Our usual Thursday CVA (Conservation Volunteers Australia, in case you've forgotten over spring break) project is at Point Cook, where we cut down boxthorn and pick up litter. This week, Point Cook cancelled so we got a special trip to the Werribee Open Range Zoo instead, joining a CVA group of half-day volunteers (taking part in CVA's more-flexible-hours Green Gym program) at the site. The Melbourne Zoo, located in one of the parks bordering the university, is rather small and is unable to fit lots of large animals. Melbourne's home for those large Australasian friends (lions, elephants, giraffes, and more) is the Werribee Open Range Zoo. Situated a 40-minute drive outside the city, the Werribee Zoo has much more space to spread and allow the animals to roam relatively free.
What did we do at the zoo? Pretty much the coolest project ever: we planted giraffe food.
It turns out giraffes eat wattle, a plant common to Australia, so we spent our morning planting rows of little (perhaps 4 inches tall) wattle plants in soil fertilized by (seriously) rhino poo. In four to five years, these wattle plants will be about 5 feet tall and the top can be cut off and fed to giraffes. The plants will then regenerate once and the regrowth can provide giraffe food for a second year. Rows near ours contained wattle planted in each of the previous years which will also help feed the zoo's giraffe population (currently 4 males, 2 older (11 and 17), 2 1-year-olds).
After lunch, all of us CVAers got the amazing treat of taking a free tour of the zoo. A safari-style tour bus took us right into most of the enclosures, so we got to drive within a few yards of rhinos, hippos, zebras, our new giraffe friends, and lots of kinds of antelope. We learned about one male zebra (that's 'ZEH-bra' here, not 'ZEE-bra', since Aussies say 'zed' rather than 'zee') who was moved away from the rest once he lost his dominance in his group and was housed with the antelopes instead. Our guide described the zebra's 'identity crisis' in that he now seems to think he's an antelope at times, even joining in standing guard over the females while they sleep. It was fun to see the zebra chilling with his antelope buddies after we heard this story.
The tour was phenomenal and afterwards we got to see even more cool stuff, taking a half hour to wander through the rest of the exhibits, seeing lions, leopards, and adorable monkeys. (The Green Gym-ers headed home after the tour, but the 6 of us there for the full day were up for a wander.) I found it fascinating to watch the monkeys dig into the ground with their hands, their intelligence evident in their facial expressions. One monkey tried to take over another's digging spot and was promptly picked up and removed by his friend. He returned, however, and eventually won out as his friend wandered off in feigned boredom before returning to digging a few inches from his original spot.
The zoo was a great surprise on a rainy day and I got the once-in-a-lifetime experience of helping plant food for giraffes. All in all, a pretty cool day.
Now I'm off to the Great Ocean Road for the weekend. More about that on my return.
Be well!
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