Join our zoo community

Lao Zoo Lao Zoo species lists, October 2019

Discussion in 'Laos' started by Chlidonias, 28 Oct 2019.

  1. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
    Posts:
    23,400
    Location:
    New Zealand
    A very chaotic sort of zoo. I initially started keeping my notes as a walk-through of the zoo, but quickly abandoned that idea (the lists below will be arranged taxonomically instead) because the grounds are a mish-mash of old cages, really good new enclosures (notably for bears and macaques), empty cages, unsigned but still-inhabited cages, signed but apparently-uninhabited cages, occasionally animals in cages signed for other species. There is no plan to the zoo at all, just cages everywhere. Even places which looked long-abandoned or off-limits turned out to have inhabited cages, even to the extent of having new signage in some cases. I almost missed the Hog Badger because it was in one of these "abandoned" areas which appeared to have no actual access path - and yet the enclosure itself had new signage on it when I reached it.

    There is no map for the zoo, so I just took every path which wasn't marked "staff only" and hoped I saw everything. Even so, I suspect I probably did miss animals. There were various old directional signs pointing to such animals as Ostrich, Smooth-coated Otter, Leopard, and Baboon, none of which I saw (I don't think any of those are at the zoo any more, but I could be wrong).

    The zoo is about 65km from Vientiane (the capital city of Laos) but is quite easily reached. From the Southern Bus Station on the edge of the city you just take a bus heading for Ban Keun and the driver can drop you off on the way. I ended up in a share-taxi (so I was dropped off at the zoo entrance, and when I left I asked one of the women at reception to call the driver and he picked me up there on his return trip to Vientiane). I imagine there are regular buses as well, but they would drop you on the highway and you'd have to walk the rest of the way along the side-road to the zoo. It is a long trip though - from the Southern Bus Station to the zoo is about two hours (and between the Southern Bus Station and the City Bus Station in the centre of Vientiane, which will probably be your starting point, is another hour). I spent two hours at the zoo, versus five-and-a-half hours on buses getting there and back.

    Species lists are below. The zoo mostly functions as a rescue centre nowadays, and only the animals which cannot be released again remain at the zoo after treatment. Hence many of the species are of just one or few individuals (with the notable exceptions of the macaques where there were easily fifty-plus, and probably the bears of which I saw none but for which there are a great many enclosures). Likely the species-composition will change somewhat, perhaps relatively often, as confiscated or injured animals are deposited there for care.


    MAMMALS:
    *Asian Elephant (not on display; the signage says that their single animal spends the day in the forest rather than in her enclosure)
    *Sambar
    *Chital
    *Hog Deer
    *Common Muntjac (including an albino)
    *Domestic Pig (these were in an enclosure which appeared to be inaccessible to visitors, and were unsigned, so I wasn't sure at the time if they were wild or domestic pigs because I could only see a big hairy lump, but there is a photo in the gallery of the animals and they are definitely big fat domestic pigs)
    *Bengal Slow Loris
    *Pigmy Slow Loris (I didn't see either species of loris but there were two cages, each with new signage, so I will presume both species are present)
    *Stump-tailed Macaque
    *Northern Pig-tailed Macaque
    *Crab-eating Macaque
    *Assamese Macaque
    *Northern Yellow-cheeked Gibbon (signed as Southern gabriellae)
    *Northern White-cheeked Gibbon
    *Leopard Cat (many individuals, but the albino one mentioned in older comments in the Zoochat photo gallery does not appear to still be there)
    *Masked Palm Civet
    *Common Palm Civet
    *Large Spotted Civet? (the signage was for Large Indian Civet - the animal was asleep inside a hollow log and I could only see the spots on the flank which looked like they belonged to Large Spotted Civet rather than Large Indian Civet)
    *Hog Badger
    *Asiatic Black Bear
    *Sun Bear (I didn't see any bears of either species, but there were about ten enclosures, all very large and well-planted - very nice indeed)
    *Eurasian Otter (my personal pick as best animal - as the zoo is mostly a rescue centre this would be the southeast Asian subspecies barang)
    *Malayan Crested Porcupine

    BIRDS:
    (Very few birds - but there were quite a lot of empty cages which looked like they used to hold birds, with signs on the wire saying something along the lines of "these animals have been moved to more appropriate enclosures")
    *Emu
    *Common Cassowary
    *Sarus Crane
    *Red Junglefowl (or domestic birds which looked very similar - they were wandering freely in one of the deer enclosures)
    *Indian Peafowl
    *Citron-crested Cockatoo
    *Spot-bellied Eagle Owl
    *Great Hornbill
    *Large-billed Crow

    REPTILES:
    *Siamese Crocodile
    *Burmese Python
    *Bengal Monitor
    *Chinese Water Dragon had a new sign, but I did not see any animals
    *Red-eared Terrapin (the American species, Trachemys scripta elegans)
    *Stripe-necked Terrapin
    *Yellow-headed Temple Turtle
    *Impressed Tortoise (signed, but did not see any)
    *Elongated (Yellow) Tortoise
     
  2. Zz123

    Zz123 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    13 Dec 2020
    Posts:
    54
    Location:
    thailand
    Albino Common Muntjac Wow!
    how many ? and do you have a picture of them?
     
  3. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    25 Jan 2006
    Posts:
    12,245
    Location:
    Amsterdam, Holland
    I would be very much more wauw with Fea's or Indochinese or giant muntjac natural colours.
     
  4. zooatlas

    zooatlas Active Member

    Joined:
    19 Sep 2022
    Posts:
    35
    Location:
    Norway
    this zoo closed in 2020-2021. the animals were divided between several smaller facilites. Now laos is one of a handfull of countries to not have a large zoo, but rather several small zoos