a Bush Walk in the City

I’ve never been a fan of zoos. When I was a child I found them boring. Later on, if one was thrust upon me, I found good ones were few and far between, and I wrestled with even the good ones.

Enter Tauronga Zoo, Sydney. Everyone who had been there recommended it highly, as much for its location as its quality research and display. A short city ferry passes between the iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House and across the busy, sparkling harbour.

 

Up the hill and there it is, a large wooded expanse of space and meandering paths, open air theatres and meeting places, and enclosures that, in many cases, don’t enclose anything at all. Birds roam freely - a bush turkey kicks leaves on the path, an ibis steals a bit of doughnut from a table, a miner lands on someone’s head to the great shrieking surprise of both.

Beazy says "you can have some of my banana bread but you CANNOT have any of my coffee!

We stuck to the Australian side of things, and I fulfilled a goal to see a living wombat, platypus and koala bear. Most of the wombats I’ve seen have been dead, by the side of the road, their feet stiff in the air, looking like an upturned furry ottoman. But here I saw 5 wombats which were safely tucked up in a darkened burrow, doing what they do best, sleeping. Okay, so my definition of living wombat has been tempered, as they were not at all active, but they were breathing so I treat it as a success.

 Similarly with the playtypus, which is a shy creature and rarely seen in the daytime. The Zoo had several nocturnal exhibits filled with all sorts of hopping, scrabbling, running, climbing, hanging and hiding creatures, most of which seemed to be offshoots of various rodent genuses, along with a few birds and bats, including the ghost bat (“My favourite bat” some sweet little girl was overheard saying just after her father told her it was carnivorous. Maybe she didn’t understand the word and thought he meant coniferous, and a bat that doesn’t lose its leaves would indeed be quite memorable. Or maybe she is just a bloodthirsty little girl. I believe the woods are full of those.)

But in the dark I was able to spy a happy-go-lucky playtypus, swimming around and around a pond, by itself, in the dark, no doubt humming a little happy tune to itself. Swim in peace, little platypus, I thought and went out to see some echidnas in the sunshine.  

it really is there swimming!

Koalas also like to sleep, and there were several lounging in trees, and one could practically hear them purr. One could pay to have a photo taken with one, but I didn’t fancy waking one up just for that.

 

We also saw various kangaroos and wallabies, marsupials of a grand number, thrumming emus and blue-headed cassowaries. Birds of all sorts zoomed just overhead, or hid in trees, including such notable species as tawny frog-mouths, western bristle-birds, gallahs, and spiny-cheeked honeyeaters, for example.

tree kangaroo

can you spot the two lizards?

We avoided the spider cave – been there done that.

The only notable omission was the Tasmanian Devil, a dog-like critter that is sadly becoming extinct for two reasons. They like roadkill, which means they end up being hit by cars themselves, and there is a unique form of cancer that grows from one to another when they are fighting over the same carcass. I saw the enclosure, rather whimsically set up with faux roadkill, but no live Devil. The zoo is trying to save these creatures from themselves and prevent their impending disaster, and have trotted out the blond haired, blue eyed Australian actor Simon Baker (“The Mentalist”) to speak on their behalf via video. If that doesn’t do it, nothing will.

All the enclosures were well prepared to suit their individual animals’ habitats, with lots of room and hiding places. At the same time, they are free to roam to some extent and our most surprising moment came when we saw a wallaby bounding the top of the stone wall we were walking along.

When we needed to rest, we’d sit on benches that look out over Sydney harbour and across to that gorgeous Opera House.  We could see the weather starting to change, with a large dark cloud moving in from the west, so took ourselves back to Circular Key before the rains came, which means we can forever remember our time with the animals in warm sunshine.

boats of many eras passing a musical icon