Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo, in full Taronga Zoological Park, zoo located in Taronga Park, Sydney, N.S.W., Austl. One of the outstanding zoos in Australia, Taronga Zoo opened to the public in 1884 in an area outside Sydney known as Billy Goat Swamp. Then known as the Moore Park Zoo, it was run by the Zoological Society of New South Wales. When the zoo opened, its collection included 228 mammals, 552 birds, and 64 reptiles. By 1912 the original site was no longer adequate, and the state government made a grant of land in Taronga Park, north of Sydney Harbour. The new zoo, comprising some 52 acres (21 hectares), opened in 1916; most of the animals from the old zoo had to travel to their new home via barge up the Pacific coast. The zoo has since expanded and now occupies 70 acres (28 hectares).

At its Taronga Park location, the zoo added a giraffe house in 1923, an aquarium in 1927, Tahr Mountain in 1932, and tiger pits in 1939. Initially operated by the Zoological Society of New South Wales (founded 1879), the zoo in 1973 fell under the auspices of the Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales.

Because of Australia’s strict import restrictions, Taronga Zoo’s collection of 4,000 specimens of more than 700 species consists mainly of native wildlife. The zoo has had success breeding the extremely rare mountain pygmy possum, the koala, the brush-tailed bettong, and the parma wallaby. Its bird collection is extensive, and the rainforest aviary, opened in 1972, exhibits the rarely seen lyrebird, along with bowerbirds, honeyeaters, and fruit pigeons. The zoo also possesses most of the species of parrots native to Australia and has the distinction of having bred the New Zealand kiwi.

In 1977 the Zoological Parks Board opened a drive-through park, the Western Plains Zoo, near Dubbo, about 300 miles (480 km) from Sydney. This zoo exhibits large marsupials, herds of ungulates, large flightless birds, and waterfowl.