Melbourne - Part V (Day 4)

My Trip to Melbourne Zoo (20th August, 2007)


I guess only Joh was interested in taking me to see animals. Haha. The rest aren't fan of animals.

But me?I adore seeing animals! Although at some point it seems cruel to lock them up, the animals I see in Singapore's Night Safari and in the Melbourne Zoo look honestly pretty contented and happy.

ZOO NEGARA ON THE OTHER HAND....

Let's just start with the animals, yeah?


Oooohhh. So yeng his pose.


Joh was saying how Humans are one of the few species that have good-looking females, haha!

I mean, LOOK AT THAT GORILLA!

You wanna offend anyone? Call them a GORILLA and show them this picture. BOY, would they be depressed.


Lazy bum. Didn't get up the whole time so only got a picture of his butt. Wait, or HER butt.



I'm actually not a fan of monkeys. Maybe because the monkeys in Saujana (where I play golf) are annoying pests. They steal food from the buggy every chance they get!


They're so cute! The pose looks kinda obscene though.

Then, we went into the butterfly farm (it was in an enclosed green house). Gosh! The minute we stepped in, it was like being in Malaysia again! So humid! Yucks.

Starting sweating 2 minutes in.

But the butterflies were SOOOOOO pretty!


The boy was adorable. And the butterfly was one of the only brave ones! The rest wouldn't land on my finger :(

So I pinjam from the boy:

Wheee! First time a butterly rested on my finger! So preeeeeetttyyy!

Then, we went to see more insects.


Oops! Sorry, I mistaken it as a "grasshopper" instead of a "praying mantis". I was very sleepy when I edited the pictures. Haha. I really meant the praying mantis. Really.

But you gotta admit it's a cool shot, right?

We saw more insects and arachnids but it was really dark and difficult to get good pictures.

So we moved on!


They say an elephant never forgets. That'd be useful and very treacherous all at the same time, wouldn't it?


I think the drawings are cute... and at the same time, quite ugly. I'd definitely be sticking colourful sequins or shiny fake crystals then using chalk to draw.

But I'm guessing chalk is easier to remove.


A good example of a species where the male is 10x better looking than the female. Lucky buggers.


This pelican is HUGE!


Malaysia's pride and joy. One of the very few of it anyway. Couldn't get a good picture because they were behind glass (which meant I couldn't use flash) and they kept on moving and moving too!

This one was giving the kissies to the little girl though! So ccuuuttteee.


Here's a better picture of the Orang Utan. Hehe.

Plastic as in "fake". Just clearing it is all! Just in case...


Now THIS is Aussie's pride and joy. They weren't in cages so you could go pet them and feed them. This was the only one that was sort of alive. The rest were lazing around and barely moving at all.

And here are the REPTILESSS:

MAN. Why's everything asleep? Honestly, half the snakes were asleep or terribly camouflage that I couldn't get good pictures of it. So I had very few pictures of the reptiles eventhough there were quite a lot of them in there!


At least, that's what I THINK it is. I sort of forgotten the REAL name. It COULD be a Black Viper, couldn't it??

But it sure does look scary and poisonous.


THIS; I'm pretty sure is quite poisonous. Most of the snakes we saw were. But it's cool and weird looking isn't it? It has EYELASHES. Haha. So funny.


Eeee. So ugly, hor? But I think it's a good picture though, heh. Nice and closey uppey.

Does it feel like National Geography; this post? Haha. Or Animal Planet?

Feels to me. Except with a very bad host. Sorry, I'm not excellent with animals... but I think I know quite enough!


Like the difference between crocodiles and alligators!

For crocs, when it's mouth is shut, the teeth on the upper and lower jaw are clearly visible.

For gators, the upper jaw overlaps the lower jaw so the teeth from the lower jaw are not visible.

There's loads of differences like the shape of the snouts and all. But apparently, some species of gators look similar to most of the crocodile; judging from the snout.

Okay, you guys are probably yawning by now but, hey! No one should turn down a little knowledge, right?


It's a mammal. Just to clear things up. Google it if you don't believe me.

Hey, I used to read a lot of National Geography books okayyy. My Dad bought tonnes of issues and I LOVED reading about animals. Like I said, I know quite a fair bit. Everything I'm writing here was based on all those magazines I read and the time I spent watching Animal Planet, Discovery and National Geography with my Dad.


This sea lion is one heck of a smart animal. It can do a dozen more things that my dog can!


Aussie's lil' penguin!

That's the adult size. Seriously. It's probably only a foot tall and ferociously adorable. I wish I could've kidnapped it home.


I had other pictures of the baboon's back but honestly.. you do NOT want to see it. If you are on your way out for a nice dinner, you'd lose your appetite immediately.

Their arses are.. nothing short of sickeningly nauseating. YUCKS!!!

I'm not even going to describe it for fear I might end up feeling nauseas.


Sooo cute! No Pumbaa though. And erm, Timon is a merekat by the way.


I THINK they're from the Parrot family. They were so colourful and vibrant and weren't in cages! They were just... there! I could've grabbed them and ran away, seriously! Such pretty little things!


I mean, I really don't get why there weren't any koalas! It's Australia, isn't it? Really odd.


One of my favourite animals! I think giraffes are COOL. And very unique too! (By the way, I misspelled "giraffe". Hey, I DID say I was really sleepy!)

I mean, it IS the tallest land animal ever! And they've got cool looking horns that are so antennae-like and hav their coat overlapping it which is differenty from other animals with horns. And both female and male have it. Just that the male's horns are relatively bigger.

Honestly, I've read a lot about giraffes and they are seriously cool. Go wiki it. You'll get a good picture of giraffes and you might like them as much as I do too!


Are they black with white stripes or white with black stripes? YOU decide.


This bear is OLD. There's a mama and baby bear but they were moving around so much I couldn't get a good pic. Papa bear, however, was just STANDING there waiting for me to take a pic. Haha.

No, seriously.


Yet again, a difficult pic to take.


Growl. This one was a big one.

And I've saved the best for last:

What would a Zoo be without the King of the Jungle?

You guys might argue that the King of the Jungle is King Kong or Tarzan but think about it.

Gorillas are vegetarian and Tarzan doesn't exist.

So I'm sticking with Lion King.

And there's my trip to Melbourne's Zoo!

It was good fun and all. But I still think it's not big enough! I didn't get to see any cheetahs or black panthers. I LOVE seeing the big cats. And there were crocs but NO gators! Boh-ringgg!! Plus, I didn't see any ostriches which is a real bummer. And what about the skunks??

When you go to a Zoo, you'd expect to see the biggest land animal (the elephant), the tallest (giraffe), the fiercest (the lion)... ALL CHECK. But what about the fastest? (cheetahs) Or the biggest bird (ostriches). And the SMELLIEST? (skunks).

And what's Melbourne WITHOUT the KOALAS???

So yeah. It was satisfactory... but COULD DO BETTER!!!

I still had a good time though...

And one more thing, if you had to be an animal, which would YOU pick?

I'd definitely be a dolphin.