WENDY VISITS AN AQUARIUM

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

WENDY VISITS AN AQUARIUM

And Sees a Grey Nurse Shark

Dear Sunbeams— Last week I told you all about Koala Park, the beautiful reserve where the little Australian teddy bears iv e unmo ested. To-day I am going to write of yet another park—Taronga Park, claimed to be one of the most beautiful zoos in all the world. f . WC W^ nt *° Park one afternoon when a'l Sydney seemed in holiday mood. We went by boat, or e zoo is situated on the edges of the harbour, half an hour's journey from the city. f >ar ' t i*« lam sure, the most unzoo-like zoo that ever existed. At first glance it resembles a vast and beautiful park with lawns and trees sloping down to the harbour edges. There are beautiful flowers an , s „ ru s , ln *" ls P ar k. fern-fringed ponds where one may see graceful swans or seals basking in the sunshine, an flowering trees where little birds of many hues chirp and twitter. But at that first glance one would never never imagine that Taronga Park was the home of more than 2000 animals, birds and reptiles. Still, 2000 t ere are, and housed in such a way that each animal has a little nook or corner of its own as closely resembling its natura home, be it in jungle or river or icy waste, as it is possible for the zoo authorities to manage. By far the most exciting thing about Taronga Park is the aquarium. In great glass tanks and open pools f re .J. unc "eds of gloriously-coloured and strangely-shaped fish. The colours take one's breath away. There are ri lant crimsons, deep royal purples, and delicate mauves, pinks and sea greens. They resemble fairy fish, t. XCSU t, 316 co ' our ' n £ s shapes. More thrilling still were the big man-eating sharks we saw swimming in e shark pool. One of these was a notcrious grey nurse caught near the coast. Our luck was out on this particular day, for we just missed seeing the sharks being fed. I~hey live on kingfish and only have about four Ol b VC fi wee k> except about August, when they have no food at all for two or three weeks. Ihe o er nsh live on prawn or mussels and sea anemones, and actually like an occasional oyster!

I think Taronga Park is wonderful, and I'm coming back again," I said, when at sundown we left the park and boarded the Sydney ferry. But I never did. Time simply flew, and there •% . w , as , ?° mucl " to see in Sydney that we never did find time to explore again die wonders % - of this beautiful zoo. Lots of good wishes to all my Sunbeams, from—