Adelaide Zoo goes ape for 140th birthday in 2023

The site, which is home to 2500 animals and 250 species, is celebrating its 140th anniversary with a community day on May 27.

Jeff, the zoo's general manager of operations, has worked there for 33 years and has lived on-site for 29 years with his wife Jennifer Robinson.

Jeff came from a farming background and was in the Navy for 13 years, before he studied horticulture in Adelaide and completed his placement at the zoo, and fell in love with it. He's since overseen exhibits including for the tigers and for Giant Pandas Wang Wang and Funi be built. At the moment, the zoo is working on a new Komodo dragon display and a forest canopy trail for the orangutans Kluet and Puspa.

While his day job has logistical challenges of designing environments that cater to the animals' welfare plus managing stakeholders, his passion and enthusiasm are clear.

"I love the people, I love the environment. I love the fact that on a bad day I can walk out and I can look at the plants and the animals and it just all disappears. I mean, it's a wonderful place," he said.

It also afforded Jeff and Jennifer an opportunity to raise a family in such a unique setting; their son Callum was little when Jeff helped to hand-rear Makoko, a baby hippo, the son of Brutus and Suzie.

Tigers are Jeff's favourite animals, which he describes as sleek and machine-like.

"They're just beautiful to look at, but you wouldn't trust them, you wouldn't turn your back on a tiger - they're just ruthless."

There are times when animals have gotten the better of humans, particularly with breaching containment lines. For example, within days of the South East Asia exhibit opening, an orangutan known for being mischievous worked out how to get across hot wires designed to keep animals out of a particular tree, which was needed for shade. She stayed in its canopy and stripped it bare of its leaves, and it took some time before she could be brought back down again.

"They are so smart... orangutans, chimpanzees and other primates can solve problems; they know how to manipulate things to get out of exhibits or open doors."

Jeff and Jennifer live in the state heritage-listed Head Keeper's Cottage, which was built in 1883, was the original keeper's residence, and had the old front entrance next to it.

"It was a little noisy, but it's a fabulous place to live. Now the entrance has moved to the other side of the zoo, it's a lot more peaceful when we have an exhibit outside the back door," Jeff said.

"In the evenings when the public has gone, we sit out the back, we've got the animals basically at our back door. So it's a fantastic place to have lived and brought up a family.

"It's in a fantastic location; I can walk into town, I can walk into North Adelaide. You don't need to drive your car very often. So it's been a wonderful experience."

Do you recall riding around Adelaide Zoo with Samorn the Elephant or hearing about cheeky orangutan George's mischievous activities?

Be taken on a trip along memory lane as the site celebrates its 140th birthday with an open day on May 27. Besides connecting with your favourite species and their keepers, you can also take part in a history trail, keeper talks, see a time capsule and more.

Among the furry, scaly and feathery celebrities will be Giant Pandas Fu Ni and Wang Wang, Obi the Pygmy Hippopotamus and Kimya the giraffe.

The zoo has come a long way from 1883, when it was opened by the then SA Zoological and Acclimatisation Society and had 37 mammals, one reptile and 36 bird species, on land that used to be part of the botanical gardens.

A number of animals have taken to our hearts over the years, including Greater, one of the world's oldest Greater Flamingos, who passed in 2014 aged about 83 years old; George the Orangutan, who often threw out his hessian bag in front of his cage for people to deposit peanuts, lollies and other treats for him; and Samorn the Elephant, a gift from the king of Thailand in 1956 and took adults and children around the zoo in a cart for 36 years, with peanuts used as treats at each stop.

Many of the zoo's earliest buildings are still standing, five of which are state heritage listed: the Head Keeper's Cottage, which is currently lived in by the zoo's general manager of operations Jeff Lugg; the Director's residence (now Minchin House), which is allegedly haunted by a former director's wife; the Indian-inspired elephant enclosure that now borders the giraffe enclosure; the gates and original entrance, which are still part of the fence wall; and the rotunda, a gift from Sir Thomas Elder and possibly the largest structure of its type in the southern hemisphere. Other older buildings still in use include the original monkey house, which is now part of Fig Tree Cafe. You can learn more about these buildings along the walks.

Today, the zoo is home to 2500 animals from 250 species. It's involved with national and international conservation programs, helping protect species from extinction - often away from the public eye - for animals including giraffes, cheetahs, Southern White rhinos, and Sumatran tigers and orangutans. Closer to home, it's helped with programs for orange-bellied parrots, Brushtail Bettongs and Phascogales, and helped nurse injured koalas and kangaroos from bushfires.

The zoo is at Frome Road, Adelaide. Click here or phone 08 8267 3255 for more information.