IF YOU thought moving home was tough, try packing a herd of Himalayan wild goats, red pandas, baboons and a bearcat.

Keepers from Dakabin’s Alma Park Zoo, which closed this week on property set to become a housing estate, are overseeing the relocation of their menagerie to the Big Pineapple.

A wild array of up to 200 native, South American, Asian and African creatures will become part of Queensland Zoo, helping revive the Sunshine Coast tourist icon at Woombye.

The zoo will open on Saturday, just in time for the start of the Easter school holidays, and opening hours will be 9am to 4pm seven days a week.

media_camera Simba the dingo is all packed for his move from Alma Park Zoo to the Big Pineapple. Picture: Glenn Barnes

Queensland Zoo’s Julie Seabrook said the animals were loving their new home, but admitted some were easier to shift than others.

“The hardest ones are going to be the baboons,’’ she said.

“The main thing is it’s all very safe and keepers, who have a strong bond with the animals, travel with them.’’

Dingoes, wallabies, koalas, two red pandas, possums, Himalayan tahrs (wild goats) and a binturong, also known as a bearcat, are among those settling in nicely, while a sun bear

arrives this week.

Ms Seabrook said it had been sad to see the end of Alma Park Zoo, which was 45 years old, but the Big Pineapple presented a bright new era.

The move will give the Sunshine Coast two zoos, with the award-winning Australia Zoo 32km south at Beerwah.

Originally published as Entire zoo packs up and leaves