Spain, a country known for sun, bulls and Brits going on Stags/Hen Parties. It was time for me to get an unseasonal tan. After waking up at 2:30 to catch my plane from the John Lennon Airport, I was met by Doris. Not some random woman called Doris, it was indeed the storm. This made the plane ride to Alicante quite rocky but once I was over mainland Europe the plane ride was much easier. I had contemplated going to Aitana Safari Park but decided Rio Safari due to the Orangutans and Chimpanzees. I have been to France and Italy but have never visited a zoo outside the British isles. The zoo has not been discussed much on here so I think it is time for an in-depth review. The zoo was not very easy to get to, I got a bus from Alicante to Santa Pola and a taxi from Santa Pola to Rio Safari. Although the name says Safari this is more of a Safari Zoo, the only real safari aspects of it is two jeeps which go through a couple of paddocks. As soon as you enter through the gates before the payment desk, you are met by a large aviary home to Scarlet Ibis, Greater Flamingo and lots of Indian Peacocks and Peahens. There is also a barn like structure which had a Dromerday Camel with a saddle on with some other domestics and a pool where you can pay to do a 'Swim with the Sea Lions' experience. After I paid, my photo was taken by a women with an Albino Boa Constrictor (Whenever I have my photo taken at a zoo it always brings out my bad looking side). After the entrance, there is the Marignated Tortoise enclosure which was shown by Paradoxus in this photo: Elche Safari Park tortoise house | ZooChat Paradoxus mentions that there were 50 of the tortoise in 2008 but there seems to have been a population decrease with from what I could spot 30+ but that is still a very good group size in a quite large enclosure. Across the way from the tortoise is what is known as the 'Pequenos Primates" or "Small Primates" in English. This is a row of 5 cages; the first with 3 White-fronted Lemur, the second and third with 2 Golden-Bellied Mangabey and 3 Green Monkey sharing the two cages and the fourth and fifth holding two pairs of Black Mangabey. The two Mangabey species and Green Monkey being 'lifers' for me. Others near-by areas are Crocoland which is home to 11-12 American Alligators and a Parrot area which is also home to a pair of Black-and-White Casqued Hornbill in a very small cage and a Red-Legged Serima in with the Macaws. All the birds are kept in green, quite ugly cages. Also in the same area is an paddock for some Sulcatta Tortoise. The Reptile Cave is quite well done and reminds me of the Reptile House at Dublin Zoo. The reptiles/others labbeled as on-show are Common Marmoset, Green Iguana, Yellow-Faced Slider, Indian Python, Boa Constrictor, Sulcatta Tortoise, Sudan Plated Lizard, Chinese Water Dragon, Tegu, Egyptian Fruit Bat, Milk Snake, Scheltopusik, Blue-Tounged Lizard, Inland Bearded Dragon, Yellow Anaconda,Madagascan Tree Boa, Corn snake and Spectacled Caiman. The zoo built an Orangutan exhibit in 2014 to house the Bornean subspecies. The first Orangutan island is home to adult male Nakal who shares it with a breeding group of 4 Lar Gibbon who bred last year. Nakal was kept with his son Bangghi until he grew too old and started fighting with his father. He is now in Paris according to the keeper I spoke to. The exhibit has plenty of climbing opportunities which the gibbons take full advantage of. Nakal did stay on the ground all day underneath a blanket occasionally peaking to look at visitors. The second Orangutan island is home to 3 young Orangutans called Kai, Joly and Lingga who all arrived from Monkey World last year. This island is much larger and the Orangutans used it quite a lot especially Lingga. The indoor enclosures aren't very large but adequate as the animals spend most of there time outdoors in the Spanish sun. There are 3 indoor areas, a large one in the centre of the house where Nakal is kept and two identical smaller exhibits in the left and right of the building, the one to the right (by the Entrance) is home to Kai,Joly and Lingga and the one to the left (far end of the building) is home to the Gibbons although the younger Orangutans have access to it in the day. The 3 from MW have settled in well. Joly is very independent, Lingga is attached to some blankets which she takes everywhere and Kai is just seem really chilled almost as he is taking a back seat. Lingga spent some time sitting by the window a behaviour quite common with hand-reared individuals (e.g the sisters at Chester and Oshine at MW) The chimpanzees have recently been given a new island which is vast improvement to the previous enclosure (Where the Mangabey are now) The land is raised with steep edges around the sides, there is a net along the steep edge of the island which allows the chimp to climb down for a drink of water and possibly to help the chimps if ever an individual was drowning. Much like the orang exhibit there is plenty climbing opportunities and plenty of shade for them to escape the sun. The group is made of 6 females all of which are non-species specific. The eldest female is called Bahia and the dominant member of the group. Bahia has 3 daughters in the group, the oldest being Troya, then Susi and the youngest who was born in 2013, Lola. The other two are Andrea and Naomi. The zoo does not have a 'no feeding' policy and peanuts are sold at the shop for visitors to feed the animals. Therefore, the chimps spend some time clapping there hands together to get visitors attention so they can be thrown some peanuts, although I saw one visitor throwing some Rivita biscuits to the chimpanzees. The behaviour of 'clapping' seems to have been passed over to there neighbouring Orangutan group. I saw Joly clapping a number of times. The only enclosure I saw with no-feeding signs was on Nakal's island (Orangutan) due the fact he is diabetic. The zoo also has a children's farm which just has some domestics and a chicken walk-through. Moving swiftly on to the African Savannah which is home to 2 female Angolian Giraffe (Lifer), a group of 6 Grant's Zebra and 3 Ostriches. When I walked round the exhibit, I turned a corner to be met by the male Ostrich (behind a fence) which made me jump out of my skin! I'm not a fan of any of the ratites (Cassowary are alright) but this made encounter made me run, something which I don't do very often until I was far enough away. I was not the only one who was bothered by the ostrich, the male and the female Ostrich where both picking on one of the Grant's Zebra who I felt quite sorry for but rather him/her than me. The exhibit exactly next door is home to the male Angolian Giraffe, 4-5 Scimitar Horned Oryx and a large group of Fallow Deer. The male giraffe was quite friendly-friendly- any time anyone had any food, he would come over and be in there faces. Also nearby are the two Pygmy Hippos. The outdoor enclosures are larger than ones I have seen in the past although the pool was quite small, the hippo wasn't able to fully submerge although in the guidebook shows plans of a new pool. The zoo has quite a few carnivores, the main attraction being the white lions. The zoo does advertise there white lions on nearly everything, roadside adverts and on the leaflets. The lions seem to be famous in the local area, even the taxi driver was talking about them. In the leaflet it states that there are 3 White lions although i'm sure even bongorob could count there were 4. All of the white lions are males and are kept with 2 tawny coloured females. I know a lot of people disagree with white lions but no one can say they aren't beautiful. The zoo also has very good signage explaining why the lions are the colour they are (The signs are English as well as Spanish). Neighbouring the lions are a group of Striped Hyena. A species I don't get to see very often in to the UK and also I was able to get some decent photos of them. All four where very active coming up to the window and having a look at this ZooChatter pointing a camera at his face. They also have a small group of meerkats which are down a side path and quite easily miss able, so no complaints from me! The 'Bengal' Tiger (Probably hybrids) are kept in a theme-park like enclosure similar to something you may see at Chessington or Flamingo Land. I think they were both males from what I could see (if you want to know the sex of an animal and I doesn't say there's only one way to check, even if it is an unpleasant experience). They also keep a Puma another species I don't get to see often enough. The puma enclosure is nothing special, adequate in size and about the same size as the neighbouring European Lynx and Ring-Tailed Lemur enclosures. The zoo two Jaguars in a nice enough exhibit although it is nothing on Spirit of the Jaguar at Chester Zoo. Both the jags weren't active very active in the day sticking in the shade (Who could blame them). Having the name safari they need to have some sort of drive-through enclosure and this comes in the shape of a Jeep with some trailers on the back. The driver gives full commentary as you go around mainly in Spanish. The first drive-through is home to some Guanaco, Dromedary Camel and Ankole Cattle. The second contains some Domestic Yak, Nilgai, Geese, Blackbuck and Zebu. The ride also takes you past the Orangutan, the bison (Hard to view from anywhere else) Pygmy Hippos, African Lions and Striped Hyena. The zoo also has an Australian area which is home to some Emus and Bennett's Wallaby and some Sitatunga in the old giraffe house. A lot of construction work is going on in the zoo at the moment, two island's are being constructed presumably for a primate species along with another paddock. One thing I will mention is the guidebook; its in English so readable and features info on most the animals. Anyone who is eagle-eyed may notice on the Golden Mangabey page it features a 'No Poaching' sign from Islands at Chester Zoo even featuring the 'Save the Macaque' stickers. Overall, the zoo is very good but not perfect but is anything? I think this zoo will decently continue to improve in the future. I will probably visit again within the next 5 years and it will definitely be interesting to see the changes that will happen. But first I will have to further overcome my fear of flying and ostriches!
Very interesting. It did look modern when shown on Monkey World's TV series recently. It's good that their three orangs have settled in well, although I doubt whether MW would be too pleased about the feeding policy. Nakal didn't move much when he was at Paignton either, at least not after he'd stripped the bark from the trees on his island.
