Sunday, 26-10-2014. Day 67.
Among the Animals
Today was Jackie's birthday, and we looked around for a number of different birthday-type things we could do in Perth. We'd already done Scitech, so that was out. She wanted to go to an indoor jumping arena, but there were none that were all that easy to get to. So we considered some of our other options and she decided on visiting the Perth Zoo.
After a relatively quick bus ride, we got off at Windsor Park and walked to the zoo. Here's a little of what we saw (click each animal to view a larger image).
Cassowary.
Meerkat.
Sumatran orangutan village.
Slater again.
Tree kangaroo (yes, really).
Galapagos tortoise.
Sunbear.
Jackie presents: Slater!
Painted dogs.
Human girls.
Slater, a koala.
Tasmanian devil.
The orangutan enclosure was really fantastic. It's called Jungle School, and it was designed to help get young orangutans ready for release into the Sumatran jungle. A boardwalk runs adjacent to the enclosure and offers a lot of education about the habits, life, and plight of the critically endangered Sumatran orangutan.
The zoo has regular presentations about its animals, so we got to see an elephant painting demonstration and happened to make it to the sunbear, koala, and Tasmanian devil areas for their feeding times and a little talk about them.
The zoo also offers Eye-to-Eye experiences where visitors can pay anywhere from $5 to $35 (depending on the animal) for a chance at an up-close visit with a certain animals (giraffes, lions, penguins, elephants, tamarins), usually for feeding. We looked into this, but all the spots were sold out for the day.
We missed out on the red panda, which was hanging out high up in the top of a tree, and the adult Komodo dragon, which was keeping a low profile. We also didn't see the emperor tamarin, though not for lack of trying on Jackie's behalf. We did see a pair of dingoes, though. They were behind glass and we didn't get any good pictures, but they looked just like dogs.
Near the end of our time at the zoo, on our second-to-last day in Australia, we did manage to see two kolalas. One, a female, slept in a tree the whole time. The other, a four-year-old male named Slater, put on a little show as he chomped eucalyptus leaves.
As much as we wanted to do something special for Jackie's birthday dinner, Sunday night in Perth is pretty sleepy. None of our usual haunts were open, so we grabbed a meal at the Murray Hotel, had some vanilla custard and Tim Tams for dessert (Jackie's choice) and got ready ... the next day would be our last in Australia.
Notable Statistics
iPadographers: 1 (I was hoping for more at the zoo)
Buses ridden: 4
Tim Tams eaten: 17
Koalas seen: 2 (at last)