e.v.o'neill photography: A Day at the Zoo

A few weekends ago, Scott, Faye and I went to Taronga Zoo. Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and so we lined up in a sea of prams to get our tickets and our maps, to navigate our way around!

I never realised that Taronga Zoo was on such prime real estate! These animals have some of the best views in Sydney.

First up were the koalas, and it was evidently nap time. Faye had previously told us that there was some sort of koala union which determined the 'working hours' of these furry fellas. By 'working', I mean 'being cuddled by tourists' - apparently this can only occur for 30 minutes in duration, and then the koala needs 3 days off. Tough life!

It was apparently nap-time at the chimpanzee enclosure also.

These mountain goats look pretty pleased with themselves - wouldn't you, with a view like that?

This Sun Bear was happily lazing in his/her hammock - imagine if you were just having a kip on a Sunday and woke up to see a whole bunch of people peering at you over your back fence, and pointing? You'd probably do this ...

Or you might consider jumping for safety and making a run for it ...

I have a special soft spot for meerkats. Advertisements for "Compare the Meerkat" abounded when we lived in the UK - if you haven't already, go and compare a meerkat!

The gorilla enclosure was probably the highlight of the day. We were watching this little fella munch on some tasty green leaves and were a bit suprised when Big Daddy lumbered out of the door! One of the other little gorillas was intent on 'playing' and was trying to incite a bit of rage in an older gorilla - tactics ranged from leaping onto the older gorilla to picking up entire handfuls of sawdust and dumping them on his opponent's head! Hilarious!

Away from all the chaos, this mini gorilla was happy to hang out with mum.

This little fellow was a lot more chilled out than the gorillas and seemed quite pre-occupied by his banana.

There were a few enclosures where we could walk around quite close to all the animals and that was great - had fun trying to spot even half of all the creatures that were apparently there!