Taronga Zoo

After arriving at the zoo, the very first display that I saw was of a leopard seal. Many of you may recall the spectacular National Geographic article about three years ago, January-ish that brought to light the awesomeness that is a leopard seal--my most favorite photograph ever is a two page spread with a leopard seal's head on the far side of one page with a penguin's head in his mouth and the penguins body on the far side of the other page, and the inside of the penguin all between. Later in the day, I mentioned to a woman working in a shop that it was so cool that they had leopard seals, and she said that all of the leopard seals that they've ever had came in from the wild as injured or orphaned and were unreleasable.

The zoo was very well done, and I don't know that I noticed any differences between the set up, lay out, or presentation of information than the zoos of the us. By "I don't know" I mean that I didn't. At this point I hadn't seen ANY mammals in Australia yet, and was excited to see all sorts of wonderful things--like a greater bilby, all manner of little possum-y things, and even a tree kangaroo. Oh! AND THE KOALAS! Koalas are simply the most photgenic creature that I have ever encountered and are exciting to watch scratch themselves and munch on leaves. Unfortunately, the platypus and wombat were off display as their exhibits were being remodeled.

Other highlights include red pandas (always a hit with me), binturongs, a plethora of colorful native parrots, and a giraffe looking out at Sydney.