Unlike other big cats, lions live in long-term social groups called ‘prides’.

In Year of the Gorilla Taronga Zoo has been helping these gentle giants of the jungle with a campaign called “They’re calling on you”.
Even before Luk Chai was born, auntie Tang Mo played an important role in preparing the mother-to-be, Thong Dee . When Thong Dee was in labour Tang Mo gave her a gentle rub on the back wiith her trunk to reassure and give her comfort. When Luk Chai arrived it took a little longer for the older elephants to get used to the newest member of the herd, but we’ve certainly noticed that they’ve now well and truly taken the boisterous young calf to heart as well as under their bellies.

We have nine Western Lowland Gorillas at Taronga Zoo. In every gorilla society there is a dominant male called the silverback and our silverback is the very impressive Kibabu who weighs over 200 kg. Also in his family are his three females, Moulia, Kriba and Frala, and then we have our juveniles Mbeli, Fataki and Kimya not to mention our two newest family members Fuzu and Mahale, (both very cute and both very different in personality). Over the coming weeks I will try and update you on our family group and what they have been up to.
Willa is a 7 month old Swamp Wallaby and cute as a button. Up until now Willa has been cared for by Inspector Skye Adams at the RSPCA. Her life is now beginning at the zoo and when she is big enough she will be introduced to the other wallabies in our Australian Walk Through exhibit.
In the mornings we take the girls for a walk around the paddocks to keep them fit and active. They link together like a chain, head to tail.
Although we’ve previously been referring to Ripley as a boy, as it turns out, he is actually a she! We found out only a few days ago.

Taronga's remarkable animals and dedicated staff took action against global warming by getting involved in International Day of Climate Action on October 24.
Well, we are definitely getting down to the sharp end of things here in the Orang house in order to receive our Chimpanzees, and pretty much all the “ï’s” have been dotted and all the “t’s” crossed on the various plans and procedures that we have developed for the move.
Last week was a fairly quiet week in social terms within our community. This is most likely down to the weather. It has not been the most pleasant and Chimpanzees, just like humans, tend to hunker down and ride out the more miserable conditions.
It was really hot today so instead of the elephants’ usual bath in the barn we decided to give them their wash down under the waterfall in the lower paddock. This was the first time we’ve been swimming with Luk Chai and he had a ball ducking under the water and dog paddling alongside Tang Mo and Thong Dee in the moat.
Over the weekend we gave Luk Chai another new ball to roll about with. This time we chose a yellow fitness ball filled with air because he loves to squash things with his belly.

Ripley is nearly fully grown now and spending every day at Bird Show. She does require a little more attention though as she can fly well and is flying all over the place!

Whenever somebody new starts we like to give them a project to ease them into the animal training world. For Merryn her first is an agouti rat called Oberon that she has decided, against my better judgement, to rename Cupcakes.
It's been six months since our male elephant, Gung moved into his own exhibit after leaving the female herd, so here's an update on what's happening with him now.
There have been fantastic developments (for us keepers) within the male politics of Taronga’s Chimpanzee community. This week we saw an apparent reconciliation between Lubutu and Chimbuka. Both males were engaged in intense mutual grooming.
When we freshened up the elephants' paddock with organic topsoil two weeks ago, the mud wallow had to be filled in. Yesterday, we created a new watery, muddy mess for the elephants to play in again.

Springtime at Backyard to Bush has arrived along with bouncing baby animals, from tiny fluffy chicks to cute goat kids.
The elephants are still excited with the new soil we put in the paddocks, especially Thong Dee and Tang Mo. They still can’t get enough of it and it’s been almost two weeks!
We weighed Luk Chai on Sunday and he’s doubled his birth weight. In only three months, he now tips the scales at 206 kilos.

Korridge-Cup, the Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo that took a flight through suburban Mosman last week, has also been lacking a little bit of a confidence in his training sessions at Bird Show.

Ripley’s starting to look more and more like an adult Barking Owl. He’s now completely covered in feathers, making him look less like a fuzz ball.
This week has been a great reminder for all of us who work with Chimpanzees.

Yesterday was an extremely windy day for us at the zoo, with gusts up to 60 km/hr! On days like these we modify our show as some birds struggle in those winds, but even those that have proved themselves before can find it a bit tough.
Luk Chai’s got a new toy and it looks like it’s a winner! Previously we gave him a shaggy blue coloured ball, but that was so yesterday. Nowadays he’s much more interested in his new plaything - a textured purple ball which he loves mucking around with during bath time.

We’ve freshened up the elephants’ paddocks with an additional layer of organic top soil and there was great excitement in the herd when they realised there was something new to sprinkle on their backs.

Our Barking Owl chick has been with us just over a week now and is growing quickly! He is now 500 grams and that’s a lot of growth for a little owl, especially when you consider at full size they only weigh around 700 grams. We’ve also named him Ripley! Although we won’t know its sex for a while yet, but in the meantime we’re calling it a he.
Planning for the move is continuing at an increasingly frantic pace. Plans for which groups will move house together and in what order are pretty much finalised in our minds. What the Chimps think about all this we will see later on!
Yesterday Luk Chai enjoyed a massive iceblock in the barn with mum Thong Dee. The bucket-sized iceblock filled with treats was like a massive paddle pop with a bamboo stick poking out the end for Thong Dee to pick up with her trunk.

Today we released the 100 kilogram Green Turtle, ‘Big Lady’ that we have been looking after at the Wildlife Hospital.
Luk Chai was busy splashing around during bath time today. He sat down in the bath and used his trunk to create a commotion. He’d lift his trunk high up in the air and suddenly drop it in to the water tub, splashing water all over himself.
Luk Chai has been busy playing with the bunch of small tyres again. We hung the tyres out in the paddock on a tree branch and he does a little mock charge at them. He likes to do a bit of a run up and bump them with his head.

This morning a Barking Owl chick arrived to be raised by zookeeper Erin and then trained for the QBE Free Flight Bird Show.

Hi everyone just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Lisa and I'm a primate keeper. This year is ‘Year of the Gorilla’ and to raise awareness about the plight of this species we’re supporting a mobile phone recycling program because a rare mineral called coltan is used in manufacturing of mobile phones.
Our two Orang-utans have moved out. In a big step in the renovation of the Chimpanzee exhibit, they’ve gone to their new off-exhibit home so work modifying the side of the Orang House can go at full speed.
Luk Chai is learning the art of eating pineapple tops as he gradually discovers that they’re not playthings but something to eat.
We’ve all come to recognise Luk Chai’s little noises. When he’s excited he does a little snort-snuffle and when he’s playing with one of his favourite toys or running towards the adults he makes a high pitched “grrrr” noise.
Luk Chai had another nap in the paddock this morning. He fell asleep in the middle of sampling a pineapple leaf. Mum and the aunts love pineapple tops and he’s been having a nibble too. Mid-chew he shut his eyes for a nap and the pineapple leaf hung out of his mouth whilst he rested.

Spring is certainly here at the Backyard to Bush where Amy the goat gave birth to three kids late last month and her friend Eve had twins yesterday!
Luk Chai has a favourite snoozing spot out in the middle of the main elephant paddock, next to the large log where he likes to crash for a nap. It’s very cute watching him. He’ll be running around outside and then all of a sudden he stops next to the log, tumbles to the ground, sliding forward on his legs to a comfy sleeping position. I’ve been calling it his ‘crash nap’!

We’re getting ready for what may be an interesting time down at Bird Show where Bruce and Connie, our resident pair of Andean Condors, have started showing signs they are attempting to breed.
The bunch of small rubber tyres we’ve hung at Luk Chai's level in the barn continues to be one of his favourite toys.

My name is Allan and I am a Senior Keeper working in the Primate section here at Taronga Zoo. Even with all the amazing things that I have seen, I can honestly say that the continuing highlight of my career has been caring for the Chimpanzee community here at Taronga Zoo. Most people know that Taronga has Chimpanzees but few realise just how special our group is. And it's not just numbers, although having 19 Chimpanzees is something that many Zoos would aspire to. It’s the fact that Taronga’s Chimpanzees live as close as it is possible to the way Chimpanzees live in the wild, in a large, complex community. I often think that our Chimpanzees could make one of the best-ever soap operas!

Our male Sumatran tiger ‘Satu’ recently broke one of his molar teeth. It’s quite common in the wild, but at the Zoo we usually only see this once in a while.
Peanuts are a real treat for the elephants, so at lunch time we scattered peanuts around their paddock as part of their enrichment activities. It’s a case of first in gets the peanut and the girls quickly scout around the yard searching out the treats. Luk Chai hasn’t quite got the hang of finding the peanuts but while watching the girls he occasionally stumbles over one.
Luk Chai has been delighting us with his playful antics with Pak Boon in the mud wallow yesterday. Pak Boon was having the greatest time rolling on her back in the mud, while Luk Chai was busy with his own game. He’d run full pelt towards her before joining in the commotion as they splashed around in the mud. Luk Chai would then hop out of the wallow to start all over again and each time Pak Boon would get all excited as he’d run towards her.

Luk Chai is two months old today! He spent the afternoon in the dust bath with the girls as they coated themselves in dirt. He’s been mimicking mum and the aunts, trying to spray dirt on himself with his trunk. He wasn’t very successful, but he got plastered in dirt anyway. He stood under their bellies and the extra soil fell on to his back - he loved it!

Meet June (named after legendary songstress June Carter), our first new addition to the Red-necked Wallaby collection here at Taronga Zoo for this year. She was born in January to mum Emmy-Lou and dad Jed.

Luk Chai got his first taste of ice recently! With the spring-like weather we gave each of the females a massive ice treat filled with fruit and peanuts. The girls stood on the ice blocks with their feet to break the ice into small pieces and Luk Chai was close by to watch the goings on.
Luk Chai has been having lots of fun in the mud wallow! For the past few days he’s been in it everyday with the girls as they cool off in the mud. He’s like a pig in mud the way he rolls about.

I’m currently learning how to lure fly our Peregrine Falcon Khan. We have a leather lure that we swing around and send out to Khan as he flies by. If he catches it, he wins. And Khan always wins!

Spring-like weather has given sharp-eyed Taronga visitors a chance to glimpse Lincoln, a six month old koala joey which has just started to spend most of his time outside of his mother’s pouch.

The Conservatorium High School paid us a visit today. They came behind the scenes after spending the night at the zoo.
Luk Chai discovered a new toy today – a large soccer ball which the girls in the herd like to play with. He head-butted it around the yard and eventually worked out how to kick it with his foot. Luk Chai kicked the ball so hard it went flying down to their lower paddock. He stood there for a few minutes trying to work out where his ball went and I raced down to retrieve it for him. When I returned he’d already discovered a new game. The little rascal was chasing one the girls around the paddock in a game of tag.
The whole herd decided to play in the mud wallow this morning. This is the first time the Luk Chai has tried out the deeper wallow and found himself knee deep in the mud as a result. Pak Boon was particularly happy to wallow in the mud and Luk Chai seeing an opportunity to gain higher ground attempted to climb her. He wasn’t very successful as she’s one of the larger girls, but that didn’t stop him trying.
Our little Luk Chai received a traditional Thai blessing today from eight Monks followed by an ecumenical cermony to celebrate his birth. The herd enjoyed their morning feed in the paddock while watching the traditional blessing ceremony which involved chanting and prayers. Luk Chai seemed quite unaware of anything unusual. He was more interested in the bamboo shoots mum was eating and seeing what mum and the aunties where up to. At the end of the ceremony Luk Chai, Thong Dee and chief aunty, Tang Mo, followed us Keepers into the barn for the final part of the ceremony. The Monks sprinkled water on Luk Chai’s head to bless him and wish him good health and success. Luk Chai was very interested in the Monks, saying hello and checking them out with his trunk. The Monks offered Luk Chai some bananas, but of course he’s not quite ready to eat them yet. Tang Mo and Thong Dee were only too happy to look after them!
A very special event today - Thong Dee and Tang Mo's former owners flew in from Thailand to attend a blessing ceremony this weekend where Luk Chai will be blessed by Buddhist monks. Tang Mo and Thong Dee had not seen their former Thai mahout for three years. The mahout, Mau, had grown up with these elephants and spent two years working alongside the Taronga team in Thailand before the elephants were imported to Australia. The elephants were at first very surprised to see him, and then affectionately surrounded him, smelling him and inspecting with their trunks. Mau spoke to them in Thai and they immediately responded, doing anything he asked. Clearly they're still very fluent in Thai! Mau said all the elephants looked incredibly healthy and he was happy for them. They introduced him to Luk Chai and Mau gave the calf a big hug, declaring him 'perfect'.

Today we gave our flock of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos a phone book to play with. We hung it up on the side of their aviary and at first they weren’t too sure about it.
The calf has found a new game! We rolled an inflatable ball towards Luk Chai. After a few goes he got the hang of it and kicked the ball right back to us using his feet and trunk. Aunty Pak Boon was very interested in his new game. She kept an eye on us and wanted to have a go too, but she’s too big to play soccer with the calf just yet.
Now that Luk Chai and conquered climbing rocks, logs and a tyre, today he tried the biggest mountain of all. Mum and Tang Mo were lying on their dirt mound in the paddock and he thought it would be great fun to clamber over them. Tang Mo loved the attention. She helped him climb right over using her trunk and the calf came off her back like a slippery dip. Once he was back on the dirt mound he rushed back around to her belly to start all over again.
Luk Chai has been playing grown-ups again. During the play session, mum was tugging a huge log with her trunk and Luk Chai decided he’d have a go too. He’s been watching the other elephants push the logs around. Luk Chai tried to push the log with his trunk and feet, but of course it didn’t budge!

This was a very exciting week for us! Leslie, our beautiful Andean Condor, went for a huge fly above the bird show amphitheatre ‘wowing’ our visitors.
We weighed Luk Chai this afternoon and he’s now 132 kilos!
I just stroked Luk Chai on his back to say hello and noticed he’s a little prickly! He’s loves spending time underneath mum and the auntie’s bellies. He’s there so often that he’s lost a few baby hairs from rubbing his back across their tummies.

It’s been an exhilarating time. Thirty-three NAIDOC shows have been presented in the past month.
Thong Dee’s little calf has a name! We’ve named him “Luk Chai”. After going through over 30,000 entires that you all put forward in the naming competition, us keepers decided to go with “Luk Chai”. It’s pronounced Look- Chai.
The calf’s been busy climbing again and has mastered the art of getting over the rocks in the paddock. He’d been practicing last week and now he's got the hang of climbing over them.
The calf's been busy trying to climb the rocks in the paddock. He's mastered getting on top of the logs and now he's trying the rocks which are as tall as him.
We weighed the calf and he's now 116 kilos. So he's putting on around a kilo a day!
The calf's getting more and more independent and is starting to spend time on his own in the top paddock.
He's loving his custom made baby elephant pool, which was cut down from a big plastic tank.
He was weighed again today after a little hike in the lower paddock with his mum and Aunty Tang Mo, keeping up really well.
The calf's already been out exploring both paddocks and it seems his favourite thing to do is play in the dirt.
Our little calf is becoming more adventurous every day and is spending lots of time in the top paddock now.
We weighed the calf again today and he's now 100 kilos. That?s four kilos he's put on in under a week!
The calf, mum and aunty Tang Mo explored the top paddock for the first time with us keepers this morning.
This morning we took the calf out for another walk in the lower paddock.
Thong Dee is having a bath, so the calf is having a bath by default too!
Thong Dee had her first long sleep since the baby’s arrival last night. Tang Mo played baby watcher as Thong Dee slept for five hours straight.
We took them outside for a walk just now and the adventurous calf ran towards to Aunty Porntip who accidentally bumped the little fellow, making him fall over.
When the sun came out after lunch we went for another walk to the Lower Paddock.
ur little calf enjoyed his first real bath with mum and aunty Tang Mo inside the barn.
All three aunties and Thong Dee spent the afternoon in the lower paddock with the calf.
He just went for a short walk with all the aunties this morning in the lower paddock.
He has just used his little trunk to pick up a pineapple top for the first time! He'd been trying to do this during in mum's morning feed, poking the pineapple tops with his trunk, but now he's already learnt how to pick it up.
We watched Thong Dee have her first proper nap lying down last night. It was beautiful. The calf lay between her front legs with Tang Mo just next door.
We took the calf for its third walk today. Mum Thong Dee decided to try climbing a hill and the calf tried to follow. He made a really good attempt but had a little stumble. Thong Dee turned straight back and continued on flat ground.
We introduced the calf to the matriarch of the herd Porntip. She was a little nervous as the calf walked up to check her out. The calf then met Pak Boon, another aunty, who was more confident about saying hello, but she too didn't quite know what to make of the new calf.
Thong Dee was happier about leaving the security of the barn with her calf at her side. Us keepers and Tang Mo helped Thong Dee walk the calf right down to the lower paddock. When we got there Thong Dee and Tang Mo ate some hay and the calf stayed close to the two girls.
This morning we introduced the calf to one of the aunties, Thong Dee’s best friend, Tang Mo. The introduction went really really well. Tang Mo is being very protective of the calf already.
We helped the calf go for his first walk outside this afternoon with mother Thong Dee and Aunty Tang Mo. He was very strong and kept up with mum and Tang Mo, but Thong Dee was reluctant to leave the security of the barn, so they were outside only very briefly. After that he went back into the warm barn were he is spending most of the time.
Mum and the baby are doing well. Thong Dee's maternal instincts are kicking in and she's being very protective of the newborn.
The little calf has just done a little backwards moonwalk exactly like his father, Gung does sometimes. We certainly know who his Dad is!
This afternoon the calf has got really use to suckling from Thong Dee. Once the calf got the hang of it he fed on and off for the rest of the day.
Thong Dee is treated to a warm bath at Taronga Zoo while keepers get ready for her impending birth.
We're still playing the waiting game here at the Elephant Barn, and while most things have remained the same with the rest of the herd we have noticed Thong Dee behaving a little differently.
Pregnant Asian elephant Thong Dee trades-up her food. Thong Dee passes a pineapple top to her keeper in exchange for vegetable food treats such as sweet potato. http://taronga.org.au/elephants
After years of planning and around 22 months’ gestation, our Asian Elephant Thong Dee is almost ready to give birth to her first calf. Find out what Taronga’s vets and keepers have been doing to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Today we started doing daily hormone tests with Thong Dee to monitor a particular hormone which will help us predict when she's getting close to giving birth.
I'm one of ten keepers that look after our five Asian Elephants at Taronga Zoo. We have four females and one bull elephant which we care for. Three of the females are pregnant, with one of the girls, Thong Dee, expecting any time now. Elephants have the longest gestation period of all mammals (22 months) so it's been a long time coming for Thong Dee and we're sure that she'll be relieved when it's over.

I became Matari’s surrogate mum in early January when he was only about six months old. He was under-weight, stressed and had lost patches of fur.
Monifa means 'I am lucky' in Nigerian. She was born in the early hours of October 15 to first-time mother, 'Petre' and father 'Timmy'. However after a difficult breach birth, the Zoo's dedicated keepers made the decision to intervene and hand-raise the precious female calf.
A rare juvenile New Zealand Fur Seal which was attacked by a shark has survived against all odds to find a new home at Taronga Zoo's Great Southern Oceans exhibit.
Taronga Zoo's Western Lowland Gorilla group welcomed a brand new addition to their family, a tiny male infant which was born to proud mother, 'Mouila'.
The Tasmanian Devil is the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world and is found in the wild only in Tasmania.