LaughingDove's Trip - March-April 2015-Poland, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Austria, Hungary

And if anyone is interested, these are the bird and mammal lifers that I got in Budapest Zoo:

Acacia rat, addra gazelle, Arabian spiny mouse, Barbary striped grass mouse, chaco chachalaca, Chilean teal, defassa waterbuck, east Asian eagle owl, eastern atlantic harbour seal, giant otter, greater Egyptian jerboa, grey junglefowl, gundi, Kamchatka brown bear, kowari, long-tailed chinchilla, Lyle’s flying fox, Mongolian gerbil, new-guinea ground cuscus, new guinea short beaked echidna, north Persian leopard, northern white-cheeked pintail, painted firetail, queensland koala, round-eared elephant shrew, south african pygmy mouse, southern Bolivian night monkey, spotted thick-knee, Tasmanian wombat, western crowned pigeon, woodland dormouse, and Brazilian agouti

 

Tiergarten Schonbrunn:

Tiergarten Schonbrunn is a zoo located in Schonbrunn Park in Vienna, Austria. It was founded as a menagerie for royalty hence it is an old zoo. I really, really liked this zoo. There were no sub-standard enclosures and many excellent ones with the ABC animals along with many incredible rarities. I will be going through this zoo in the same way that I did Budapest Zoo with bullet point notes saying my opinions of it.

- The setting and surroundings of the zoo were very nice. It is within a park so the area around it is very nice and well landscaped. Within the zoo there is a fairly large forest area with a suspended pathway through the trees with views over the whole zoo and large areas of the city of Vienna. There are also a few species of wild birds with signage for those and also for the wild plants. Within the woodland area is a domestic animals section with a restaurant/café and also enclosures for arctic wolves and European lynx.

- The Aquarium and Crocodile house was very well done up overall with all of the tanks being nicely decorated and large. The most notable thing in this building though was a large tank for two huge arapaimas and some freshwater rays which had a walkthrough tunnel in it (I mean one of those ones that is often seen in shark tanks, does it have a proper name?) so there were views of the arapaimas swimming above and also the rays at the side.

- All of the herps were kept in very nice, large enclosures within the main reptile house building but also spread around other areas of the zoo. They were all very nice size enclosures which makes a change from quite a few places that keep reptiles in enclosures that are far too small. They were all very nicely planted as well and well decorated with water features, rock etc. Within the reptile house, a feature that I really liked was a large network of tunnels for leafcutter ants going all around it as well as the crocodile house and lots of harvesting areas dotted around often fairly far from the main bit of the leafcutter ants’ enclosure. Another thing that I really liked were lots of outdoor reptile enclosures for native reptile species all around the zoo which were again nice and large for the inhabitants. There was also a turtle pond with a tube like thing that visitors could look down to see eggs in a nest underground.

- One of the highlights of this zoo for me was the bird house; it isn’t huge but still holds quite a few rarities. It is divided into two main sections, both being rooms with free flying birds. The first one is for African savanna Species and is very nicely landscaped with a small pond with African Cichlids as well as nice substrate and plants with rockwork at either side. The species in it are blue-naped mousebird, malachite sunbird, white-fronted bee-eater, red-cheeked cordon-bleu, variable sunbird, kikuyu white-eye, black-winged lovebird, southern red-bishop, Melba finch, long-tailed paradise whydah, African jacana, and harlequin quail. The other main part of the bird house is for South American species which were: blue-backed manakin, white-fronted amazon, wattled jacana, sunbittern, blue-grey tanager, Brazilian tanager, blue-and-yellow tanager, purple honeycreeper, housefinch, ultramarine grosbeak, blue-black grassquit and green acouchi. The planting was very nicely and naturally done with a pond as well as natural looking logs and rockwork giving the room a very nice rainforest-y feeling. Some of the birds were difficult to spot but with some patience they came out eventually.

- The rainforest house is - in my opinion - the best part of the zoo. It is a very large tropical house that is divided onto two levels with various free flying birds and flying foxes as well as smaller exhibits dotted around. You come in at the top level and are greeted by the tops of various tropical trees growing from the bottom level with a view over the lush planting from a viewing deck-like platform. There are lots of free flying birds to be seen as well as flying foxes. The free-roaming species were white-rumped shama, Asian fairy bluebird, beautiful fruit dove, greater bornean crested fireback, spotted dove, pied imperial pigeon, crested partridge, nicobar pigeon, orange-bellied leafbird, Luzon bleeding heart, black-crested bulbul, scaly-breasted bulbul, blue-crowned hanging-parrot, java sparrow, oriental white-eye, large flying-fox, and Indian flying-fox. There were also many enclosures for species within the building which had fish, herps and invertebrates as well as some mammals such as a walkthrough cave for Seba’s bats, Asian short-clawed otters and Berlanger’s tree shrews. These were dotted around the upper area and also the lower area which was fairly large and could be accessed by a lift from the top area.

- Overall most of the exhibits around the zoo were of a very high standard with lots of very nice features and were a good size. Some of the paddocks for African hoofstock were a bit plain and not unusual but there was nothing very bad. Franz Joseph Land which is a polar exhibit with the main feature being the polar bears was very good with nice looking exhibits as well as lots of interesting interactive things for the guests. The same was true with exhibits all around the zoo such as the primate house, Indian Rhino exhibit, rat house etc.

-The desert house is a building that is separate from the zoo and is a few hundred meters from the zoo entrance in the same park as the zoo. It is a large glasshouse that is done up very nicely with plants, rockwork, substrate etc. There were some very cool looking plants that are probably quite interesting to someone who know plants but I don’t know anything about plants so can’t say more than them looking cool (there was one really cool and weird plant labelled as Welwitschia mirabilis with male and female parts labelled). There were also free flying bird species as well as some tanks for fish, herps and invertebrates and also one for round-eared elephant shrews. One particular tank that was nice was one for Garra rufa fish which visitors could put their hands in and then have the fish eat the dead skin off. The only complaint that I have with the desert house is that entrance is €5 for adults and €4 for children on top of the zoo entrance fee of €16.50 for adults and €8 for children.

Tiergarten Schonbrunn is definitely one of the best zoos in Europe and possibly the best zoo that I have visited. I would definitely recommend visiting this zoo if you are in Vienna (but to be honest I think anyone reading this would visit it if they were in Vienna regardless of my recommendation ) and it is worth going out of your way for. Overall, a fantastic collection of species in some fantastic exhibits.

 

Asian Lions are an exception - they live in much smaller groups.

 

Dvur Kralove Zoo: Visit 8th and 9th April, 2015

Dvur Kralove Zoo is situated just outside the small town of Dvur Kralove nad Labem in Northern Czech Republic. I stayed in the hotel that is in the zoo which I would recommend since it allows free access to the zoo after opening times. This was helpful for seeing some of the more elusive animals (though even with multiple visits, I missed the African Civet, seen it before in the wild anyway) though the indoor areas couldn’t be accessed after closing time. The main reason I visited the zoo was to see one of the last Northern White Rhinos. This is I’m sure the main thing that this zoo is famous for and I really had no idea what else there was, but there is a lot more nice stuff besides the rhinos.

- The zoo has lots of nice large paddocks along with a couple of possibly small ones (some of the rhino paddocks, elephant, dromedaries etc. were on the small side). There were many natural looking areas that I saw signed for animals where at my visit - which was before the start of the summer season - the animals were kept in smaller paddocks.

- I personally found the African theming very over the top. It was quite nicely done but it was everywhere with African music in all the buildings, and especially the ‘Lemur Restaurant’ was extremely African themed. I found this quite weird sitting in the Czech Republic, surrounded by cold, leafless trees. I suppose if you visited for an ‘African Experience’ then it’s exactly what you want but it just seemed a bit fake to me.

- Most of the buildings had no indoor viewing. I found this to be really quite annoying actually because often, the animals weren’t out. This was mainly the hoofstock that had no indoor viewing for their sheds and I suppose if it was a lovely, warm, summer’s day and all of the animals were outside then this wouldn’t be a problem but there were a lot of species that I failed to see.

- The signage. I found the signage around the zoo incredibly annoying; actually, what I mean is I found the lack of signage extremely annoying. There were so many unsigned things it is just ridiculous. In the walkthrough multi-species bird aviaries, only about half of the species I saw were signed and the same was true with all of the bird exhibits around the zoo – only around half were signed. This wasn’t just birds either; lots of other things were unsigned.

- Something that I noted that I thought was slightly unusual – dogs were permitted all around the outdoor areas of the zoo.

- There was a lot of repairing and refurbishing going on all around the zoo - fixing paths, re-thatching roofs etc. probably in preparation for the summer.

- There was quite nice natural scenery around the zoo including a small woodland area with a small stream. There were also a lot of birds and I saw: greater spotted and middle spotted woodpecker, marsh, long-tailed, great and blue tits, yellowhammers, nuthatch, treecreeper, blackbirds, woodpigeons, bullfinches, grey wagtails, white storks etc. There was also some sort of tree-climbing adventure thing in the woodlands that was being repaired when I was there. The only downside of these large natural areas meant some fairly large walking distances whilst seeing no captive animals. (Though I believe during the summer, some of the empty fields I was walking past would have animals in them)

- There bird collection was very impressive. This was divided between an outdoor bird aviary with lots of ducks and other water birds and a bird house that had some outdoor aviaries attached with an indoor bit divided into a large free-flying mixed-species area and an area with a number of smaller aviaries and the room for chicks with a glass window going into it. (Note: the bird house was also home to orangutans and Javan langurs). There were also a couple of birds in other places such as a flamingo pool and some lovebirds in the reptile house and aquarium (which was also a very nice area).

Overall, I think that Dvur Kralove is a good zoo. It isn’t fantastic in my opinion in terms of exhibit designs visitor facilities etc. but it is all acceptable but with some good bits. On the other hand, the collection of species was brilliant; of course the Northern White rhinos but also a few rarer hoofstock species and some gems in terms of birds, herps and the smaller mammals.

 

Wroclaw Zoo: visit 9th and 10th April

Wroclaw Zoo is a zoo located in the City of Wroclaw in Southern Poland. The Zoo is a very large zoo and has recently undergone lots of development projects such as the Afrykarium. I really liked this zoo and if you count Afrykarium as one single exhibit than it is the best one I have ever seen.

- As I just wrote, the Afrykarium is fantastic and is the best single exhibit I have ever seen. The building is huge and grand on the outside and inside including two fantastic pools for a fair sized group of cape fur seals and a huge group of African penguins (sharing with cape shelducks) but make their enclosures seem empty. There are lots of big tanks with freshwater and saltwater fish including a huge tank for sharks, rays, a turtle and large fish with a tunnel going through it (Mozambique Channel). The amazon section is very nicely done with (wrong species) manatees, crocs, fish and free-flying birds. I think there could be more birds and more fish but I think the plan is for those to breed and populate the area. The plants could also do with growing more. Inside Afrykarium are lots of facilities such as a café and shops. There are also underwater viewing windows for the seals and penguins and because of the size of the penguin tank, you can see behaviours that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise and there really is the sense of them flying underwater. Within Afrykarium is one controversial section and that is keeping hippos in an all indoor environment and to be honest, I think it is a fantastic enclosure and I don’t think there is a problem with having them only indoors. It is a huge building with sky-lights, a really big pool with a waterfall and the viewing of the hippos is great with views from above as well as underwater. (Also, the enclosure in Afrykarium doesn’t compare to the old enclosure that can still be seen in the zoo.) If anyone would like a full walkthrough of Afrykarium then I would be happy to do it sometime and post it here, just ask. (I’m not going to do the whole zoo though )

- The zoo was a mixture of some nice bits, average bits, poor bits and terrible bits; as well as the utterly amazing Afrykarium. I don’t think I’ve seen such a variation on quality of exhibits within one zoo before. The European animals section was really good with a nice bear enclosure however in another part of the zoo was a terrible bear enclosure. I had this feeling over a lot of the zoo, the native fishes aquarium section was really nice, as was the Madagascar building. There were lots of fairly average enclosures for ungulates such as the mountain antelopes section, African antelopes exhibit with hartebeest and lots of odd hoofstock enclosures dotted around the zoo with species like chacoan peccaries etc. This contrasted with some much poorer enclosures such as the aforementioned second bear enclosure and some of the smaller primate enclosures.

- The bird house was very run-down with scratched, chipped and dirty glass to the aviaries, dirty walls and a very un-cared for feeling to it. I thought this was a great shame because the aviary is home to some really nice species that I was really looking forward to seeing such as black crakes, coletos, little bitterns, lots of nice hornbills and toucans and more. I was very pleased with the species list but I found the state of the building to be very disappointing.

- For a city zoo, the landscaping is quite good. There are some areas of green space which is nice. The zoo is also near to a river which is nice to have a look at after visiting the zoo. Within the zoo there is a nice water area with a nice range of waterfowl species.

- The primate collection is very nice. Although some of the enclosures were very poor, there is a lovely range of species – particularly guenon species. The inside of the primate house is also nicely done up.

- The reptile collection is also very nice. It is in a huge grand building and there are a lot of species. I don’t know much about non-avian or mammalian species but I’m sure that within the huge range of species there are some rarities. (I will provide a species list upon request).

Overall, a great zoo. There are lots of nice rare species and the Afrykarium which is brilliant coupled with some poor exhibits. Definitely a place to visit and arguably one of the top zoos in Europe.

 

Enjoying your reviews, and l would love a full walkthrough of Afrykarium.

 

Pleased that you're enjoying the reviews, I will do a walkthrough of Afrykarium some time in the next couple of weeks.

 

Afrykarium Walkthrough

Walkthrough of Wroclaw Zoo Afrykarium: Visit on the 9th of April 2015

Afrykarium is a fantastic exhibit in Wroclaw zoo that is definitely the best part of the zoo. I personally think that it is the best single exhibit that I have ever been to and is simply fantastic.

When you first enter through the gates of Wroclaw Zoo, the think that dominates what you see is the huge and impressive sight of the Afrykarium. It is an enormous building that is black in colour and really stands out as a stunning piece of architecture. The part of Afrykarium that you see is the side-on view that has the entrance under an overhang, at the entrance is a huge wall of traditional African-style artwork that is mainly a mixture of oranges in colour so complements the very dark, black of the building. In front of this whole wall is also a long and thin rectangular water feature which is a very shallow pond with perfectly still water and pebbles on the bottom that has the effect of bordering the Afrykarium (see attached picture). The Afrykarium is not right up at the entrance to the zoo but in front is a rectangular paddock for an African Savannah mixed enclosure. This has a fairly large group of reticulated giraffes as well as Ostrich, Red Hartebeest (only one in Europe at the moment) and Chapmann’s Zebra. The African Savannah hoofstock enclosure has the effect of creating a nice area in front of the Afrykarium that gives it somewhat of an ‘introduction’ to the African themed Afrykarium. Of course the hooftsock exhibit was there before the Afrykarium but I think that it still adds to the effect.
You walk past the hoofstock exhibit and come up to the entrance of Afrykarium. At the front is a covered area which is under the second floor of the Afrykarium with the orange artwork. This is where you queue to enter the Afrykariun. When I was there, there was no queue and I could just walk in and I can’t imagine ever having the queue long but I suppose in peak summer season you might wait five minutes or so. There is no extra fee for entering Afrykarium as the entrance is covered by the extremely reasonable entrance cost to the zoo which is only 8 US dollars or 5 pounds 50 (for the whole zoo and Afrykarium!). Of course this entrance cost can only be kept because of subsidies and I think the zoo could easily charge just that for the Afrykarium but they don’t – not at the moment at least – so it is very good value.

You enter Afrykarium and come in to a large two-story hall. In front are some amenities such as a snacks shop and – if I remember correctly – a toilet. There is also an ‘African Swamp’ area in this hall which is comprised of some waterways for turtles and fish such as lungfish and arowanas along with some plants. If you see the attached map, the hall is the white area at the bottom centre with the African swamp being labelled with it marked as that blue area above the white with some green patches. There is a specific route around the Afrykarium with the exit being to the left of the entrance in the direction that you are now facing so you then turn right and begin the tour around the Afrykarium, this path is marked on the map as the orange line going around and I will be writing this walkthrough following the route that you would take around. The first thing you come up to is a sandy area that leads to a seemingly shallow tank. There is viewing into it where there are some saltwater fish and from here you descend down into the underground area while going along the tank. The tank continues down several meters and when you reach the entirety of it, you realise it is very big. There are at least a dozen fish species which are all from the red sea because it is a red sea tank and when I was there were some people in scuba gear cleaning the mould which gives you an idea of the size.

You walk along the red sea tank and enter the underground area, this is themed like a cave with walls and ceiling being brown mock-rock and darker lighting. The first thing you come to in this area is the underwater viewing for the hippos, this is the controversial topic of keeping hippos in an all indoor area but I will discuss this with the main part of the enclosure. The pool isn’t as clear as the other tanks of course with hippos being in it but when I was there, the hippos weren’t near to the underwater view area and instead were some of the fish species that share the hippo’s pool. There is signage that is a screen that changes to show the different species every few seconds. Continuing past the viewing window for hippos, pass a disabled lift to the upper areas (stairs further on) and come up to the underwater burrow for aardvark(s?). This is a small looking little burrow with a tunnel leading up to the ‘outdoor’ area which is still indoors but in the upper area (talk about later). Next to the aardvarks is a typical tunnel complex-style exhibit for naked mole-rats and you turn a corner, coming up to two large, tall tanks for African Cichlids – one for Lake Malawi Cichlids and one for Lake Tanganyikans. There is a large number of fish – several hundred – with some large and very colourful ones. You then come up to the staircase which leads to the upper area.
You take the stairs up and come out in a huge, open hall. The roof has lots of skylights (mainly just glass) which lets in the natural light and it feels very close to being outside. Even though there are three large hippos and lots of other animals, there is no bad smell or anything like that which is a problem commonly associated with indoor hippo areas. There are lots of free flying birds and these are White-faced Whistling Duck, marbled teal, village weaver, yellow-necked francolins (I call them spurfowl myself, don’t know what’s correct but most signs call them francolins), hadada ibis, red-billed teal, bare-faced go-away birds, white-fronted bee-eaters and hamerkop. There is lots of nice planting in a savannah-like way including some fair sized trees. Coming up from the staircase, the first thing on you see which is on the left is a nice little enclosure for dik-diks. It is nicely planted and landscaped which goes together with the overall rockwork etc. which makes the enclosure seem part of everything – not enclosed at all. Next along from that is an enclosure for dwarf mongooses and the ‘outdoor’ area for aardvarks, it is done up in the same theme and looks very nice. It is very large and also provides the area where visitors can’t walk for the non-water bids.

Still in the same upper area, you go along a path around the hippo enclosure. It really is very big and looks fantastic. There are three hippos and when I went around, two were on the out-of-water area and one was in the water. The water bird species were also around on the out-of-water area and on the water. I would say that this enclosure for hippos is perfectly adequate, and actually quite good. Although the land area is a bit small, it is not too small and the water area is really big. I don’t think the indoor only aspect is a problem because it is in such an open building with so much natural light and as long as the smell doesn’t get bad – which as previously mentioned, it wasn’t when I was there – I don’t think there is a problem. Anyway, you go along a path around the hippo area which is raised above the pool and gives a view completely down on it. There are some trees whith the tops at the level of the pathway and in them there were lots of bird sitting, including a huge hamerkop nest. There is also a waterfall that goes over the path and thunders down into the hippo pool (I mean the path goes between the waterfall and the wall). Once you have gone along the path around the hippo area, you leave this big, open area coming into the ‘Mozambique Channel’.

The ‘Mozambique Channel’ is a long acrylic tunnel that goes through a huge shark tank with dozens of sharks, maybe up to a hundred. There are zebra sharks, blacktip sharks and guitar rays, cow nose rays along with green turtles and lots of very large wrasses and other fish. You go through the impressive shark tank tunnel and exit coming into the boat part of the Afrykarium past part of the other side of the African Swamp. If you look at the attached map you can see the boat coming out of the main building at the top centre. In the indoor part you go through the boat and the bits on the sides are outdoor areas. Because the outdoor areas don’t really fit into the walk through, I will talk about them now.

From the outside you can look at the two huge pools which are one for a group of, I think four cape fur seals and a huge group of 50+ African penguins and cape shelducks. The two ponds are nicely themed with rocks and sunning areas for penguins and seals. You can look at the outside of the pools and there are viewing points. This also allows you to look at the very impressive Afrykarium with the ship.
Back to the inside area now, you enter the area of the boat inside. There is the option to go to an upstairs area of the boat where there is a café, but I didn’t go up so I can’t say what it’s like. You go into the boat and the first side are huge underwater viewing windows for the African Penguins. The pool is by far the deepest and biggest I’ve seen for penguins and you can really see the penguins ‘fly’ underwater in the huge groups. It is really very impressive and gives a fantastic look at the penguins. On the opposite side of the path is a tank with three different species of moray eel and some empty tanks as well with species to come in the future. You walk along the boat with the penguin viewing windows and turn around to more viewing windows into another huge pool which has the cape fur seals. This boat represents the Skeleton coast and of course both of these species are found in that region as are the fish in the tanks on the other side with species such as lionfish and monos. The huge pool for the fur seals is huge and impressive with opportunities to see them swimming underwater and playing with some buoys. Only two of the fur seals were swimming around when I was there because the rest were out sunning and they swam off into the distance out of view (that’s how big it is) before swimming closer and back into view again.

You then leave the ship and come back out to the other side to another part of the African Swamp area before going into the last section which is Congo. There are more views of some of the species from the African Swamp but I found that some of it was a bit empty. Probably due to the Afrykarium still being quite new and some of the species still needing to breed more to fill up the tanks. You go past the African Swamp area and enter the Congo. The whole area has a few species of birds free flying as well as lots of nice tropical plants very nicely done up. Some of the plants still needed to grow more to fill up some of the space but it still looked fantastic. The bird species in the Congo section are Blue-bellied rollers, Violet Turacos, Red-crested Turacos Fulvous Whistling Ducks, and Speckled Mousebirds.

When you first come into the Congo area, you see an area of plants and some of the free-flying birds on your right, and on the left is a nice enclosure for Nile Crocodiles and various species of fish. The sides are glass allowing a view above and below water as well as onto the land area. The enclosure is very nice and integrates well into the surrounding landscaping, almost seamlessly. You go past the Nile Crocodiles area and go down slightly into a sort of cave-y area before coming up to the under-water viewing for a pair (It was a pair during my visit, but sadly one died a few days afterwards) of Antillean Manatees. These of course represent the African Manatees that would suit the Congo area but I believe the zoo was unable to obtain any of the African species. The tank is very bare but suitably large with two sections that I believe could be divided and large underwater viewing windows all the way along. This provides a very nice view of the animals. There are a few fish sharing the tank with the manatees but something that I thought was excellent was that the free-flying whistling ducks had the manatee tank as their water area so they could be seen swimming on top of the water from below but perhaps even more interesting is that they can be seen diving underwater in the manatee tank through the viewing windows. Of course because the tank’s primary inhabitants are the manatees, it is deep and large in size so this allows the ducks to be seen diving quite deep and behaving underwater in ways I haven’t seen before. I saw one swim all the way to the bottom and then swim back up to the surface upside down. I thought this was a really cool idea.
After the manatee tanks, you take stairs up to a viewing deck that is set above ground level and looks over the Congo Area. Many of the free flying birds can be seen here and there are views over the Nile Crocodile enclosure as well as over the Manatee tank where the manatees can be seen from above eating floating vegetables that they have been fed and the Fulvous Whistling ducks that could be seen from underwater can be seen from above water here. There was a path leading from this area to an area at the back that had some plants and an area where the birds were fed that is marked on the map being for glossy starlings but this path was not open to the public when I was there. This is now the end of the Congo area and you walk along a raised pathway from the deck past the Croc area that you can look directly down on before getting to an escalator which takes you to ground level outside the Congo Area. You are now back in the main entrance area that you came in by and you turn right to go to the exit. In front of the exit is a stand for refreshments as well as a small gift shop and you leave through the same place that you came in from. That is the end of Afrykarium.

I have attached an image of a map that I photographed at the entrance to Afrykarium (it may be nice to follow this around to get a better idea of the route that I am describing though it's probably too late by my this writing it at the end if you've read the whole thing already ) and also views of the front entrance and one of the sides of the back. (by one of the sides of the back I mean I have attached a picture of the fur seal section and on the other side of the boat-thing is the penguin section).

I will be uploading pictures of the Afrykarium and other parts of the zoo to the Wroclaw Zoo gallery (Zoo Wroclaw Gallery) sometime in a couple of weeks.

 

I have found a few interesting figures to do with the size of Afrykarium from the official website (Afrykarium w liczbach)

The Afrykarium is 160 m long, 54 m wide and 12-15 m high
It covers an area of nearly 1.9 ha
To build Afrykarium " the total volume of 36,000 m3 of concrete and 4,800 t of steel was used, and 100,000 m3 of earth had to be removed. At the peak of construction works, during one shift there were about 700 workers who worked in a 3-shift system."

The total volume of water in the whole system is 15,000,000 litres (15,000 m3)
The sizes of Specific Tanks:

1. The Red Sea pool - c. 900 m3 (900,000 litres)
2. Shark pool - 3,100 m3 (3,100,000 litres)
3. Hippo pool - c. 715 m3 (715,000 litres)
4. Manatee pool - c. 1250 m3 (1,250,000 litres)
5. Crocodile pool - 260 m3 (260,000 litres)
6. Cape fur seal pool - 3,600 m3 (3,600,000 litres) (note that the list from the website linked above says it's a Northern fur seal pool but the species held at Wroclaw is actually a cape fur seal)
7. Penguin pool - 2,460 m3 (2,460,000 litres)


For old fashioned people who still use gallons 1000 litres is 264 US gallons or 220 imperial gallons (you can do the maths yourselves)

 

Thank you LD, that was great

 

Thanks for the comprehensive review LD, most enjoyable, I notice from the map you posted that otters are featured next to the crocodiles, any sign of otters in the exhibit?

 

Does anybody happen to know the water volume of the hippodom in Cologne and the hippo house in Berlin, to compare with this tank...

 

I did not see the otters but I did see the enclosure that is marked on the map for otters. I though it was an extra part for the Nile Crocodiles that could be separated if necessary. I suppose it is possible that it could have had otters but there was no signage for them and if they were there then they would have been hiding.

 

Laughing Dove..it was interesting to see you compare Budapest with London in terms of area, but of course the biggest complaint with London for many people is that too many large mammals have left the collection and,a personal viewpoint, that too much of the site is not used for animal exhibits per se.Budapest is the opposite in that virtually every type of large mammal is still on site..and almost no area is wasted.The breadth of the collection is now such that it is more than a one-day zoo,a circumstance increasingly unusual across the globe.The zoo has been given the adjoining area to the north that was,until recently, a funfair..so it now has an increase in area of around a third.Fortunately this will be used to increase the collection still further and will include a biodome intended to be larger than Leipzig`s.

 

Love these reviews. They have just the right amount of information to keep the interest and are a nice smooth read. I can agree entirely with your spot on comments re Vienna, as this is the only one I've visited.

 

@Tim Brown, I have visited London Zoo a few times so I appreciate what you are saying about the wasted space and yes, the breadth of the collection at Budapest is a real plus point (I was there for nearly opening to closing with only a 15 minute sit down for a snack lunch and just about got around the whole place with no time to go back and look at things at the end as I often do). However, sacrifices have been made to accommodate the sheer number of large animals and this has often come from the size of enclosures. Whilst I don't think the collection should go to the state of London's, some enclosures need to get bigger and this will probably mean other things will have to go. (Note, I do realise that different people have different standards of what they think is acceptable for an enclosure in terms of size and some of the enclosures that I think are too small may not be considered so by others.)

@dublinlion, Thanks

 

There are c. 540 thousand liters in the hippo section of Cologne's hippodrom. I don't know Berlin's volume, but recent top common hippo exhibits in Europe and North America generally contain between 300-900 thousand liters. The volume I provide here is only indoor (for zoos without outdoor, or with both indoor and outdoor that can be seen by visitors) or only outdoor (for zoos without indoor that can be seen by visitors). I guess the largest single hippo pool in Europe is the 1500 thousand liter outdoor at ZOOM (decent but much smaller indoor) and in North America the main outdoor at Disney's Animal Kingdom (don't know exact volume, but huge; no indoor).

Assuming the provided numbers are accurate, I believe the volume for penguins and fur seals are the largest in the world for these animal groups, and the manatee is the second largest (after Singapore's River Safari). Volume isn't everything, but it does say something.

 

The penguin pool is also said to be the deepest in Europe

 

I have now uploaded many pictures covering most of the Afrykarium to the Wroclaw Zoo Gallery (Zoo Wroclaw Gallery)