Look carefully at this map… it’s NOT upside down! 😉

It’s been a while since we’ve been to a zoo.

We were noodling it and we’re pretty sure the Tucson Zoo was our most recent, in 2011, with Ryan & Abby when we were road tripping the USA with our Wood Family friends.

The Taronga Zoo is, in a word, fantastic. It’s a smallish complex with emphasis on Australian animals. Of course they have the requisite elephants, giraffes and big cats, but we also saw our first koala, tasmanian devil, and stuffed platypus; the live ones were sleepy and elusive.

• Speaking of platypus and echidna, we learned some things we didn’t know that might interest you:
• They are the only two animals designated “monotremes:” They lay eggs, but also nurse their young.
• They don’t have nipples, so milk is secreted through the skin on their abdomens and the babies lap it up.
• When the first stuffed platypus was sent as a scientific specimen, to England, biologists thought it was a practical joke!
• They exist only here, along the east coast of Australia.
• They’re not endangered, but they are at risk from being caught in fish nets that hold them under water longer than the five minutes they can hold their breath.
• The Taronga Zoo has successfully encouraged their platypus population to breed three seasons running!

The other fun thing that happened was that the kids got a job!  The makers of the iPad app Bound Round, which is an interactive and educational app for kids to inform and inspire their travels, treated us to our zoo visit and we spent some time talking about family travel. The app for Sydney is the prototype, and it turns out that they’re making one for the Melbourne area. Our kids are very excited to get to be reviewers for the locations featured in the upcoming app! Everyone is very excited about that!

We took some pictures for you, and the kids had fun emulating the animals… you know that line from Night at the Museum…. “Who has evolved??” Yeah. We’re not so sure about that! 😉

Giraffes… for Grammy, who loves them!

The view from inside the zoo!

Who has evolved?

Tasmanian Devil

This is why so many tasmanian devils die… even a painted road is mesmerizing!

Welcome to Australia