Beijing Zoo » Beijing Zoo

15-04-2008

Yes, Jonathan-Chinese Morals; and I think there is another institution in Beijing (I didn't go there, just heard recently about it) that has even more pheasant species.
@Jurek7: I saw mentioned Chinese Mountain cat & wild camel, Red And White Giant Flying Squirrels, Hog Badgers, Great Bustards, Mongolian Larks, Sichuan and Shensi Takins, various subspecies of the Brown Bear, Moon Bears, Francois' and Spectacled Langurs, at least half a dozen Pgymy Loris, Chinese Alligator en masse and much more. That enough?

15-04-2008

Do they still have Baird's tapir at Beijing, and have they bred?

15-04-2008

I think I saw one Baird's-but no offspring.

16-04-2008

China selects young pandas to woo tourists for Olympics_English_Xinhua

6 million tourists in 6 months...wow. Those giant pandas better not spend half their lives sleeping...haha.

17-06-2008

Chinese Mountain Cat??!!!

I'm crazy over rare felids!!!!

probably very old, how many were their?

17-06-2008

It is said there is another safari park-type zoo in China, where they keep rather large groups of snub-nosed monkeys in semi-natural conditions. It is supposed to be on the outskirt of some large eastern city (Beijing? Shanghai? not in Sichuan).

Anybody knows details and visited it?

19-06-2008

@Potto: I just saw one obviously old specimen in a very, very bad "concrete & bars" cage...
I'm still looking for my CD with all the Beijing Zoo photos; if I find it, I will post the photo of the cat in the Gallery.

@Jurek7: That's probably Beijing Badaling Safari Park; I haven't been there in person (as I heard about it AFTER leaving China), but a friend of mine who has been there said the husbandry was pretty bad in general (no big surprise). Besides the mentioned Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys, they also keep quite a bunch of rare pheasant species.

19-06-2008

Safari parks in P.R. of China look like a sixties' relict. The are run on a commercial basis, just there to make a profit and little attention is actually paid to the captive species in their care.

This in contrast to the "serious" zoos like Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai and Xi'an that are government run and cash strapped, but where there is a huge interest in improving animal care and exhibit standards. Most of these zoos have government sponsorred special off-exhibit breeding facilities for several endangered taxa (like the endangered primates in Beijing, e.g. snub-nosed monkeys, Francois' langur and pileated langur (could also be white-fronted).

The under-mentioned zoos would benefit much from exchange programmes with western zoos. It is only after western zoos starting investing into the giant panda programme in the early 1990's that AI and natural breeding has really taken off in P.R. of China. Same goes for e.g. takin, snub-nosed monkeys and all (some Japanese zoos kept them on exchange basis and single-handedly their experience with primate keeping had Beijing investing in new primate enclosures (which are really top of the range).

19-06-2008

@jelle: Like I wrote before, I agree with You that a better cooperation between Chinese and Western zoos would benefit both sides.
Yet about the primate enclosures: I don't know whether they improved considerably since my last visit, but most if not all of the primate exhibits at Beijing Zoo had more or less considerable flaws and could even with good will not be described as "top of the range", especially in comparison to primate husbandry in, say, Apenheul or Jersey. In some species of primates, like the Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys, Beijing as well as the other zoos mentioned are pretty successful in (natural) breeding-although this is not the result of AI and does not include species like the Yunnan Snub-Nosed Monkeys in Beijing (with the odd pair-keeping)-and the husbandry is not really optimal (especially in Chengdu with those bare concrete cages).
As far as I heard, the Japanese GSNMs at Yokohama are soon going back to China.

19-06-2008

@Jurek7: Sorry, I think I have to correct myself; I think the safari park You meant with the GSNMs was Shanghai's Wild Animal Park.
@jelle: Judging from these photos, part of the primate exhibits at Beijing did improve:
Beijing Zoological Gardens - Photographies 2007

13-03-2009

A pair of Formosan serow are being sent from the Taipei zoo to the Beijing zoo, from a herd or collection that totals 38 animals with 5 born this year already, if the pair at Beijing are successful more animals will follow.

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