Plants at Monarto Zoo

This morning we took we took my mother and niece to Monarto Zoo, about an hour east of Adelaide along the South Eastern Highway. We haven’t done the bus tour for ages. It was great although very cold today.

A highlight of the trip was seeing two brand new baby giraffe, born last Friday and Saturday. One was still wonky on its legs but got up to suckle for a while from its mother. The other was content to doze in the weak sun for a while. Giraffe are amazing creatures.

As are the African Painted Dogs. There has been a good season for them too. Heaps of 6-8 week old puppies scrambling and playing quite roughly with each other. It was quite a creche. Apparently the other adult dogs help to raise the pups and feed them. One adult was giving quite strong taps with its front paw to a pup.

There is such a lot to see at the Zoo. New developments are taking place as money becomes available. We enjoyed a concert there last year, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. This was a fund raiser for the Zoo.

On one of the walks today there was an abundance of Lomandra effusa, Scented Mat Rush. In fact the vegetation was looking in good heart. This Lomandra was in quite dense communities. It will be good to do the walks at the end of the winter as this is an area where the wild flowers are lovely then. Prostanthera eurybioides (Monarto Mint Bush) was in flower in the Zoo plantings.