The African area began with a large enclosure that had a number of Serengeti type plains animals in it.
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| Sitting more or less in the shade was a baby giraffe, only about 7 feet tall. | His mother, a full 14 feet tall, scores a carrot from the zookeeper. | |
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| Did I say big? This creature has more in common with a crane than anything else. | There were also zebra in the same pen, they were heading into the shed to get food. | |
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| Here the zebra are watching the zookeeper as he approaches the pen... they know he has food. | Conked out in the mid day sun, a beautiful tiger. | |
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| The two orangutans were sleeping too - on beds of leaves and empty sacks. | Hey, did you hear something? | |
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| What you lookin at? | Ah, I'm going back to bed. | |
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| Hiding behind the brush, a pygmy hippopotamus. | He's not so shy when the zookeeper comes around to feed him a loaf of bread. | |
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| Part antelope, part big horned sheep, these creatures were on the other side of the wall from the zebras and giraffes. | A single camel stood, waiting for food. Couldn't get any closer, which is fine with us, he was awful smelly. |
The chimpanzee enclosure was huge, with a high wall on the back and sides and a large moat in front. Near the centre of it was a clump of brush and trees, surround by a electrified wires. These wires also ran along the moat as well. Presumably, the wires were to protect the trees, so that the chimps didn't tear them down. But while we were watching, a chimp appeared INSIDE the fence, with a branch in her mouth. Then she high jumped over the fence, a good five feet or so, clearing it completely.
The branch had been stripped of leaves and she carried it to a rock and pushed it into a hole - the ant fishing trick that's been shown so many times on television. Presumably the zoo set up this rock, but the chimp knew what she was doing - the stick just thin enough to fit through the narrow hole, and exactly the right length: pushed all the way in, it stuck out a fist-sized length at the top.
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| A chimp against the back wall. On the right you can see the tree enclosure and electrified fence. | An older chimp wandered along the front of the moat... | |
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| ...then climbed down to its edge to grab a reed. | A younger chimp observes the elder. | |
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| This is the chimp on the way to the rock with the stick retrieved from the tree enclosure. | Fishing for something - presumably food, although unlike that its ants. Maybe something tasty the zoo sticks down there for this display. | |
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| A look back at the enclosure. Its probably the biggest structure in the zoo. | A viewing area had a number of younger chimps "playing" with children on the other side of the glass. This one kept pulling the sack cloth over his head. | |
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| Gorillas, hanging out in the most private part of their enclosure. | The big silverback (and he was BIG) sat behind a clump of bamboo. | |
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| Kodiak bears, also huge creatures, standing some 12 feet tall. | Here another one was chewing on something interesting. | |
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| This bear seemed to be looking for something over the wall... | ...likely it was this bear, who was sacked out. | |
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| A mother cheetah and three cubs roamed around this pen, making a racket. | Here one of the youngsters sits down to observe the people observing him. | |
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| On the other side of the wall from the cheetahs were lions, you can see the lioness with ears perked forward, listening to the noise of the kits. | Not gonna make it over the wall, though. | |
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| More big cats - here's a leopard. | And sleeping behind a rock, a rare snow leopard. | |
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| In a sunken but otherwise open enclosure was a pack of meerkats. Some were digging for insects in the logs. | A meerkat contemplates its next move. | |
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| Here's one digging in the sand. Lots of little holes. Presumably there's insects in there. | At any moment there were three meerkats on watch, sitting in a perimeter around the others. No dangers this day. | |
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| Just about down to the ferry, we spot a pair of massive land tortoises. | Stacy in the open air theatre, near the bottom of the zoo. | |
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| The wind had picked up, and the sailboats were out in force in Sydney harbour. | A view from the zoo back to the bridge and Opera House. | |
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| Right by the edge of the road, a group of turkeys made themselves known. This one looked about ready to peck the camera. | This is a condor, with a wing span of about nine feet. | |
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| Its hard to spot, but there's a kookaburra in that tree - presumably a wild one. | Might have been an escapee from the zoo as well, but he was scavenging from the picnic tables with the best of 'em. | |
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| This is a sun bear, one of two pacing on the back side of a display near the ferry terminal. | Just about walked into this HUGE spider web (with spider) on the path down to the ferry terminal. |
There were sections of zoo we missed, because we were pressed for time and it had been several hours already - how much exploring can two couples do? We rode the ferry back to the south side and walked back to the hotel.