This morning brought rediculously good weather so I spend a few hours in Dierenpark Zie-ZOO. Most of the parking and some of the adjacent off-show area is turned into a huge construction site. At the same time there has been some progress with the mountain area and a new enclosure is being build in the corner behind the Spotted Hyenas. The fencing is almost identical to that of the dhole enclosure. There is also a small new aviary next to the bateleurs. It is completely empty (as in, no plants or other furniture yet). At the location of the tiny wallaby stable there's now a new and much larger building. There were a few young animals to see: domestic guinea pigs, a cameroon sheep, yellow-spotted rock hyrax and rock cavy. I saw one subadult tayra from the litter of last autumn. The zoo now also holds two pairs of Edward's pheasants and two aviaries with White-Cheeked Turaco. A few less hardy bird species (hornbill, inca tern, hamerkop) were seemingly off-show. There were no African Giant Snails anymore and their enclosure is now occupied with Sungaya inexpectata stick insects and millipedes.
Another species has been added to the collection at Zie-Zoo. A pair of Bare-faced curassows (Crax fasciolata) has moved into the aviary by the South American house where the blue-and-gold macaws and Azara's agoutis already lived. Source (Zie-Zoo Facebook page): Dierenpark Zie-ZOO
Zie-Zoo is working hard on the new main entrance evne during these weird times/.The new entrance will have an aviary attached to it which will hold hornbills, and near the new entrance will be a walkthrough aviary for flamingo, hammerkop and ibis. Other than that, they are working on monkey islands
A bit of good news in these turbulent times: the zoo has announced on their Facebook page that a Chacoan Mara has been born, and it is already out and about with its parents in the outdoor enclosure.
Some news from facebook: Recent births include prairie dogs, domestic rabbits and an Indian Crested Porcupine. Also a flock of eight new Inca Terns have arrived to enlarge the flock they already had.
Dierenpark Zie-ZOO has reopened after two months of closure (article in Dutch unfortunately). Privacy settings In short, the article says that the zoo has taken the necessary steps to be able to reopen in the "1.5-meter society". The zoo does not have a limit to the number of visitors because they are sure they don't reach the maximum number of visitors allowed in. The article also mentions the births of a bactrian camel, corsac foxes, white-nosed coati, bushdogs and white storks!
I had a very quick visit to Zie-ZOO today despite the drizzle. The zoo has used the closure to cary out maintainance, for example on the paths. There's also a lot of construction work around the park. Zie-ZOO is mostly known here for their mammalian collection, but the non-mammal collection is certainly growing in size and quality! The new education facility has reintroduced amphibians in the zoo (Poison arrow frogs: D. t. azureus and Ranitomeya fantastica), and also houses Bearded Anole (Anolis pogus), Uromastyx ocellata and European Glass Lizard. Two tiny Radiated Tortoises are added to the reptile attic. There are also several new birds: White-faced Whistling Ducks in the stork aviary, Grey Partridge in the spurred tortoise enclosure, and a pair of Black-casqued Hornbills partly off-show but viewable opposite to the amazon parrots. And the new aviary next to the bateleurs is now home to Eurasian Hoopoe, European Goldfinch and Bohemian Waxwing! Also of interest: according to a sign at their enclosure a binturong was born a few weeks ago.
What sort of visitor numbers are the reopening Dutch zoos getting? Are people flooding in, desperate for a bit of respite from lockdown? Or remaining cautious about venturing out?
I assume your question is more general than just Zie-ZOO, would it not? If so, perhaps it would be worthwhile and more advisable to set up a new thread as I am interested to learn how not just Dutch zoos, but zoos in Europe overall are dealing with CoVID-19 restrictions.
The zoo had quite some visitors last sunday despite unfavourable weather, but unfortunately I'm not able to give you any figures.
I'm surprised how this place is able to get very uncommon animals despite the fact that so far I haven't seen it being accredited by the eaza. I am aware that non member zoos could join studbooks but this is very interesting.
Zie-ZOO is not accredited by EAZA but it is part of the Deutsche Tierpark Gesellschaft (as far as I know the only Dutch member), and furthermore a fully licenced zoo. Some species they have are part of official studbooks (Giant Anteater, Clouded Leopard), but most of the really rare species (e.g. Ring-tailed Vontsira, Kowari, Yucatan Squirrel) do not have official studbooks or breeding programmes behind them. At most there are general agreements between the zoos that keep the species.
This is not consistent. Hamerton was refused a mate for our Giant Anteater because like Zie-ZOO we are not a member of EAZA. Our female has lived her life alone and unproductive for this reason.
I checked the DTG’s website and they claim to be a member of the WAZA Hammerton from what I was able to find, doesn’t have a BIZA membership. I’m just saying.
You might be just saying - but I was simply replying to Mr Zootycoon's statement that Zie-ZOO is not a member of EAZA. He did not mention WAZA or BIZA.
Zie-ZOO's Giant Anteater is also a lone female, so she may as well be a surplus animal placed out, just like the zoo's Clouded Leopards and Red River hogs.
According to zootierliste, they have a pair of Malacca Prevost's Squirrels BTS A really nice addition imo if this is true
