The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium will open a new exhibit tomorrow, highlighting the wildlife on the Australian continent.

The exhibit, called Voyage to Australia, will officially open to the public at 10 a.m. after a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The new exhibit will feature a variety of animals from the Australian continent, said Jacquie Myers, administrative assistant of marketing for the Columbus Zoo. At Kangaroo Station, guests can get up close to one of Australia’s most famous residents, as visitors take a stroll in a walk-through kangaroo yard.

The new area will also feature a lorikeet garden where visitors can actually feed the colorful birds cups of nectar, which will supplement their diets.

Guests can also visit Koala Rest-O-Rama, where they can view koalas lounging in the trees. Myers says the name of the koala exhibit is appropriate.

“When you look at koalas, that’s usually what they are doing: resting or sleeping,” Myers said.

The zoo also welcomed two new animals last month – a baby elephant and a gorilla.

The male Asian elephant calf was born at 3:28 a.m. April 16. Harry Peachey, head keeper of pachyderms at the Columbus Zoo, said the calf arrived after a 637-day gestation period at a healthy 285 pounds, and both mother and baby are doing well.

Peachey said the successful birth of an Asian elephant is a first for the zoo. An earlier pregnancy in 1999 resulted in a stillborn calf. The birth of an Asian elephant in captivity is a rare event; the last successful birth in North America occurred in 2001.

Peachey said the birth of the elephant was not just big for the zoo, but for the entire Asian elephant population. He said while the North American zoo population is not yet breeding fast enough to make it self-sustaining, every birth is an important step in protecting the species. North America zoos house about 150 Asian elephants, and less than 25 of those are males.

The new elephant has been drawing large crowds to the zoo, which has prepared to handle them. As guests near the elephant area, they are greeted with crowd-control barriers, rangers that direct the flow of traffic and large, amusement park-like signs that tell them just how long they can expect to be standing in line.

Tera Robinette of Columbus brought her two children to the zoo and thought the chance to see the elephant was worth braving the crowds.

“It was really cute and a lot bigger than we expected,” Robinette said.

Myers said the elephant is on display daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., but the zoo does not guarantee these times because of the health of both the mother and the baby.

While the new elephant might be drawing crowds, the birth of an endangered female Western lowland gorilla is no less exciting to zoo personnel. The gorilla was born only one day after the elephant at 12:35 a.m., weighing about four pounds.

Dave Liggett, an African Forest keeper at the zoo, said this birth represents the 30th gorilla born at the Columbus Zoo. The zoo is one of the leading gorilla-breeding facilities in the country and became the first facility to successfully breed gorillas with the birth of a gorilla named Colo in 1956. There are now 18 gorillas that call the Columbus Zoo home.

Liggett said the new baby is doing well, despite a somewhat rough beginning. When the baby was born, its mother, Nia, refused to nurse her. Ligget said he believes this may have occurred because Nia, who was also captive-born, was not nursed by her mother and had to be bottle-fed.

“It just took her a while to catch on. It certainly wasn’t because the baby wasn’t doing its part,” he said.

The new gorilla, its mother and eight other gorillas are not available for public viewing, and no timetable has been set yet for the baby to make its first public appearance.

Liggett said it is very important to give the new baby time to properly bond with its mother and the other gorillas it lives with.

“When mother and baby are comfortable, then we will be comfortable with letting them out,” he said.