I have recently been on a five-day holiday in the renowned chav hotspot and Costa Blanca resort of Benidorm. Despite its somewhat mixed reputation in the UK, we took the "don't know until you try" approach and actually found it rather pleasant, especially in the old town. Getting on to the important bit, the five days included two zoo trips, up the coast to Bioparc Valencia on day two and then over the motorway to Terra Natura on day four. Suffice to say, they're two zoos at very much opposite ends of the scale in my opinion. I will upload the first part of my Bioparc Valencia review here shortly.
It's good you've done this as I was going to do it when I return to the UK! However, I'll post a review of Terra Natura Benidorm and Mundo Mar Benidorm, so reviews of three collections! Incidentally, the old town is rather nice and has some great restaurants.
Bioparc Valencia - Part 1 - Introduction and 'Madagascar' On Saturday the 26th, we made the 90-minute journey from Benidorm up the coast to the city of Valencia, where after many wrong turns and resultant U-turns, we finally made it to the Bioparc, which isn't too well signposted. There is an on-site underground car park costing £5 for the day, which is fairly reasonable. Cost for an adult ticket is 23.80€, which is not bad for tourist attractions in the area (it's certainly cheaper than the plethora of water parks in Benidorm, where we were based). Immediately upon entry you are subjected to the now standard 'souvenir' photo - in front of a Gorilla statue - which you are supposed to buy upon exiting the zoo; After this you make your way across a rather impressive bridge, taking you over a dried riverbed (converted to neatly-manicured parkland) into the zoo itself. The zoo is arranged in a circuit, and having been opened in 2008 it spans 25 acres and is home to around 4000 animals, predominantly African. Key elements of the zoo are immersion, achieved through the use of moats and mock-rock as opposed to traditional barriers along with Hagenbeck-style exhibits; and theming, with a consistent style used throughout the buildings and imported African flora creating a sense of 'realism'. Cutting to the chase, the first exhibit on the circuit is 'Madagascar'. 'Madagascar' opens with a mixed exhibit of Greater Flamingo and Yellow-Billed Stork, who share their water with Grass Carp and a number of smaller fish - quite possibly fry - which I was unable to identify. These fish, and also some Japanese Koi - are present in the moats throughout the park. Whilst these birds are an impressive sight, they did bring up a rare concern about the park on my behalf. The 'immersion' seems to mean that netted aviaries are only used sparingly, with pinioning - a heavily-criticised practice - being used instead out of vanity. It is so blatantly obvious what the centrepiece of 'Madagascar' is that I needn't bother saying it. The walk-through holds Ring-Tailed, Red-Fronted, Black-and-White Ruffed, Red Ruffed and Red-Bellied Lemurs if my memory serves me correctly, and it is very well kept. You enter the walk-through via a building containing striking, museum-style displays of Elephant Birds and Koala Lemurs; This takes you into the first part of the walk-through, where Ruffed and Red-Bellied Lemurs tend to be more visible in the trees above and bushes below, with footpaths and foliage well-arranged to provide good visibility of the exhibit's shyer inhabitants. The second part of the walk-through is grassy and more open, favouring the Red-Fronted and Ring-Tailed Lemurs (seemingly the fashionable lemur mixture at present), the latter of which in particular seem at ease with the visitors, making them nice and easy to photograph (the common-as-muck zoo species are always good for this). The final part of 'Madagascar' is an island housing Fossa (a first 'life-tick' of the day for me), and whilst the exhibit (there are already photos in the gallery) looks very good I was unable to see it in use, with the only visible specimen sound asleep on the four or five occasions that I checked.
Bioparc Valencia - Part 2 - Equatorial African Zone The next area of the zoo features species from Equatorial Africa. The opening exhibit here is also based around the water, and is a very effective mixed exhibit holding a breeding herd of Sitatunga, a pair of Pygmy Hippo, a group of Great White Pelicans, a pair of Egyptian Geese, Drill (another 'life-tick' for me), Common Mona Monkey and De Brazza's Guenon, all seemingly coexisting very well. The Drill and Mona Monkey tend to stay at the dry end of the exhibit, whereas the Guenons, Sitatunga, Birds and Pygmy Hippos stay in and around the water. Probably one of my favourite exhibits at the zoo, although it could have benefited from some more climbing structures for the primates. You then walk through a small cave, which contains vivaria for species such as Dwarf Crocodile and Nile Monitor, which takes you to the rest of the Equatorial African exhibits. The first you notice is a large dirt paddock for Congo Buffalo and Red River Hog, a visually very interesting mix albeit in a slightly bare paddock, which most of the inhabitants seeking shade along the front wall of the enclosure, which you look down into. On the right is a small exhibit for Europe's only breeding pair of Spotted-Necked Otter, another 'life-tick' for me with the only others in Europe being offspring from this pair who moved to Belfast last year. They were active on my first viewing, but asleep in the afternoon heat later on. After a second viewing area overlooking the drier area of the wetlands mixed exhibit is a paddock housing Eastern Bongo, Crowned Cranes, (African Spurred?) Tortoises, and more importantly, two species of Duiker. The paddock holds Red Natal Duiker along with Europe's only group of Red-Flanked Duiker, of which I managed to see one over the course of the day. Shoehorned in next to this is a slightly out-of-place exhibit for leopards, one Sri-Lankan, one melanistic hybrid and both asleep. Presumably it will eventually house African Leopards? The next exhibit is, in my opinion, the most disappointing by some stretch at the zoo. Chimpanzees are kept on what is essentially a small lawn with minimal climbing opportunities. I'd rank what I've seen at the Welsh Mountain Zoo and Twycross above this exhibit, which seemed a bit of an afterthought. Next up are Western Lowland Gorillas, which are in two exhibits, both improvements on the Chimpanzee facilities yet still both leaving something to be desired in terms of enrichment. The Gorillas are mixed on one side with the delightful and relatively rare Northern Talapoin (another 'life-tick'), and on the other with White-Naped Mangabey.
Bioparc Valencia - Part 3 - Wetlands Zone and Dining You then exit the Equatorial African zone and move into a smaller area with a wetlands theme. The centrepiece exhibit his is 'Kitum's Cave', which starts with two exhibits at ground level, with Common Hippopotamus viewed in the typical Bioparc-style ungulate exhibit and Nile Crocodile seen through a high glass viewing window. Neither species, however, was particularly visible from this point on my visit. You then progress, past another exhibit for African Spurred Tortoise, into the 'cave' itself. On a small bridge, you walk diagonally across the cave, looking down on the underwater viewing areas below to creating some feeling of intrigue for the visit. You then walk down a gradually sloping path, passing two tanks holding various Cichlids, Catfish and Nile Softshell Turtles as a couple of examples,of the fish on display. This path ultimately takes you to the underwater viewing for the Nile Crocodiles, of which I saw three. They are also mixed with cichlids, and at the border of the underwater exhibit with that of the Hippos, there is a glass window which creates the impression of there being one river flowing through the exhibit. The Hippo underwater viewing is naturally large and is worth viewing early on as the water gets murkier over the course of the day (as Hippos do). Once again there are Cichlids present here. On the opposite side of the cave, as you come back up a slope to ground level, is viewing across a small pond into the African Elephant paddock. The paddock is large sandy, with massive boulders and Baobab trees shaping the exhibit. At the far end of the cave, there is a new Amphibian exhibition, with various frogs and toads including a rather impressive bullfrog. You exit on the opposite side of the cave, providing you with a closer look at the Elephants as you do so. There is then more Elephant viewing looking across the water from another angle, and there is also a pond for wetlands birds here (spoonbills, pelicans etc.), although this is another non-netted exhibit. At this point we stopped for lunch in the central restaurant, 'Samburu'. You are forbidden to take a picnic into the zoo which forces you to buy food on site (unless you do just the one lap of the zoo and do just a morning or afternoon). Whilst the restaurant was very efficient, I can't imagine that it would cope well if it were to get busy and the menu was very limited, in particular for vegetarians. There were some also some food hygiene issues from a vegetarian perspective, with the fries being kept in the same tray as the breaded chicken as one slightly ill-planned example. Whilst the food itself is disappointing, the views from the restaurant are spectacular. 'Samburu' overlooks one of two huge Savannah mixed exhibits, holding White Rhinoceros, Grant's Zebra, South African Ostrich, Crowned Cranes and Marabou Stork along with various other waterfowl and smaller birds (Whistling-ducks, Guineafowl, Sacred Ibis etc.) in a sand paddock surrounded with a moat. The twin facility to 'Samburu', the smaller 'Kidepo' café (which shares the African thatched-roof hut design), overlooks a grass-and-sand paddock, which on photos looks somewhat like a golf course but in reality feels rather more natural. This paddock holds a mixed herd of Giraffe (Baringo/hybrids), Waterbuck, Blesbok, Impala, Saddle-Billed Stork and further smaller birds and waterfowl. It's also meant to be home to Thomson's Gazelle but unfortunately I saw none.
Bioparc Valencia - Part 4 - Savannah Paddock What I would describe as the second half of the Bioparc is essentially a long lap around these two Savannah exhibits, with various auxiliary exhibits along the way. Moving counter-clockwise, the first part of the exhibit takes you through or past a 1,500-seater amphitheatre, which I will return to later on. You then get another view of the Elephant paddock, this time looking onto the side of the paddock where the herd tends to be most viewable. The exhibit is defined by the Baobab, which are stunning and pretty much exclusive to this exhibit. Beside the Elephant paddock is a small exhibit for Kirk's Dik-Dik, who browse and find shelter in the shadows of real Acacia trees. The next exhibit along the way is one for Slender-Tailed Meerkats, and whilst these are common as muck in zoos nowadays the exhibit is rather impressive. There are Hagenbeck-style views over the rocky back wall of the exhibit into the giraffe paddock, and further in the distance, the impressive architecture of Valencia You then pass some more hoofstock paddocks: the first of these housed Dromedary Camels in the morning, and then the bull elephant (who looks rather unusual with just the one tusk) in the afternoon. The other held a hybrid giraffe female, who was playing foster mum to two Baringo calves who had been rejected by their own mothers. The next exhibit you come across is home to a mixed pride of lions, consisting of both the standard hybrid lions and Katanga Lions, which are very impressive cats indeed. They are kept in a grassy paddock, with viewing across a small moat and then through glass. The exhibit, though not that large, provides the lions with plenty of shade and enrichment; the lions can also be seen from the Kidepo café across the giraffe paddock. The lions can also be viewed from the next exhibit, a walk through aviary shaped by the kopje boulders used across the zoo. The star of the aviary is a single Ethiopian Klipspringer, and it is mixed with Rock Hyrax, Hamerkop, Guineafowl and Abdim's Stork to name a handful of the species. By this point you have gone around the giraffe paddock (which can be viewed at various angles as you go round) and have met the boundary with the rhino paddock. The next auxilliary exhibit holds a mob of Banded Mongoose, although this is followed by a sand paddock for the beautiful Mhorr Gazelle, which had one calf when I visited but had another born two days later. The paddock is viewed from a bridge and was previously home to another White Rhino, 'Romulo'. The final exhibit at the Bioparc is a burrow exhibit. It opens with outdoor viewing for a mob of Dwarf Mongoose, leading you into an indoor complex with viewing of Aardvark, Warthog and Bat-Eared Fox (which seem to either rotate or be mixed - their footprints are present in the sand in most of the larger exhibits) and smaller exhibits for Gambian Pouched Rat, Naked Mole Rat, Rock Python and a couple of other small mammal species.
Bioparc Valencia - Part 5 - Burrows, Shows and Conclusions As you leave the burrow, you can view the Warthog (and perhaps the Aardvark and Bat-Eared Fox as well) in an outdoor exhibit, and there is also an outdoor exhibit for Spotted Hyaena. This seems to be to the Rhino paddock what the lion exhibit is to the giraffe paddock, but the Hyaenas were inactive during my visit. In the late afternoon we rounded off our visit by watching a show in the amphitheatre, which is very well designed with one end heavily planted, with the rest of the 'stage' being well-manicured grass with rocks at the edges and a stream running through the middle. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of the show: whilst the animals - which included Red River Hogs, South African Porcupines, Black-Backed Jackal, Southern Ground Hornbill, Crowned Crane and various bird of prey were very well trained, it was difficult to contextualise the scenes as the show was narrated only in Spanish (the Bioparc is not as tourist-friendly as some of the other Spanish zoos). The last scene, however, which showed Jackals and Vultures in a scavenging situation looked very impressive though. They also chucked in 'Circle of Life' from 'The Lion King' at the end for effect. All-in-all I found the Bioparc to be excellent. Whilst I had some reservations about the heavy use of pinioning, the great ape facilities and the catering, the collection itself and the aesthetics of the zoo were superb, with impeccable attention to detail running right the way through the zoo. The park is actually fairly small, and whilst we did multiple laps, I imagine it would be feasible to visit in the afternoon (the zoo is open until 9 pm) and also manage to fit in the very well-regarded Oceanografic aquarium in the City of Arts and Sciences in the morning, which, although we didn't manage to visit, holds Beluga and Walrus, two species which I'd particularly like to see. As always, it was much easier to get out of the city than it was to get in.
Thanks for the great review HG, doesn't sound like its changed much since I visited a couple of years ago, although the Mhorrs are new and some of the exhibit configurations are slightly different. I thought it was mostly a brilliant zoo, but the lack of any real vegetation in the "equatorial" section was extremely disappointing. Especially in the bongo and gorilla exhibits if I remember correctly. I think you would be pushing it to do the Bioparc and Oceanografic in one day, its a huge aquarium, although if you did just one circuit of both it'd probably work out.
Terra Natura - Part 1 - Introduction and 'Pangea' Terra Natura is very much a different story, I'm afraid to report. The zoo is twinned with a water park, Aqua Natura, and for 38.50€ you can buy a combi-ticket for the zoo, water park, a meal and three drinks, as opposed to simply a combi-ticket for the two parks at 35€. This is obviously much more expensive than both Bioparc Valencia and, indeed, Oceanografic. The zoo is split into four zones: America, Asia, Europe and Pangea; with Pangea being the entrance zone with a vague prehistoric theme. There is a restaurant here called 'Terraceratops', complete with a T-Rex logo to create an all-round confusing brand; unfortunately they didn't actually have any vegetarian main course options at all. There is a small café as well which seemed to sell crêpes and the like, although we didn't look that closely. There is one exhibit in Pangea, 'Venomous Creatures', which is (naturally) inside a fake hollow volcano. This exhibit is actually a decent start to the zoo, which good quality, educational signage and a fairly wide array of species on display, including Mexican Beaded Lizard, Montane Egg-Eating Snake, Mexican Black-Tailed Rattlesnake, Mangshan Pitviper and Greater Egyptian Jerboa to name some highlights. The vivaria are all of a decent standard, even if the arrangement of them (on tables) isn't the most easy-on-the-eye.
Hi HGibbins: I like your point of view from two of the my "home parks" let me say just two things about them: Sometimes the birds and mammals show in Bioparc it's explained in English too. Unlucky you this time. In Terra Natura (in my last visit the past summer) you can enter to the park with your own food and the ticket (only for the zoo section ) was 28 € by person. Maybe they change the rules now?
Paying in advance for the ticket reduces the price by €5, entering the park with your own food is allowed however I wouldn't recommend it! I have to say when I visited Terra Natura on Sunday, it's possibly the hottest/warmest I've ever been in visiting a collection.
Unless things have changed, there is only one Red-flanked - so you saw the whole European population!
Hi Keeper - in hindsight, a picnic would have been a better option for us as the vegetarian-friendly restaurant was closed. I believe it would just be 28€ for the zoo but my other family members wanted to give the water park a go too, which worked out relatively well in the heat. As if the entire UK population of Balabac Chevrotain a couple of weeks previously wasn't a big enough achievement! I clearly need to either learn German for ZooTierListe or hope ISIS goes public again. Sadly the former is probably more likely.
Terra Natura - Part 2 - 'America' The first major section of the zoo is 'America'. This section starts with a wooded path, along which you find glass fronted exhibits for Toco Toucan, Squirrel Monkeys, Pygmy Marmoset, Golden-Headed Lion Tamarin and Patagonian Mara, along with a fair number of your standard 'show' macaws, mainly Blue-and-yellow. These are all of a decent standard, if a little smaller than I'd have liked for the birds and Mara. This path ends up at a courtyard of some sort which was, at the time, closed but looked like either shops or some sort of petting zoo. The next major exhibit in the 'America' section is a very large walk-through aviary, with the entrance themed as a temple. On the way in you can pay 1€ for a bag of bird seed which isn't really worth it as the vast majority of the birds in the aviary give it a wide berth. The aviary is well-stocked with a variety of bird species from the Crested Screamers and Chachalaca on the forest floor and Whistling ducks in the ponds right up to the parrots occupying the canopy. I didn't take a full list (for my heart lies with the mammals), but it contains pretty much all of the South American birds listed on Zootierliste for the park (it can be found on the Zooindex as 'Benidorm'). You exit the aviary via an impressive moated outdoor exhibit for Guianan Brown Capuchins, with Capybara on the banks. Whilst it is difficult to remember the exact location of each exhibit (I am writing this a week after the visit, and the zoo was something of a maze anyway), but I believe that roughly opposite the Capuchins was an exhibit for Ocelot, the first of many woeful carnivore exhibits in the zoo. The space was very restrictive, the water bowl was empty and dirty, and the one visible cat was pacing compulsively, in what was apparently an act of boredom and associated stress as opposed to the 'patrolling' of a territorial boundary that stereotypical behaviour can easily be conflated with. The remaining exhibits in the American section were a mixed-bag: another couple of good primate exhibits for Goeldi's Marmoset, Emperor Tamarin, a fairly standard exhibit for Oriental Small-Clawed Otter and a basic but adequate pen for Collared Peccary. On the other hand, Chilean Flamingo were kept in a basic pond that was uninspiring but that just about did the job for a small flock. A single melanistic jaguar was also held in a dreadful exhibit which had very little to offer at all. Also in 'America' is a domestic livestock walk-through, which is great fun if you like tip-toeing about to avoid the goat droppings. There was also a single llama in a holding pen, and another exhibit beside the walk through for Rhea. The fence of this exhibit would allow guests to touch and probably feed the birds, which, if a boisterous child or indeed adult were to mess about could pose a fairly significant health and safety hazard.
In Terra Natura's defence, the exhibit has improved regarding foliage/trees however size wise it's quite poor.
You know you can read Zootierliste in English - you just click the British flag icon and it changes from German. Or do you get more information with the German version?
Yep, the little boxes of information relating to the individual animals of the (sub)species at each collection is in German, although admittedly I can generally decipher it. The failure to count the Duiker is, therefore, down to laziness on my behalf.
Terra Natura - Part 3 - 'Asia' Next up is the Asia section, and I am going to be a cheat and review them in the same order as Jordan has done in his thread, I am writing this a week on from my visit and can't for the life of me remember my way around. The theming that runs through the hoof-stock exhibits appears to be one of keeping the exhibits barren and uncovered, aside from the shadows cast by the exhibit walls. We tackled this part of the zoo in the middle of the day, which was probably a bad idea. On the way into the Asia area there is a little outdoor theatre, where there were some people dressed as insects making a bit of a racket. So getting onto the actual exhibits: Dromedary, Sambar and Zebu in a fairly large, round, and completely bare paddock. The animals here looked a little bit uncomfortable in the midday heat but were coping. The positioning of a raised viewing platform so that the stairs went right alongside the exhibit allowed people to pet the animals, mainly the dromedary, but I'm not sure whether or not this was deliberate. An all-female herd of Asian Elephant live on a huge hillside paddock with Blackbuck, the mix looks very good and the paddock was very large if rather lacking in shade. A little bit of attention to detail and it would have been in danger of being a very good exhibit, the white-hot sand and lack of any real function rendered large parts of the paddock purposeless. I appear to have completely bypassed the exhibits for water monitor, loris etc., which is a shame as they look decent on the photos and Pygmy Slow Loris would have been a nice life-tick for me. Reeves' Muntjac are in a small paddock which was about adequate but again could have benefitted from a little bit more shade. The Elephant section of 'Asia' opens out onto a central square where there are a fair selection of birds of prey tied down to tree stumps, presumably for use in a birds of prey display. King Cobra are in a fairly large indoor exhibit, although the viewing is quite difficult as the windows are low down and quite dirty.
Terra Natura - Part 4 - Asia cont., Europe and Conclusions The second half of the Asia section holds a number of carnivore exhibits (brace yourselves). There is a single underweight Sumatran Tiger in a well-shaded but undersized and terribly uninspiring exhibit, which I felt was quite a sorry sight, maybe in part a result of having seen the infinitely better 'Tiger Territory' at Regent's Park in February. The Asian Lion exhibit is also far, far too small and lacks any real form of enrichment apart from each other's company. Bala and Jasdan, the zoo's as-yet unsuccessful breeding pair, stayed by the windows (obscured by dirt and scratches) to get some shade. The final major big cat is the best of a bad bunch and houses mongrel Bengal Tigers on a grassy hillside. I could see this actually being a decent exhibit when cool enough for the cats to be doing little other than lying in a shaded structure at the centre of the exhibit. There is also underwater viewing for the tigers, adjacent to which is an abnormally spacious exhibit for Siamese Crocodile. Scattered amongst all these are a small selection of primate and hoof stock exhibits. Lar Gibbons share a glass-fronted exhibit with Indian Porcupine in what I feel is another decent primate exhibit, even if it wouldn't win any awards. Siamang are rotated with Dhole (which I didn't see) on another fairly large hillside exhibit (probably, all things considered, better than the Bioparc's offering for Chimpanzees), although it would surely make more sense to renovate an existing carnivore exhibit for the Dhole. As for hoof stock, Nilgai are mixed in with Axis deer, Yak and Gaur in another barren-but-not-too-bad ungulate exhibit. Gaur are always an impressive sight and all of the species in the paddock were coping fairly well with the heat (although the Nilgai sought shade, which they could only find along the front wall of the exhibit). The last 'Asia' exhibit which I am yet to mention holds Indian Rhinoceros and Nilgai. There are two paddocks, one for the bull - who was avoiding the heat in a fairly large, deep pool - and one for the cows and a calf. This was one of the zoo's better exhibits although it still was rather ugly and could have benefitted from a little more attention to detail in design. The final section of the zoo is 'Europe', home to domestics and some Red Deer. It is more walk-throughs and barren paddocks but their occupants are obviously significantly less interesting than elsewhere in the zoo. We whizzed through this section trying to find somewhere to eat. We were hoping to dine in an Italian restaurant in this section of the zoo as it was the only place that actually had a vegetarian main course, but it was closed. Instead, we ate from a Greek restaurant where the only option would have been plain pasta. I instead opted to have a side portion of French Fries. Whilst Terra Natura receives mixed reviews on ZooChat, it was the worst zoo I have visited for some time. For such a large site with such a substantial attendance (being next to a huge tourist resort), there is an astonishing lack of attention to detail, and rather than keeping a relatively small number of species to a high standard, Terra Natura seem more willing to cram in the 'big name' species at the expense of exhibit quality, almost at opposites to the Bioparc which had very little to fault. P.S.: If you were thinking of buying a twin ticket, don't bother. The water park is also crap.
