Dubbo's Taronga Western Plains Zoo opens new pedal boat experience to visit the primate islands

The launch of the new pedal boat experience gives people an opportunity to get up close and personal out on the lake with the "beautiful" monkey species for the first time.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo director Steve Hinks said he was very excited to announce the opening of the new attraction.

"There were a few motivations for this, firstly we wanted to give families and locals something to do, another opportunity for an activity on weekends," he said.

"Anyone that has kids knows how hard it is to keep them entertained on weekends, so it was a really great opportunity to speak to our local audience and give them an activity to come down and do that was a lot of fun."

READ ALSO:

Visitors to the zoo will get to see the black-handed spider monkey and two species of lemur.

"Out on the islands on the lake we've got our black-handed spider monkey troupe, really active animals, really charismatic and entertaining to watch," he said.

"We have two species of lemur; the black-and-white ruffed lemur, which for the first time people are going to have the opportunity to get out and have a look at up close, and also our ring-tailed lemur that our guests are probably a little more familiar with."

The boats cost $20 to hire for 30 minutes, and fits two adults and two children.

"The boats are really accessible and 30 minutes I can tell you is more than enough time to work up a sweat by pedalling around out on the water," he said.

"You will work up a thirst and a hunger that you can then go and enjoy a nice meal at our café afterwards."

The joy won't just be had by humans though, the pedal boats also give the monkeys something to do.

"Our monkeys, they are just sick of people standing there so they wanted to see some of our guests do something more interesting, so for them to watch guests pedalling around on the lake is a lot of fun for them as well," Mr Hinks said.

Life jackets are given to all children on the boats and for any adults that are riding solo or would feel safer with one.

"It's a really safe environment, we've got life jackets for all the kids, for adults it's optional to use a life jacket but we certainly have them available," he said.

"The area is fully supervised and we have a rescue boat here on hand if we need it, but it is a stable craft the pedal boat we've got, it's very safe and very, very fun."

Mr Hinks couldn't be prouder of his team for coming up with the new attraction and he thinks it is something everybody will enjoy.

"Everyone loves the primate species, they are really entertaining and fun to look at," he said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: