Also some sad news. The African darter has died today, after beeing ill the last few days. By my knowledge it was the last African darter in Europe.
Too bad they lost another one of their special species, and too bad we're losing another species from European zoos... but you have to make choices and you can't keep everything. That said, I'm considering visiting Burgers' Zoo soon (possibly the coming weekend) and I have a question. Does anyone have any hints or tips for seeing free-ranging species in Bush, Desert and Mangrove? I have visited Burgers' Zoo several times before but I've never been very succesful at spotting free-ranging species and still am not good at it, despite some improvement. Now I kinda feel like an inadequate zoo fan, so I'm asking for some advise, if anyone has any.
What a shame! A nice species that I would like to see, even when it would be not new for me. Kevin, if you delay your visit to thursday 20th, maybe you will see me (I'm also a rare and weird species haha)
What a shame, he was an iconic bird for me each visit. I'm happy that I took my time to watch him a few weeks ago. Possibly the last look I got of a darter for years to come. Besides the regular birding tips like being there first thing in the morning, take your time, behave calm and take binoculars? Depends in which species you want to see. If you want to go into details there's a separate thread for the free-ranging species.
Well pretty much any species will do, really, as I've never had much luck in the past. I've been informed elsewhere that the list of free-ranging species is completely not correct and not at all up to date. Several species on that list are apparently no longer present at the current time. It looks like the visit might not be happening after all, at least not anytime soon, but thanks for the help anyway.
In terms of the birds on that list there is only 1 species that is potentially not present anymore, the green twinspot. All the others are for sure still around. With fish and reptiles it is more complicated, but you won't find a better resource....
This is very sad but not entirely surprising - I saw it on Thursday last week and it did not look in good health at all. No darters at all in European zoos now.
On a more positive note, a male Eld's deer/Myanmar brow-antlered deer/thamin (Rucervus eldii thamin) was born a few weeks ago and after spending his first few weeks in a resting area behind the scenes he can now be seen running around in the mixed hoofstock and monkey enclosure in the Rimba. Sources: Zoovaria Burgers' Zoo (@burgerszoo) | Twitter As I am planning to visit soon, hopefully tomorrow, I kinda hope I'll see this one.
During todays visit the Eld's Deer are hiding in the back of the enclosure, and hiding the young well.
Thank you. More or less to be expected, sadly. I'm not going to be dissapointed if I don't get to see them, but it would still be nice. But seems like chances are slim.
Plenty of other things to see! The new blue-winged teals are hidden in the oasis near the Desert restaurant (under the plants) and the indigo bunting is hard to spot between all the plants. Have not seen him yet in past two week.
My visit to Burgers' Zoo went ahead as planned yesterday, Sunday September 17th, 2018. I wish I could say here that it was all great and awesome, but this visit turned out to be a very mixed bag in terms of experience and has left me not quite entirely satisfied. As far as animals and species go here's a short overview. I got lucky and I did see the baby Eld's deer very well during my first passage of Rimba - during my second it was nowhere to be seen though. In the same enclosure I also got a very good view of a baby banteng and of the siamangs swinging through real trees (alive and dead). In the Rimba I however did not see the yellow-cheeked gibbons, binturong or hog deer and all those seemed to be either off-show or out of sight during both of my passages through Rimba. As far as observing free-ranging species in Bush and Desert... that actually went well and the tips I was given here and elsewhere seemed to work fairly well. I believe that in the Bush I saw at least 10 different free-ranging species (still have to tally the total) - which I don't think is a bad result at all, although not excellent either. I also saw a few anolis, but only with the help of other visitors - finding tiny lizards in foliage is something it seems I just can't do, even if I think I did moderately well at spotting birds. In the Desert I believe I saw 5 free-ranging species, but I didn't find the ducks near the oasis. The Mangrove was quite a dissapointment to me to be honest, but that may have been due more to the hall (and in fact the whole park) being very crowded with sometimes very loud and irritating visitors during most of visit. Except for the fulvous whistling ducks I did not see any birds, although I did see at least 5 different species of butterfly. I saw the fiddler crabs, but could not find either the mangrove jellyfish or the horseshoe crabs. I also found the tidal mudflat and mangrove tree area small compared to the whole of the building, which seemed to be dominated by butterflies, visitor pathways and the manatee pool (which nonetheless is a great exhibit and a big improvement from the murky pool in the Bush). It will be interesting to see how the new Mangrove ecodisplay develops in the coming years. I was surprised to see though how little is left of the old bird area and the bird collection of that area due to the construction of the mangrove. I kinda knew of course but it still seemed a bit more impressive in the park itself than just reading about it or looking at pictures or maps. In the Safari I saw all of the hoofstock species which I appreciated very much. The Ocean was also very pleasant to tour again. As far as photography goes I didn't do well at all in the Bush (nor with birds, nor with plants nor with environment) and okay to moderately good in the other ecodisplays and areas. Honestly Burgers' Zoo appears to me to be quite the challenge photography-wise and given that I have only acquired my current camera in June I'm still learning, so I found myself quite a challenge yesterday. Not entirely happy with all of the results of today but I still took some nice pictures and there's definitely a number I will eventually share with your guys in the gallery. I have already referenced the crowding in Burgers' Zoo yesterday and indeed it was a very busy day which unfortunately impacted our visit much more than I would have liked. It was the most and worst crowded I have ever known Burgers' Zoo to be (and it was my 11th visit since 2006) and to make things worse there were a lot of obnoxiously and irritatingly loud and noisy children who didn't seem to be kept in line by their parents at all. Some adults were also obnoxiously loud, some blocked (parts of) pathways in different ways and some didn't have respect for other visitors in terms of occupying/making way in viewing areas. Just plenty of disrespect to the park and to other visitors in yesterday if you ask me. For me personally, given my current issues with low energy levels, (over)sensitivity to environmental stimuli and low levels of tolerance and easy irritation/frustration, it was all a bit too much today. Despite a willingness to tour the Mangrove a second time I finally decided against it and cut the visit short earlier than excepted once I had visited all areas and ecodisplays at least once. Yesterday was definitely not the greatest zoo visit I've had, absolutely not the best I've had at Burgers' Zoo either. Not sure what to with these things in the future right now. I'm for sure not going to give up on zoos, but I'm not sure right now when my next visit to any zoo will be - or should be - taking place. I will however almost certainly visit Burgers' Zoo again in the future. Finally, a few words about the new developments. The old building formerly holding the lemurs (former ape house), tapirs, pygmy hippos, blue duiker and warthogs has been almost completely demolished, only some foundations, a part of the fencing of the former warthog yard and piles of rubble were still left. The former Penguin corner coffee house is also entirely gone and the whole area is now just rubble, dug up dirt and sand heaps. The former bongo, seal and coati enclosures have not been demolished yet, but the felling of trees has started in this area and no doubt these former exhibits will be gone in the next few weeks. With the buildings and vegetation now partially gone, once does get a real view of just how big an area this is - it is a surprisingly large section of the zoo. My feeling is that what they are planning to fill this area up with is an acceptable way of filling this year, but certainly not the best they could have come up with. PS: I'm sorry this post became so long, I'm not good at explaining things in few words, and I really wanted to discuss these findings from my visit on here I also want to add for the sake of clarity that my post was not intended to blame or attack the park for some of my less pleasant experiences today. My criticisms of some exhibits are a personal critical view not intended as an attack on Burgers' Zoo.
Have been off for a while now and just saw the current plans They went from pathbreaking pioneers to copycat Zoos are Companies that have to look for their financial outcome, but the recent developments seem mainly focussed on profit Hagenbeck had the same vibe It is not easy to follow someone footsteps but this generation aeems to lack what they parents had creativity
@Kifaru Bwana and everyone who liked the comment Elaborate - feel welcome to specify otherwise my answer might be a lil too long Btw: Well asking for definition followed by a first place any way comment is somehow funny First of all Burgers has its own level and any criticism on such a top level may appear petty However the park would not be there where it is if there would not have been people questioning standards They responeded very welcoming to my critic in an honest review and agreed on the view things I had to critisize But I am very thankful for questioning my view
Some news from the twitter feed: - A Hog deer was born - with 11 Nicobar pigeons born this year this is the most successful breeding season for this species ever at the zoo - The Yellow grosbeaks in the Desert are currently sitting on a nest. The zoo is also the home for 50 dinosaurs the coming month....
Currently Burgers' Zoo has 5 White-throated gecko youngs behind the scenes of the mangrove. They keep this species behind the scenes to introduce a proper amount of geckos to the mangrove
