Osaka Aquarium brought to a close the planned roster of zoo visits for my Japan trip. A recurrent theme, however, was that I allowed more time in each location than I really needed. So it was that I found myself at a loose end in Kyoto. With the memory of Tennoji fresh in mind, it took some contemplation before I decided to visit Kyoto City Zoo. Tennoji was a larger, more prominent zoo and if I had been disappointed there, what chance did Kyoto - for which there is little positive press that I could find - have of pleasing me? Well, I suspect having such low expectations influenced my experience, because I found it a pleasant surprise. That's not to say that there aren't problems. It's only a pocket-sized zoo of less than four hectares, but it houses most of the big ABC animals. That, by necessity, means that some of the animals are in tiny, tiny enclosures. A visitor to Kyoto confronts that reality almost immediately upon entering the front gate, where the first set of exhibits is an elderly complex of big cat cages. Lions, Siberian tigers and jaguars (one normal, one melanistic) - I think about seven cats in total - occupy an inter-connected set of pens arrayed around a night den. The cages are perhaps of a size that would be considered generous for small cats, but for the species exhibited they are simply too small. I will say in the zoo's defence, however that each of the cages contained clear signs of an active enrichment program; climbing platforms, hanging balls to bat away at and chains on which meat could be hung to make them work for their food. Ultimately the complex is plain inadequate, but at least they are doing their best. The population should be reduced to perhaps two cats which could then have access to half of the pens each. Also in this set of exhibits is a Tsushima leopard cat, but unfortunately I had no greater luck here than at Zoorasia. Moving clockwise around the zoo the next zone I came to was a relatively new section featuring Japanese wildlife, with a couple of pleasant communal aviaries, a row of cages for small mammals (I think the Japanese badger, raccoon dog and giant flying squirrels were here), postage-stamp pens for goral and serow, a little reptile house and some bird of prey cages. The mammal pens and cages are right up against the outer fence of the zoo, and it's strange to see cars zipping past no more than 5m away from where you're standing in the middle of an exhibit complex. Risibly, there was also a cage perhaps the size of a minibus - no more than half as spacious as the tiger cages I have already criticised - that was labelled for a Japanese brown bear. It was clear there was no bear there, and that's fortunate; seeing it occupied would certainly have dulled my satisfaction with the zoo. Hopefully the bear, whatever happened to it, is not replaced. The rest of the zoo is for the most part surprisingly solid. A herd of elephants have a modest but relatively modern pair of paddocks (including one for a bull); a sign says that they were imported from Laos in 2012. A small tropical house contains the bulk of the reptile collection, some typical nocturnal house-style cages for pro-simians and a sloth, who had the run (err... in slow-motion) of the building but presumably stuck to its branches. A couple of sterile looking aviaries outside housed macaws. There's the usual preponderance of owls, which seem to be a major feature of Japanese collections. Other aviaries housed peacocks and, somewhat redundantly, emus. The African Savannah (just giraffes and zebras) is on the ugly side, with a high fence surrounding most of it. A solitary hippo has a small pool and smaller land area. One thing I've noticed is that Japanese zoos have a love of overhead passageways for their animals. There were the moles at Tama and squirrels at Ueno, but Kyoto takes it to a new level. There is an above-ground tunnel between a couple of the tiger pens, which is the only way that cats could be moved between the night dens and one of the cages which is separated from the building by a visitor path. Red pandas have access to another branch over the path, and rather hilariously so do the goats in the children's farm area. That is the one and only time that I ever intend to look up and find a goat above my head. This is the one zoo for which I seem to still have a species list. I think it's reasonably complete, though for some of the birds and reptiles I have relied on signs. Asian elephant Grevy's zebra Brazilian tapir Giraffe Hippopotamus Japanese deer Long-tailed goral (Japanese serow?) African lion Siberian tiger Jaguar Tsushima leopard cat Japanese red fox Fennec fox Bush dog Raccoon dog Red panda Meerkat Japanese badger Gorilla Chimpanzee Lar gibbon Mandrill Rhesus monkey Brown capuchin Ring-tailed lemur Senegal galago Lesser slow loris Cape hyrax Indian flying fox Four-toed hedgehog Linne's Two-toed sloth Japanese giant flying squirrel Japanese squirrel Humboldt's penguin Emu Greater flamingo Lesser flamingo Chilean flamingo Caribbean flamingo Northern bald ibis Unlabelled ibis check White-bellied green pigeon Eastern turtle dove Scarlet macaw Buffon's macaw Salmon-crested cockatoo Sulphur-crested cockatoo White-cheeked turaco Plain chachalaca Ural owl Snowy owl Eagle owl Burrowing owl Peregrine falcon Northern goshawk Mountain hawk-eagle Red-crowned crane Sarus crane Indian peacock Japanese grey pheasant Chinese bamboo partridge Helmeted guineafowl Japanese quail Ruddy kingfisher White's thrush Pale thrush White-cheeked starling Brown-eared bulbul Black-necked stilt Japanese green woodpecker White-cheeked pintail Common teal Mallard Common goldeneye European pochard Baikal teal Eurasian wigeon Bar-headed goose Mandarin duck Tufted duck Black-headed gull West African dwarf crocodile New Guinea snake-necked turtle Painted turtle Black-knobbed map turtle Yellow-spotted river turtle Japanese pond turtle Reeve's turtle Soft-shelled turtle Yellow pond turtle Yellow-margined box turtle Red-footed tortoise Elongated tortoise Pancake tortoise Indian star tortoise Green iguana Eastern blue-tongued skink Madagascar day gecko Leopard gecko Ball python Kenyan sand boa Boa constrictor Western hognose snake Japanese ratsnake Japanese striped snake Milk snake Mamushi Green and Black poison frog Wide-mouth frog Japanese common toad Japanese giant salamander Japanese newt Striped bitterling Tilapia(?)
Tama's mole house is now one of my highlights too. I'm writing this from the bullet train back to Osaka after visiting the monkey centre today. I have mixed feelings - I'm glad I went, and you're both right. The collection on paper is amazing, but much of it is displayed in a 1970s-style taxonomic arrangement, in rows of cages. Numbers are sometimes also impressive: I spotted 5 pottos and 9 siamangs. There are specks of genius in the rest of the zoo, including the Yakushima Japanese macaque enclosure with a beautiful valley as a backdrop, a well-planted chimpanzee family exhibit and a touch pool/ stream for a colony of fire- bellied newts. I still struggle to see past the bad here though, which includes so much of the collection. Unfortunately a number of rarities have recently died out too, so I missed a few which you might have picked up, @CGSwans.
No idea, my visit was nearly a year and a half ago. My guess is that something was lost in the translation when they were making the signs.
Hi both CGswans and devilfish.I have recently buy my flight to Osaka for a six-day trip in February.I will go to Kyoto,Kobe and Osaka.Any advice?
Japanese Grey Pheasant must surely be Japanese Green Pheasant. Wide-mouth Frog could be anything. Horned Frog (Ceratophrys) would fit the description nicely, and they are commonly sold in Asia as pets.
My plan is Osaka Aquarium,Tennoji Zoo, and Kobe Animal Kingdom.(Probably also Kyoto zoo and Kyoto aquarium)
The only Wide-mouth Frog I know of is the one in the Wide-mouth Frog Joke. Which I will tell if I have to....
How many will you be able to visit? I agree with @CGSwans that Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium is the one to keep at the top of the list. What is it that attracts you to the others? Although Tennoji has a few very good areas, a lot remains unattractive. I didn't make it to Kobe Animal Kingdom (back pain, bad weather and aquarium crowds) but all I remember really looking forward to there were the shoebills. I would also prioritise Suma Aqualife Park in Kobe, which I visited yesterday. Although larger marine mammals aren't held in great exhibits, most of the marine displays are excellent. It's also the only place I know of currently displaying five (but probably six) species of sea snake! Well worth a visit. I also swung by Kobe's Oji Zoo very briefly in heavy rain before flying back - I didn't get the impression that it was worth a thorough visit. I know a few of the highlights from Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium wouldn't be so attractive to someone living in China (emperor penguins jump to mind), but some of the deep sea displays and the sardine show are very impressive. You might also be tempted to spend a short while afterwards waiting out for the volcano rabbits in Higashiyama. I didn't visit Kyoto. February is a good time of year to see more deep sea creatures displayed in aquaria - so I'd be keen to prioritise those with a stronger deep sea collection, or at least to try and make contacts there. I know you've already seen this thread but I found Chlidonias' advice on exploring the JAZA inventories invaluable in planning my Japan trip: Online Zoo Animal Databases
Glad to know that was useful! It was actually @aardvark250 who brought to my attention that inventories could even be searched on the JAZA site.
Yes, two left in Higashiyama zoo. Japanese zoos and aquariums also have olm among a huge number of other oddities, including a sportive lemur, if the inventory is accurate.
Huh, that's pretty cool. Are we going to get a full regaling of the oddities you've seen in due course?
I won't go to Nagoya as there is not enough time.Remember that I'm going with my parents.I plan for three days in Osaka(one day in USJ),two days in Kyoto and one day in Kobe.What tennoji attract me is for the Kiwi.Other species attract me include drill and spectacled bear. For kobe, my main attraction is of course their shoebill,as well as rock hyrax, kea, fishing cat,skunk, and quite a lot of parrot species(Also Western Plantain-eater) I don't know whether I should go to kyoto zoo and kyoto aquarium,but I will stay two days there,so why not? I didn't thought of Suma before.I don't know what to expect there.I will probably go there now if I have time.
I won't start a thread on here. I can list a few from memory if you'd like? I'll upload some photos to facebook and might make a quick attempt to upload some of those here, but I've been having a lot of trouble with the zoochat gallery.
About 5 hours - it's very easy to spend much longer! I would have spent more time there but my flight back to the UK was that evening.
