5 Lions loose in Sydney

[Gilly Goodness]

BREAKIN' NEWS


Code One. Repeat. This is a Code One!

5 lions have escaped Taronga Zoo.

[Grey Wolf]

Run away!

[Gilly Goodness]

Thankfully we live on the first story. No way they could climb up to the balcony. Surely?

[soundchaser09]

Thankfully we live on the first story. No way they could climb up to the balcony. Surely?

What if they like seal meat?

[Gilly Goodness]

What if they like seal meat?

Then I'm in trouble.

The seal enclosure is not that far away from the lion enclosure. The seal show is my favourite thing about Taronga along with the cable car to get up there. The sea otters. The snakes. The monkeys. The giraffes with their view over the harbour.

Both Taronga and Canberra Zoo have sleep over nights for families to be up close and personal with lions. You sleep separated by strong glass to the big cats. This must be the platinum package!!! 😂

[PhaseDance]

Very glad they are all safely back in their enclosure. Nobody wants to see another Harambe episode.

[Gilly Goodness]

The most delicious thing was at first the whole city thought the Pride were roamin' nearby suburban Mosman, on the salubrious leafy Lower North Shore. Home to hedge-funders, Mining executives, barristers and the odd Chinese tech billionaire. Delicious. Needs a good cull!!!






An opinion piece from www.smh.com.au


Lion escape the most exciting thing to happen to Mosman since negative gearing

Dom Knight

Writer, broadcaster and podcast host November 3, 2022 — 8.59am



Why did five Taronga Zoo lions leave their enclosure on Wednesday in the most shocking exit since Elon Musk sacked Twitter’s board? The news was terrifying until we learned the lions had been recaptured. Usually when you go to a major tourist attraction, the most likely place to get gouged is the gift shop. Nothing this exciting has happened in the zoo’s posh harbourside home of Mosman since they first invented negative gearing.



A lion in Taronga Zoo’s state-of-the-art exhibit that mimics the African savanna.
The zoo has cited an “integrity issue with a containment fence”, which seems something of an understatement – we must be talking about the Eddie Obeid of containment fences. Other reports suggest there was digging in the vicinity of the fence. Again, not exactly avoiding the prison comparison.

This explanation raises a few immediate questions, just as it might lead to hurried property sales in the immediate vicinity of Taronga in the next few months. What was wrong with the fence? Was anyone responsible for checking that the structure designed to keep the deadly lions separate actually, y’know, did?

And has the zoo checked whether other barriers between visitors and the creatures that could kill them remain in place? Gorillagrams are a comedy classic, but an unexpected up-close encounter with one of the zoo’s enormous Western Lowlands could literally be side-splitting.

Lions do escape, with the same inevitability of Kardashians making bad relationship decisions. In the past few years, it’s happened in Germany, South Africa, Singapore, the US and, fatally, in Iran. They’re hunters and apex predators, not some daytime Vivid light show for tourists to photograph for Instagram.






‘This is a significant incident’: Cub tranquillised as five lions escape Taronga Zoo enclosure


As much as the new enclosure is good for gramming the lions, and as much as I confess I’ve done exactly that with them pressed against the glass an inch away, it may not be a great idea – for us or them.

I’ve visited the vast Masai Mara national park in Kenya, and for all the care Taronga has clearly put into its new enclosure, it really isn’t the same as lions’ open-skied homes. When you go on safari, you gingerly enter the lions’ domain. Here, they rule an area the size of an inner-city school playground.

While I can easily see creatures such as elephants and giraffes enjoying the cushy zoo life of regular feeds and lolling around in the sun, lions must get profoundly bored. And that’s a thing any cat owner will tell you. Sometimes, they just want out, even if they intend to return with a dead bird to brighten up your day.

So, which self-respecting big cat wouldn’t leave its cage at Taronga Zoo if the opportunity presented itself? Having grown up on the lower north shore, and having once lived just one suburb from Mosman, I can tell you that everyone tries to escape south across the bridge eventually. Taronga’s slogan is “For the Wild”. I’m no zoologist, but perhaps more wildness is exactly what these creatures were after? Few places are less wild than Mosman.



‘Code one’: The animal escapes that set off the zoo’s worst warning


I do, however, applaud the decision to locate Taronga Zoo in an isolated containment zone. In the event of a mass animal breakout, Mosman’s residents could easily be evacuated to one of several strategic high-tea venues, where they could subsist for days on scones, cucumber sandwiches and gossip about which barristers will become KCs until help arrives.

But in my amateur view, it’s worth at least debating whether zoos – even ones as impressively dedicated to conservation as Taronga – should reconsider where and how they display their animals. A study published in Nature in 2003 found animals that normally range across a vast area, such as lions, don’t do as well in captivity as those that typically live in smaller territories in the wild.

Might limiting lions to Taronga’s larger Western Plains branch be a better option? Or the vast expanse of the Kings School’s 148 hectares, repurposed as a lion enclosure, would be perfect.

Keeping and breeding lions makes sense for conservation, but it might be better all round if we gave them a great deal more space. And frequently checked the fences around it.

Dom Knight is the co-host of The Chaser Report podcast. His latest book is Don’t Call Me Skippy.

[Enlighten]

I hope they find them, they have to play the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.

[luvyesmusic]

How is exciting! Wish I had been there. Like an X-ticket at Disney World. Always hang out with people slower than you. :-)

[Ash Armstrong]

Gilly Goodness

OO OO I got a crush on you....

[Gilly Goodness]

Yeah saw that. Kid was lucky his grandpa was around. Expect him to be interviewed on Mornin' TV today.


But apart from snakes that want to drown you. It's really quite safe down here. Honest.

My brother lives up in Byron Bay and has seen a few pythons around. They do keep the mice down.heheheee

One of my earliest memories of growin' up near the Bush in Canberra, was my Dad killin' a snake and takin' it around to all the neighbours to warn them of the danger. Hot days they would look to drink water from dog dishes and the like.

My Mum would also prank new arrivals, esp Brits, that snakes liked to curl up on top of car tyres. Then watch them check the tyres every mornin'. 😂