Sydney, Australia (Day 1)

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

The monkeys stand for honesty
Giraffes are insincere
And the elephants are kindly but they're dumb
Orangutans are skeptical
Of changes in their cages
And the zookeeper is very fond of rum

So, what’s been happening?

The lyrics above likely gave it all away, but today I went to the zoo!

The Taronga Zoo is located on a steep hill overlooking Sydney Harbor. The animals living here definitely have the best views of anybody in town.

The Taronga Zoo is over 100 years old and the entryway to the park is quite reflective of that age. Curiously, the entryway has the heads (not real heads) of various animals protruding from the masonry as though they were game trophies hanging from the library in an English mansion.

The zoo is large, but not nearly as large as the San Diego Zoo, a zoological park with which I am very familiar. In fact, I found my visit to Taronga filled with many mental comparisons to San Diego’s world famous zoo. Although, Taronga may be smaller than the San Diego Zoo, it compares favorably in many other ways.

Taronga Zoo is a very clean place. It was difficult to find any trash, garbage, or other litter anywhere in the park. It is also easy to find a place to grab a snack, a beverage (even beer!), or a rest room. I also like the signage found everywhere admonishing me (the visitor) not to give any animal a bite of my burger or a sip of my beer. Yeah, as if I’d share a good bee-ah with any of these guys.

The main entrance to the zoo (pictured above) is at the top of the hill, and the pathways to see the animals wind their ways from the top to the bottom, making the park more accessible to elderly people or people who experience some difficulty walking, especially up hill.

Once a zoo visitor finds their way to the bottom, there is a “Sky Safari” (I like to call them “Sky Buckets”) that will take you pack to the top of the park where you can find a new path back to the bottom. This really helps to make visiting the animals an effortless thing.

Oh, yes! The animals!

This zoo, like so many others, has many of the African animals we learned to love as kids: giraffes, elephants, monkeys, and all the rest. However, I have a limited amount of time to spend here so I sought out the animals any visitor to Australia wants to see: Australian animals, of course. And here is a collection that I found and studied.

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• Kangaroos: In Australia, kangaroos are almost everywhere. The “big reds” are as tasty as they are ubiquitous. They make great burgers, but don’t take my word for it. Buy some, and decide for yourself!
• Emu: Along with the kangaroo, emus appear on the Australian coat of arms and, again like the kangaroo, are also considered to be a national symbol. And, once again, if you want to eat healthier but can’t seem to give up those cheeseburgers, the flightless emu can offer you the break you’re looking for.
• Wallaby: The wallaby is, like the kangaroo, a marsupial which means that they carry their young around in a pouch until the young ‘uns are old enough to care for themselves. They are smaller than kangaroos and, according to my personal experiences, far more polite.
• Koala: A cute, furry animal that should never, under any circumstances, be called a bear.
• Wombat: Wombats are nocturnal animals about the size of a small pig. In this post they are shown in a zoo, but I have had the heart-stopping experience of meeting up with one of these beasts on a dark road outside of Melbourne whilst riding a rented Harley. Buy me a bee-ah and I’ll tell you the story.
• “Silkie” chickens: These little “puff ball” chickens are not unique to Australia, but it was the first time I’d seen one in real life so I snapped the photo. These are not your ordinary chickens. Their feathery “puffs” are smooth to the touch (which is how they got their names.) they have five toes on each food rather than the usual four, and their skin (and meat) is dark grey to black. I think this bird could lend itself to some very unusual culinary artistry!

Now, there was an African animal here that I had some fun with and helped a gathering crowd obtain the photos they were after. Do you recognize this guy?

Yup, it’s a meerkat. Meerkats live in groups much like prairie dogs. They burrow into the ground and into hills. They’re very cute and are often photographed standing up on their back legs in groups. They only exhibit this behavior, though, when they’re on alert. If one meerkat sees, smells, or hears a predator in the vicinity, they will stand up on their hind legs (likely to get a better view) and will produce an “alarm” sound to alert other meerkats that danger may be close by. Today, as a small group of people watched the meerkats dig in the earth and look for food, no meerkat was “on alert” and all of the little guys just wandered around doing their thing.

So, I unlocked my phone, went to YouTube and searched for a video (with sound) of meerkats spreading an alert. Once I found what I was looking for, I played the video at full volume while holding my phone high enough to get the speaker higher than the glass walls that contained the meerkat habitat. Immediately, every meerkat in that exhibit was up on its hind legs and looking for the source of the danger. That would be me.

I wonder if they (the meerkats) ever figured out that it was me that sounded the alarm. Oh, well. The other zoo guests thought it was pretty clever and everybody got the photo they wanted.

Perhaps it’s just because I’m a foreigner and I’m not familiar with Australian animals in general, but I found some great animal watching outside of enclosures. They were just walking around the zoo, much like me. For example, before entering the park proper, I found this little guy rummaging around in the bushes. I don’t know if he’s an iguana or some other kind of lizard but there he was, in the wild, and as free as you please!

Another beast that could be seen everywhere would likely be kept in an aviary anywhere in North America. This guy is known as an Ibis.

This particular bird propped himself up right next to me as I was trying to eat some lunch. He was very bold and didn’t seem to care that I could (if driven to it) reach out and wring his scrawny neck with very little effort.

Our tour guide explained to us that these birds normally live in swamplands. They use their long beak to probe in the murky waters for insects and small fish. However, New South Wales (the state in which you’d find Sydney) has been suffering through a drought for seven years now. As a result, the wetlands are drying up and the ibis has migrated into the city where it has been living quite successfully. It now uses its long beak to open the tops of garbage bins at the zoo as well as those found all over town. Now, the locals (who seem to make up funny names for nearly everything) call them “bin chickens.”

So, anything else?

Ok, the animals at the zoo were both interesting and entertaining, but you don’t have to look much farther than the human animal and his creations to produce a little snicker under your breath. For example, this sign:

I wonder if this sign in simply informational or serves as a warning. I dunno, but I can tell you that I have decided to be very careful about how I sit down on one.

So, what’s coming up?

This is an overnight stay in Sydney which gives me more time to explore. Personally, I think everybody who visits Sydney should go see the Opera House, so that’s on my agenda for tomorrow!

Come back and I’ll tell you all about it.