Anyone any information if taking a baby stroller into Lisbon Zoo is a good idea? Sofar we’ve been carrying our baby all over Lisbon, which is a good idea in the area’s Alfama and Bairro Alto, but taking a stroller once sounds like a nice change. I already noticed the subway station does not have wheelchair access, which sounds a bit unwelcoming... If it’s cramped or hilly, we’ll carry again
Well, we carried our daughter and that went just fine. I still have to post my thoughts though. Well, Lisbon Zoo reminded me quite a bit of Madrid and Barcelona. Not neccessarily a good thing, although i did enjoy Barca, mainly for their extraordinary bird collection which was still there when i visited. When you enter the Zoo, the first things you see are two ok exhibits for tigers, one containing a sumatran tiger and one an amur tiger. Next to this is the dolphin stadium, which is reasonably large with an extension behind it that also has a viewing into it. I don’t have great issues with exhibits like it, but I can imagine some people do (with it being too small and too “barren”). Behind the tiger exhibit are a few classic rows and rotund aviaries filled with parrots (lots of amazones), wading birds, a few cracidae and hornbills. All of them are old, with thick wire and they look exactly like the type of aviaries that Artis and Antwerp had before they knocked all of them through to make one large aviary out of them. Lisbon hasn’t arrived in the 21st century yet and still holds a stamp-collection in too cramped cages. Behind the aviaries, several smaller and larger yards appear for hoofstock, of which Lisbon had plenty. Bongo, nyala, sitatunga, lechwe, black-faced impala, gemsbok, scimitar-horned oryx, addax, roan- and sable antilope are all there, together with two hippo’s in the standard ghastly concrete pool and a few african elephants in a very small yard. The antilope yards are very barren and mostly adequate at best, the hippos and elephants are currently getting an extension to their exhibits. After the extension, the hippo’s will be housed barely adequate and the elephants would (if I can believe Snowleopard) still have protesters outside if the exhibit would be in the USA. The area is topped off with a decent little temple for the herd of angolan giraffes and a remarkably well planted yard for a zookeeper, kept together with what seemed to be a single okapi. There are cages for quite a few cats, of which snowleopard, ocelot and clouded leopard did not show, but jaguar, white tigers and persian leopard did. The cages are mainly in a large circle of exhibits, most being relatively small but densely planted. Nothing to protest about, but also not much to get the heart racing. Way in the back of the zoo at a dead end is a decent exhibit for the iberian lynx. I’m not a sucker for a little more fluffier version of an European lynx sleeping in a corner, but some of you might be jealous so I thought i’d throw it in. The ape house is large, but with all three species of ape (gorilla’s, orangs and chimps) and visitors in there, theres not too much space left for the inhabitants, although all exhibits are over two floors so they do have height. The outdoor exhibits are decent for orangs (two ok-sized islands) to impressive for both the chimps and gorilla’s, who are mixed with guereza’s. Large sprawling yards for both, with walls and the side and a moat in front. My only concern would be the lack of cover for the gorilla’s. What remains are the monkeys. First, a row of concrete and mesh exhibits for howlers, lion-tailed macaque, DeBrazza’s and white-nosed guenons seemed like a blast from the past, neatly topped off with peeling-paint backdrop. Apparantly there has been a time where keeping monkeys like that was acceptable, but some people forgot to tell Lisbon (and Antwerp for that matter) that time has moved on since. The circular area with open, moated exhibits for a host of tamarins and marmosets messed me up. I really liked the innovative way of showing smaller monkeys without barriers, but most of the species were a no-show and looking at tiny monkeys from across a moat didn’t really get me buzzing. A decent island for spider monkeys and a concrete pit for barbary macaques rounded this section off. I’ve forgotten to mention other exhibits like giant anteater, red panda, penguins, (syrian) brown bears, black-and-white ruffed lemur, ring-tailed lemur, indian rhino, white rhino, koala and pygmy hippo, mainly because their exhibits were entirely forgettable. Even the small reptile house, with a very nice and large exhibit for a monster Mississippi gator couldn’t stand out. For me, the whole zoo had a bit of an air of neglect and all sections suffered from it. Exhibitry, the botanical section, maintenance, it all seemed to have hit the 1990’s and stopped after that. Maybe I’m just picky, spoiled, or maybe my views were tainted by the by and large impressive Oceanario some days before, but Lisbon Zoo couldn’t get me going. I guess the total lack of smaller mammals didn’t help, because Lisbon is mainly about mega-fauna.
Is this the worst major zoo for news (or lack of) Terrible website and hardly any social media presence
There was a big sign up saying they were expanding and contruction work was going on, but too be honest I doubt the size of the exhibits are going to be increased. The main work seemed to be on a new pool between the elephants and hippo’s of substantial size, with a wall in the middle so that both species can utilise it and a new footpath and lookout over this pool for visitors. The hippo’s currently have acces to a small land area and a very small, too shallow pool. With the construction finished, they should have some new land area and the much larger pool added, which would make it a prettydecent hippo exhibit. The female elephants would have a very small land area added, but access to a large pool. Together with what they had, it would still be mediocre for European standards (although not many elephants are that much better off in Europe).
I really would advocate to break up the herd and transfer out a family group to another more forward operating zoo. Same for Indian GOH rhino which for the last decade plus have been a non-starter. I really do think it is down to inadequate housing and husbandry!
I also think it would be better to move them to another better zoo. Maybe even all the cows. They are very important for the European population of African elephants because they have no relatives anywhere. A suitable new home would be Kronberg, Sigean, Plaisance du Touch, Fuerte Ventura, later also Zlin or Tierpark Berlin. Magdeburg was also looking for African cows, but now he has young bulls, so he would probably no longer be interested in them. Indeed, the conditions in Lissabon are not sufficient for so many elephants.
I saw on the news last weak, that the zoo is going to upgrade the exhibits of the Giraffe, Elephants and Hippos!!!
Lowland Nyala have now been mixed in with the elephants https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=264375438786583
Petra Prager – Elefanten-Fotolexikon This site states that two elephant cows, Luna and Jane, are dead! Jane died at the end of 2020 and Luna died in February 2021. This is a shock, because nothing has been known until now. Recently, only three cows can really be seen in the photos and videos. Could anyone confirm or refute how many cows are there now?
So it is well. I feel relieved. What this means is that on all sites both cows are marked as dead (elephant.se, elefanten fotolexikon, elewiki)? Probably some misinformation they followed.
A Scimitar-horned oryx has been born: World Animal Day: Zoo announces birth of an extinct-in-the-wild oryx
One interesting thing (to me at least) that I spotted on the latest IUCN Red List update is that Lisbon Zoo have been working to create an ex-situ population of the Endangered Obô giant snail, native to Sao Tome and Principe. It is the only zoo outside the native range mentioned. It is mentioned in the drop-down area 'Conservation Actions in detail' on the species page here: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
