Two months after closing its gates to the public, Taronga Western Plains Zoo re-opened on Monday with a few new exciting additions.
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Zoo staff were met by cars lining up to visit all the animals including three new meerkat pups and a host of ringtail lemur babies.
Director of the Taronga Western Plains Zoo Steve Hinks said all the staff were eager to welcome back the public.
"[We were] so excited this morning. [It's] the first time we get to open the gates to Taronga Western Plains Zoo to the public since August 11," he said.
Mr Hinks is expecting to see several familiar faces across this week especially and admitted there was a lot of interest in the re-opening from the public.
"There's been a lot of pent-up demand for people to wanting to visit the zoo for some time," he said.
"Albeit today being a Monday, never the less I think we still a huge amount of locals who have been missing their daily, weekly or monthly visits to the zoo. So we're really excited to be able to welcome them back nice and safely under these new COVID-19 restrictions."
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Only fully-vaccinated people or those with exemptions will be able to enter the zoo and will be asked to show their proof of vaccination as they go through the gates.
Mr Hinks explained just how much work the staff had been putting in to make sure the zoo was as safe as it could be for the public and employees moving forward.
"The team have done a lot of work to try and figure out the best way for our guests to get into the zoo as quickly as possible whilst we still meet our obligations for checking vaccination status for everyone entering the zoo," he said.
"Taronga Western Plains Zoo is a COVID-safe site and we need to adhere to the plans and public health orders.
"But we can see this morning the team are doing a fantastic job at welcoming visitors."
Mr Hinks said there has been a fair bit of work going on inside the zoo since COVID-19 forced the gates to shut back in August.
"The last couple of months have been difficult for all of us," he said.
"Like so many organisations, we've been faced with the situation of closing to the public.
"But never the less, running a zoo is very busy regardless of visitors being on site.
"The animals still need to be feed, the ground still needs to be looked after.
"There's a lot to do behind the scenes, so we are thrilled today to be able to open and show everybody what has been happening whilst they have been away."
The zoo has long been one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Central West and will no doubt draw visitors from all over the state when metropolitan based fully vaccinated visitors are allowed to come to Dubbo early next month.
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