Melbourne Zoo

Melbourne Zoo is lovely day out:)

There are a huge number of animals to visit - it will take you several hours to see them all. The butterfly house is always a favorite, if you are wearing bright colored clothes many butterflies will land on you. The elephant enclosure has been redone and is fairly impressive The orang-utans are my favorite animal to see, I could watch them for hours There is also a dedicated reptile center a well as bird enclosures and a frog center.

There is a large cafeteria style food court selling take away food however I recommend bringing a picnic and enjoying it in the beautiful gardens throughout the park.

There is a huge gift shop with great books, toys, everything!

Show your student card for a substantial discount on the entry fee.

HINT: if at all possible DO NOT visit the Zoo during school holidays, way too many screaming kids

Melbourne Zoo is easy to get to, since it sits at the fringe of the inner city. The only thing standing between my house and the zoo is Royal Park, so instead of taking a tram up to the zoo, we decided to walk through the park. We saw Crested Pigions, Spotted Turtle Doves, Blackbirds and Magpies on the way. The usual suspects!

The zoo doesn't have animal shows. During the school holidays, they might have one or two, but as soon as the holidays are over, they'll go back to having nothing. They're working on a bird show right now.

Instead of shows, they announce animal feeds on the PA system. We saw a fur seal training session, we saw the lions being fed, the Hamadryas baboons being fed, and a koala being fed.

As with most zoos, they've put the most money into their elephant enclosure. But because I've seen it so many times, I gave it a miss.

I visited the meerkats, tree kangaroos, red pandas, baboons, lions, African wild dogs, fur seals, small cats, mackaws, Emus, kangaroos, wallabies, finches, the bird aviary, koalas, reptiles, big cats, maned wolves... and probably more that I've forgotten. The zoo does have the usual African animals like giraffes, zebra, hippos and the like, but since we got there at 12 pm I didn't have time to see them.

In particular, I liked the tree kangaroos, which have funny feet; the bird aviary, where you can get very close to some typically Australian birds; the lion enclosure, which has a bridge where you can view the lions from above; and the Philippine crocodile enclosure. The zoo has two of these crocodiles on loan from the Philippine government, both of which are participating in a breeding program. They are one of the most threatened crocodilian species in the wild. And one of my favourites! Sadly, I could only get a very blurry photo of one since it was too dark. You can see its triangular snout in the photo though.

Walking back home from the zoo, I saw hundreds of Rainbow Lorikeets in the trees along Flemington Road! They were all going nuts. The zoo feeds the wild Lorikeets at 4 pm most days.

Melbourne Zoo is one of three main 'zoos' in Victoria. The other two are Healesville, which I've written a review on; and Werribee Open Range Zoo, which I have yet to visit.