Taronga’s famous Seal Show has undergone some exciting changes! The new Seal Presentation features stunning displays of natural strength and agility as well as powerful conservation messages all set to a punchy soundtrack.  

 The Seal Presentation was designed to refresh a much-loved part of a Zoo visit, as well as forge lasting connections between visitors and wildlife.

 Keepers work closely with the seals on stage to teach the audience about human impact on the marine environment and how buying MSC certified fish directly helps to secure and protect a future for seals and other marine life in the wild.  

Marine Mammals Keeper, Stephen Dalleywater, said: “We want to encourage a connection with these animals to help our visitors realise there is something they can do to help all marine animals in the wild. Our oceans are a finite resource and we need to do all we can to protect it.”

 “We’ve kept a lot of the core messages from the original presentation, but we looked at new and creative ways of depicting them,” said Stephen.

 “We already had a lot of the seals’ natural behaviours featured in the old show, but now we’ve really tried to represent activities like hunting and grooming as well as showing the struggle seals face in the wild with marine debris.”

 “We’ve also taken this opportunity to add some high energy exciting behaviours that seals can do to show their natural strength and agility.”

 “Audience participation is now one of the core ideas of the new Seal Presentation. We do our best to get the crowd involved; we try to get them wet in our splash zone, and we give them a fun and entertaining experience as they learn about seals.”

 One of the new segments explains how the training that the seals receive helps keepers meet their daily health, needs such as dental checkups, as well as providing fun and interesting challenges.

 “Seals are very clever animals so working with them provides them with challenges and tasks to achieve, which is a great form of mental and physical stimulation.”

The Seal Presentation is on every day at 11am and 2pm.