saying – “Best remembered when
long forgotten”. I say this because for
this zoo it wasn’t until I left and pondered my experience that I started to
appreciate the day that was. For example, the entire time I was at the sea
life section, I was critical of the theming that included thongs on poles, the
dark interior that felt a little claustrophobic and somewhat stark sterile sea lion enclosure. But these entirely pale into insignificance when I remember my
close up experience watching a sea lion and its handlers caring interaction. When
I was at the elephant’s enclosure I was frustrated that the keepers decided to
feed the elephants at the opposite side of the enclosure and away from people
hoping to get a glimpse of them feeding only to get an eye full of 5 elephant
bottoms instead. Looking back I doubt I would have seen the caring response from
a mother elephant to its baby patiently waiting to be fed if they were fed any
closer to the crowd. I didn’t get some
of the theming, to be honest I just didn’t like it, but I do appreciate that
the zoo was ultimately trying to tell a story. A conservation story, that
theme ran strongly right through the whole zoo.
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| Keeper checking sea lions mouth |
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| Feeding time for the elephants |
I did find the signage to be a little
confusing and found myself walking around in circles. To be fair the map
provided at entry is perfect and a much easier option than randomly walking
around looking for your favourite animals. Friends that we were with on the day, asked a
good question – Why don’t more zoos provide a mobile app? I will explore this in a future post.
The zoo does get very
crowded on the weekend, so turn up early if you want to park reasonably close
to the main entry and avoid the crowds or take a tram or train to enter the
less packed back entry. Like I always say, plan, plan, plan.
All in all this is a good city zoo with all
the big ticket animals on display. The food is a little expensive but I found
the whole day excellent value based on the entry price.
Must See Animals
Sea Lions
Gorilla
Lion
Tiger
Penguin
Meerkat
Koala
© October 2013-Stuatthezoo.blogspot.com.au
