In December 2017, Melbourne Zoo opened a new exhibit – the Carnivores Trail. The new enclosure houses the Lions, Sumatran Tiger, Tasmanian Devil, African Painted Dog and Snow Leopard. I had been to the zoo many times and failed to get a ‘shot’ of the tiger. He always seemed to be hiding at the back of his old enclosure, so I decided another trip was in order.

the Carnivores Trail

On the day we visited, the Lions weren’t on display as they were adding new tree trunks for them to climb on.  Considering we visited in February and the ‘Trail’ had only been opened for around seven weeks, it was disappointing and poor planning on the zoo’s part.  Another disappointment was that the trail wasn’t circular like the map at the entrance. Once past the invisible snow leopards, the trail was blocked, and a sign told us to retrace our steps. So while the trail was open to the public, it seems that it’s certainly not finished.

Snow Leopards and tigers

The snow leopards have mythical status as they are hard to find. When we visited again, they were nowhere in sight. A fellow photographer had visited five times since the opening of the new trail and had not seen them once.  The new Tiger enclosure is excellent. We were lucky to see him wading back and forth in the water for a good ten minutes.

Lemur Island

From the Carnivores Trail, we headed off to Lemur Island. Not actually an island but a fully enclosed walk-through exhibit where the Ring-Tailed Lemurs swan around relaxing and observing the visitors…

Gorilla Rainforest

Lemur Island leads to the Gorilla Rainforest. Among the Western Lowland Gorilla and other animals, it’s also home to the tree-tops apes and monkeys.

Butterfly House

We headed to the Butterfly House from the Gorilla Rainforest. This is one of my favourite exhibits at the zoo. It’s home to hundreds of butterflies fluttering around and landing on people.