MEETING GANDAHLI FOR THE FIRST TIME....

 Back in February a new male baby chimp was born at the Rockhampton Zoo.  The Chimp enclosure was closed to the public whilst the mother and baby bonded.  By the time it would have opened to everyone again, COVID had stuck and the whole zoo was closed down for almost 4 months which meant that none of us were able to see her as a new born like we were able to with Capri, the female baby chimp that was born two years ago...

The Zoo opened again to the public about a month ago so whilst Ian and Kathy were here, we decided to go visit the zoo on Tuesday to see if we could see this new addition to our zoo.

A visit to the Zoo

Even now we were unable to just walk into the zoo.  Contact tracing is part of the entry process to be able to visit so before entering we all had to fill in paper work with our names and contact details.  

Once in we headed to the Chimp enclosure but they were no where to be found so headed around to see the Otters, the Wedge tail eagle, the Macaws...

 

 I love these beautiful birds, they are a real drawcard to the zoo.  

Valkyrie our wedge tail eagle has moved cages since I last saw her at the zoo.  She is now housed in a much bigger cage and is such a majestic bird.  Unfortunately she will never be allowed out in the wild again as she has a damaged wing and can not longer fly any distance..

In the last twelve months the zoo has also gained a couple of playful Asian small-clawed otters which are the smalles of the otter species.  The two otters named Tomio and Misumi are playful little things and a joy to watch and they run around their enclosure and duck and dive in their little pond...  The zoo had a see through perspex wall so that you are able to observe them as they swim around..

By now it was feeding time around at the Chimp Palace so we headed around there to see if we could see the chimps, especially the new mum with her baby Gandahli.  What a treat we were in for.  Both of the chimps were sitting right in front of the viewing window where we could see them clearly.  So clearly in fact that we were able to get a couple of rather decent photos of them.

Gandahli is so tiny, even at six months and ever so cute..

Baby Gandahli with his mum Holly

such a tiny little thing...

 Ian and Kathy posed for me so that I could get a photo of them with the chimps.. 

We then took off to see the free range animals at the zoo, including the emus and kangaroos.  Most were resting quietly in there enclosures.  They were not very active at all today...

As we were heading to see the Kangaroos, we checked in on the rather large lace monitor in his enclosure.  This is one of Max's favourite animals to visit when he visits our zoo.  I love how he calls them lace vomitors... So cute, so I always make sure I check in on them too...

The kangaroos were not at all active today and no where near close enough to photograph.  Some times when you visit the zoo they are quite close but today they were in the middle of their enclosure.  Mind you they were photo worthy though with the beautiful big pink flowering tree in the background...

 

From here we headed around to see the koalas and the wombats.. The koalas were high in the trees and not photographable at all.  One of the wombats was out digging a hole so I did manage to get a photo of him...

One of the wombats was outside and active...

We checked out one of the aviaries with the native Australian birds in there.  We found all bar the Kingfisher..

There were two back cockatoos in the cage

We saw the dingo's next before walking around to check out "The Colonel" a huge 4metre plus crocodile.  He had come from the Korana Crocodile farm as he couldn't get on with the other Crocs there.  At the zoo he has his own enclosure.  He is a massive creature and I would hate to come across him in the wild...

"The Colonel"

a lovely afternoon at the zoo...

We headed back to check out the bird aviary before heading off to the Botanical Gardens Kiosk for their famous malted milks for afternoon tea...

This massive snake was in the process of shedding his skin

The back entrance to the big domed bird aviary was closed due to the Cassowary's having laid their eggs, so it meant we had to go back to the entrance of the zoo to be able to entry the aviary through that set of doors...

Ian reading about the different birds we were able to find in here...

It was after 4pm when we left the zoo.  Our car was parked down close to the Kiosk so we wandered down there to refresh our lips and share one of the famous Rockhampton Botanical Gardens malted milks.  They have had the reputation of having the best malted milks in town now for as long as I have lived here.. Once again they didn't disappoint.  Ian had a banana one and Kathy and I shared a strawberry flavoured malted milk with some little tiny shortbread biscuits,  

Whilst we were enjoying our afternoon tea, several bridal cars showed up with the bride and her bridal party.  I think they were all headed to the toilet before heading down to the lagoon for some sunset photos. 

Before we headed  home I took both Ian and Kathy for a drive down alongside Yeppen Lagoon where the birdlife was prolific and the children feed the turtles.  I was going to take them out onto the viewing platform but the bridal party had set up on there for their wedding photos so we just kept driving instead.

We have spent another lovely afternoon together and it was almost six pm before we all got home.