National Zoo and Aquarium (Canberra)

This morning. I took an Uber to the National Zoo and Aquarium. If you’ve been following along you know I’m traveling in Australia. So you’d be correct to assume, that in this case, “National” means “Australian.”

But you’d be incorrect to assume “national” means “government owned and operated.” It’s not. It’s a private operation.

I read that it’s private before going there. That worried me a little, but what doesn’t worry me? I had visions of a small zoo with some mangy, poorly fed animals crammed into small cages and pens to minimize costs and turn as large a profit as possible.

But the reviews on TripAdvisor were mostly very positive. A couple of people complained about small enclosures. But most people who mentioned the animal enclosures in their reviews said the opposite.

If you feel the only appropriate animal space is the unbounded wild, then, well, fair enough. There’s an argument to be made for that. But if that’s how you feel, then don’t go to zoos. Some zoos are much better than others in that regard. But none are unbounded wilderness. They wouldn’t be zoos if they were. They’d be open spaces that would be difficult for the vast majority of humans to get to. See how that works?

Oh, and without the separation between you and the animals, some of them would kill you. You know, there’s that whole predator/prey thing. Zoo enclosures help to ensure that we don’t end up as prey. So, if the average person wants to see wild animals up close, zoos are pretty much the only option.

A couple of other people on TripAdvisor complained about animal behaviours that either they didn’t approve of or that didn’t entertain them. More on that later.

About the Uber out to the zoo, the zoo is too far to walk to comfortably, especially on a sweltering day like today. Google Maps tells me it would take a little more than an hour and a half on foot.

The National Zoo and Aquarium is a bit past the downstream end of Canberra’s lakes, beyond the dam that helps to make and keep them lakes. The zoo’s website says there’s no bus service to the zoo. I refuse to rent a car anywhere where everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. So, Uber it was.

At the National Zoo and Aquarium

I disagree with the TripAdvisor reviewers who thought the animal enclosures were small. I’ve been to a few zoos with a little more generous spaces for their animals, but I’ve also seen many where they’re much smaller. And I’ve seen a few where the pens are of a zoo brutalist style. At this one, they try to mimic a natural space in what they have to work with.

Some animals at the National Zoo and Aquarium have two enclosures and signage says that the males and females may be split up depending on their mating calendar.

As to the people who complained about animal behaviours, this was a day they would have complained. It was hot and humid. Many of the animals were hiding, barely visible under the shade structures the zoo provides for the animals or in the shade of the trees at the back of their enclosures. And some weren’t visible at all, hiding out, I assume, somewhere out of the sun.

In fact, I couldn’t see any animals at all in the first few enclosures I came across. And I spent a fair amount of time looking in each of them.

Animal Lethargy

Most, but not all, of the animals that I could see in the first half or so of the zoo were either sleeping or making a good show of pretending to be sleeping.

I asked one of the staff I encountered along the way if there is a better time of day to visit when the animals are more active. She replied that they are most active at dawn and dusk, so it’s best to get there right when the zoo opens.

Here’s the thing. I was there at roughly 9:35. The zoo opens at 9:30. You can’t tell me that the animals were active for five minutes, from 9:30 to 9:35 and, because I didn’t get there until 9:35, I missed it.

When I told the staff member that I had arrived pretty well right when the zoo opened, she responded, “Yeah, they’re most active at dawn and dusk. And when it’s very hot like today they tend to sleep a lot to conserve energy. So, dawn and dust.” The National Zoo and Aquarium opens well after dawn and closes well before dusk.

Even if it were open, while I might consider dusk, there is nothing—animal, mineral, vegetable, astronomical phenomenon, or anything else—that I want to see enough to get me moving in time to be where I have to be to see it at dawn.

That having been said, I don’t blame the animals. They didn’t choose to be locked up in their enclosures. They get only room and board. They don’t have a union. They’re not paid to entertain me.

I’d be much more upset if the zoo poked and prodded or used other means to get the animals to prance around for me rather than whatever comes naturally to them, even if that’s taking a siesta in the shade during the heat of the day.

And it’s not as if I didn’t see any animals. The giraffes, ostriches, zebras, and a few other animals were walking around and eating grass or food laid out for them, all within easy view. Meerkats were busy either digging in the sand or standing up and looking incredibly adorable. There were a couple of active primates swinging on ropes. A lion walked back and forth between a couple of holes in a wall where I think food was laid out for him. Although, that was way at the back of the enclosure and I had to zoom in quite a bit to get a decent picture. And I happened to be at the leopard enclosure in time to snap a photo of one leopard leaping up to say hello to his or her pal lying up on a raised wooden platform.

Beyond the animals, the zoo is in beautiful surroundings, in the foothills just outside of Canberra. Or maybe it’s inside Canberra. I don’t know. I haven’t figured out the municipal boundaries here. Looking at a map, I think the legal boundaries of Canberra may be much smaller than I thought, with independent suburbs that all meld in with Canberra, but I don’t know. And I’m not curious enough to try to find out.

The Aquarium

The official name of this place is “National Zoo and Aquarium.” The aquarium is not much. There are a few tanks with tropical fish and other less flamboyant fish. And a few other tanks contain reptiles, including some exceptionally large snakes that I wouldn’t want to meet without a glass wall between us.

The zoo is great, lethargic animals notwithstanding, and the aquarium was nice enough as far as it goes, but unless they expand it, it wouldn’t be a huge loss if they closed the aquarium.

I didn’t think there was anything photo-worthy in the aquarium, so you won’t find any pictures of it here.

Lunch

My lunch today was a chicken schnitzel wrap and a bottle of sparkling water that I bought at the snack bar at the zoo entrance/exit. The less said about that the better. So I’ll say no more about it.

More later on what I did this afternoon. Stay tuned.