South Australia
I went back to being a tourist in my own state this week. I visited Monarto Zoo for the first time. It's an open range zoo about an hour from Adelaide, it's an easy drive out to Monarto, along the South Eastern Freeway. The zoo is well sign posted from the freeway exit and so is easy to find. (Just as well as I hadn't thought to bring a map! Nor do I have a GPS!)
The Visitor's Centre at the zoo, your first stop. The centre is a 2.5km drive from the entrance to the zoo. The whole property is 1,500 hectares ( about 3,700 acres) but only 250 hectares is open to the public. My first surprise was that I had assumed you drove your own car through the zoo, along the trails and saw the animals, that's not the case. Cars are parked by the Visitor's Centre and then you catch a shuttle bus which takes you around. There are stops where you can get out, or the other option is to walk the trails between stops, or combine the walking and riding a bus.
The buses are quite big and they're on a regular schedule so are convenient, the guides that ride on them are really informative as well.
The zoo was initially established as a breeding area and threatened species sanctuary, but later was opened to the public. It still keeps to its original purpose and has a successful breeding program for threatened species. The first we came across was Przewalski's horse.
Przewalski's horse is native to the steppes of Mongolia and was hunted for its meat. It was hunted to the brink of extinction, 13 were captured in 1945 and all the Przewalski's horses now in existence are descendants of 9 of these original 13. (Research!!) Quite amazing and there are around 1,500 Przewalski's horses worldwide and they have been reintroduced back to their native environment in Mongolia, the Monarto Zoo breeding program has sent horses to Mongolia, there's about 300 there in the wild there.
Feeding time for the giraffes, the zoo's giraffe breeding program had a boost earlier this year as 2 giraffe calves were born within a few weeks of each other. They're the smaller giraffes in the picture.
The zoo has 2 different species of rhinos, the black and the white, both are threatened in the wild. They are kept in separate areas, the black rhino was bigger, and he wouldn't turn around for me to take his picture! I didn't want a picture of his backside!
Two female white rhinos, a new young female has just arrived from Australia Zoo in Queensland and she's learning how to deal with the male rhino! We watched them charge at each other as they were being fed, the bull pushing the female away. The keeper then pointed out one of the older females came over and she knew how to deal with the bull and so would model the behaviour for the new female. It was interesting to watch, the older female didn't charge at the bull, but just eyed him off and he backed off, and backed away from the food!
The animals are grouped together in large open range enclosures and they're grouped based on which animals could get along! The painted dogs are in with the hyenas. The painted dogs are having a break under the shade as the day was getting warm.
The remains of farm buildings can be seen on the property and that's because in the 1970s the State Government had bought up what had been farmland to build a satellite city to Adelaide. (It was a way to distribute the urban population) The satellite city never got off the drawing board and by 1981, some of the farmers were able to buy their land back and the major part was given to the Adelaide Zoo. The farm buildings which can be seen belonged to the Bretag family, this cottage was lived in right up until the 1950s, nearby are the remains of a diary, and the lime kiln has been restored by apprentice stone masons.
Visitors can leave the bus at designated viewing areas, this is the Waterhole viewing area with the African animals. The viewing areas have toilets and vending machines as well as information on the animals you can see.
Ostriches, zebras and giraffes from the Waterhole viewing area. As it's November the grass has already dried off so the scene is more dry savannah, than lush temperate!
The giraffe herd at the waterhole, the track for the bus is between the giraffes so visitors do get a close up view of them.
Male ostrich, the black ones are the males I found out! There are emus as well in the more open areas, when the zoo was fenced off against feral pests, whatever native animals were inside remained. So it's possible to spot kangaroos and emus wandering around the zoo.
Next to the Visitor's Centre is a cafe with indoor and outdoor seating.
Near the Visitor's Centre is an open picnic/play area with this great rhino sculpture! There's also a children's playground and seated picnic tables. In the background is the roof to the chimpanzee enclosure.
There's an enclosure with Meerkats, very cute!
Then it's a short walk to the chimpanzee enclosure, which has an outdoor and indoor area. I managed to get there just as a couple of chimpanzees were outside, then decided to join the rest who were inside.
There are more animals, some were too far away to get a good photo off, or I was on the wrong side of the bus! The lions were in their night enclosure as there was building work going on in their area, a new viewing experience was being built, where the visitor was in a caged area and the lions roamed free outside!
As much as it's a bit of a drive from Adelaide to visit the zoo, it's easy to spend a full day there. You can do as many loops with the shuttle bus as you want, so morning loop, return to Visitor's Centre for lunch, then afternoon loop. For those who are feeling energetic, walk some of the trails, from the information given, none of them take too long and then it's possible to catch the bus to the next stop or back to the Visitor's Centre. It all makes for a great day out!
I went back to being a tourist in my own state this week. I visited Monarto Zoo for the first time. It's an open range zoo about an hour from Adelaide, it's an easy drive out to Monarto, along the South Eastern Freeway. The zoo is well sign posted from the freeway exit and so is easy to find. (Just as well as I hadn't thought to bring a map! Nor do I have a GPS!)
The Visitor's Centre at the zoo, your first stop. The centre is a 2.5km drive from the entrance to the zoo. The whole property is 1,500 hectares ( about 3,700 acres) but only 250 hectares is open to the public. My first surprise was that I had assumed you drove your own car through the zoo, along the trails and saw the animals, that's not the case. Cars are parked by the Visitor's Centre and then you catch a shuttle bus which takes you around. There are stops where you can get out, or the other option is to walk the trails between stops, or combine the walking and riding a bus.
The zoo was initially established as a breeding area and threatened species sanctuary, but later was opened to the public. It still keeps to its original purpose and has a successful breeding program for threatened species. The first we came across was Przewalski's horse.
Przewalski's horse is native to the steppes of Mongolia and was hunted for its meat. It was hunted to the brink of extinction, 13 were captured in 1945 and all the Przewalski's horses now in existence are descendants of 9 of these original 13. (Research!!) Quite amazing and there are around 1,500 Przewalski's horses worldwide and they have been reintroduced back to their native environment in Mongolia, the Monarto Zoo breeding program has sent horses to Mongolia, there's about 300 there in the wild there.
The zoo has 2 different species of rhinos, the black and the white, both are threatened in the wild. They are kept in separate areas, the black rhino was bigger, and he wouldn't turn around for me to take his picture! I didn't want a picture of his backside!
Two female white rhinos, a new young female has just arrived from Australia Zoo in Queensland and she's learning how to deal with the male rhino! We watched them charge at each other as they were being fed, the bull pushing the female away. The keeper then pointed out one of the older females came over and she knew how to deal with the bull and so would model the behaviour for the new female. It was interesting to watch, the older female didn't charge at the bull, but just eyed him off and he backed off, and backed away from the food!
The remains of farm buildings can be seen on the property and that's because in the 1970s the State Government had bought up what had been farmland to build a satellite city to Adelaide. (It was a way to distribute the urban population) The satellite city never got off the drawing board and by 1981, some of the farmers were able to buy their land back and the major part was given to the Adelaide Zoo. The farm buildings which can be seen belonged to the Bretag family, this cottage was lived in right up until the 1950s, nearby are the remains of a diary, and the lime kiln has been restored by apprentice stone masons.
Visitors can leave the bus at designated viewing areas, this is the Waterhole viewing area with the African animals. The viewing areas have toilets and vending machines as well as information on the animals you can see.
Ostriches, zebras and giraffes from the Waterhole viewing area. As it's November the grass has already dried off so the scene is more dry savannah, than lush temperate!
The giraffe herd at the waterhole, the track for the bus is between the giraffes so visitors do get a close up view of them.
Male ostrich, the black ones are the males I found out! There are emus as well in the more open areas, when the zoo was fenced off against feral pests, whatever native animals were inside remained. So it's possible to spot kangaroos and emus wandering around the zoo.
Near the Visitor's Centre is an open picnic/play area with this great rhino sculpture! There's also a children's playground and seated picnic tables. In the background is the roof to the chimpanzee enclosure.
There's an enclosure with Meerkats, very cute!
Then it's a short walk to the chimpanzee enclosure, which has an outdoor and indoor area. I managed to get there just as a couple of chimpanzees were outside, then decided to join the rest who were inside.
There are more animals, some were too far away to get a good photo off, or I was on the wrong side of the bus! The lions were in their night enclosure as there was building work going on in their area, a new viewing experience was being built, where the visitor was in a caged area and the lions roamed free outside!
As much as it's a bit of a drive from Adelaide to visit the zoo, it's easy to spend a full day there. You can do as many loops with the shuttle bus as you want, so morning loop, return to Visitor's Centre for lunch, then afternoon loop. For those who are feeling energetic, walk some of the trails, from the information given, none of them take too long and then it's possible to catch the bus to the next stop or back to the Visitor's Centre. It all makes for a great day out!
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