Monarto Safari Park

Monarto Safari Park’s animals hit the silver screen to help kids in hospital

A 20-minute-old newborn giraffe taking its first, wobbly steps.

Tasmanian Devils squabbling over the juiciest parts of their meaty lunchtime meal.

Southern White Rhino keepers searching through piles of glittery rhino poo for medical testing purposes.

What do these fun and fascinating scenes have in common?

They all feature on an amazing 24-hour kids TV channel played to children in the SA Pathology division of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

The stories, which were all recently filmed at Monarto Safari Park and our sister zoo, Adelaide Zoo, will join a huge amount of other educational animal content on the dedicated San Diego Zoo Kids channel.

Developed by San Diego Zoo, the channel features interesting nature-based videos from zoos and aquariums around the world, teaching kids all about animals like sting rays, anteaters, lions, giraffes and stick insects.

We’re so proud to have partnered with San Diego Zoo and SA Pathology to bring our amazing animals to children and their parents and carers during what might be scary procedures like blood tests or biopsies.

San Diego Zoo Kids TV Adelaide Zoo squirrel glider
Kids meet Geronimo the Squirrel Glider at the Adelaide Zoo launch

Celebrated at a launch at Adelaide Zoo last month, some of the South Australian stories have already been seen by the gorgeous kids at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

At the launch, these special kids then had the opportunity to get up close to some super cute Variety Children’s Zoo animals like quokkas, squirrel gliders and bettongs.

Zoos SA Chief Executive Elaine Bensted says it’s incredibly exciting to be able to make a difference to the day-to-day life of some very special children.

“We exist to connect people with nature so it’s an honour to share the wonder of our animals with these lovely patients,” said Elaine.

“It’s our hope that this content will help make them feel a little better and put a smile on their faces.”

The creation and development of the San Diego Zoo Kids TV channel was funded by businessman and philanthropist T. Denny Sanford.

Debuting in 2013, the channel is now in 293 children’s hospitals in 11 countries around the world, including the United States, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Pakistan and India.

You can check out what it’s all about in the video below.

About Zoos SA

Zoos SA is a not-for-profit conservation charity that exists to connect people with nature and save species from extinction.

Zoos SA acknowledges the Country on which we stand always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land and we pay our deepest respect and gratitude to Kaurna (Adelaide Zoo) and Ngarrindjeri (Monarto Safari Park) Elders, past, present and emerging.

We undertake critical conservation work throughout Australia and acknowledge the traditional custodians of these lands.

Sign Up to Our Newsletter

Stay up to date with zoo news and sign up to our Zoo Times eNewsletter