Sydney v Melbourne: Which city has the ultimate zoo experience?

World-class animal encounters await in the country's two biggest metropolises. But which sanctuary will you visit first? Our experts help you decide.

By Amy Cooper

Who's who in the zoo? It really doesn't matter, because even if Melbourne had unicorns, dragons and the Loch Ness Monster, Sydney would still win this battle of the beasts. Just call it natural selection. Taronga is an Indigenous word for "beautiful view", the built-in benefit that Melbourne can't match. There's no habitat more prized than Taronga zoo's harbourside perch in Mosman, commanding the city's most stunning panoramas; coveted by humans but owned by animals.

It's weird and wonderful to see the famed Harbour Bridge and Opera House vistas become a backdrop for giraffes, chimps, penguins and all their pals - as if your child slapped wildlife stickers on a Sydney postcard.

For some it's a zoo with a view, for others a view with a zoo. If you're unfussed by fauna, there's pleasure enough in soaking up scenery even multi-millionaires can't buy.

For creature seekers, there are more than 5000 animals - including 350 endangered species - residing in 28 leafy hectares. From cuties like Lololi the baby pygmy hippo and Busta the koala joey to carnivores Ato the lion and Clarence the Sumatran tiger, plus the world's only zoo-based Fiordland penguins and a precious colony of critically endangered Corroboree frogs, the zoo's population is fiercely fabulous.

But Taronga's allure is more than just animal attraction. Arriving on the water by ferry sets a safari vibe from the start. You can go ape on the Wild Ropes Treetops Adventure high ropes course and in summer your flock can rock at Twilight at Taronga concerts.

When school's out you can legitimately leave your kids at the zoo with the day-long Zoo Adventures holiday program. Even better, you can all live like (lion) kings at Wildlife Retreat, the zoo's 62-room luxury eco-hotel filled with creature comforts and close-up critters. There may not be an elephant in the room, but Aussie marsupials, birds and mammals roam just outside in the Sanctuary - a 'roo with a view.

Or go wilder at Roar and Snore, Taronga's original sleepover experience, in glamping tents with outlooks as killer as the lions living close by.

This Easter there's a final chance to farewell Taronga's elephants, Pak Boon and Tang Mo, before they pack their trunks and move to bigger digs in South Australia at the end of April. Rumours that a Hemsworth will snap up their vacated prime real estate are unfounded. The new kid is Hari, a greater one-horned rhino, known as a "real life unicorn" (although at 1500 kilograms with 5cm-thick skin and a head shaped like an anvil, he's fooling nobody).

He and his A-list friends are just a 12-minute hop across the harbour from the CBD. For a happy holiday hunting ground, Sydney's zootopia sits right at the top of the food chain.

By Mal Chenu

I will happily concede this week's argument to Amy. She is the animal lover. She is the rights campaigner. When it comes to our furry, feathered and scaly friends, my expertise runs to whether to pair them with chardonnay or shiraz.

And zoos are zoos, right? Well, no. Since asserting dominion over animals, humans have been far from humane. This started with Noah, who crammed every beast "that creepeth upon the earth" onto a single barge and left the unicorns to drown.

Zoos are easy to criticise and there is no point in re-running the arguments. But, managed humanely and respectfully, they can be a force for good.

Australia's zoos, along with many others in the civilised world, not only exhibit animals in humane surroundings but are champions of education, research and preservation. The elephant in the room has become the elephant in the expansive enclosure.