Zoologico de Morelia, the review. Official inaugurated in 1970, the Zoologico Benito Juarez of the city of Morelia claims to have 450 species, which would make it the mexican zoo with the greatest biodiversity and second in all of latin america. I had not visited this zoo in 20 years and found that claim rather amazing. I was surprised to find a huge animal collection in only about 60 acres. Morelia is located in western central mexico in the state of Michoacan. it has about a million inhabitants and is a pleasant city. The zoo has recieved support from the state government, but its growth is completely disorderly. There are animals everywhere possible. The species are remotely arranged by families or types, but exceptions abound. Cheetahs between asian elephants and cape buffalos, or pymy hippos between jaguars and macaws. Describing this place is very hard but i will try. At the entrance, a nice breding group fo caribbean flamingos with various young. A small pool for mandarin ducks, wood ducks, and tree ducks reaches into a large lake with geese, muscovy ducks, also white and brown pelicans. There follows a large and varied bird collection in traditional aviaries.Here are cockatoos, indian parakeets, golden conures, red faced amazoon parrots, turtle doves, orenpendulas, green toucanet, red lory, san blas jay, crested jay, green jay, patagonian parrots, blue headed amazon parrots, orange fronted parakeets, quaker parrots, patagonian parakeets, sun conures, ecletecus parrots, bourque´s parrots, diverse finches, sparrow hawks with burrowing owls. Somewhat larger aviaries for toucans, crows, turkey vultures, harris hawks, great horned owls and caracaras. Then very large aviaries for golden eagles and king vultures. Then a very nice section of large aviaries for silver pheasant, golden pheasant, lady amherest pheasant, swinhoe pheasant, great currasow, peacocks, white and blue, screamers, reeves pheasant, crested curassow, 2 species of chachalacas, livingstone´s touracos and a breeding group of demoiselle cranes. Then you pass 3 nile hippos and 3 california sea lions, in regular size pools. On to the carivore section. Some cages are large and open like the white tigers, but others are ugly and small. Here are african lions, bengal tigers, white and normal varieties, striped hyenas, spotted hyenas, african wild dogs, canadian wolves, puma, coyotes, 3 jaguarundis, artic foxes, ocelot , leopards and bobcat. Then some pits with, raccoons, coati and spiny tailed iguanas, and only the last seem comfortable in them. Next pens for wild boar and african crested porcupines. Then a nice pool for Morelett´s crocodiles. Now comes a large and disperse hoofed stock section which extends everywhere and in all direction. Any space that could be penned was, and actually nearly all the pens are rather spacious for an urban zoo. Here are wapititi, eland, red deer, ankole cattle, highland cattle, defassa waterbuck, uganda kob, schimitar horned and besia orix, white tail deer and wild turkey, sika deer,grant´s zebra, sable antelope, fallow deer, axis deer, nilgai,aoudad, bison,dromedaries and bactrian camels. Then there are the moated bear grottos, which are large but traditional. Here are first grizzly bears and american black bears. Then a very large two level structure appears which holds Yupik, the 20 year old female polar bear. As mentioned in another thread, Yupik has had a bit of a controversy, but the zoo has spent money rebuilding her exhibit and it now renewed. She was very active when i saw her and enjoying enrichment. Next are some average pools for a mexican neotropical otter. Then there is avery large pen which holds reticulated giraffes, ostriches, guinea fowl, egyptian geese and indian blackbucks. The blackbucks replaced thomson´s gazelles. This a very very large pen and rather nice. Then you arrive at large glass fronted and moated area for lucky primates. These are the best primate exhibits, Here are tufted eared marmosets, japanese macaques, a breeding group of chimpanzees and the only pair of bonobos in all of latin american. Moated exhibits for prarie dogs and meerkats ( reminds of the san francisco zoo exhibit) and a nice pool now for american crocodiles. Then follows a very ugly primate section with old traditional cages. Here are 1 lar gibbon, hamadryas baboons, guineas baboons, 2 species of capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, vervets, rhesus, patas monkeys, pig tailed and tonkeana macaques, mandrill and ring tailed lemurs. In front of all this a lamentable small space for 2 asian elephants, a male and a female.Much smaller than the elephant spaces at mexico city, guadalajara and africam safari park. No pool or sand to refresh. You walk away angry to find nice pens for 2 cape buffalo, cheetah, llamas, and guanaco. On to a nice new section called the mexican rainforest. First pens for collared and white lipped peccary. A very interesting mexican brocket deer next to a nice large aviary for military macaws and yellow headed parrots. An aviary for small birds has mockingbirds, mexican house finches, buntigs and cardinals. And then a very nice moated area for pygmy hippos. What ¡ Yes, there were supposed to have baird´s tapirs, but none were available, and Morelia zoo has very good breeding record for pygmy hippos so there they are. Next a very nice area for jaguars. Walk out pass some capibara, not mexican either. Back to another area which is something like a childrens zoo. Another spider monkey group on a little island. Another island is home to mute, black and coscoroba swans. Pens for a sulcata and aldabra tortoise. Surpise, an area for young predators born at the zoo holds regular bengal and white tigers, with a spotted hyena. really see the gallery pictures. An alpaca with maras in one pen and grey kangaroos in the adjoining pen. Here are various domestics too, vietanmese pigs, dwarf zebus, african goats, shetland ponys and of course, mexican burros. There is a kind of very ugly small mammal house with small bad exhibits for an albino raccoon, grey and red foxes, a nine banded armadillo, 2 sloth, pygmy marmosets. squirrel monkeys, 2 genets, a hedgehog and a skunk. We go back to the entrance to enter the reptile house. It was opened in 1998 and is actually quite nice and spacious. Here are tegus, green iguanas, green anaconda, corn snake, boa constrictor, false coral snake, indigo snake, albino indian cobra, black tailed rattlesnake, ocelated rattlesnake, coastal rattlesnake, mexican pygmy rattlesnake, cantil or mexican mocassin, albino diamondback rattlesnake, beaded lizard, tropical rattlesnake, gila lizard, ball python, blue tongued skink, tokay gecko, marine toad, mexican giant tree frog, red kneed tarantula, savanah monitor, california kingsnake, prarie rattlesnake, white lipped python, green python, gabon viper, reticulated python, burnmese python, blood python, snapping turtles, matamata and slider turtles. Not yet finished, you find an aquarium completed in 2007. it is also nice and still looks brand new. Here are rasboras, freshwater angelfish, neon tetrasm oscar, lake malawi cichilids, endangered mexican platyfishm red cichilids, plecostomus caqtfish, blue gourami, black molly, pangasus catfish, comet goldfish, koi, tilapia, amazon spotted ray, red tail catfish, knifefish, electric eel, alligator gar, giant gourami, pacu. In saltwater tanks are clownfish, french angel fish, picasso triggerfish, squirrelfish, butterflyfish, spotted grouper, yellow tang, moorish idol, blue chromis, queen angelfish, yellow seahorse, cowfish, zebra moray, and 2 nurse sharks. I may have missed some species here. 450 species, yes Morelia zoo could be there. But does this animal collection make it into the best of the mexican zoos, like chapultepec, Guadalajara and africam safari park. Morelia has more species, but the quality of the exhibits is just too irregular. The elephant, primate and carnivore sections need more improvemnt. Still an interesting collection to see.
Thanks very much for the review and the photos of this zoo Carlos. Most of us have likely never heard of this zoo and you have done a great job of making us feel like we were touring with you. Do you think that Morelia Zoo will build a new elephant exhibit, or are they more likely to send the elephants away or just stop having elephants once the current ones die? You mentioned that the aquarium is not yet finished. Do you know what additional exhibits they are planning to build? (Maybe you met that your review was not yet finished, in which case please disregard this question).
Another question: are there any major aquariums in Mexico? I see that the Morelia Zoo and the Guadalajara Zoo have some aquarium exhibits, but I looked in the Mexico gallery and only saw something called "Dolphin Discovery" in terms of Mexican aquatic animal facilities. That looks more like a "swim with the dolphins" thing than an aquarium.
Thank you David, for letting me add some aditional info i forgot to mention. I was quite surprised by the number of species at morelia zoo and had to wonder where did so many animals come from. Morelia zoo is not AZA accredited like Africam safari park, yet there must be animals from the U.S. zoos. perhaps some zoochaters will find animals that went to morelia, for example hoofstock that are being phased out in the U.S. Well. let me return to the elephants. I found it ironic that while Yupik the polar bear recieved all the international attention, the pair of asian elephants in a really inferior enclousure were ignored. Never can understand these anti - zoo animal rights people. The elephants are a good potential breeding pair and Morelia zoo director has never mentioned moving them. I hope that they will build them a better enclousure in the future, that is up to international standards. The aquarium was also a surprise. They are building an outdoor pool, i suppose for the koi. Only Morelia zoo and Guadalajara zoo have inland aquariums. Mexico city, itself does not have an aquarium and due to the water shortage affecting much of the country, there is no near chance that the capital city will get one soon. There are aquariums in Veracruz, Mazatlan and 2 in Cancun. Very few for a country like mexico with so many coastal cities. What is a terrible plague are all those ugly swim with the dolphins places that are all over the seacoasts. There have been attempts to regulate these terrible places but so far too little has been actually done to control them. Mexico is far behind the U.S. and canada in regulating marine mammal care in capitivity and many of these places should be shut done now. But there is too much money being gained at the cost of dolphins being literally exploited. But this is another subject.
What started as a review: I just started a thread on Parque Zoologico de Morelia. Some important news to what you related to some of the old exhibits (Asiatic elephant pair) here.
