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aardvark250's second trip to Japan

Discussion in 'Japan' started by aardvark250, 13 Dec 2017.

  1. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Shenzhen's one is bigger and have vegetation.
     
  2. agnmeln

    agnmeln Well-Known Member

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    The first and the third are especially bad.

    I can’t remember the vegetation the vegetation as Shenzhen. You’re right, it is bigger, but when I was there I counted 16 bears in the one enclosure, so I think that on the bases of square metres per bear, each animal would have less room.
     
  3. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Kyoto City zoo : Species list


    Mammals:

    Tushima leopard cat

    Amur tiger

    Lion

    Jaguar

    Japanese red fox

    Raccoon dog

    Japanese badger

    Japanese squirrel

    Japanese flying squirrel

    Long tailed goral

    Sika

    Japanese black bear

    Gorilla

    Tufted capuchin

    Rhesus macaque

    Senegal bushbaby

    Pygmy slow loris

    Asian elephant

    Brazilian tapir

    Cape hyrax

    Mandrill Lar gibbon

    Chimpanzee

    Bush dog

    Red panda

    Fennec fox

    Hippo

    Zebra

    Meerkat

    Giraffe

    Indian flying fox



    Birds:

    White-cheeked pintail
    Common teal
    Mallard
    Common goldeneye
    European pochard
    Baikal teal
    Spot-billed duck
    Mandarin duck
    Tufted duck

    White bellied green pigeon

    Japanese white-eye

    White’s thrush

    Brown-ear bulbul

    Japanese quail

    Black-necked stilt

    Gray-headed lapwing

    Ural owl

    Peregrine falcon

    Green pheasant

    Northern goshawk

    Rubby kingfisher(That’s the sign)

    Buffon’s macaw

    Plain chachalaca

    White cheeked turaco

    Scarlet macaw

    Snowy owl

    Red crowned crane

    Emu

    Peafowl

    Humbolt penguin

    Northern bald ibis

    white ibis

    Guineafowl

    Greater flamingo
    Lesser flamingo
    Chilean flamingo
    Caribbean flamingo

    Black headed gull


    Reptiles(I miss a lot of them due to a lack of time):

    Japanese striped snake

    Mamushi

    West African dwarf crocodile

    New Guinea snake-necked turtle
    Painted turtle
    Black-knobbed map turtle

    Madagascar day gecko

    Indian star tortoise
    Green iguana

    Ball python


    Amphibians:

    Japanese giant salamander

    Japanese newt

    Argentine horned frog

    Green and black poison dart frog
     
  4. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Kobe animal kingdom species list:

    Mammals:

    Ring-tailed lemur

    Sitatunga

    Cape hyrax

    Serval

    Fennec fox

    American beaver

    Striped skunk

    Collared peccary

    Red river hog

    Binturong

    Red panda

    Asian small clawed otter

    Spotted seal

    Capybara

    Patagonian mara

    Alpaca

    Red kangaroo

    Grey kangaroo

    LInneaus two-toed sloth

    Three-band armadillo

    Southern tamandua

    Cottontop tamarin

    Common marmoset

    Fishing cat

    Brazilian tapir



    Birds(I skip the parrot house because it cost 300yen):

    Kea

    Major Mitchell's Cockatoo

    White pelican

    Mallard

    Ruddy shelduck

    Shoebill

    Common shelduck

    Mandarin duck

    Himalayan monal(not seen)

    Ringed teal(not seen)

    Whit ibis

    Sacred ibis

    Blacksmith plover

    Black-necked stilt

    Scarlet ibis

    Marabou stork

    African penguin

    Black swan

    Mute swan

    Owl species (ID need)

    Eurasian eagle owl

    Brown Wood Owl

    Salmon-crested Cockatoo

    Red and green macaw

    Blue and yellow macaw

    Violet turaco

    White-throated toucan

    Victoria crowned pigeon

    Toco toucan

    Eagle species(ID need)


    Reptiles:

    Tortoise ID
     
    Last edited: 4 Mar 2018
  5. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Tennoji zoo species list:

    Mammals:

    Tufted capuchin

    Grivet

    Lion-tailed macaque

    Drill

    Mandrill

    Siamang

    De brazza monkey

    Crab eating macaque

    Pig tailed macaque

    Francois’s langur

    Egyptian rousette

    Japanese marten

    Small hedgehog tenrec

    Sugar glider

    Lesser slow loris

    Koala

    Spectacled bear

    Sun bear

    Japanese black bear

    Polar bear

    Common chimpanzee(not seen)

    California sea lion

    Hippo

    Red panda

    Amur tiger

    Chinese grey wolf

    Dhole

    Mouflon

    Jaguar

    Puma

    Lion

    Zebra

    Giraffe

    Spotted hyena

    Eland



    Birds:

    Ural owl

    Spectacled owl

    Brown kiwi

    Waldrapp

    European white stork

    Spotbilled duck(not seen)

    Faclated duck(not seen)

    Black-tailed gull

    Common shelduck

    Grey heron

    Black-crowned night heron

    Tufted duck

    Little egret

    Great cormorant

    Mallard

    Sacred ibis

    Great grey owl

    Snowy owl

    Temminck's Tragopan

    Palawan Peacock-Pheasant

    Crestless Fireback

    Himalayan Monal

    Vulturine Guineafowl

    Helmeted Guineafowl

    Green Pheasant

    Edwards's Pheasant

    American Flamingo

    Chilean Flamingo

    Lesser Flamingo

    Red crowned crane

    Siberian crane

    King penguin

    Humbolt penguin

     Japanese Golden Eagle

    Andean condor

    Saker falcon

    Turkey vulture

    Black vulture

    Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture

    Grey-crowned crane

     Demoiselle Crane

    Black-necked Crane

    Whimbrel

    Reptiles:

    Fat-tailed gecko

    American alligator

    Aldabra tortoise

    Radiated tortoise

    Panther gecko

    Bearded dragon

    Bengal monitor

    Chinese alligator

    Spotted pond tortoise

    Indian roof turtle

    Chinese crocodile lizard

    Boa constrictor

    Water monitor

    Black tree monitor

    Nile monitor

    Alligator snapping tortoise

    Amphibians:

    African clawed frog

    White’s tree frog

    Cranwell horned frog

    Helmeted water toad

    Fish:

    Marbled lungfish

    Carp
     
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  6. PossumRoach

    PossumRoach Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I am sure you know that the kobe animal list is slowly getting outdated
     
  7. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I have stopped this for too long. So here it is.


    Aardvark250’s second trip to Japan—a detailed review




    Part 1:Kyoto Municipal Zoo

    Part 2:Kyoto Aquarium

    Part 3:Kaiyukan

    Part 4:Kobe Animal Kingdom

    Part 5:Tennoji Zoo


    So let’s start!



    Part 1.1 Entrance and cat exhibits


    Upon reaching the zoo entrance, I didn’t expect much. The zoo is small and I prepared just 1.5 hours for it. Of course there are a lot more to see, so let’s get start!


    The zoo is located inside the city of Kyoto, with very convenience bus service. The train station is also nearby. Just next to the bus stop is the zoo entrance .The entrance is one that is simple, which don’t have much fancy buildings to it.
    upload_2018-4-27_17-44-29.png


    The admission fee is also cheap.600 yen for adults and since I’m not 18, I enter the zoo free. The first exhibit is already for a rare inhabitants. Tsushima leopard cat(Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus). According to the new felidae taxonomy. This subspecies is not recognized anymore, but rather merge into the Amur leopard cat subspecies. But anyway, a rather cool animal to see. Sadly ,the cat is hiding under a shelter and curve into a ball, and with the iron wire, I can’t photograph it.


    A picture of the Tsushima leopard cat exhibit.
    upload_2018-4-27_17-44-38.png


    The leopard cat is hiding next to the card box.


    As you can see, the exhibit is small, but it provides basic enrichment for the cat. They have place to hide, place to climb, and there is dirt and sand rather than concrete.


    After the leopard cat, there are four similar exhibit, housing Leopard (Panthera pardus) , Lion (Panthera leo) and Tiger (Panthera tigris). Though all of them are small, they did tried to provide as much they can. The leopard exhibit has some log, a rising platform and some enrichment such as a ball and a barrel. The ground is also natural and they have indoor area. However, this is too small for two leopards. In my opinion, the zoo should focus on more smaller carnivore, instead of some big ones.


    A photo of the leopard exhibit

    upload_2018-4-27_17-44-44.png

    Next to the leopard is the lion one. The exhibit house a old lion, claimed to be the oldest in Japan. In my visit, the lion is doing nothing but sleep. It is thin, and don’t look so good. Also, the enrichment for him is less than the one with the leopard. I hope Kyoto Zoo won’t bring back another lion after this one dies.


    The last exhibit of this small cat area is for the tiger. They have two exhibit, but they are connected with a walkway. The tiger exhibit is similar to the leopard’s. A platform, some climbing structure and a ball for them. There are at least two of them.

    A photo of the tiger exhibit.

    upload_2018-4-27_17-44-52.png

    This area is the worst of the zoo, but I can see they are not as bad as the one in China. At least there are some form of enrichment, rather than an empty cage. However, I totally agree that these exhibit should not be used for large carnivore. The space is clearly too small. Maybe, they can phrase them out to other Japanese zoo and get some smaller animal……..


    Stay tune for part 2:Forest of Kyoto.
     
  8. FunkyGibbon

    FunkyGibbon Well-Known Member

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    You do this all the time and it really annoys me. Which one in China? Certainly not in Shanghai. Perhaps there are worse in Nanjing, but then there are also exhibits there which are clearly better than this as well. There are certainly bad exhibits in Chinese zoos, but the ease with which you jump to this comparison and your eagerness to tar everything with the same brush suggests a rather ugly ulterior motive.
     
  9. PossumRoach

    PossumRoach Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    That is a Jaguar. I used ctrl+f google translate and the zoos website and there are no leopards
     
  10. Tatsuslava

    Tatsuslava Well-Known Member

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    did it say "hyo" ? ( ヒョウ/豹)
     
  11. PossumRoach

    PossumRoach Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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  12. Tatsuslava

    Tatsuslava Well-Known Member

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    its a pity the kanji for leopard and a lot of animals aren't commonly used anymore
     
  13. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Yup it's a jaguar.Even my species list said so.
     
  14. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I decide it need too much time to go in all the details, so actually,I wouldn't do a walkthrough review .I am planning on other things;)

    Kyoto Zoo
    Located inside the kyoto city, this zoo is the second oldest in Japan. It is small, and I don't actually want to visit it, until I must go to Kyoto. The zoo is small, and there isn't much to see, and I managed to finish the zoo in 1.5 -2 hours. Of course there are still lifeticks for me, but the zoo really don't provide much.

    Cat complex

    Refer to post #27

    Kyoto forest
    This complex is a new one, and it clearly show contrast to other exhibit. The area is in standard and is nicely done for a small zoo like Kyoto. The whole area is dedicate to animals that are found in Japan( except for the goral). All of the exhibit there have natural ground, and the bird one have some vegetation. The bird cage can surely be bigger and higher, but it's an ok for the bird. Other exhibit is on the small side, but is acceptable. The whole complex is not bad, and I can see they really have improve their quality of exhibit (hopefully they can do it on the hyrax and the tapir)

    The reptile house
    Well, that's mainly a reptile house, with the turtle exhibit on standard, and some terrarium just like other zoos, plus a crocodile and some frogs. However, there's also a small part inside the house with two small nocturnal exhibit, for slow loris and senegal bushbaby. The exhibit is small and only consist of a few branches. Further worse is a really small exhibit for Indian flying fox, which I doubt can fly in such a small exhibit. Outside of the reptile house is four small aviaries for chachalaca and macaw.

    The elephant area
    This area include three exhibit,the tapir,the elephant and the hyrax. The elephant exhibit is ok to be fair, but too small. The tapir exhibit is clearly too small for even one tapir, and they have three. The hyax exhibit is ugly, with concrete structure forming a slope/stair for the hyrax. Hope they can improve this quickly.

    The primates
    The gorilla here is the main star. Their exhibit is quite good and they have indoor exhibit, and a computer to play.;) The rhesus macaque is like the Japanese one, with a hole in the floor and give them some rocks and others to play. The other exhibit for capuchin and gibbon are ok, with enough height but not enough area.

    Random exhibit
    The owl aviary is ok at most, the red crowned crane exhibit is small with a smaller pool, the peacock aviary I don't bother, the penguin exhibit is just a swimming pool with no natural floor.
    The red panda have a tunnel going through it and both part have vegetation and climbing facilities, and finally the five(?) bush dog(my lifetick) have a good exhibit with vegetation and water, as well as some tree branches.
    The african complex
    That's the smallest exhibit I have seen housing zebra and giraffe. They have only two trees and both were not touchable. The hippo exhibit is also the smallest I have ever seen, and the water don't have enough depth for the hippo. The land area is even smaller, and you can get very close to the hippo. The meerkat exhibit is good with sand and indoor exhibit, and the flamingo/bald ibis/white ibis exhibit is not too bad.
    Conclusion
    The zoo is small. Most of it's exhibit are not big enough for the inhabitants. They can probably sort out some big animals(elephants, hippos, tigers..) and replace them with local smaller animals. The zoo new complex is better, but they still have a lot of work to do. This is just an ordinary, small city zoo, with nothing stand out.
     
  15. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Kaiyukan(Osaka Aquarium)

    Kaiyukan, located just at the other side of Universal Studio, is an aquarium that has get great reputation. After my visit to the USJ, I decide to visit this world class aquarium. And it is very great indeed.

    Kaiyukan aquarium is not a big aquarium, and it only have a few big exhibit. However, it is world class for some reason.
    1)Whale shark and devil ray in a huge exhibit in the middle
    2)the depth of all exhibit are great
    3)offer multi-point of view for visitors

    With that being said , let's dive in and see why would I said that.

    You start off with a escalator heading up to the roof and then go down. The first exhibit, on the roof with sunlight, is for a group of ASCO. Then down the floor, you see the exhibit again, but with underwater viewing. After that, you follow the geographic region, from Monterrey bay to Rainforest, then to Antarctica and the big pacific ocean.

    There are just a handful of tanks, but all are big and deep. The dolphin exhibit is not big, but the exhibit cover three floors. And from each floor, they are basically the same tanks, with maybe some small one on the wall. But mostly it's the same tank from the previous level. You first see the animal from sea level, then descend into the middle, and then to the ocean floor. That's what makes kaiyukan great. Different perspective. It doesn't have a huge viewing window, but it get you deeper and deeper, and eventually to the floor.

    Of course the main exhibit is the whale shark, but the aquarium have more to offer. Of course there are some rare species, such as giant isopod in a small tank, and another deep but not big tank for Ocean sunfish.

    Through all the exhibit down for 3-4 floor, and go through all the big tanks, there is a new zone. That's the arctic section. They claim to have the first Arctic lyre crab and Arctic shanny on exhibit in Japan, and they have also arctic cod and sea clione(really hard to photograph!) on display. Also special is a really small tank for ringed seal, but what's special is that it is above. You can see the seal at the top of your head. That's really interesting. The exhibit though, is not good.

    Almost exiting the aquarium, there are the rockhopper penguin exhibit, which can bring you incredibly close to the penguin. There's also a shark and stingray touch tank.(BTW, stingray touch better than sharks)

    The last zone (label as the dory exhibit in CGSwan review), is now a really interesting zone. It display some weird-looking and interesting species , such as stonefish and bering wolffish. The tank for them are just ordinary tanks in the wall and maybe some bigger, but it still have a special exhibit. Megamouth shark. OK that's is not a living megamouth, just a dead specimen. But that's also very cool.

    Kaiyukan is a special aquarium. It really leads you down, and you are like going through the ocean, through different area and depth. I can't think of any dolphin exhibit that's as deep as kaiyukan. This is probably one of the best aquarium in the world, but there are severe competition, Okinawa, Toba..... so much great aquarium around Japan. Anyway though, this is a aquarium that's worth a visit.
     
  16. aardvark250

    aardvark250 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Kobe animal kingdom(14/2/2018)

    A small zoo located inside Kobe, this zoo is mostly indoor and thus I visit it with no problem of cold. It was a greenhouse before having mostly plants before transforming into the zoo now. The zoo provide me some lifeticks , although these might be common for others, and some rare animals that are not in my lifeticks.


    Entrance

    Upon entering the zoo, you are in a greenhouse, with the right side being a aviary for birds. I didn’t enter it because it cost extra money. Then there is two exhibit for also parrots. The kea and Major Mitchell’s cockatoo have exhibit outside the aviary. These exhibit are wooden boxes with glass viewing. I wouldn’t say this is the worst for birds, but for a parrot it’s not good. How can the parrot fly with so little height and space?

    And how do they climb? At least there’s two branches inside the exhibit, but that doesn’t help much. They should build higher enclosure and put that cockatoo inside the aviary.


    The pet zone

    This zone is where people can have interactions—with dog and cats.(and rabbits). I have no interested in any form of children’s zoo so I didn’t enter.


    Central area

    This is basically a big mixed exhibit. An island is surrounded by water with a bunch of animal living inside. There are various waterfowl, flamingo, ring-tailed lemur and sitatunga. Of course there are shoebill also. It’s quite interesting to watch an antelope get mixed with a stork. Oh, I watch the pelican show which they fly around the exhibit. Overall, the exhibit is quite good, the water is enough for all those ducks (and ibis and flamingo and shoebill), and the land is also enough for the lemurs and the antelopes. However, this is all a walk-in exhibit so I’m unsure,. I don’t know but are sitatunga aggressive? Also shoebill will they attack people? IDK. I think there are a little safety to care about.

    There are also three exhibit located outside the mixed area. They are rock hyrax, serval and fennec fox. Those are basically the same design like the kea. Except the serval one is bigger, the hyrax one have more rocks, and the fennec have sand and enrichment. I think larger exhibit need to be make for those animals, and most of them need more foliage (I think). At least they have some sand on the ground.


    American zone

    At the time I visit there, there were no bears and cougars, so only three animals are in this area. The beaver, skunk and peccary. The beaver have a basic exhibit and I actually see one of the eating a wood. The skunk exhibit is not good, with concrete ground and not much place to hide. But the worst exhibit is for the peccary. The animal live in a small space and only little sand as the only natural ground. The peccary keep pacing and for a pig, you shouldn’t build an exhibit with no water and no mud.


    African wetland

    One exhibit, three species. The exhibit is ok with both water and land area (more water than land). However the animal is either in the back or sleeping (red river hog), so I don’t see them utilize the exhibit. But it seems to be ok, and the ibis can fly through it.



    Asian exhibit

    Again three species live here. Binturong, ASCO, and red panda. Three of the exhibit are not too bad, with a few branches for the red panda to climb and also the binturong. The ASCO have land and water in 50/50. The interesting part in here is that the binturong and red panda can actually climb on the branch, which is above the path. So the binturong can drop on you if it wants to. It’s right above my head when I visit there. This is also the case for the red panda. You can get extremely close to them.


    Bird show

    The bird show is rather good with parrots and falcons. Owls, eagles and parrots flying above your head is cool, and the keeper show the animals and (I suppose) tell a lot of information in Japanese that I don’t understand. This is far better than telling parrots to ride bicycles and count. However though, there aren’t any “spectacular” show as the birds fly out one by one and fly above your head. And that’s it. An owl flying up your head is cool, but not spectacular.( I mean the beauvel one or Jurong is spectacular) Also, I can hold an owl for 300 yen after the show.


    Aqua valley

    The aqua valley is, well, quite interesting. There you have the chance to feed and touch capybara, mara and tortoise. That itself is really cool. As a zoo saying “interactive”, that is a great experience. I can’t think of any zoo outside of Japan that can do this. The capybara even have a hotspring for them with flower! The capybara skin feel rough and the mara soft. The penguin exhibit is ok although those penguin are probably bad so they put it indoor.

    However, there are other bad exhibit here. The spotted seal exhibit is far too small and there are two seals in the exhibit. No enrichment, just water and land. L The swan exhibit is strange,(like the penguin one), and you know both of the exhibit isn’t good when they both look like the seal one. Also, the capybara exhibit has far too less water for ~8 capybaras. I’m also not sure if they like hot spring. And the exhibit, except a little patch of sand, is full concrete for people to walk through. No good for the capybaras.

    Tropical rainforest

    Another walkthough, this time with birds. Toucan and violet turaco to be exact. The turaco flew on my hand to get food and I’ve never get so close to a turaco before. There is also a sloth together with them, and there are quite the height and width for the birds, as well as branches for the sloth. The other interesting thing is the open-topped armadillo exhibit. Why is it open-topped? Because you can touch the armadillo. The armour is really hard, but the exhibit is a bit small for the animal.

    Of course there are some disappointed exhibit. The marmoset exhibit is too small and have too less climbing structure. I can’t see the tamandua but it is certainly not pleasant. The cotton-top tamarin get mixed with a armadillo is also quite strange.

    Tropical wetland

    No much comment here, except the tapir (it was still there when I visit) is far too small, and the pond is very small. Otherwise other exhibit is ok, and I’ve heard there are fishing cat show although I didn’t see it.

    Outdoor area

    The outdoor area have a few exhibit. One is the dog show and I didn’t see. Other are a red kangaroo/sika exhibit, a red kangaroo walkthrough, an alpaca exhibit and a natural African penguin exhibit. All of them are ok in average although I quite like the penguin exhibit not having icy structure for them. I feed the kangaroo and the kangaroo is quite heavy and quite strong. No wonder they can stand upright and fight each other.

    Summary

    Kobe animal kingdom is unique in the interactive opportunities. Lots of animal can be touch, and some even feed. There are lots of children there cause the children loves it. Touching a capybara and feeding it is indeed very cool. However, as the zoo is small, the bigger animal have little space to spend their life and some of the exhibit is ugly with concrete. They seems to be improving though, with the newly open American exhibit outdoor and more natural. The zoo is certainly an interesting experience, but there are still a lot of things need to improve.
     
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