Burgers' Zoo free-ranging species in Burgers Bush, Desert and Mangrove

Thanks for the update, as you might know I am living in Switzerland currently, so visiting my home zoo, is not something I do regularly anymore, so I am relying mainly on updates like this now .

It is interesting that house finches are free-ranging now. Shortly after opening they were also free-ranging, but they did too much damage to the vegetation, so they were taken out again (just as all the non-male quails, which are also breeding pairs again in recent years). Apparently the vegetation is now a bit more resistant...

 

Whilst we're updating, the Guadeloupe anole should only be one * not two, because two other zoos keep it!! And are you going to add blind cave fish and Seba's short tailed bat to Desert too?

 

Mangrove list

MAMMALS:

West Indian manatee

BIRDS:

Fulvous whistling duck
White-winged dove
Yellow-legged honeycreeper
Blue-backed grassquit

REPTILES:

Red-eared terrapin

AMPHIBIANS:

None

FISH:

Redhead cichlid
Lowland cichlid
Banded astyanax
Liberty molly
Green swordtail
Four-eyed fish

INVERTEBRATES:

Fiddler crab
Atlantic horseshoe crab
Owl butterfly
Glasswing
Doris longwing
Orange-barred sulphur
Blue morpho
Zebra mosaic
Zebra longwing
Marbled leafwing
Thoas swallowtail
Malachite
Grecian shoemaker
Transandean cattleheart
Red cracker
One-spotted prepona

 

Also scissor-billed starling are still in the bird house but not Bush, Timor sparrow and yellow-legged honeycreeper no longer in Bush either.

Species list for Ocean will follow over the next couple of days. It's all based off the (largely outdated) signage but it's better than nothing!

 

@ShonenJake13: Any chance of a review of the Mangrove?

EDIT: Just found it. Never mind!

 

Oh also today in Desert the house finches were separate as were the Gambel's quails

 

What is your source for this or did you talk to a keeper?

 

Talked to a keeper re the Timor sparrows, no sign of any scissor-billed starlings (we think that they might have been confused with the caciques) and if I'm not mistaken all of the honeycreepers are now in Mangrove.

 

After my visit today, I can say northern cardinal has also been introduced to the mangrove! We didn't see any but they were signed, and a friend of mine saw them 1-2 weeks ago.

 

Since I'm hopefully returning here in the coming month or two, I decided to write up on here which species I have and haven't seen in each ecodisplay...

Burgers Bush

MAMMALS
Rodriquez fruit bat x
Lyles fruit bat x
Seba's short-tailed bat

BIRDS

African darter** x

Scarlet ibis x

White-faced whistling duck x
Red-shouldered teal

Grays guan*
Chaco chacalaca
Crested wood partridge x

Sun bittern x

Victoria crowned pigeon x
Green naped pheasant pigeon x
Pinon imperial pigeon* x
Green imperial pigeon x
Luzon bleeding heart pigeon x
Green winged pigeon x
Nicobar pigeon x
Orange-fronted fruit dove x

Red-crested turaco x

Speckled mousebird x

White-eared cat bird
Black-capped pitta
White rumped shama
Snowy-crowned robin chat x
Chestnut-backed ground trush x
Fairy bluebird x
Golden-fronted leafbird*
Blue-crowned laughing thrush x
Scissor-billed starling (?)

Red-rumped cacique* x
Montserrat trupial

Screaming piha** x

Madagascar red fody x
Brazilian tanager
Chestnut-bellied seed finch** x
Red-whiskered bulbul x
Blue-backed grassquit x
Rose-bellied bunting*
Green-backed twinspot**
White eye spec.


REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS

Green iguana x
Guadeloupe anole* x
Brown anole x
Green basilisk
Montserrat whistling frog
Amazon milk frog

NON-FREE RANGING SPECIES
Aardvark x
Small clawed otter x
Capybara x

Broad-snouted caiman x
Red-footed tortoise x
Yellow-spotted Amazon river turtle x
Blalck marsh turtle x
Malaysian giant pond turtle (?)

African lungfish
Arowana
Occelated stingray x
Redtail catfish
Plecostomus spec. x
Tiger sorubim
Pacu x
Nile tilapia x
Oscar
Zebra cichlid x
Guppy x
Labeobarbus aeneus** (one of 2 places outside of lake Tana) x
Giant pangasius x



Burgers Desert

BIRDS
Turkey vulture x

Gambells quail* x
Scaled quail x

White-winged dove x
Socorro dove x

Lawrence goldfinch** x
Red cardinal x
Painted bunting* x
Yellow grosbeak* x
Ultramarine grosbeak x
Housefinch x

NON-FREE RANGING SPECIES

Cactus mouse* x
Hispid cotton rat* x
Merriams kangaroo rat* x
Variegated rock squirrel*
Bobcat x
Striped skunk x
Ring-tailed chacomistle** x
Californian bighorn sheep* x
Collared pecari x
Seba short-tailed bat x

Greater roadrunner x
Burrowing owl x


Gila monster x
Red diamondback rattlesnake x
Milk snake x

Colorado toad x

Blind cave fish x
Fathead minnow

Red-legged tarantula x
Cave cricket x



Burgers' Mangrove

West Indian manatee x

Fulvous whistling duck x
White-winged dove x
Yellow-legged honeycreeper x
Blue-backed grassquit x

Red-eared terrapin x

Redhead cichlid x
Lowland cichlid x
Banded astyanax
Liberty molly
Green swordtail x
Four-eyed fish x

Fiddler crab x
Atlantic horseshoe crab x
Owl butterfly x
Glasswing x
Doris longwing x
Orange-barred sulphur x
Blue morpho x
Zebra mosaic x
Zebra longwing x
Marbled leafwing x
Thoas swallowtail x
Malachite x
Grecian shoemaker x
Transandean cattleheart x
Red cracker x
One-spotted prepona x


So I'm still missing two species in Mangrove, two species in Desert and 20 (22 if the giant pond turtle and scissor-billed starling are indeed still present) species in Bush.

 

Managed my first visit to Burgers Zoo this year.

Though I did not have much time to spend in the Bush I managed to see the chacalaca, screaming piha (both close to the aardvark), green imperial pigeon and the catbird (next to the former manatee pool).

Some updates: twinspots probably not in the Bush anymore and I am sure there are none freeflying housefinch in the Desert, but that all are still in their original enclosure. The four-eyed fish have been taken out of the Mangrove due to stress. I did not see tiger sorubim, oscar or arowana in the caiman tank and I suspect that at least the latter is no longer held...

 

Pike topminnow (Belonesox belizanus) added to manatee pool in Mangrove

 

Northern cardinals have been in the mangrove for quite a while as well, I notice those aren't yet listed either!

 

They are listed in the first post

 

Starting to get the idea that the bush and desert (mostly the bush) are losing its shine. There are almost no spectacular things to see in there besides the capybaras. (The otters are rarely there these days)
Any ideas why?

 

If you don't find any of the species in the bush spectacular besides the capybaras, then that's precisely the reason why

I agree, going out of manatees made the bush lose one of its most charismatic species, but I think we can all agree their new exhibit is a lot better, for visitors and animals alike...

 

Its not that its not 'spectactulair' but it is losing its shine as slowly all the bigger animals are gone from the Bush. As someone whos in Burgers Zoo atleast once a month, I really am getting the idea that the bird population is also shrinking inside the bush.

 

But they’ve added a fair few new species over the past year alone, and continue to breed all their birds regularly?

 

What about the Aardvaarks??? @Timmiegun

 

@ShonenJake13 true, but as a regular visitor it feels like less birds are in there, and less animals in general.

@Joker1706 They are still there yea, but 90% of the day they are just in their cave sleeping, so not much to look at besides some Aardvark back