Alipore Zoo in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is one of those really messy sort of zoos with paths going all over the place so you are continually cutting back and forth trying to see everything, and you always leave feeling like you've probably missed something important. It is a pretty big zoo but I didn't catch it at a good time because it seemed like half of it was closed for renovations and reconstructions. Where-ever I was there would be corrugated iron fences up, abandoned cages, old overgrown paddocks, dilapidated aviaries, signs saying “work in progress”. Also India does not believe in tidy, so there's no attempt made to keep anything in order, whether it is the construction areas or just the usual business-as-usual areas. It's sort of like walking around a half-abandoned zoo which just won't be let go. The domestic cats roaming all over the grounds don't help the impression of neglect. I'm not sure if they have downsized the collection (there were a lot of empty enclosures!) or if a lot of animals are just off-show, but it must all be for the future good. I came across the old chimpanzee cage, a nasty nasty concrete bunker now sitting idle behind fencing before it is demolished, and later found the new chimpanzee enclosure which is a relatively large moated island which, while it could certainly do with more climbing structures, is a vast improvement. The zoo map (on sign-boards around the grounds – they did not appear to have a paper version) is actually more a blue-print of what the zoo will look like when finished rather than where everything is now. So I had to use it as a sort of general guide and try to ignore name-tags that said things like “Echidna House” and “Insect House”; I would like to know what would be displayed in a “Sonebursa Enclosure” though! There's no proper theme to the collection. The birds are mainly housed at one end of the zoo around the lake – and there are a LOT of birds here – while the hooved stock are mostly at the other end, but otherwise everything is just sort of higgeldy-piggeldy. Waterbird aviary then elephants then lions then more birds then hippos, like that. I'll discuss the various animal groups rather than the route as that seems the easiest way. I'm not going to put any species lists at the end because probably half the animals weren't on show anyway. I'll start with reptiles, just to be different and because it will be quick: the Reptile House was closed for renovation! The only species I saw were a couple of Indian star tortoises in an aviary, a common iguana in a large cage next to marmosets, and the three crocodylians (saltwater crocodile, mugger and gharial). The croc enclosures were far better than in most Asian zoos. They looked like they had originally been home to bears or big cats in the way they had dry moats at the front, but the middle part of each enclosure had been turned into large pools. Birds: Birds, birds, birds – there were aviaries everywhere! There were loads of wild birds too, especially on the lake where there was an island which had a mixed colony of night herons and little and Indian cormorants, as well as the zoo's Chinese geese and mute swans. A lot of the aviaries were what I call wheel-spoke cages, where a big round aviary is divided into segments by mesh walls. It is a good way of using space but always looks pretty crappy and often just results in really small individual sections. There were also the more standard rows of simple aviaries. For some reason the emus were all in aviaries, although the ostrich was in a yard. The best aviary was the huge waterbird one, which had breeding painted storks, European spoonbills [my first] and white (“rosy”) pelicans. The bird collection was very varied and included lots of pheasants (ring-necked, golden, Lady Amherst's, kalij, silver, red junglefowl, Indian blue peafowl, and lots of grey peacock-pheasants), large parrots (African greys, blue and gold and green-winged macaws, little corellas and Moluccan, citron-crested, greater sulphur-crested and Goffin's cockatoos), and some smaller parrots (mostly lots and lots of budgies, cockatiels and Indian ringnecks, and some lovebirds). Others were a few birds of prey, sarus and black-necked crowned cranes, grey go-away birds and violaceus touracos, a few ducks, hill mynahs, green imperial pigeons. A yellow-footed green pigeon, a Malabar pied hornbill and the European spoonbills were my picks for best birds. Mammals: I feel like I missed out on seeing a lot of species which should have been there. So many of the enclosures were either empty or blocked off, and I didn't really see anything of particular interest except a jungle cat in a tiny cage and the fabulous Indian giant squirrel. The living spaces were a real mix of good and bad. Most of the hooved stock were in large yards or small paddocks. There were chital, barasingha, brow-antlered (Eld's) deer, sambar, Indian muntjac, blackbuck and nilgai for the natives, and fallow deer, common zebras and giraffes for the exotics (and red kangaroos which were in the hooved stock section). The Asian elephants had a relatively large enclosure (i.e. not a concrete platform). The Indian rhino was not visible. For the carnivores, the lions had a large dry-moated enclosure (these were labelled as Asian lions but I was positive they had hybrids-- from the CZA inventory [see devilfish's post below] the zoo has both pure-bred Asian lions and hybrid lions). In contrast the leopards, jaguar and striped hyaenas had small walled dens. The bears were at least not on concrete. The tigers were a mix. One of the enclosures, for orange Bengal tigers, was by a very long way the best in the zoo and if they can get the whole zoo up to that standard then it would be world-class. There was also a large dry-moated enclosure for a white tiger. But in between those two great enclosures was a row of tiny concrete cells where the tigers just paced back and forth endlessly. Primates were, as far as I saw, restricted to chimps on their new island, common marmosets in large planted cages, and then Assamese macaques, bonnet macaques and grey langurs in horrible concrete cells. However on the map/future plan there was labelled a big open-air primate island. Summary: at the moment the zoo looks really messy and neglected but I'm sure this is largely due to considerable construction and renovation works going on (although it is combined with the inherent “India” vibe of general chaos!). It appears as if they are attempting to give every animal there better living conditions and turn the zoo into a top-notch facility. I would look forward to returning in a few years and seeing what it is like then. Most of the enclosures there currently are fine, only a few are actually bad (notably the monkeys and some of the carnivores) and these all seem slated for renewal.
I forgot to put in about the aquarium. This is on the other side of the road from the zoo but I think it is probably connected. It costs 5 rupees to enter (the zoo costs 20 rupees – there are about 50 rupees to one NZ dollar so not exactly expensive!). The aquarium is tiny. Photography is not allowed. I started to list the fish in my notebook (first tank “Scarus sp parrotfish” – they were parrot cichlids) but quickly realised that barely any fish in there would get a second glance at a pet-shop. The corridor goes in a U-shape and the tanks line each wall, very much like a pet-shop except the tanks in pet-shops look better and the fish don't generally look on the point of death. Very depressing place. There's a comment book at the exit which had some less than complimentary jottings inside.
not a lot. In one yard was a male and two females. Two or three in another yard as well. But as with everything else at the zoo, I really have no idea how many of anything they had because so much stuff was (probably) off-show or relocated.
Tigers sounds a similar set-up as Delhi Zoo when I went there many years ago now. A least they are presumably all pure Indian tigers as they have no need to import Tigers from other countries, as they have their own- so presumably that one reason effectively excludes generic hybridisation of Tigers in India? I thought, where's this 'Kolkata' he's arrived at, until I realised.. When do you go to Kaziranga?
I know! Everything has changed in the atlases since I was growing up. All the place-names in Burma are different as well (but I refuse to call the country Myanmar!!). At least they haven't gone and renamed India itself. I am still in Kolkata tomorrow, hopefully going to get to the Botanic Gardens to find some birds and squirrels and such, and then the next morning (17th) fly to Guwahati and straight to Kaziranga. You know I honestly can't recall seeing an Indian rhino before! I know I must have done so somewhere, but I can only think of whites, blacks, and Sumatran. So the wild ones at Kaziranga might actually be my first Indian rhinos! (And my first wild rhinos too, if you don't count footprints and the like on Java and Sumatra). But I'd still rather see a hispid hare
Thanks for another intriguing review, and while I've never been to India I've got many acquaintances who have (there is a very large Indian population in my Canadian city of Abbotsford - around 17%) and the idea of mass CHAOS everywhere is my constant impression of that nation. Whether that means a restaurant, the streets, government bureaucracy or the local zoo, India appears to be a nation that thrives on chaotic locations.
In Kolkata, the chousingha are kept at Marble Palace Zoo, not in Alipore. (There are some 27 collections holding more than 100 specimens of Chousingha in India).
From your review, it sounds as though the CZA inventory is quite accurate. I've recommended it a few times elsewhere on the forum, but for Indian zoos, circuses and parks you can search the CZA inventories (Zoowise) by year, collection or species. There are quite a few mistakes, but it's an incredibly fascinating tool.
from the CZA 2012-2013 inventory, the species I did not see any sign of were as follows (in the order they appear on the listings). I haven't included the reptiles because the Reptile House was closed. I haven't included the commoner aviary birds either (things like blossom-headed parakeets and red avadavats). fishing cat hamadryas baboon yellow baboon brush-tailed porcupine hybrid lions (if the ones I saw were Asian lions as the sign said) great hornbill spot-billed pelican umbrella cockatoo So yes, there weren't many missing. I had been expecting more small mammals which the zoo is rather lacking in! However the zoo map-board also named banteng, gayal, echidna, goral and hoolock amongst others, which weren't there and aren't on the CZA list.
It's sad this place is obviously in a mess. for it has a proud history. A subspecific hybrid Sumatran Rhinoceros was born here in 1889 (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis x D.s. lasiotis).
I would say it is messy, not in a mess (if you see what I mean). So the messy-ness is hopefully due to making things better, but also yes to the way Indians do things. If you were just randomly plonked down in the zoo with no clue where you were on the planet, you would take one look around and say "yep, India". I have uploaded the enclosure photos to the gallery (http://www.zoochat.com/gallery/alipore-zoo). Amongst them are the fabulous new tiger enclosure which I hope is symbolic of what is to be the future for everything at the zoo: http://www.zoochat.com/1956/tiger-enclosure-355958/ and http://www.zoochat.com/1956/tiger-enclosure-355956/
Great review - Kolkata is the city I was born in and I lived there until I was ten. It was always my choice of outing and I went as many times as I could. Of course I didn't know much about animal husbandry standards at the time and I thought it was a truly magical place. Interesting that you mentioned the giant squirrels because they were my most memorable animals - and I remember being fascinated by the pangolins. Great to see that at least it's being overhauled.
I prefer to say pure 'Indian'. But yes, I think so. Indian zoos seem to have had a policy of proliferating white tigers and a lot of them are very inbred as a result, but I think they are all bred from other pure Indian tigers so the purity applies to them too.
Well that sounds good then. Can I ask why you don't like "Bengal", is it geographically inaccurate, un-PC, or something else?
I guess there are still Indian Tigers in Bengal, but their distribution is(although fragmented now) still over other parts of the Indian subcontinent too, which is why I think Indian is the better description.
