I spent a good part of the day at the
Toronga Zoo in Sydney
on the north side of the harbor. They have a variety of local and
non-local animals, and there are several talks daily from some of
the keepers of the various animals. I went there and attended a
few talks, saw a bunch of animals, and took a lot of pictures.
Saturday October 12, 2024.
While walking to Circular Quaya to get a ferry
to the zoo, I noticed at the end ofthe block, across the street,
there were a bunch of people there. It was clear that something was
being filmed. I didn't want to get too close to be a jerk but I took
a few pictures. In the first one you can see two guys sitting on
on the ground with some white screens in front of them. I assumed
it was for lighting, but it might be a blue screen. Also,they're
wearing blue which might be part of the costume or maybe it'll involve
CGI. On the ground is a lot of (simulated) broken sidewalk, broken
street signs, and more.
The second picture is of the back of a truck that has a lot of signs,
some pre-broken, for them to use. And the third is of some cars parked
around the block from where they were filming (er, recording I imagine).
I think the scene must take place in NYC, since there's an NYPD police
car (and it has what looks like a legit NYS license plate) and a taxi
behind it. I think the Thrifty truck was the ones with the signs.
Because of the reflection off the windshield, it's hard to tell, but
I think that is a car where the driver sits on the left side, instead
of the right is the way with cars in Australia.
I asked a police officer that was keeping an eye on traffic if they
were there for a movie and she said no, it was "just a TV show".
I guess that's pretty common in Sydney. I didn't ask what show as
I wouldn't have heard of it and they might not want to tell people
or she might not have known for that same reason.
To get to the zoo, I took the harbor ferry from Circular Quay on the south side of the harbor across the harbor and a bit to the east. It took maybe 10 minutes or so. It was an overcast day, which was actually rather merciful, so the sun wasn't as strong. Going in and out of the Circular Quay means passing the Opera House with nice waterside views of it. When I rode on the harbor ferries, regardless of the weather, I always stayed on the outside so I could sightsee. The water was a little bit choppy on this day, but not too bad. There were a lot of small sailboats out too, since the wind was good.
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The good ship Fred Hollows approaches. Maybe they wanted to call it the Fredly...(more)
First up at the zoo was the Tasmanian Devils. There was a talk by the keeper scheduled for shortly after I arrived. It took a little time to figure out how to get to where I wanted to go from where I was, as well as figuring out exactly where I was. Eventually, I decided I wnated to get there and just asked someone that I passed who worked there. I got there a few minutes early and had time to walk around the area a bit first. The keeper talked for 10 minutes or so and had been working with the devils for like 10-15 years.
Next up was walking through an area that had lots of birst all around, flying here, there, and everywhere.
I wanted to see a few things, like some of the talks of the various keepers that were in certain places and certain times. And beyond that, I just wanted to see the various animals. So there wasn't an organized order to my exploration and I don't feel like moving all the photos around to group the animals by location or type or alphabetically sort their genus and species. So...a few unsorted animals. The ibus was while I was in line to get lunch. I figured not eating would be stupid and I've made that mistake a few times.
Capybaras are Rodents of Unusual Size. In fact they are the largest
living rodents on earth, originally from South America (and not native
to Australia). They eat leaves and
branches, especially ones the picky red pandas won't eat. They're
generally mellow and pleasant. At one point, while the keeper was
talking, one capybara walked up to her and patiently waited and
just stared at her as if wanting to make sure she knew that if she
had any extra branches and leaves that she needed to get rid of, he
was willing and able to help. The more he stared at her, the more
she kept looking at him, talking to him, and chuckling.
Also, it case it wasn't clear, the "largest living rodents on earth"
are around 3.5-4.5 feet (1-1.3 meters) long and weigh 77-146 lbs
(35-66 kg)! These are BIG rats, though pretty mellow and
friendly ones. (And yes, they are not rats, just like rabbits
aren't either.)
Also, two enclosures over was a cassowary. It was in the far corner
behind some trees, and my telephoto lens kept focusing on the trees.
I have better photos of them from Featherdale. They are kind of the
opposite of the capybaries, where one seems to be a mellow, stable
R.O.U.S, while the other is a razor-toed murder-bird that has the
1000-mile stare of a heavily armed space marine with PTSD that just
thought he heard a familiar noise from Back Then, Back There.
As one might guess, the cassowary is the one native to Australia.
The jury is still out as to whether dingos are dogs, are
a subspecies of dogs, are a subspecies of wolves, or a subspecies
of the proto-dogs. All I can say is that the few I've seen at
Toronga and Lone Pie generally look and act like dogs.
The pair at Toronga were running around, watching people, and
then playing the "I bite you!", "No, I bite
you!", "Well, I bite your bite!",
"But I bite you biting my bite!" game.
I do kind of wonder if they just had empty space they needed
to fill and just put some dogs in because the cats either escaped
or just sat in the shade where no one could see and napped (for 4 points).
A fenced in area (with double doors where only one can be open at a time) contained various native Australian animals, including emus, kangaroos, and wallabies. A keeper was feeding an emu while another one wandered around. The kangaroos were mostly lying around and sleeping, and the wallabies watched, with a concerned look that they were missing out on something real cool going on.
There was an indoor animal show that I went to. To be honest, I felt
like sitting down for a bit. The show was more oriented for kids,
but it was still pretty fun. The keeper showed a few animals and
they also had a camera and projected a close-up of the animal on a
screen so people could have a better view of it.
They had an echidna
and a (sugar) glider. I think there was something else too, but I didn't
take any picture of it. On the way there, there was an exhibit with
a koala (sponsored by some big company whose name I also forgot). It
was mostly sleeping in a tree, though it did move at one point. And
before that there was an area with squirrel monkeys. They are both
fascinating and a little creepy. You know they're kind of smart and
have opposable thumbs, so they can do things, but they have tiny brains
and are wild animals, so they can do evil things and probably
like to bite and carry diseases that'd do terrible things to humans
since we can be kind of smart, have opposable thumbs and our bigger
brains aren't that different.
Oh, and I also took a couple pictures of some guineafowl that were
walking around one of the paths.
Meerkats are cute bandit looking animals. There was one that sat down, yawned and then immediately put his head down and fell asleep and didn't move for the next few minutes. The other ones mostly ignored him. But here's what I imagined the dialog would be.
While slowly making my way towards the exit, I saw a few other animals. The sun-bear was mostly just hanging out in the tree. At one point it yawned and stuck out its tongue—like up to 10 inches (25 cm) long! I was a second late in getting a picture when the bear stuck out his freakishly long tongue. I think it took a moment for me to process what I was seeing. There were signs by the tigers saying that the mating season was coming up and not to be concerned about some behaviors they might be exhibiting. There was a (male?) tiger that was separated in a cage that was pacing in tight circles. In context, he probably had one thing on his mind. (Answer the phone! Answer the phone! Answer the phone! Why, why why? Come on! I'll try one more time. Please. Answer the phone... Note: I know that neither tigers nor humans use phones (that way anymore), but it's the best analogy I can come up with.)
The Andean condor is considered to be the largest bird of prey in the world and can live to over 70 years (on the long side for birds) and is the national symbol of Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru. The zoo has a female (no caruncle/comb on the top of the head). It was sitting for a while with its wings spread out. It has quite a large wingspan.
On the way out, I passed by the red panda exhibit. The red panda
was mostly not visible, but htere were a couple times where bits
and pieces could be seen or a tail was poking out from the leaves.
I took a couple of pictures to suggest that it was there.
Then I took the ferry back. I noticed the flags on top of the Harbour
Bridge were flying at half-mast, though I don't know why. I looked
but couldn't find any source.
