Monarto Zoo

Yesterday we visited Monarto Zoo. Monarto is about 40 minutes drive South East of Adelaide, and is an open zoo. It is spread over a large area and there are buses that take you through some of the exhibits. There are also walking trails here. It is built on the site of an old cattle station, so much of the land had been cleared, but the zoo is making efforts to return muck of the land to it's original state. Out first stop was to see Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies. I have seen these a few times in captivity, and though looking for them a few times in the Flinders Ranges, have yet to see them in the wild. It was not until I looked at the photos that I noticed the size of their feet!! They certainly live up to their family name of macropods!! At the back of the wallaby exhibit were a noisy group of White-winged Chough. I am still waiting to get a decent shot of this common Adelaide hills resident. We then visited the Chimpanzees. At the moment Monarto has four young males, but four females from Amsterdam Zoo are due to arrive soon, and they are hoping to begin a breeding program here. Then we took the bus through the "African Savannah" to the carnivores. As we passed through, we saw this very cute two month old Zebra, Black Rhino and the largest captive journey of Giraffes in the Southern Hemisphere. (I also learnt this new collective noun!) The carnivore exhibit has Spotted Hyaena, Wild Dogs and Lions. The hyena were too distant for a shot, but the dogs and lions obliged very nicely. This Little Raven was picking up scraps left over by the Wild dogs. Today is a public holiday in Australia, so I hope to get out and get some shots for another post.