Sunday 19 September 2010

Day 3 - Taronga Zoo & Darling Harbour

Day 3 of the adventure started with four of us piling into Lauren's car again and headed to Sydney's famous Taronga Zoo. I haven't been there for many years & was pleasantly surprised with the amount of change to the place.The Asian Elephant habitat is huge & needs to be because the breeding program has been very successful in recent times. There are currently 2 very young babies at the zoo & one was getting a bath while we were there (below).Taronga is one of the leading zoos when it comes to modern enclosures. They're much more natural for both animal & visitor. Long gone are the days of cages & pits.
Koala's (above) are always popular with the international visitor.
The Fennec Fox (above) is from North Africa.
The Binturong (above) is a strange creature from Asia that's looks to be a cross between a bear & a cat. They seem to sleep as much as the cats.Now for some real cats. The Sumatran Tigers at Taronga are easier to photograph than their Perth Zoo cousins. This one (above) was posing for us!
Below is a highly endangered Snow Leopard. Taronga's breeding program has been very successful over the last decade or so.The Fishing Cat (above) is not scared of the water at all. Their enclosure is large & even has a stream running through it with fish for the cats to catch.
Everyone knows otters (above), but the Red Panda (below) is less familiar. Their closest relative is the raccoon.Somewhere along the way Dave & his family found us. For some reason we took no photos of any of them at their place to day before or at the zoo. Poor form on my part for sure.
The zoo is located on some prime Sydney real estate. Check out the views! The Opera house (above) & the harbour bridge (below).
Around midday we left the zoo & caught the ferry to circular quay where we had lunch & met up with my cousin Mark. After some discussion we decided to catch another ferry to Darling Harbour & settle in for the afternoon with a few refreshments followed by dinner. Around 7.30 we headed to the Entertainment Centre for the Powder Finger concert (part of their farewell tour).