Here are our ferrets in the Children's Zoo having loads of fun with their enrichment. Come along to Adelaide Zoo's Animal Enrichment Day on December 17th to see our animals display their amazing natural talents and have fun with lots of different enrichment activities all day. Not only will you discover the importance of enrichment for captive animals but pet owners can learn how to enrich the lives of your pets at home, just like our ferrets.

Kluet may be getting bigger but he is still a softy at heart. Last week, before the Zoo opened, a rainbow lorikeet flew into the glass at Immersion and fell inside the exhibit, landing in between the cement wall and the electric fence just below the main glass windows.

A recent participant on a our Behind the Scenes Big Cat Interactive loved the tour so much she wanted to share the word with everyone! Thanks Vicky and hope you enjoy her story...

I have a confession to make... I love tigers. In fact I'm bordering on tiger obsessive. While I love all cats large and small, there is something special about tigers. Whether it's the knowledge that they are arguably the world's most successful predator, the semi-seductive roll of their shoulders as they walk, the grace and power they exude with each movement or simply their majestic beauty that draws me to them I do not know.

I'd spent the best part of 43 years dreaming of being able to come face to face with a tiger and pat it down the length of its nose. Why? Just because I felt compelled too; of course that was never going to happen. And if it did, I wouldn't live to tell the tale anyway.

Adelaide United FC have joined the cause to raise money for the endangered Giant Panda. In a special initiative, the Reds will help raise awareness of Zoos SA and our Giant Pandas at this Friday night's home game against the Newcastle Jets. Players will display the 'Panda' logo on the front of the shorts for the clash at Hindmarsh Stadium, and the club will auction the panda shorts after the clash, with all funds raised to be donated to Zoos SA.

Recently our ostrich breeding pair on exhibit hatched out 6 chicks. These ostrich are known as the "Zimbabwean Blue" subspecies, and are a rarer subspecies than the common black ostrich. They are characterised by their slightly blue plumage, and are slightly larger than the common ostrich.

On December 17, our ever popular and ever growing Enrichment Day will be on again, this time with a festive feel and Christmas theme. This wonderfully interactive event is to showcase the importance of enrichment for captive animals, and is a useful tool for pet owners on how they can stimulate their animal's natural senses and behaviors at home. Not only is it fantastic to see the animal having fun, but it's usually a bundle of fun for us humans too!

The Bird Department will be doing several talks throughout Enrichment Day, with particular focus on parrots, Australian finches and the Southern Cassowary.

Galatea is one of our female chimps that arrived from Burgers Zoo last November. She came from a high ranking family and had a close relationship with her mother and younger brother. Since arriving at Monarto she has slowly been coming out of her shell and has been finding her place in the group. Unfortunately Galatea broke her arm in March and subsequently had a few operations. This made gaining her trust and building her confidence a difficult task.

Over the last month we have been working hard to increase Galatea's confidence. We have started a new training regime, which has enabled us to work on her trust issues and slowly increase her confidence levels.

I recently had one of the most memorable moments on chimps. It was made even more significant because the chimp at the centre of this story is Galatea.

At six months of age, Jahzara has developed a fiery personality, which has encouraged us to progress with re-introductions of her and mum, Kiamba, and our other females.

Hi everyone,

The most defining observation that came from the breeding introduction period was that Wang Wang and Fu Ni get along so well together. We are so lucky to have such a compatible pair. Wang Wang is such a lovely male and allows Fu Ni , the cheeky little lady that she is, to get away with a lot.

How well can you identity our feathered friends at Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary?

Check out some recent photos of our baby Barbary Sheep, White-cheeked Gibbon and Mandrill :-)

I'm sure you're all aware of what has been happening in panda land... Wang Wang and Fu Ni were put in together towards the end of September in an effort to try to have our first natural mating. It was a very exciting day when we first opened the slide and let Wang Wang in with Fu Ni. It was interesting that unlike any animal introductions that I have done in the past I had very little worry or concern that it would not go smoothly. Giant Pandas are solitary in the wild and both Wang Wang and Fu Ni had not been together with any other pandas since they were young. During the past two years we have frequently given the pandas access to each other through mesh. This was allowing them to smell and touch each other but only in protective contact, making sure that they could not injury each other.

Over the two years the keepers have never witnessed any negative behaviour between Wang Wang and Fu Ni. They have always seemed very tolerant of each other and although when she was not in season they did not show much interest in being in together, they would still most of the time go up, have a sniff and a bleat and then walk away.

The warm weather is certainly here and the orangutans are doing their best to stay cool. Out in the exhibit Kluet and Karta look for the best spots in the shade to spend their days – often then can be seen snoozing in the shade of the orangutan building or under some of the plants in the exhibit.

On really hot days we make sure they stay cool with cool drinks, frozen oranges and special orangutan iceblocks! We make these up regularly by blending up vegetables and a little fruit and freezing it, sometimes we even add chunks of food into the iceblocks as well.

On a beautiful spring afternoon, on 1st November 2011, Adelaide Zoo’s loyal Free Flight bird celebrated a very special day. Our gorgeous Blue and Gold macaw, Manu, officially turned 10 today!

Check out the new Barbary Sheep arrivals at Adelaide Zoo this October.

The last few weeks have been very exciting for the Monarto primate team. Zombi is having her first swelling since removing her contraception. At first the males were unsure about mating with Zombi but over the last few days they are much more confident!

Tsotsi has been staying very close to Zombi throughout this period. He is no longer attached at the hip to the other males in the group, but is instead demonstrating his alpha status by allowing no other male near Zombi. This is an exciting period for all but in no way guarantees pregnancy - so keep your fingers crossed!

Puspa is finally going out into the exhibit with a bit more regularity, it is still never for long but at least she is making some forward steps.

As Puspa grows more and more comfortable living here in Adelaide and more trusting of her keepers she is gaining confidence trying new things, the biggest of which is going out into the exhibit.

Pacifiers, plastic bags, dinosaurs, necklaces, pencils, maps and footballs are just a few of the items that have dropped into the Australian Sea Lion exhibit at Adelaide Zoo but none of these have proved as bad for our sea lions health as much as the simple coin. A coin is such an unassuming item but sitting at the bottom of a pool can look like a shiny little fish to an inquisitive sea lion and this is exactly what our male Australian Sea Lion "Tasko" thought.