Taronga Western Plains Zoo

Merry Christmas!

Us after Christmas lunch 🤤 Delta the Swamp Wallaby has the right idea, snoozing away the afternoon in our Aussie Walkthrough! 📹 Keeper Lou #12DaysOfAussieChristmas

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas 🎄 Thank you for all of your support in 2024 - together we are working to secure a shared future for wildlife and people. #MerryChristmas #ForTheWild 🌱

They grow up so fast 🥰 This trio of emu chicks arrived at the Wildlife Hospital back in November, after sadly being abandoned by their father. Emu eggs are normally incubated by the father, who then raises the chicks when they hatch until they're at least six months of age. These chicks were only a day or so old when they arrived at the hospital, weighing only about 370 grams. They have thrived under the care of our vets nurses and now weigh around 3.5 kilograms! They have been microchipped and are spending more and more time exploring outside to help grow big and strong for release back to the wild one day. 📹 Vet Nurse Amy #12DaysOfAussieChristmas

On this week's episode of Taronga: Who's Who in the Zoo, you got a glimpse of the incredible Lion Pride Lands Patrol Truck experience at Taronga Western Plains Zoo! This adventure takes guests inside the lions' den, where you'll board our purpose-built truck and journey into the three-hectare lion habitat 🦁🚚 Home to a pride of eight lions, including three adorable cubs born in October 2023, this unforgettable experience is available to book for your next visit. We highly recommend booking in advance through our website to secure your spot! Find out more at https://taronga.org.au/dubbo-zoo/must-see/pride-lands-patrol #ForTheWild

The birds and the Bilbies

🎄 #12DaysOfAussieChristmas - Bilbies These two Bilbies were caught on camera in the Taronga Sanctuary recently! 😳 While it's not often caught on the trail cameras, there has been plenty of action happening behind the scenes in the Taronga Sanctuary, with our Bilby conservation breeding program going from strength to strength in the 110-hectare feral predator proof area. Since the first 18 founders were introduced in 2019, numbers have soared, with 136 Bilbies in the Sanctuary according to our most recent population survey. Bilbies are actually our most populous animals here at at Taronga Western Plains Zoo, but we don't actually don't have a fulltime Bilby keeper! Instead, the Bilbies roam freely throughout the Sanctuary and the only hands-on management is our annual population survey, where keepers trap, tag and release aniamls to check on the population health, and when we release Bilbies to bolster wild populations in other sanctuaries across Australia. Bilbies are the ecological engineers of the Australian bush. They create disturbances in the form of nose pokes, scratching, shallow and deep digs, long bull-dozing tracts and complex subterranean burrows. They might be small, but these mammals punch above their weight, shifting up to 3.6 tonnes of soil per kilogram of body mass in a year! In doing this, they improve the soil health by turning over and mixing organic matter. Soil turnover brings deep soils and their nutrients to the surface. Their diggings also trap organic matter and other materials, increasing nutrient availability to the plants. And it shows! Since the Bilbies introduction to the Taronga Sanctuary, native grasses have returned, and eucalypt saplings are growing strong in the absence of overgrazing by rabbits. Our conservation team have seen an increase in the presence of other species as well, including Brush-tailed Possum, Ring-tailed Possum, echidnas, Swamp Wallaby, Red-necked Wallaby, Antechinus, Rakali - and that's not to ment

We're roaring to go watch Disney’s #Mufasa: The Lion King, in cinemas now! To celebrate, Taronga has partnered with #Disney to give away an unforgettable overnight stay at Zoofari Lodge as well as Zoo tickets, movie tickets and some Mufasa: The Lion King Prize Packs. To find out more head to the link in our bio 🔗 Come to Taronga Western Plains Zoo and visit our pride of eight African Lions, including Marion and her one-year-old cubs Bahati, Jabari and Zawadi, who can be seen in this video making their way to our Lion Pride Lands habitat. And catch the story of brother’s Mufasa and Taka, only in cinemas December 19 🦁 📹 Keeper Bridget

Meet Mackenzie the Platypus

With Christmas quickly approaching, we're counting down with #12DaysOfAussieChristmas animal antics! 🎄 Mackenzie is our resident Platypus and an amazing ambassador for his species. With their beaver-like tails, sleek waterproof fur, flat bills and webbed feet, it's no wonder the British thought the Platypus was a trick in 1798! The amphibious Platypus is a monotreme and one of the most unusual creatures on Earth. Monotremes are a unique group of mammals that lay soft-shelled eggs. The only other monotremes are the echidnas. Monotremes are thought to be the most primitive of all mammals. A 122 million-year old fossil from southeastern Australia, shows that in the middle of the dinosaur era, platypuses already existed, and they are specialised mammals, with duckbills and complex adaptations to water life. But despite how iconic they are, there is still so much we don't know about this secretive and elusive creature. That's why Taronga, along with our partners at San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and the University of NSW's Centre for Ecosystem Science, with the support of the NSW Government and WIRES, has embarked on a cutting-egde research project to refine the conservation strategy for platypus by filling knowledge gaps across the species’ breeding behaviour, biology and genetics, and developing an evidence-based approach to support future emergency rescue interventions. 📹 Keeper Trinity #ForTheWild 🌱

Happy International Monkey Day! 🐒 (don’t try this at home!) Our keepers are so dedicated to providing enrichment for their animals - sometimes they even become enrichment themselves! 😅 Enrichment is an important part of our animal husbandry as it provides animals with positive stimulation and opportunities to exhibit natural behaviours - in this case swinging, climbing and utilising their balance and grip strength. Enrichment is often food related, but can also include environmental features such us ropes, trees, rocks or even social interaction with a different species of primate 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️ This interaction is also an important way for keepers to monitor our animals’ demeanour, notice any behavioural changes and build rapport and trust with the animals, all of which is vital in being able to manage their health care throughout their lives! 📷 Keeper Bee