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HungarianBison's bucket list and travel reports

Discussion in 'Europe - General' started by HungarianBison, 21 Aug 2020.

  1. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    I'd like to write about my zoo impressions and journeys in this thread. First, here is my bucket list.
    Following 3-4 years:
    1. Prague
    2.Vienna(revisit, hopefully it will happen in Autumn 2020)
    3. Zürich
    4. Szeged(revisit)
    5. Veszprém(revisit)
    6. Jászberény
    7. Debrecen(revisit)
     
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  2. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    I visited Miskolc Zoo in July 2020. This was my 15th zoo. It was a disappointment to me, because the whole garden seems to be trying to get everything out of as little money as possible, for example: the otherwise spacious tiger exhibit is bordered by iron structures that look at least 30 years old. Enclosures are enough big, but the fences looks tangled. The animals are in good condition, with the exception of rhesus monkeys.
    More interesting animals:Cherry-crowned mangabey, Milu, Turkmenian wild ass, Bharal, Bactrian red deer, European jackal. There's a lot of domestic animals and I saw a plenty of Hungarian species, too.
    I couldn't take photos, because I left the camera at home.
    Otherwise Miskolc is the ugliest town I've ever seen.
     
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  3. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    Today I visited first time my home zoo in this year. The weather was wet, windy, temperature was around 15 C degrees. Certainly not the best zoo-visit weather.
    First I went to the Ape House. This building exhibits Budapest Zoo's Western gorillas and Sumatran orangutans. Both have a baby. The 3 years old female gorilla cub (named Indigo) is a very cute and playful energy bomb, her existence is a life-enrichment for other gorillas. Unfortunately the 40 years old male gorilla named Golo shows stereotypical behaviours (turn his back on visitors, eat his own ****). Orangutans have a newborn male baby named Móric. He is only hanging on his mother what isn't surprising.
    In the free roaming hall of Madagascar House, Ring-tailed lemurs were very playful. Once a visitor tried to pull a lemur's tail:mad:, but fortunately a zoo volunteer called him out.
    Budapest Zoo's best exhibit is Australian Twilight for me, which is a walkthru hall in Australia House (former Bird House). Its inhabitants are Brush-tailed bettongs, a Ground cuscus and a plethora of Lyle's flying foxes. I spent half an hour there. Once a flying fox almost flown to my head.
    Unfortunately Wombats and Echidnas were no-show:(
    I saw a keeper who petted a young tapir. I was jealous of him, but I know this is only a small part of the zookeepers' job.
    Young polar bear named Seriy shows stereotypical behaviour, whereon I'm not surprised, because his full-concrete enclosure is a lick of paint and his brother moved to Pairi Daiza a few months ago.
    I always see more and more Muntjacs, Dholes and Warty pigs in the zoo. Today I counted 8 Muntjacs, 19!!! Dholes and 11 Warty pigs:rolleyes:
    New Golden takins are wonderful.
    I've seen Giant otters to play! This was my day's best experience:)
    I highly recommend Budapest Zoo for anybody who plans an Eastern Bloc trip. If I get to it I'll happy to guide any of ZooChatters;)
    ( I'll upload my photos to the Budapest zoo gallery tomorrow)
     
  4. TinoPup

    TinoPup Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    The Australian Twilight area sounds really interesting, I like the name as well. Many of us are extremely jealous of those 19 dholes and 11 warty pigs ;) 19 is closer to the total amount of dholes we have in the entire USA. Seeing giant otters play is always a thrill!
     
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  5. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    I visited Jászberény Zoo today. It was my 16th zoo.
    The zoo lies on the edge of Jászberény, an agricultural-industrial town with 20 thousand inhabitants, nearby the Zagyva River. Jászberény Zoo covers 5.5 hectares (14 acres), keeps around 100 species. Rarities: Dusky pademelon(no-show:(), Fishing cat, Naked mole-rat, Pygmy slow loris(off-show), Spotted hyena.
    Not too hard to get to the zoo if you use public transport. I travelled from Budapest with a long-distance bus. After getting off a 15-minute walk waits for you. The outer fence of the zoo is painted with animals, by children. The zoo is a botanical garden, too. Enclosures are well-enriched and good in size, expect camels' and alpacas'. Most of them are bordered with wires, so it's hard to take photos. Except rarities that were mentioned above, they only have common animals.
    Jászberény Zoo worth a visit, I recommend it to everyone. I took some photos that I'll upload to the gallery tomorrow.
     
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  6. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    I bought my pass to Budapest Zoo around a month ago. In this time interval I visited my home zoo 8 times, because there's summer holiday, so I have a lot of time.
    I took a lot of photos, that I've uploaded to the gallery.
    The number of Muntjacs, Dholes and Visayan warty pigs is increasing. There are 24 Dholes(in an enclosure around 300 m2), 12 Warty pigs and 11 muntjacs. As a keeper of carnivores told me, they write emails to the EAZA dhole coordinator again and again about moving of some wild dogs to other zoos. They got no answer to their emails.
    Recently a Yellow-bellied water rat arrived to the Australia House.
    Tasmanian devils could arrive in 2022:). More details are in the Budapest Zoo thread.
     
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  7. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    Today I visited Pécs Zoo, the 17th zoo I've ever been to. The zoo is located in the Mecsek Mountains, nearby the northern border of Pécs. The zoo was a disappointment for me, although it has been completely renovated in 2016. There are no real rarities in the zoo, maybe some fish or reptile species, which I don't really know.
    The best part is arguably the Aquarium-Terrarium: a lot of salt- and freshwater tanks that are maintained well. My favourite was one of the three Amazon aquaria. The inhabitants of this 2000 litre tank are a plethora of Red neon tetras, a huge Common pleco and some Panda cories.
    In my opinion Pécs Zoo keeps too much large ABCs in their 4 hectares big area (Lion, Tiger, Persian leopard, Coguar, Brown bear, Spotted hyena, Sacred baboon, Chimp, Dromedary camel, Plains zebra, American bison). Because of this most exhibits are fairly small and there is almost no shadow and enrichment in some cases.
    I will upload my photos on Sunday, because this visit happened in a one week long holiday, and I left my laptop at home.
     
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  8. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    Today I visited Körösvölgyi Állatpark (Cris Valley Animal Park), which is located in Southeast Hungary, nearby Szarvas. I haven't been to this zoo before, and I had good impressions about it. The zoo itself has just opened a few years ago and is maintained by the local national park. The collection mostly consists of local species, but there are a few exceptions like Moose, Wisent and Common raccoon. The exhibits are usually spacious enough, however, the enclosures of smaller carnivores( Red fox, Badger etc.) are far from being perfect in my humble opinion. By the end of this week I'll upload my photos to the gallery.
     
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  9. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    By the end of July, I visited Debrecen Zoo the first time since 2014.
    The zoo didn't really change in these 8 years except the arrival of a Maneless zebra, some Scimitar oryxes and Palawan leopard cats. The latter ones are sadly kept in an old school cage with the area of 20 m2s or something. Despite the harsh conditions, they already bred at least twice. Unfortunately, I couldn't see them properly nor take a decent photo about them as they were all hiding.
    The ticket prices have increased a lot: my student ticket costed 2500 HUF (about 6 EUR), which is almost as expensive as a similar ticket to Prague Zoo.
    To say something positive, I had a great talk with one of their employees:)
     
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  10. TinoPup

    TinoPup Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    A maneless zebra sounds very interesting, as do the leopard cats :)

    6 Euro is very cheap compared to USA zoos, wow!
     
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  11. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    In November I had the opportunity to visit Dublin Zoo (thanks, Erasmus+). In my humble opinion, it was far better than any of the zoos I've visited, especially when it comes to exhibitry. I've liked the Gorilla Rainforest the most. I've seen Okapi, Bongo, Sulawesi crested macaque and Red howler monkey for the first time, but I unfortunately missed the Aye-aye as it was off-show. Sadly, I only had one and half an hour for the zoo due to our strict daily routine. I've already uploaded my photos to the gallery.
     
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  12. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    I recently visited Ljubljana Zoo for the first time, which is the 21st zoo I've ever been to.
    My common curses when visiting zoos abroad are rain and my camera's malfunctions, of course both of them were an issue this time. Fortunately, the storm only lasted for an hour. My camera died halfway through the visit though, so I had to take several photos with my phone instead.
    The zoo itself is quite similar to average Hungarian insitutions, the only difference is that its upper part is on a mountain (you can't really find mountains in Hungary hehe). Mainly Eurasian animals are exhibited on the mountain. I've seen some of them (Alpine ibex, Canadian beaver) for the first time ever. Most of the enclosures are very high quality, some of them are simply breathtaking (the Carpathian lynxes' huge forest is the greatest and most natural exhibit I've ever seen, had to search for 10 minutes to find a lynx)
    The lower part is significantly more populated, the majority of exotic animals and ABC species live here. In general, exhibits represent much lower quality than the upper part. The cage built for poor chimps is simply atrocious and the paddock of the old Indian elephant is not much better. Siberian tigers', Lions', Giraffes' and Meerkats' enclosures are quite spacious and nice though. Based on Zootierliste, they have Kirk's dikdiks, but I unfortunately couldn't find them.
    Overall, it is definitely worth to visit Ljubljana Zoo. I'd rank it 5th among the zoos I've seen (after Dublin, Budapest, Nyíregyháza and Szeged, in this order).
    (I already uploaded my photos to the gallery)
     
    Last edited: 7 Jul 2023
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  13. The Jasmine Dragon

    The Jasmine Dragon Member

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    I am surprised, that on your list Szeged is in front of Ljubljana. But again, I visited both zoos quite a long time ago.
     
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  14. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    This is not a post about my experiences in a zoo I've visited, but it's important from the perspective of the two travel reports that will be uploaded soon.

    I have a thesis on the development of Hungarian countryside zoos: in my opinion, their history (and future) can be divided to 3+1 phases. From now on, I'll be talking about and measuring every Hungarian countryside zoo based on these guidelines. The phases are the following:

    -Phase 1: Socialist hodgepodge
    Most of our accredited zoos (except Budapest) were founded during the Socialist era. They were mostly built by some dedicated volunteers on a few hectares of land, then developed if they've had even a little bit of money or space. Their animals were mostly donated by the people, circuses or Budapest Zoo. This resulted in tiny cages that were not adequate for their inhabitants, overpopulation of some species, meanwhile also a huge quantity of single animals. Some of our zoos haven't changed much since, at least not in conditions (cough Kecskemét cough).

    -Phase 2: ~1995 - 2009, Cheap developments
    After our change of regime in 1989, many Hungarian zoos were criticized by activists who demanded better circumstances for the animals. As a result, sometimes town councils wanted to close their zoos to spare money and stop the attacks. However, those intentions didn't succeed, decision-makers made plans to develop their zoos instead. These projects mostly consisted of reducing the number of species, demolishing the worst cages and building some cheap, but spacious exhibits. Most insitutions got some new area around this time. Some of our zoos more or less stayed in this phase imo (Szeged except for a few newer projects, Jászberény, Debrecen, Miskolc) This phase ended for Sóstó first, with the completion of the Green Pyramid.

    -Phase 3: 2009 - 2022, Huge projects, mostly from EU funds
    By the end of the 2000s, as Hungary became an EU member, we've received huge financial support, mostly for developments. However hard our beloved politicians tried to spend all this money on luxury houses nearby Lake Balaton, yachts and stadiums, some of it went for reasonable projects. The already mentioned new exhibits of Győr Zoo are quite typical for this phase's zoo developments. Other notable projects include Victoria House and Ice Age in Sóstó, a new elephant house and a walk-thru voiler in Veszprém, plus a rhino house and another elephant house in Szeged.

    Phase 4 is reaching the level of the best Western exhibits, but I feel like this will take a long time as EU stopped funding Hungary. I expect most Hungarian zoos to have a hard time in the next few years because of the aforementioned issues, increasing cost of everything and possible decrease in visiting.
     
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  15. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    Today I had the opportunity to visit Győr Zoo for the first time since 2019. In the last few years, this zoo developed the most in Hungary imo. They finished a huge project last year, which consists of a new African elephant exhibit complex, a pool for African penguins, new/extended enclosures for Giraffes, Black rhinos and other African hoofstock, plus renovation of the chimp house, Himalayan black bear, tiger and jaguar exhibits (even though the last three species only experienced change in the aesthetic of their respective enclosures afaik).
    The collection is quite heavily dominated by mammals and African animals, they are the only Hungarian insitution with African wild dogs, Black rhinos and Roan antelopes.
    Walk-thru exhibits are another prominent feature of the zoo. Besides the obvious Red-necked wallabies and Ring-tailed lemurs, you can even examine species like Blackbuck or South American tapir from a few centimetres. However, considering the general visitor culture in Hungary, these enclosures may close in a few years because of some reckless idiots. I hope this won't be the case though.
    As for the thesis mentioned in my last post, I can confidently say that all the enclosures in the zoo are at least on the level of Phase 2, with a lot of newer exhibits meeting the requirements to be considered as an example for Phase 3. And, unlike the zoo I'll be writing about in my next post, maintenance is actually a thing here.
    Unfortunately, ticket prices have increased a lot since my last visit. A student ticket costs 3700 HUF (~10€) now. It's absolutely understandable though, as they've received elephants recently and inflation is quite high, too. Plus, Austria is quite close to Győr, and compared to their zoos' ticket prices, this isn't expensive at all.
    I will upload my photos to the gallery tomorrow.
     
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  16. PossumRoach

    PossumRoach Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Are there any zoo staff supervising the area to enforce the rules or does the zoo just let people walk in without any supervision?
     
  17. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    I haven't seen any keepers supervising these exhibits
     
  18. The Jasmine Dragon

    The Jasmine Dragon Member

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    Did the black rhinos got a new exhibit? Just asking because based on the latest maps I’ve seen it looks like they have an enclosure very close to the elephants, which I do not remember to see.

    By the way, I like this idea with the phases. I agree with you that most of the zoo projects and enclosures can be sorted in one of these phases in Hungary. Slight issues are the privately owned zoos, such as Gyöngyös, RepZootic (or whatever it’s called) and Felsőlajos, which are somewhere between phases 1 and 2. But, obviously, private zoos are always different, so I think it is still a nice thesis and as I have seen, you excluded the above mentioned institutions from it.
     
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  19. HungarianBison

    HungarianBison Well-Known Member

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    Private zoos are a different kind as they are mostly not accredited, plus all of them were founded after the end of the Communist era.
    As for the rhino exhibit, yes, there are two new grassy paddocks between their older outdoors and the elephant house. Only one of them is used by rhinos currently, the other one is inhabited by Red buffaloes.