One of the most popular places to visit in Auckland is Auckland Zoo where you can check out the new $7M African Savannah.

However, the large flock of African lovebirds are taking a little longer than expected to settle into their new home at the exhibit.

To give these delicate birds the extra time and space they need to familiarise themselves with their new environment, the opening of the walk-through aviary section of this new area (also home to our leopard tortoises, some of our meerkats and the meerkat tunnels) has been postponed.

We will be opening the aviary to visitors as soon as our bird experts are confident the lovebirds are ready, and will let everyone know with updates on our website, on our Facebook page and via our email newsletters.

"The new African savannah aviary is the second largest in the Zoo and provides our resident flock of lovebirds with a huge and highly complex environment," says Auckland Zoo's curator of Birds and Ectotherms, Richard Gibson

"We are certain they will be very happy and breed successfully here, but it's going to take them a little time to get used to their new surroundings, and when it comes to the health and well-being of our animals, we're always going to err on the side of caution."

As well as exploring the rest of the Zoo, visitors can still look forward to exploring other areas of the new African savannah. These include seeing the smaller meerkat group and, from a stunning new ground-level wildlife hide, looking out over the new watering hole to see giraffe, zebra and ostrich. These animals can also be viewed from the aerial viewing platforms alongside the new rock amphitheatre beside the savannah.

Visitors can follow the aviary bypass walkway to check out the new African village school-yard that has vistas across to giraffe, zebra, ostrich, rhino and springbok, enter the lion viewing shelter, and access the rest of the Zoo's Africa precinct.