Talking with the Zoo Crew

Roving guides
Three permanent Roving Guides were appointed in July 2004, following the very popular pilot programme. A year on, this has remained hugely successful. By answering questions and giving prepared talks on a range of fascinating subjects, the guides are able to enrich visitors' experience and understanding of the natural world – especially for children. "Helpful and knowledgeable" are the words most often used to describe the guides.

Wildlife encounters in the Living Room
Students visiting the Living Room this past year have had the opportunity to meet many animals at close quarters, including Jake, the sulphur-crested cockatoo, and Jose and Ricky, the chinchillas. For the study of lifecycles and other aspects of biology, being able to touch feathers, scales, and fur, and see up close how the animals behave creates a memorable learning experience.

Animal training and conditioning programme
One of the compelling reasons for maintaining modern zoos is that when we see animals up close we very quickly appreciate the need for their conservation and protection. Accordingly, a suite of Close Encounters has been developed by the animal training and conditioning team and is now having an impact on dozens of visitors each month. Small groups of visitors are able to watch both the big cats and the giraffes being trained to receive various veterinary interventions; or can help prepare food and hand-feed the red pandas.

A four-hour session, the Ultimate Encounter, allows people to accompany the animal conditioners on all their rounds – the giraffes, the red pandas, and the big cats. All-told, more than 330 of these encounters have taken place over the course of the year, and feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive, with 91 percent rating the price and length of the experience "excellent", and the remaining 9 percent saying they didn't know the price because it was a gift.

A very popular addition to our Close Encounters programme is our pair of hand-reared cheetahs, Charlie and Delta, who arrived from South Africa in March. Each day these elegant animals are harnessed and, accompanied by three expert handlers, are walked around the Zoo – much to the delight of everyone nearby. In an extension of this programme, the cheetahs have also taken part in an "outreach" visit to a local corporation giving more Wellingtonians a chance to see them at close quarters.

Viewing points

Nigalya Ponya Valley
The new red panda exhibit – sponsored largely by the Community Trust of Wellington – opened this year to enthusiastic visitor response. The exhibit is acknowledged as one of the top new zoo exhibits in Australasia. It demonstrates the best of Kiwi ingenuity – a creative facility built at a fraction of the cost of comparable Australasian zoo exhibits. It represents the zoo of the future: engaging, interactive, close to the animals and telling a story about the interactions between people and animals.

Scaly Nursery
The Scaly Nursery was constructed at the end of the last financial year (funded by the Phoenix Trust) and is now fully established and has been able to raise valuable invertebrates, fish and reptiles. The feedback from our visitors has been extremely positive.

Viewing windows
The meerkat enclosure in the café has become home for two "retired" female meerkats. They enjoy the special treats from the keepers and the comfortable cave with the heating lamp as well as the view from the top of their termite mound. For visitors they offer a charming first glimpse of the Zoo.

And at the other end of the scale, now that the lion cave viewing window has reopened, visitors are also enjoying watching the lions come up to the window – to watch them, in turn.

Changing images
Through combined funding from a Dominion Post sponsorship and a special allocation from Wellington City Council, new video systems have been installed in the Archibald Centre and the Living Room, as well as the café, all displaying keeper Murray Roberts' engaging photographs of the animals.