A day at the Zoo: Taronga TV Brings the Animals to Your Living Room
With the COVID-19 outbreak and families being stuck at home, people are missing out on the zoo day-trips that they planned. If you feel like you’ve watched your fill of animal documentaries on Netflix, then take a look at the next best thing: Taronga TV.
Although Sydney’s Taronga Zoo has closed its doors for the first time in 103 years, it has found an ulterior way to educate and entertain those in self-isolation.
The facility and its keepers are keeping up their “zoo-as-usual routines”, but instead of a live audience, it is all virtual. The zoo has set up Taronga TV, an online experience to bring “its two beautiful zoos directly into your living room”.
It’s comprised of ‘keeper chats’, short videos to talk about specific species, and animal shows that are both fun and educational. As of now, you can learn about the ten adorable Bolivian squirrel monkeys the zoo houses along with their two Andean condors, the largest bird of prey in the world.
Once you learn a new thing or two about those wonderful species, you can hop over to the seal and bird show. Watch as keepers tell you facts and then let Bondi the New Zealand fur seal catch fish and dive around the pool or Ripley the barking owl fly from arm to arm in exchange for a nice treat.
Taronga TV also reflects the zoo’s dedication to conservation and sustention of wildlife by discussing their involvement in breeding and release programs, animal rehabilitation and release, and habitat recovery.
While taking a stroll through this virtual zoo experience, I looked into the Bilby Baby Boom conservation program. The desert dwelling marsupials have been extinct in New South Wales for nearly 100 years, so Taronga Western Plains Zoo is trying to help bring back the population with a 110-hectare predator-free breeding site.
Taronga TV explains this program along with their plains-wanderer bird initiative in which two new chicks have just hatched, the first in Dubbo, NSW. Both programs are underway to help save the two species from extinction.
Viewers can further tune into a behind-the-scenes look at the animal hospital and other footage to see what the zoo residents are up to during the close.
The animal hospital shows the tasks of one of their many busy days: x-raying a python and loggerhead turtle, tending to an injured wombat, releasing two rescued platypuses, and feeding a flying fox joey, just to name a few. Needless to say, carers have their hands full.
Next, one of the most interactive features is the animal-live cams. The zoo has set up 24/7 live streams to see at any time of the day.
To keep up interest and satisfy curiosity, spectators can see the tiger, elephant, meerkat, otter, seal, and the new capybara enclosures. Although not every enclosure has a live webcast, enthusiasts have an array of animals to check out.
The Sumatran tiger compound is a popular one, with two cameras in place from different angles so you don’t miss out on any of their activities.
You can see them roaming around the grassy enclosure, chasing each other around the jeep, and playing with cardboard boxes and other toys the keepers bring in.
If animals are evading your view on the live cams, you can take a break and check out the Animal Antics clips. Right now, it features a lyrebird sounding off like a laser sound effect and a giraffe chowing down on eucalyptus leaves for an afternoon snack.
With live cams and special feature videos, you can get up close and personal to see the animals’ daily antics.
Along with this new online space, Taronga Zoo updates their social medias regularly so people won’t miss out on any furry, scaled, or feathered fun. So turn off the regular cable and turn on Taronga TV.
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