Mega zoo tour at Netherlands

This is the resume of my trip:
19th September: Travel to Netherlands with a bit of issues but ending well. My hand baggage is factured as non-hand baggage due to saturation of space in the plane (tough once completed, I saw that was still space for some more baggage in cabin...). Thanks to this, I have a bit of delay in the arriving to my hosting place, and my hoster was awake until slightly undecent hours :-( My hoster is very kind and he shared his house with me. I go to sleep inmediately for not molest.

20th September: at first hour I buy the ticket fo Arnhem and visit Burger's zoo. Despite the lack of blue duikers and ringed seals, is still an enjoyable zoo. The area where they was housed was in construction. I never have seen a so impessive inmense ecosystems. The Rimba is the less impressive of them because is not covered and hence only displays bigger animals: bantengs, pig-tailed macaques, hog deers, eld's deers and siamangs sharing the same enclosure. The other ecodisplays are covered and full of treasures. The Desert is the first one of the covered enclosures that I've visited (after the Rimba), and is very well done, ambiented in Arizona-Sonora deserts. Seeing the small birds in a so inmense space full of desert bushes can be tricky, but with patience one can see everything. In a dark corridor of the Desert are the ringtails, one of the bigger treasures of the zoo. The Bush biome was next, it's just a tropical jungle, giant, enormous and dense in a way that is impossible to find many of the smaller animals, for example the Indigo bunting, chachalacas and anoles were misses. It's not geographically consistent, as there are African (e . g. aardvark), Asian (e. g. emerald dove) and American (e. g. screaming piha or red-footed tortoises) animals mixed together. Knowing this, they just could have put the blue duikers inside instead get rid off them...The Bush is also very noticeable for the rarity of the plants cultivated inside, it could par with a botanical garden... just in genus Aristolochia are at least six species, including the rare A. arborea and A. tricaudata for example. The third covered biome is the Mangrove. Based on a small nature reserve managed by Burger's zoo in the Caribbean if I remember well. It's geographically consistent. Absolutely incredible to have a so weird mixed-species exhibit that includes manatees, fiddler crabs, butterflies, ducks, doves, fishes and passerines, all housed together.

Pics of the animals photographed will come to the Gallery soon. Most important misses were Hylobates concolor gabriellae, Ortalis canicollis, Mandingoa nitidula, Passerina cyanea, Oryzoborus angolensis, Zosterops palpebrosus, Cacicus haemorrhous, Passerina rositae, Anolis marmoratus, Eleutherodactylus johnstonei, Amphiprion melanopus, Sufflamen albicaudatum, Amblygobius buanensis, Pseudocheilinus octotaenia, Pimephales promelas, Sufflamen chrysopterum, Muraena melanotis, Arothron immaculatus, Anampses lineatus, Bodianus anthioides, Priacanthus hamrur, Acanthurus blochii, Abudefduf sexfasciatus, Priacanthus macracanthus, Scuticaria tigrina, Belonesox belizanus, Atractosteus tropicus, Anampses twistii.

21th September: Today the day starts very good, tough finish badly. In the morning I travek to Best where I go to BestZoo. The train station don't have an info point or nobody to ask, but I managed to go to the bus stop that is very near, and catch the bus that arrive to (a point near) the zoo. (Well, more a caravan than a bus). Then I had a problem: the bus only accept ticket, not money for a ticket. And by error, in the train station they gave me an all-day pass but only for trains, not for buses... Fortunately the driver made an exception and let me travel in the bus with no ticket, tough I offered him the import of a ticket. Tough full of interesting species, is a small place, and looks like very "homemade". The bus stop is in the middle of a countryside road, and you must be a bit intuitive for follow the correct path to the zoo. The zoo entry is not showy, be sure to pay attention for not pass it if you want to visit it. The gift shop, cash and info point is all the same, and it seems managed by a small family, kind persons tough they didn't let me to see the behind-the-scenes woolly possum, Virginia opossum, Siberian weasel or giant flying squirrel :-( Well, the place is lovely, with wire enclosures and very close seeing of the animals. But the best thing that happened me at this zoo are not the animals, but that, by surprise, I met @vogelcommando here. He and me planned to meet next day at Zwolle, but he came earlier to give me a surprise. He and his wife came here and they are very kind.

There are not many important misses in this zoo, as animals can be seen very easily.

After leaving the zoo and saying goodbay to vogelcommando, I tried to go from Best to Volkel for visit Zie-zoo, as recommended by some zoochatters in this thread. Here is when began the issues. First, to my suprirse, there is a bus stop in the way that the bus left me, but there is not any bus stop in the other way. I had to wait in the same bus stop, hoping at least to ask next bus driver. But fortunately the other waw bus stopped even when I was in the other side of the road. He let me come back to Best without ticket again. Once in Best I followed the indications provided by the kind girl of Best-Zoo for arrive to Zie-zoo. But Volkel is a very small, almost unknown village joined to the bigger city of Uder. So first one must trip to Uder and here catch another bus to Zie-zoo. The problem was, that the driver of this bus indicated me badly, as I asked if the next stop is the one for Zie-zoo, and he said yes. So I go out of the bus in the wrong place with no zoo indication nowhere. Asking the very few people walking in the zone, I turned a road, then asked at a store and they also indicated me badly, mentioning a round. I walked some kilometer in the way they indicated me, and no round appeared. Finally, in countryside and too late for visit Zie-zoo (that closes at 17:30), I had to back over my steps and catch the bus back to Uder and from then to Den Haag again.

22th September:
This is the day that make me choose September as the month of my Benelux visit, because the Zwolle Bird Market happens today. This fair is celebrated twice a year and only last some hours - it closes at 14:00. Arrived to Zwolle without problem and asked to a taxi driver about the bird fair. Actually I intented that the taxi carry me to the place, but he just indiated me how to reach. It was better, because it was at walking distance. Once some hundred meters near here, is very easy to find it, because of the flow of people carrying bird boxes and cages clearly lead you to the bird market. Once arrived here - just at opening time - I found a giant queue for entry, some two hundred meters long. But 20 minutes later I was inside. The bird market is a dream in terms of rare species to see, but a nightmare for the photographer. It's a giant room with thousands of small cages housing birds for sale. Impossible to make photos without a lot of cage bars in front of the birds or without scaring the birds by the approaching of the camera. But this is not the worst disadvantage: the density of people is the biggest that I have been embibbed in ever. So in many places is impossible to pass or to see the birds. Also, for appreciate the market is necessary to be very knowlegdeable about birds, as many cages aren't labelled, or just labelled with Dutch common name. Very few have a scientific name. So I will upload many photos in the To Be Identified gallery soon...

The intention was that vogelcommando also come to the fair and meet me again. But a very bad thing happened to him - his car was broken. So it was very luckily that he decided to come a day before to Best! Otherwise we never would have met. His car is finely repaired now, but it was very expensive for him :-(

Worst miss was the long-tailed broadbill pair, Psarisomus dalhousiae - the photos that I took were so horrible (even for my standards) that must be deleted. When I came back to the same point, they already has been sold.

I exited the bird market at 12:30, so, I tough that I had enough time for visit Zie-zoo. From the train I saw a rook!!!!!!!!!!!!!! together with two jackdaws, looking for food in the pebbles of railway. The train was stopped and I wanted to make a photo (I only have a pic of a taxidermy specimen), but then the train departed again. But some bad things happened after. First, a bad weather. It started raining, not heavily but constantly. And second, the bus combination that I tried yesterday didn't work. There is no direct bus to the zoo on saturdays and sundays. So I caught a different bus from Uder to Volkel and try to reach Zie-zoo by walk. Well, the bus passed Volkel and I stopped in the next stop instead in Volkel by an error. Anyway as I just discovered the same day Google Maps in my mobile phone, I tried it. 1 hour walking, about 5 km, from my point to Zie-Zoo, under the rain. Sometimes running, sometimes walking when I get too tired of run. I arrived at Zie-zoo just in time (as when I finished my visit was just closing time). But the very bad thing is that thanks to the rainy weather, all the most wished animals were hidden. No plains viscacha!!!!!!!!!! No yucatan squirrel. No striped hyena, no white-nosed coati, no corsac fox, no American black bear. I was desolated. A so difficult tricky travel, almost for nothing. When I finished visit, I asked the girls of the entry about a taxi for come back to Uder. But they indicated me the bus way. I tough that it means that the bus for come back is at walking distance, but not - it was the same 5 m again, under the rain and running for arrive at time at next bus. My legs hurted me a lot after this, but I reached the bus at time (with very few minutes of margin!). Once back from Uder to Eindhoven train station, I bought an energetic drink in a machine and, miracle!!! My legs stopped hurting me in each step, inmediately!

This is the list of most important missings in Zie-zoo: Vulpes corsax, Lagostomus maximus, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus, Marmota bobak (too tired and with hurry for catch the bust for try to find them outside of the zoo), Nasua narica, Sciurus yucatanensis, Hyaena hyaena.

But the worst thing of the day was not the rain, the tireness or the lack of animals. The really bad new was that my hoster suddenly has to leave his home for a job trip to London. He tried his best asking his friends for somebody hosting me, but no success. I arrived very late, but still can sleep one night more here. Next morning at first hour he looked at an hostel for me.

23th September
Today we solve the problem of my hosting. I leave my baggage at a small very centric hostel, very cheap, and tell the owner that I will return in the afternoon for take the saved baggage and sleep here. Meanwhile, I catch the train to Apeldoorn. The Apenheul primate park is also a unique zoo. The bad thing is that is still raining all day, not heavily but constantly. If there is an animal group that dislike the rain and cold when they are in the outdoor part of the enclosures, these are the monkeys. So I had low expectancies when I arrived to the park. First there is a long walk from the park entry to the Apenheul entry, but once here I can enjoy my visit. More than a zoo, Apenheul is a pure dense forest crossed by a path and some enclosures. But many of the monkeys are not in enclosures, just free-ranging. In a native cold forest full of dense mature trees where the monkeys can be found anywhere in the canopy, it's a challenge to find many of them. Also the red-legged seriemas were absolutely free, walking in the same path than visitors. One of the best things of Apenheul is that the path is unidirectional, non labyrinthic, so is very easy to see every exhibit and don't miss nothing.

Due to bad weather, there are quite a number of important misses, including: Eulemur coronatus, Hapalemur alaotrensis, Callithrix argentata. These are not seen. Seen but not photographed are two more important species: Nasua narica and Chiropotes chiropotes. Bot have been glimpsed from far distance in the wire enclosures that lead to the indoor rooms, impossible to photograph from here. The sturgeons are very easily visible from above, but the dreamed paddlefishes are not anymore present at the zoo.

After coming back to Apenheul to Den Haag, I see how my hostel was. No wonder why is so cheap. Just a narrow corridor with 8 beds in it - almost no space for let the baggage and keep it open. But these issues are not concerning to me - the only really bad thing was that my partner of next bed, snores like an earthquake!! So I almost can't sleep in all night... Fortunately he wake up very early - at 5 o clock - and I can sleep some hours then

24th September
Today I go to Amsterdam. In the way, from the train, I see some wild greater white-fronted geese My plan is visit Artis royal zoo and Hortus Botanicus, but when I exit from the zoo, Hortus Botanicus was already closed. Amsterdam is an average big zoo of good quality, as expectable in a capital city. It don't have unique things, tough the insect house is very good.The very unique thing is Micropia, but this hardly can be considered as part of the zoo - the entry is outside of the zoo entry, and it ask for a separate (and very expensive!) fee. I visit the zoo and after Micropia. As others said, the "natural history museum" inside the aquarium is very small - in fact is not a natural history museum, but about two o three widely separated rooms with some fossils and sashells, absolutely unlabelled or horribly labelled. The aquarium itself (the live fish tanks) are the worst signage of a exhibit that I've seen in any zoo ever, almost none tank have signage. Also every marine tank have a repeated copperband butterflyfish, I don't know why. The butterfly garden is beautiful, but also with very bad signage or lack of it - most of the butterlies doesn't match with the ones presented in the sheets that one can see at the entry. Take care of the hot humidity in the butterfly house: persons with glasses (like me) must clean them various times at the begin for be able of seeing something, and the same applies for camera lens for take photos. In the zoo ground I see a leucistic jackdaw. Micropia dont worth the price of the entry, the entry is very user-unfriendly - one must wait until more people comes for let you use the elevator, until then one must wait in a small space with nothing to see. Once inside, there are some interesting cultivations of microscopic organism that one can see trough projections in a screen, but much less diversity than expected. No live tardigrades as I expected, for example. Also many displayings, explanation and figures, but as for live specimens Micropia is deficient - except for only one thing, the extensive mould garden, with a very diverse series of moulds cultivated in roun dishes in a wall.

As for Natura Artis Magistra, the most important missed species are: Phalanger gymnotis (impossible to find in the "Forest" indoor exhibit), Petaurus breviceps, Perodicticus potto (sharing enclosure with pygmy marmosets, a mouse deer and an unsigned two-toed sloth, but impossible to spot a potto!), Hylobates concolor gabriellae, Antidorcas marsupialis (sharing enclosure with Thomson's gazelles behind the giraffe/zebra area, but at first passing only the gazelles are here, and in the second, not gazelles nor springboks - they must be indoors, impossible to see), Arborophila gingica, Calidris ptilocnemis (said to be in the spoonbill/egret aviary visible from outside of the entry, but I only saw ruffs), Homopus signatus, Pelobates fuscus (a dark terrarium full of dead leaves, soil and some ferns... not the best thing for seeing a digging species!), Monocirrhus polyacanthus, Platichthys flesus, Heniochus diphreutes, Parambassis pulcinella, Amblyeleotris randalli.

25th September
Now I go to my last Dutch zoo: Dolfinarium Harderwijk. Very low diversity of species here, but just one species that make me visit this place, of course is the Harbour porpoise. The bus from train station to Dolfinarium departures every 45 minutes and walking from the station is 15 minutes, so I recommend go walking instead taking bus. In the road, once you see a big mill (that is a restaurant I think), you turh just here and will see from a distance a big blue dome. That dome is the Dolfinarium, but find the entry to the place can be a bit tricky. I followed the perimeter and finally found it and entered. The place is very "thematic park" rathern than "zoo". Half of the things are children playgrounds and restaurants, most animal exhibits are part of shows, and the high price is according to a thematic park too. The porpoise exhibit have no underwater view, but they pop up to the surface very often, even outside of the show. Besides porpoise, the best thing are the shark and ray touch pool, tought it lacks completely any signage. Lots of species of skates are mixed here and one hardly can identify them without any signage in the exhibit. Behind the touch pool there is a room that holds the small tanks for smaller North Atlantic species and for the juveniles and eggs of their rays, dogfishes and mullets.

Most important misses were Mustelus mustelus, Raniceps raninus, Trachinus vipera, Mullus barbatus, Spinachia spinachia, Lipophrys pholis and Merlangius merlangus. Probably all of these was holded in the small tanks of north atlantic species formerly and still in Zootierliste tough actually absent now.

Coming back to Harderwijk to Den Haag, I catch my baggage that I left stored in the hostel, and go to the station again for change to Belgium. Here I met my new hoster in Brussels and stay at a place zillions better than the hostel, a small flat for myself with all the neccessities: bathroom, kitchen, a big bed, lamps, mirrors, chairs, a table, and even books and spices. I sleep deeply here after two nights of bad sleeping.

26th September
Today I visit the most special of all the zoos of this tour: Pairi Daiza. A lot of things can be said about this place. First, it's strange that what claims to be "the best zoo in Europe" (according to the announcements displayed in airports) corresponds to a very small village as its Cambron. There is no direct train, and the train stop of destination is very small, with only one railway and a couple of cabins on each side, no building, no subterranean pass, no info point. You must wander around a small village with rustic houses and extremely narrow sidewalks, and after some time you arrive to the giant parking lot of the park. Then you walk more until finding the entry, but before that you find a surprise: this is the first zoo ever that I visited, that have a security checkpoint at the start, identical to ain airport one, with scanner for all your personal items. Once here I entered (with the much cheaper option of transport+entry combo) and after some farm animals I saw the biggest treasure of the park, the Spix's macaws. Despite being here at first hour as recommended, the macaws already was high up in the exhibit. However I managed to get enough good pics of them, tough not the same quality that they would have been if the parrots were in the ground. Besides macaws, Pairi Daiza is an atonishing zoo, and it's too big for visit it in a single day. One can find here everything that you coild imagine in a zoo besides animals: from a treasure cove to a rice paddyfield inside a temple as big as a small city, from a railway to a shipwrek or a 19th century style museum of monsters and deformities. Contrasting very much with the quality of the other aspects of the zoo, the lack of signage is the worst that I have seen in any zoo ever, and not only in the aquarium and inverts, but even in some mammal, bird and reptile enclosures. I got all my most important objectives except the bear cuscus: despite being said to be easy to spot, both times that I passed by its exhibit, it was empty (the first time) or have only the mouse deers (the second time). Intended to pass a third time, but the Oasys was already closed by then.

Most important misses at Pairi Daiza were: Ailurops ursinus, Sus cebifrons, Hylobates concolor gabriellae, Halcyon albiventris, Anas crecca, Gyps himalayensis, Anas hottentota, Buteo rufofuscus, Zosterops poliogastrus, Falco naumanni, Merops bullockoides, Amazona collaria, Tupinambis merianae, Kinixys belliana, Varanus gouldii, Kinixys homeana, Rhinoclemmys pulcherrima, Elseya novaeguineae, Heosemys spinosa, Chalarodon madagascariensis, Terrapene ornata, Vipera berus, Neurergus crocatus (the most important one besides bear cuscus... after leaving the place I learned that they're in the Crypte, but in this place (that I discovered just at closing time and visited very quickly) I only saw egyptian fruit bats and naked mole rats...), Labeo chrysophekadion, Acheilognathus macropterus, Heniochus intermedius, Abudefduf sexfasciatus, Pseudanthias pleurotaenia, Arothron stellatus, Balistoides viridescens.

27th September
Today was planned my last zoo visit: Zoo Antwerpen. It's comparable to Artis: a big good zoo in a major city, tough with nothing that makes it extraordinary. This zoo is much more user-friendly than Pairi Daiza, and all animals are easily seen, hence the misses are very few. The only important misses was Sturnus pagodarum (shared exhibit with Von der Decken hornbills, but must be indoors), Teratoscincus scincus, Gerrhosaurus nigrolineatus (mixed with G. major, and I'm unable to distinguish both, but all the individuals that I looked at, looks like major), Leiocephalus personatus, Epicrates subflavus, Cyrtodactylus louisiadensis (this lovely gecko unique in European zoos have a high terrarium shared with fire skink and veiled chamaleon. With floor covered in dead leaves, it's impossible to spot...), Mantella viridis, Limanda limanda, Labeo chrysophekadion, Centropyge heraldi, Agonus cataphractus, Steatocranus casuarius, Halichoeres chloropterus, Pholis gunnellus, Myrichthys maculosus and Merlangius merlangus.

At night, I go the train station for buy my ticket for the bus to the airport. By my surprise, everything is closed. I get crazy trying to find where one can buy tickets for the buses, as the machines only spend train tickets. Finally I know that the tickets must be bought at the own buses. But then, consulting my mail for getting the boarding pass, is when I noticed that the fligh has cancelled due to a strike of Ryanair staff. I get in contact with everybody that can help me, and with the help of my family I slowly solve the problems. I go to airport firts, and when arriving found everything closed. When the ticket checking points opened, I asked what can I do with the cancelled flight. They replied me that there is no other flight to same destination until Monday. But I needed to fly before that. They didn't helped me at all, but I've found some other travellers affected by the same cancelled flight. Together we looked for solutions and I took an alternative flight that takes place the next day at evening to another destination, from which I could easily go back to home.

28th September
So I decided to come back to Brussels and visit one more thing, something that I never could have done if was not by the strike. I go walking to the Natural History Museum then. Is not a bad museum, but is highly focused in paleontology and not so much in modern animals. The most impressive exhibit is the group of 8 complete authentic skeletons of Iguanodon and much more authentic skeletons in lying position below them. Almost all the other dinosaur skeletons found in this museum (except for one small unidentified complete Plateosaurus) are fake (casts). However, amongst non-dinosaur fossils there are many rare and spectacular authentic pieces too, including fossils from mammals (including a complete mammooth and a fossil right whale), non-dinosaur reptiles (including a Mosasaur Room), and even spectacular AUTHENTIC ediacaran fauna!!! (tough most of the Ediacaran pieces are cast, but some are authentic). As for modern animals, there are three exhibits containing them: in order of increasing interest, first is Biodivercity (about urban animals), second is about the history of the Museum, and third, the most species-rich, is the Hall of Evolution.

After that I slept one more time in my host house, and at first hour I go to airport. Got my new boarding pass, lunched here, and at evening I took the flight to Reus. Once here, I took a taxi to Tarragona station and from here a bullet-train to my hometown. And now here I am, ready for start saving the photos into my computer!

 

Thanks very much @Kakapo for your great mini-reviews of a series of zoos. Next summer I hope to fly to Europe and visit approximately 90 zoos (at least 45 in the Netherlands, a dozen in Belgium and at least 30 in Germany) and I will definitely rent a vehicle for the entire time. Reading about your troubles with bus tickets, train rides, a closed train station, strikes, waiting around for public transportation, etc., sounds like a total nightmare. Other than maybe days in Antwerp and Amsterdam, my goal is to have a private vehicle 95% of the time so as to avoid all of the issues that crop up with being dependent on someone else driving me around. I can think of three of my American zoo friends who always rent vehicles in Europe and they only use public transportation if they have no other choice such as in the 'no car zone' areas. I think that public transportation would work for me if I was only going to a handful of densely populated cities, but seeing 90 zoos all over the place means that a car will be an absolute necessity. I'll be able to come and go as I like and do whatever I want and you won't find me waiting around at stations every day.

Also, your story about spending nights in a hostel also sounds like a nightmare. You get what you pay for in life, as I remember saving tons of money back in 2000 when I spent a few nights in an Alaskan hostel...but I had terrible sleeps due to my fellow roommates. I'd rather sleep in a private vehicle...haha! Fellow travelers come and go in hostels all night long, and those that stay are sometimes terrible snorers.

As for your zoo visits, you sound mightily impressed with Pairi Daiza and that is a zoo that many ZooChatters have seen after the recent 'Zoohistorica 2018' meeting. I can scarcely wait to be at that famous zoo next summer to see the good, the bad and the ugly gorilla volcanoes. It is intriguing that the legendary zoo in Amsterdam has such awful signage and that you didn't enjoy Micropia at all. I didn't realize that it costs extra but I've read some rave reviews of the facility although I have to admit that Micropia isn't as appealing as the regular zoo itself.

 

Very impresive overview of your adventures in the Netherlands and Belgium ! Was realy nice to meet you at Best Zoo and a real shame that you missed such a large number of your wish-list ! I'm fimilar with all zoos you visited and normaly the number of missed species is much less but on your trip the weather was not alway showing its nice side and this effects ofcouse the visuability of the animals but as I already told you.... next time hopefully more succes. Evenso I guess you can be very pleased with the species you have seen !!!
( looking forward to your pictures ! )

 

Really? Tell me just which proportion of the fish species kept in the aquarium have a signage at all. And then how many species of butterflies you saw in butterfly house that do not appear in the butterfly sheets. Still think that the Aquarium and Butterfly House signage was both pretty good?

 

Really? Not impressed by the way the place has evolved sympathetically to (and retaining) much of it's history and how they pack so much into a relatively small space?

Even if you're being a species obsessive, surely the Elephant Shrew, Pademelon, Tree Kangaroo, Springhaas and (not least) Eastern Lowland Gorilla ticked some boxes for you? The birdhouse is nice (and has some nice species) too.

 

What snowleopard concluded or not, is not my matter, but I never talked about the signage of the whole place, but specifically of the aquarium and the butterfly house. Re-read my post.

About your points, maybe is a question of you minsunderstanding what I mean. I not considere an aquarium with a signage about, for example, how grow a coral barrier or how the tides affect sealife as signaged, I especifically mean signage about the species contained on the respective tanks. Then you have signage almost only in the cold freshwater tank for carps, perches, tenchs and so. Nor the big marine tank of the upper section, nor many of the inhabitants of the smaller tanks on the other wall, have a signage.

For the fossil and seashells expositions, if you really think that they're good signaged, maybe I must think that you never visited a natural history museum in the world. When a vitrine have half of the specimen unsigned, and the other half signed with only extremely generic and vague labels (such as a family label for a whole set), or even very wrong signage... then nothing in the world could make you think that these small exhibits are "good signaged".

As for butterfly house, it's a shame that you only saw these species. I saw much more. From memory, for example, also Colobura dirce, Myscelia cyaniris, Siproeta epaphus, Phoebis sennae, Caligo eurilochus and memnon.... for sure some more that I don't remember just now.

I have absolutely no idea of how evolved a place with just a single visit. For see that, obviously I would have need to visit it various times along my life. Anyway I don't see how a evolution of a zoo can make it exceptional. About packaging in a space, I don't think the space is small, and also don't think that the packaging proportion respect to the space is nothing exceptional that can't be seen in many other european zoos. At last, many zoos have nice, rare and unique species, and while species are my objetive while visiting zoos, is not what makes them exceptional in a sense of not being comparable to other european zoos.

 

You don't need to visit a zoo various times to have a sense of it's history (especially when it's to the fore as in Antwerp) -I've only visited there once. I'd say the way Antwerp has developed, embracing and referencing it's history rather than being constrained by it is fairly exceptional (many older zoos struggle a great deal with upgrading, without destroying history, whilst keeping animals in good environments).

The space isn't large (it's smaller than London which is not generally considered massive) but the great thing is that walking around it you don't feel the physical constraints the zoo faces. It seems far more spacious and large than it actually is which is down to the very clever layout it has developed over time. Not every zoo can pull that off.

Fair point, but if a clever layout, good variety of species, intact history or unusual species doesn't define an extraordinary zoo for you what does? Genuinely, what zoos would you class as extraordinary?

 

About the signage at the Artis-aquarium I have to say that I'm also not very impressed. If an aquarium holds - say - 15 species and only 3 or 4 species are signed, I can't say the signage is good. Also only a picture, dutch name scientific name and english name is a little poor for being a good sign, see for example :

 

I also had a Ryanair flight cancelled recently; I really can't think of a company I have a lower opinion of (that isn't actively pursuing unethical objectives). I hope the alternative flight wasn't too expensive (or perhaps it was also with Ryanair?).

It sounds like a great trip. I think I'd rather hear about the species that were highlights rather than your misses though!

With regards to public transport I think you just have to take the rough with the smooth; if nothing else you will have some insight into the lives of local people. Personally I quite like ending up in an unexpected place; sometimes the best things in travel (or life) are not where you expect to find them. I do accept though that when you have a tight schedule a single misstep can feel like a disaster.

 

No, you was very clearly replying to ME. It's impossible to interprete it in other way. You replied me after quoting my message and mentioned snowleopard in third person mode while referencing to me.

And if you just can't do anything but deny a plain clear reality, then I can not do nothing for make you be reasonable.

At last, if you want to mix things is up to you. I was talking about zoos that are exceptional in one sense or other, not about zoos whose species make me happier or not. And with the ecosystem domes of Burgers, it's exceptional in my opinion. But if that makes you feel happier, I will say that is a boring archetypical zoo

Gosh, some people looks like designed to fight against everything!

 

Of course that the eastern gorilla is notable and distinct at species level!!!!!!!!!!!! And of course that is one of my reasons to visit Antwerp!!!!!!!!! I really can't understand why you just want to critic me constantly and you use my small review of good and bad experiences lived just for make negative comments about how should I feel and what should I think about the zoos that I've visited. What a hard person to treat! Anyway, as I stated previously, species (such as gorilla) are THE reasons to visit zoos for me, but are not what make a zoo exceptional in a sense of having exhibits or displays that are not commonly seen in any other zoos, such as the mangrove or Micropia.

 

Well, if you can see the past, present and future in a crysall ball, you can be proud of your habilities, but us normal humans can't do this. About the layout and contraining it was absolutely not my impression, and if you feel in this way you just can't obligate anybody to feel in the same way. Having been in a considerable number of zoos in my life, I feel the space and constraining as average and the same than in any other big zoo.


About your last question, I told it some messages before. I class Pairi Daiza as extraordinary by the enormous size, the megalomanic exhibits, the presence of much more non-animal things (an abbey, a ship, etc) than usual, and the fact of having a security checkpoint at the entry, as well as being a so important zoo associated with a small village instead a big city. I would considere also Artis as extraordinary if including Micropia in the zoo because is an exhibit non seen in any other zoo. But the other zoos just don't have anything exceptional or breaking in the zoo world.

 

Thanks for a finally much needed positive comment in this thread! I would considere enough any signage that have the scientific name (I don't remember having seen signage for giraffe catfish in the aquarium, nor the fishes themselves), but the fact is that most of the species have not even the name writen...

 

Yes, it seems that is not the best flight company. I'm sorry that you also have issues with it! The substitution flight costed me no money because was a substitution provided by the company. But I has to pay money for the consequent taxis and trains. I will recover it with the reclamation I hope.

Yes, it was a very great trip and I enjoyed a lot. Despite the problems and sudden inconveniences with transport and hosting, the bad weather or the losing of tickets, my stance in the zoos make me very happy. I choosed what I tought was the best Benelux zoos species-wise, so I feel very good always that I saw another species!

Yes, I also dont't consider these things as enriching. Really, except for the cancelled flight, none of the other unexpected things made me feel desperated Just minor annoyances, but I adapt very quickly to all situations

 

So you're saying you can't have a sense of history unless you've personally witnessed it? That seems a little absurd (personally I think a little distance and perspective can enhance our understanding of history) -you better not tell any academics/historians, it's their careers you're dissing. On the layout/space, we'll just have to agree to differ.

Okay, thanks for the clarification -basically you're using unique to qualify extraordinary. I'd agree that Pairi Daiza is both unique and extraordinary, though I'm still trying to work out if it's a great zoo. The labelling, as you pointed out, was very poor and completely at odds with the vast amounts of cash being thrown about.

 

I think Burgers' Zoo, from chimps to crabs to corals to tropical birds and an indoor desert, begs to differ....

Maybe there is something of a language barrier, as English is not your first language, but you come across as somebody who has very strong (and sometimes controversial) opinions. If you state those that strongly on an online forum, you can expect questions/remarks from others who have a different opinion. These are not attacks on you as a person, but solely on what you wrote above.