Taronga Zoo

Want to experience a large and diverse range of wildlife still in the thick of an exciting city? Visit Taronga Zoo and brace yourself with a large assortment of animals raging from the natives to those unique and exotic. Imagine a zoo packed with around 2,600 animals, including koalas, giraffes, tasmanian devils, platypus, swamp wallabies and red kangaroos and you'll get the picture of Taronga Zoo.

It was first opened in New South Wales in the year 1884. The zoo launched in Mosman was conceived through Albert Sherbourne Le Souef, the zoo's secretary, who fancied a bar-less zoo when he had a visit to a zoo in Hamburg. Early exhibits of the zoo include the Tiger Pits, the Aquarium, the Floral Clock, the Giraffe House and the Thar Mountain.

A Different Zoo Experience

What's enticing about visiting the Taronga Zoo is the structure of the place. Unlike other zoos, Taronga Zoo is atop a high area where visitors can gaze at the animals against the backdrop of Sydney harbour, namely, the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is suggested that a zoo guest should enter through the entrance at the top of the zoo to get the best view of the surroundings. From the top of the zoo, walking downhill at a zigzag path, you would be surprised by the wide range of animals that you would see from your every turn. You would definitely be astounded by the magnificent view brought by the Sydney Harbour, which you will view at different perspectives as you walk down. When you have reached the end of the path, you can then choose to ride the Sky Safari chair, which would take you on top again so as to experience a different trail of the zoo. The zoo also has a jetty, so you can go visit the zoo off a boat.

Taronga Zoo Special Tours

Aside from meeting various species from the animal kingdom, Taronga Zoo also offers special zoo tours. If you can't get enough of the regular zoo tour, wait until you see what's in store in Taronga's special zoo tours.

1. Taronga's Wild Australia Experience at Taronga's Wild Australia Experience caters for individuals who are interested in Australian animals. In this tour, zoo keepers will educate people about the natural habitat of the animals in Australia as well as other things like the food they eat and how they interact with their surroundings in order to survive. Included in this tour is a peek inside the zoo's kitchen where people can see how the food of the animals is prepared. People would also be allowed to feed wallabies and kangaroos and pose with koalas in photographs. They would also get the chance to see nocturnal animals from Australia's Nightlife House.

2. Taronga Zoo, Australian Animals Flexible Tour and Sky Safari. This tour is much like the Taronga Wild Australia Experience only that it involves a tour of Backyard to Bush and a ride onboard a Sky Safari gondola. Backyard to Bush is a farmyard where people can see all sorts of worms and other scaly and slimy creatures. The Sky Safari gondola, meanwhile, takes people on a breathtaking tour aboard a gondola where they will be able to see the AGL Amazonia together with its animals. The gondola would also travel across the zoo's Asian rainforest inhabited by orangutans.

So if you're bored with your usual Zoos, why not plan a trip to Taronga Zoo. Taronga Zoo is the place to be, if you're looking for a fun-filled experience and an unusual encounter with the members of the animal kingdom.