Hamilton Zoo
Submitted by Nigel Foster - nigelwfoster@hotmail.com (Last visited: March 2001)
Near the entrance of this zoo there are some small cages and some empty ones. Please do not let this deter people from enjoying this otherwise excellent zoo.
The majority of enclosures are very roomy compared to other zoos that I have seen. The zoo goes down into a gully.
In the middle is their pride and joy -- the largest walk thru aviary in NZ! As throughout the whole zoo, there is alot of vegetation --many people will have difficulty
locating the animal within the enclosure.
The exceptions will be grazing animals, including bison, tapir, oryx, antelope, zebra just to name a few.
These have vast paddocks to roam in.
There is an area of several hectares which is devoted to natural wetlands and an enclosure for Sumatran tigers is under construction.
Although the zoo does not, yet, have a comprehensive collection of animals and species, it deserves credit for the LARGE enclosures.
There is a cafe up the top near the administration block and the reptile house houses one of the largest tuatara I have seen. These are very rare NZ dinosaurs and not often seen.