Taronga Zoo

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My very first activity when arriving in Sydney this weekend was visiting the Taronga Zoo. A group of my friends and I mastered the transportation system of the city and made our way to the zoo which was only a bus ride and ferry ride away from our hotel. Once we arrived, we got the chance to take the sky shuttle across the zoo which was absolutely massive.

My friend Hannah’s favorite animal is a platypus, and the Taronga Zoo is one of two zoos in the world that has them. When we entered the room that had the platypus, it was very dark which surprised me. The biggest surprise, however, was seeing how small they were in person. I always had this preconceived notion that they would be around the size of a beaver, but they were very tiny and fast in the water. Watching them dart from one end of the tank to the other in the darkness made capturing a photo very difficult. I was also amused at how adorably clumsy these animals were. Every time they swam they managed to get themselves tangled in all the plants around them, and it definitely gave me a good laugh. After reading all of the information on these monotremes, I learned that they close their eyes and ears when swimming. They completely depend on the electrical signals from their bills to hunt when swimming which would explain the clumsiness in the water. I also learned that they have spurs on their paws which are poisonous, yet another animal added to the long list of deadly animals in Australia!

The next animal we saw was my personal favorite, the koalas! I was ecstatic when I saw my first koala bear sleeping away in a tree. Unlike the platypus, these animals were just as I had expected. They were lazy, sleepy, and adorable. I found out that the eucalyptus leaves they eat are low in nutrients which is why they have to sleep a lot in order to digest and conserve energy. In fact, they are able to sleep up to 18 hours a day. I could probably sleep that much too if I got the chance! Koalas are in fact marsupials, so when the joeys are born, they climb into their mother's pouch for up to six months. They then hang on to their mother’s backs for the remainder of their adolescence. Seeing these animals up close made me even more excited to go to Bungalow Bay Koala Village where I can hopefully carry out my dream of holding one of these cuddly animals.

Overall, the trip to Taronga Zoo was well worth the visit. There were so many unique animals I got to see that I would never have been able to see back home. The zoo was also under a lot of construction, so I can only imagine what new exhibits will be there within the next year. If I ever get the opportunity to return to Sydney, Taronga Zoo will definitely be a place I visit again.

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