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

And that, is exactly why the Bush is my favourite rainforest biome I have visited so far.

When you go out to the real rainforest (which I have), the animals aren't all just there on a plate awaiting your arrival. You have to find them, not the other way around.

I assure you there are plenty of birds in the Bush, but that is what I love about it; the thrill of having to search for a species I might not have seen yet/before (the catbirds, chachalacas and leafbird continue to evade me), and not knowing what may be around the corner. One such example; when I last visited (with @vogelcommando and @korhoen) we were so busy trying to spot all the species that we very nearly missed a few anoles sitting on a branch, and a screaming piha chick in the nest. It's things like that that make the Bush so special.

The aardvarks are a hell of a lot more active than in other zoos I visit (London, Chester etc.) and that's another great thing about it; are you going to see them active today? Who knows, but let's go and find out and maybe we'll see something special like a catbird or the leafbird or even one of the insanely elusive frog species in the Bush on the way.

I haven't seen every species in there yet, nor do I think I will see every species in the Bush in one visit ever. But to say that just because the birds are proving to be a little bit more elusive and that the larger animals aren't as active does not mean that the animals aren't there.

 

I will do a bird search next time I'm there. Guess somewhere next week.

 

First attemps of a young male Screaming piha to scream :

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1868915059848044

 

In my own experience and that of a few friends, the catbirds tend to stick around the area close to the exit of the hanging bridge, and the chachalacas tend to be in the general area between the restaurant and the otters (up in the trees or down in the bushes). I've seen the chachalacas roaming the hardened paths, the small winding paths near the top, and even on top of the parasols of the restaurant as well, though!

The hooded pittas, golden-fronted leafbird, monsterrat troupial, chestnut-bellied seed finch and rose-bellied bunting are the ones that keep eluding me; luckily I've seen all but the seed finch, which is one of the newest additions, I've seen in other collections.

 

I have to agree on a part of your points, but I disagree with your overall feeling. Especially the Desert has never had the recent species diversity it has now, when comparing to the past 10 years, but the free-flying birds can be somewhat hard to see on some visits.

The Bush has seen a slight species reduction also in the free-flying birds (from about 40 to just over 35), but overall bird numbers seem to have been relatively stable. On my last visit the main change was that there hardly seemed to be any Madagascar fody around, which has been one of the dominant bird species since their introduction in the Bush about 10 years ago. Overall birds are slightly harder to spot in the autumn months before the vegetation is cut back again over winter... With that much vegetation it can be very dark in the hall, which might add to an overall less appealing feeling...

It is true the capybara are now one of the stars in the hall and that the current otter pair is hardly visible anymore, it has been the other way around though several years ago... In that time the capybara did not breed and were often somewhat hidden on the beach, but in that period of time the otters were always active....

 

True! Last friday I visited with my girlfriend and we went on a hunt for every species in all 3 ecodisplays. We saw quite a few birds even some I have not seen before around there (near the overview platform), it was some sort of pigeon with orange hair on the back of its head.
The autumn indeed always is lesser in species but this year it feels less than last years. Even the Kaiman kind of feels boring as it is often on its beach alone. Maybe they should change that species over time to spark the bush up a bit again. But who am I to decide that stuff. Those are just dreams.

The desert has increased on species as the quills are recently very active and smaller birds aswell.
We noticed the turkeyvultures were splitup in 2. two of them were sitting above the restaurant together, while the other one was on its usual spot above the gila monster cave.

News from the Mangrove is that they got 3 new Whistling Ducks as the previous 2 died from stress. I visited the mangrove twice that day to look for the pikes in the water but no sign, maybe they have not settled on a spot yet. We saw quite some crabs but couldnt help but notice the dead trees near the bridge. (That mud beach still feels very empty and boring these days. Some green is maybe missing (eventho that does not fit the crabs) But just like the bush and desert when it started, time will tell.

 

@vogelcommando where is the young one located in the bush?

 

Orange-naped fruit dove

 

I am quite sure he saw the Green imperial pigeons (Ducula aenea paulina).

 

That is of course what I meant hehe; got them and the orange fronted fruit dove confused

 

yea it was that one! Are those new in the bush or were those there all along?

 

They were released in the Bush about a year ago, before that they spent a year in the old Mangrove.

 

ah i see!

 

Some updates:

There are a few new butterfly species in Mangrove; banded orange heliconian, tiger longwing, common postman, sara longwing, grey cracker and blue-banded purplewing.

Also, the next post I do will have a (rough) species list for Ocean, going by signage. won't be anywhere near complete I imagine, but something to go by.

 

Ocean (143 species counted as a minimum)


FISH

Zebra shark

Blacktip shark

Blacktip reef shark

Scalloped hammerhead shark

Blackchin guitarfish

Common shovelnose ray

Bluespotted ribbontail ray

Bluespotted stingray

Honeycomb stingray

Mangrove whipray

Cownose ray

Ocellated eagle ray

Black-spotted moray

Laced moray

Pinecone soldierfish

Splitfin flashlightfish

Red lionfish

Coral hind

Giant grouper

Lyretail anthias

Potato grouper

Royal dottyback

Barred flagtail

Moontail bullseye

Spotted bigeye

Banggai cardinalfish

Pyjama cardinalfish

Blue blanquillo

Golden trevally

Snubnose pompano

Yellowtail amberjack

Bluestripe snapper

Emperor red snapper

Humpback red snapper

Sailfin snapper

Black-tipped fusilier

Redbelly yellowtail fusilier

Giant sweetlips

Oriental sweetlips

Yellowbanded sweetlips

Striped monocle bream

Two-lined monocle bream

Silver moony

Blackwedged butterflyfish

Copperband butterflyfish

Pyramid butterflyfish

Raccoon butterflyfish

Threadfin butterflyfish

Blacktail angelfish

Blackstriped angelfish

Bluegirdled angelfish

Bluering angelfish

Emperor angelfish

Flame angelfish

Keyhole angelfish

Ornate angelfish

Regal angelfish

Spotbreast angelfish

Twospined angelfish

Yellowtail angelfish

Azure demoiselle

Bicolor chromis

Blacktail humbug

Blue green damselfish

Bluestreak damselfish

Clown anemonefish

Fire clownfish

Golden damselfish

Goldtail demoiselle

Indo-Pacific sergeant

Lemon damsel

Reticulate dascyllus

Sapphire devil

Scissortail sergeant

Spiny chromis

Threespot dascyllus

Bird wrasse

Bluestreak cleaner wrasse

Clown coris

Dusky wrasse

Eight-lined wrasse

Humphead wrasse

Lined wrasse

Lyre-tail hogfish

Red-breasted wrasse

Slingjaw wrasse

Tail-spot wrasse

Twospot hogfish

Quoy’s parrotfish

Jewelled blenny

Ocellated dragonet

Banded sleeper goby

Orbicular batfish

Spotted scat

Barhead spinefoot

Blue-spotted spinefoot

Foxface rabbitfish

Masked spinefoot

Orange-spotted spinefoot

Achilles tang

Bignose unicornfish

Doubleband surgeonfish

Eyestripe surgeonfish

Lined surgeonfish

Mimic surgeonfish

Orangespot surgeonfish

Pacific sailfin tang

Powderblue surgeonfish

Regal tang

Spotted surgeonfish

Spotted unicornfish

Striated surgeonfish

Whitecheek surgeonfish

Yellow tang

Yellowfin surgeonfish

Yellowtail tang

Great barracuda

Clown triggerfish

Orange-striped triggerfish

Red-toothed triggerfish

Yellowmargin triggerfish

Scribbled leatherjacket filefish

Longhorn cowfish

Immaculate puffer

Map puffer

Narrow-lined puffer

Reticulated puffer

Longspined porcupinefish


INVERTEBRATES

Sea nettle sp.

Alcyonarian coral sp.

Alcyonarian coral sp.

Alcyonarian coral sp.

Haddon's carpet anemone

Mushroom coral

Tiger cowrie

Turbo snail

Scaled clam

Banded coral shrimp

Cardinal cleaning shrimp

Red-backed cleaner shrimp

Blue starfish

Long-spined sea urchin

Slate pencil urchin


Obviously there are bound to be a fair few more fish species and countless more invertebrates (especially corals), but hey it's something to go with right any comments are welcome, especially from Burgers' expert @lintworm and the eagle-eyed @vogelcommando and @devilfish

 

Isnt there a mackarel species living with the Great Barracuda? I couldnt find it on your list, maybe my ctrl+f is blind aswel.

 

No the species that the barracuda are ‘meant to corral’ are the trevallies and the amberjacks.

 

Ah yea! That explains! Thanks for this list by the way!

 

During my visit today we spotted a few Phasmids in the Mangrove. As you know these are pretty invasive. After a check with the zookeepers of the Mangrove, they were not supposed to be there. So those are roaming there now aswel. But they are going to try and eliminate these asap!

 

I just checked and found out they at least kept and depending on how old they were, if they made it and if they breed, may still keep at least one American (green) treefrog species (seen next to the exit of the caiman aviary) and two or three poison dart frog species.

Zootierliste named some, but may not be complete.

The Zoo releseased some over the years, but some could be of a different origin since some vistors might try to get rid of some pets every here and then. That happens quiet often at zoos.

And not to forget the garden banded snails (capaea hortensis) that are often confused by several visitors thinking they found an exotic snail species. Sorry

Beside the native snails the typical cleaner crews from europe amd exported worldwide live in or under the earth. Including pillbugs (porcellio scaber, i think), black millipedes and earthworms.

Nice species, but no one will dig in the dirt to see them.