Australia Main || Sydney | RBG | Taronga 2 3 4 | CG 2 | Blue Mntns | Aquarium | Tour || Cairns
The next morning we set off for Taronga Zoo. This way we won't feel bad when we don't get any good photos of animals out in the wild. The opera house is so photogenic, it practically demands to have its picture taken every time we go by...
The view from the ferry is great, and a promise of other views to come!
The Taronga Zoo is quite large. Our guidebooks say that it has very impressive exhibits of native fauna. Well, they're right. After the ferry ride, there's a short jaunt in a bus up the hill to the main entrance.
| Just inside is a very cool water/shore bird exhibit. Its open to the air, with the path/bridge going over & thru the middle of it. There's open water to the right (with a few trees shooting up out of it) which extends to the left where it meets up with a shoreline area. On the shore is a very tall bird--well, it would be if it was standing. This is a jabiru (jab-er-oo) a native wading bird. Its legs are jointed backwards (a typical bird-thing) and very long, which is why this pose looks so unusual. |  |
 |
There are ducks swimming around, and a few of these other guys I have since learned are moor hens. The moor hens have a yellow tip to their bills, it's hard to see until you look at the reflection. A really keen feature here, is that they have some stairs going down to the left. You can stand at the bottom there and peer over the fencing to see the swimming birds at eye-level (and camera-level). |
| Hanging out in the deeper water were some pelicans and a darter (anhinga). They were mostly just sunning themselves. The darter is also called a snake-bird, on account of its neck. |  |
 |
The macropod (the kangaroo genus) area is very impressive. It is an enclosure with a simple latching gate. You follow a path thru it and see the roos lounging about. The wallabies up on the slopes watch you and each other keenly and occasionally squabble or scramble away. Here's a shot of one of the observant ones. |
