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Public Address
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1654
Hard News: Networking takes a back seat
Even before the kookaburra, Leo and I agreed it was the best trip to the Zoo ever. We'd taken the left-hand option to the Kiwi House on entry. Quite often you can go in there and not see a damn thing, but yesterday morning there were two fat, sleek, symbolic birds -- one the size of a rugby ball -- busily poking their way through the litter. It was very cool.
Socrates
Since: Feb 2008
Posts: 9
Don't forget Moata a librarian from Christchurch
Tim Michie
From: Auckward
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 237
Yeah. Went to the zoo with me nephew (3) last year and we had a great time. I'd not gone for years (too many mad polar bear in concrete bunker memories) but had caught The Zoo teevee thingy a few time. But I was really glad we both had a great time. And I discovered my nephew *really* like turtles. Who Knew? (Certainly not his Da.)
Geoff Lealand
From: Univ of Waikato
Since: Oct 2007
Posts: 832
Good on yer, Russell. You richly deserve such a break.
Danielle
From: PAS Women's XV Strategic Headquarters
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2249
too many mad polar bear in concrete bunker memories
Oh my god, the pacing. The PACING. They still haunt me.
Amy Gale
From: smalltown USA
Since: May 2007
Posts: 329
Best zoo experience evah was our 4th Form trip, during which one of Wellington Zoo's free range peacocks fluttered into the tiger enclosure and lived - or rather didn't - to regret it.
Who knew teenage girls could be so bloodthirsty? Oh. Right. Everyone.
andrew llewellyn
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2061
Oh my god, the pacing. The PACING. They still haunt me.
Have you seen Ardman's (the Wallace & Gromit people) Creature Comfort? If memory serves, it set interviews with the inmates of an old people's home against animated zoo inhabitants. It won an oscar.
and gosh, here it is
Gervais Laird
From: Sydney
Since: Jan 2007
Posts: 14
Kookaburras are one of my favorite things about living in Oz. They generally hang out as couples and at dusk they patrol the edge of their territory (which for us means eventually sitting on the power pole outside our house) and laugh maniacally which makes my two year old boy crack up. And they are really smart. I remember watching a family carve up a prepared chook at a picnic at the beach with one stalking the roast chook from the powerlines directly overhead. It swooped down and nicked a half of the chicken once it had been carved, much to the hilarity of everyone sitting around the people who lost their lunch!
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4400
Oh my god, the pacing. The PACING. They still haunt me.
I have memories of a 1st form zoo trip flashing back here Danielle.
Everything bad about zoos is rescued by them having otters. Most wonderful animals in the world, ever, and forever, by a mile.
Gervais Laird
From: Sydney
Since: Jan 2007
Posts: 14
Taronga zoo in Sydney has this great thing where kids and parents can stay overnight. Apparently you get to go behind the scenes and get special talks and see the animals feeding. Since a lot of the animals are nocturnal you get to see (and hear them) them during their waking hours which is apparently awesome. I'm looking forward to doing that with my son when he's a bit older.
Paul Rowe
From: Waiheke Island
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 515
Love the zoo, we bought our eldest a friends of the zoo pass for his 4th birthday, so now it's a free day out for my wife and the three kids during the week.
We once visited Antwerp zoo (pre-kids) because Brussells was so damned boring, and Auckland's is much better. Antwerp had a kiwi, kept in an outside cage. Obviously visiting during the day meant you were looking at an empty cage. I don't remember any big animals, but the sea otter was stuck in something little larger than a home aquarium (well, that's an exaggeration, but nothing like the seal enclosure here). Quite sad to watch him swim the same pattern over & over.
daleaway
Since: Jul 2007
Posts: 178
I watched a dingo giving birth in Taronga Zoo once. As the pups emerged, the other dingos were waiting ready to eat them.
Went in search of a keeper to report this. "They do that", he said, and sauntered off in the other direction, for a fag.
Unlovely animals. The dingoes, too.
Peter Martin
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 143
Since a lot of the animals are nocturnal you get to see (and hear them) them during their waking hours which is apparently awesome
Indeed...the Singapore zoo puts on a night safari where one can be driven through the zoo or walk. Well worth it...great atmosphere.
Michael Savidge
From: Somewhere near Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 280
Taronga zoo in Sydney has this great thing where kids and parents can stay overnight.
I'm pretty sure Wellington Zoo do this on occasion...
Kyle Matthews
From: Dunedin
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 4400
I watched a dingo giving birth in Taronga Zoo once. As the pups emerged, the other dingos were waiting ready to eat them.
Lol. Great family trip to the zoo that'd make. Children crying. Pregnant women traumatised, men with wide eyes. Everyone walking 10 metres away from the dingo enclosure for the rest of the day.
Damian Christie
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 609
Moderator
I'm pretty sure Wellington Zoo do this on occasion...
You've just got to be able to hide really, really well at closing time.
The keepers at the Wellington Zoo take the cheetahs for walks, that's definitely worth seeing. I made a YouTube video a year ago that shows it very briefly (and other animal highlights). I'm surprised to see now that it's had 6,700 views!
uroskin
From: Waiheke Island
Since: Feb 2007
Posts: 91
"Bluetoothing the incisors". English is such a damn difficult language to master.
BenWilson
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2913
I'm always amazed by people who don't like zoos.
AndrewD
From: Auckland
Since: Mar 2007
Posts: 48
Could someone spare a thought for the mouse?
On the topic of leaving dingoes to eat their young, it's the same attitude as the whole Knut the baby polar bear thing in Europe. To intervene or not to intervene. It's the same in the zoo as in politics and economics. And no-one's ever right.
Bevan Shortridge
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 43
I went to Taronga Zoo in Sydney and spent some time watching seals. Eventually I looked at the notice for the animals and discovered I'd gone all the way to Oz before I had seen my first NZ fur seal in person. Somehow I had never seen one at home. Which is possibly quite sad.
Jackie Clark
From: Mt Eden, Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1195
I love Auckland Zoo. I love the way you can go right up to the young male tiger, I like watching the spider monkeys, and I could happily spend a whole day watching the sealions from their underwater window. I must admit to feeling a little guilty about that one - their constant swimming and diving in their pool seems to follow the same pattern over and over again. And I thought of the polar bears, as Danielle says, pacing. But then I was lucky enough to catch them going through their behaviour enrichment thingies one morning, and I felt a wee bit better. If someone were to say the sealions are going mad, I would stop watching them. I really would. I swear. Just not yet.
Joanna
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 546
I love the way you can go right up to the young male tiger
Robyn Gallagher
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 1309
I'm always amazed by people who don't like zoos.
I'd always taken zoos for granted, but then one day I started thinking about exactly what zoos are for and I got a little bit creeped out.
There are arguments that some animals in zoos are there because they are endangered species or at risk of being poached and so the zoo life gives the animal a better chance of reproduction and survival.
But most of the animals in Auckland Zoo aren't endangered. They've been taken from their wild homes, transported to New Zealand for... For what? For our entertainment? Education? Amusement?
Why do we need to see a giraffe in a pit in Western Springs to understand it? Why can a wildlife documentary not show the same?
Are zoos are creepy relic of bygone era that we've attempted to make better in this modern age? And even if you give a rhino a nice African name like Mtoto instead of Charlie, what difference does that make if the rhino can't go for a run in whatever direction it feels like?
Raymond A Francis
From: 45' South
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 234
I am with Robyn on this
I have spent my working life with animals and I don't like see them caged
The only exceptions might be endangered species getting a hand to up their numbers
And just for the record I don't much like people keeping dogs cooped up in cities/towns either
Gervais Laird
From: Sydney
Since: Jan 2007
Posts: 14
Isn't one of the main functions of zoos the fact that they're places where scientists can go to actually study live animals without having to trek all the way to their habitat and the entertainment factor for the general public is merely the means that they get the cash to be able to support that important research. There's a moral justification if you need one the next time you're admiring the otters.
Sofie Bribiesca
From: here and there.
Since: Nov 2007
Posts: 2240
And just for the record I don't much like people keeping dogs cooped up in cities/towns either
I think it helps to include your dog in your daily activities so they are not left at home alone.I am lucky enough to take my dog to work with me and I don't think she would have it any other way. She also goes on holidays up north (her birth place) and loves the journey. I suspect Stella thinks the car is now hers.She is able to distinguish between cats at work that are "no go" and neighbouring cats that are fair game (for removal from our garden). I know she loves her inner city life,but I do stress ,inclusion is all they ask for,and, they will give you their all.
Russell Brown
From: Auckland
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 9059
Moderator
The animals I felt a little uncomfortable about were some of the big game beasts. Pridelands is big, but not very big for a running animal. And the organgutans looked bored.
But even if you don't like the concept, you'd have to acknowledge that Auckland Zoo is a huge advance on the grim menageries you'll still find in many parts of the world. It was a particularly dreamy day at the Zoo, but the attitude of the staff was great: there was a certain joy in it all.
And there was no shyness about politicking for animals -- you could hardly miss the posters condemning the palm oil industry's increasing toll on the orangutan.
Felix Marwick
From: Wellington
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 164
Back in the days when I lived in that part of the world I remember being slightly gobsmacked upon finding sheep at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.
As I recall they had quite an audience.
BenWilson
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 2913
Certainly zoos are primarily for our entertainment, but I don't think they are particularly cruel to most animals these days. The animal loses freedom but gains security, and for a lot of wild animals that's actually quite a big improvement in quality of life. Consider how most wild animals die - it's not peacefully in a nice cage being hand-fed by loving keepers. It's either cruel slaughter, or hunger, or sickness, very often after being driven from the pack or getting injured. The endless struggle for life in the wild may appeal to our romantic instincts, but few of us would choose it. I think there's anthropomorphism going on when we suggest that the animals feel objectified. Personally if a bunch of animals hung around feeding me in a nice safe cage, I'd soon learn to ignore them looking at me. I'm sure I'd yearn for a bit more space, but we all do that anyway.
Bruce Wurr
From: London
Since: Dec 2006
Posts: 50
Weren't they a vanity thing for the rich and famous of the middle ages? Pretty sure the first zoos had not much to do with scientific research, more to do with plundering and conquering....
My last visit to the zoo just before going overseas was pretty good, especially the cheetahs......but yeah, the whole notion of keeping animals out of their natural environments does seem wrong as an adult. Unless there's strong risk of extinction due to damage to said environments.
As a kid however it's great!
Deborah
From: Adelaide
Since: Nov 2006
Posts: 815
some of the big game beasts. Pridelands is big, but not very big for a running animal.
Pridelands? As in The Lion King?
Do they do The Cycle of Life, a la peacocks and tigers?
Though come to think of it, the Disney version of the cycle of life never shows the lions eating anything, except for Simba eating grubs.
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