Join our zoo community

Poznan Zoo (New) My Thoughts on Poznan Nowe Zoo

Discussion in 'Poland' started by LaughingDove, 7 Jun 2015.

  1. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    My Thoughts on Poznan Nowe Zoo:


    I visited Poznan Nowe Zoo yesterday (6th June 2015) and I spent the whole day from open to close there and I really enjoyed myself. The Zoo is just outside the city the zoo grounds is very large, according to Wikipedia 117 hectares but most of this is not developed into exhibits with areas of natural woodland and several very large lakes.

    The collection of species is very extensive in terms of mammals and gallinaceous birds and birds of prey but is lacking on other things (herps, fish and some birds were in the Stare Zoo which is run by the same group and I will post about that zoo - which I visited the next morning - separately).

    The nocturnal house is extremely extensive with a large range of species (including three species of bats). The species held were African Brush-tailed Porcupine, Grey Mouse-lemur, Four-toed hedgehog, Senegal Bushbaby, Lesser Mouse-deer mixed with Collared Scops Owl, Arabian Sand Cat, Feathertail Glider, Merriam’s Kangaroo-rat, Fat Sand Rat, Acacia Rat, Cactus Mouse, Kowari (off-show when I visited with enclosure being renovated), Tailless Tenrec mixed with Small-eared Bushbaby, Common Vampire Bat, Lesser Slow Loris, Northern Luzon Cloud Rat mixed with Brush-tailed Bettong, Three-banded Armadillo, Grey-legged Douroucouli, Linne’s Two-toed Sloth, Lesser Spear-nosed Bat, Hairy Armadillo, Kinkajou, Egyptian Fruit-bat.
    There were also many odd mixes in the nocturnal house such as Mouse Deer with Scops Owl, Tenrec with bushbaby and Cloud rat with Bettong. I’m also not sure about some of these species being kept all indoors in a nocturnal house (though I believe the sand cats could get outdoors) and although none of the enclosures looked very small they could have been larger for some of the species such as the Bettong which would going round and round in circles on both my visits to the nocturnal house.

    The fairly new (2008) elephant Exhibit was very nice looking as were many new and modern looking enclosures around the zoo such as a nice woodland for brown bears and I thought the standards of enclosures around the zoo were fantastic with nothing that I thought ought to be demolished (maybe the seal pool was slightly small).

    In the middle of the zoo is an area with small carnivores (basically think of what TeaLovingDave would design in a zoo :p), birds of prey and a rodent house. This is in very nice area of woodland with a huge range of unusual species. However, I was slightly disappointed that there was no indoor viewing so I had to wait for ages for some things (Siberian Weasel etc.) which came out eventually and even with a lot of waiting some things (Northern Marbled Polecats etc.) didn’t come out.

    Overall, the thing I really liked about the zoo was the woodland and nature that it is set in, there are several very large lakes with bird hides looking over them and I saw a few unusual wild species such as hoopoes as well as several amphibian species. These lakes were in quite a large woodland area which you have to walk through for about 2 km to get to the elephants and a few other species and I really enjoyed the walk though there is a train that goes around the zoo included in the entrance price for those who would rather not walk the fairly long way there and back. In the woodland there are also a few enclosures dotted around such as the small carnivores and birds of prey already mentioned as well as wood bison, Japanese macaques, Vicuna and pelicans free on the lakes.

    Personally, I am a fan of birds and the only thing holding Poznan Nowe back from being the favourite zoo I’ve visited is the lack of a nice big tropical bird house. I would also have liked there to have been an aquarium and/or herp house though this as largely made up for by the average one at the Stare Zoo. There were however two particularly nice bird species that I was pleased to see which were Razor-billed Curassow and Oriental White-stork.

    Just one or two other notes: subspecies were listed on quite a few of the signs and I thought was a nice touch. I was also very pleased to see Bawean deer along with a few other species very rare in Europe.

    Overall, this is a fantastic zoo that is really a must-visit in Europe. Sometime (probably this week) when I next have a break from school work I will do a similar thing for the Stare Zoo and also post pictures for both zoos.
     
  2. Macaw16

    Macaw16 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    28 Feb 2015
    Posts:
    923
    Location:
    Yorkshire
    Lovely review, enjoyed reading it!
     
  3. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    16 May 2010
    Posts:
    14,735
    Location:
    Wilds of Northumberland
    You're not wrong..... but you *are* a lucky bastard :p
     
  4. Arek

    Arek Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Feb 2010
    Posts:
    351
    Location:
    Świdnica, Poland
    And what about african palm civets? Have you seen them?
    Seal pool is really inadequate but it was formely duck pond.
     
  5. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    I did not see the African Palm Civets unfortunately (an excuse to go back :p) but there was a sign saying "zmiana ekspozycji przepraszamy" on what I think is their enclosure which google translate tells me means "Exposure apologize change".
     
  6. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
  7. DavidBrown

    DavidBrown Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    12 Aug 2008
    Posts:
    4,867
    Location:
    California, USA
    I enjoyed your reviews of the Poznan zoos.

    From your review of the old zoo it sounds like maybe they have most of the bird exhibits in the combined collections?
     
  8. LaughingDove

    LaughingDove Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    16 May 2014
    Posts:
    2,492
    Location:
    Oxford/Warsaw
    The old zoo had a far better collection of birds than the New Zoo for its size, however in the Nowe Zoo there was a fantastic collection of gallinaceous birds in one section with that section having Boreal Owls, Vulturine Guineafowls, Temminck's Tragopan (with lots of chicks), Siamese Fireback, Razor-billed Curassow, White-eared Pheasant, Laughing Kookaburra, Crested Guineafowl, Helmeted Curassow, Crested Fireback, Palawan Peacock-pheasant, Red-billed Blue-magpie, Himalayan Monal, Silver Pheasant, Scops Owl, Great Curassow, Oriental White-stork and European White-stork. There was also an impressive collection of owls and birds of prey in a different section with Andean Condor, Bald Eagle, Steller's Sea-eagle, White-tailed Sea-eagle, European Eagle Owl, Little Owl, Eurasian Scops Owl, Boreal Owl, Steppe Eagle, Great Grey Owl, Eurasian Common Buzzard, Ural Owl, Golden Eagle, Striated Caracara, Short-eared Owl, Northern Hawk Owl and Snowy Owl. Then there were a couple of birds dotted around and I believe these were just Abyssinian Ground-hornbill, Cassowary, Emu, Grey Crowned-crane, Black Hornbill, Indian Scops Owl, Chilean Flamingo, Great-white Pelican, Dalmatian Pelican, Canada Goose Bearded Vulture, Black Kite and Red Kite. I may have missed a couple of the birds here and there around the zoo because my pictures of the signage wouldn't have been together in my photos but I think that's everything.

    Looking at the list now, I doesn't seem like the New Zoo had too much of a shortage of birds but for the size of the zoo, there could have been quite a bit more...
     
  9. Arek

    Arek Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Feb 2010
    Posts:
    351
    Location:
    Świdnica, Poland
    Both zoos keeping 95 species of birds. And about two thirds of them are in New Zoo I think. It's strange that more water species is in Old Zoo although one pond in New Zoo is bigger than whole Old Zoo.
     
  10. ralph

    ralph Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    11 Mar 2011
    Posts:
    421
    Location:
    Tilburg, Netherlands
    The collection of the nocturnal house has seen some changes over the last 3 years. Arabian Sand Cat, Acacia rat, Tailless Tenrec, Brush-tailed Bettong, Grey-legged Douroucouli have all left the collection. Gundi has joined. Cactus Mouse is still in the park, but at the rodent enclosures. Fat sand rat Im not sure tbh. At least not in the nocturnal house.

    The newest addition to the zoo is a really nice ''walk-in'' enclosure for king colobus and Nubian ibex. The latter were a no-show though.
    A wolf enclousure is also fairly new (next to the tigers). There is also a new enclosure for red panda's right before the takins enclosure. Their previous enclosure now houses a new species; silver fox. Another new species is the Timor deer that are opposite of the sitatunga (I think there used to be marabou storks there - those have moved to another part of the zoo).
    Axis deer have been replaced by blackbucks. The former Thomson gazelle enclosure now houses black sable antilopes.

    Apparently, there are plans for new enclosure for lions and leopards (or a similar big cat) near the tiger and elephant enclosures. I think that is a good thing because that area is still somewhat empty.

    Overall I really liked the zoo, except for some terribly small enclosures for red-bellied, ring-tailed and bamboo lemurs on the outside of the nocturnal house. There were works going on though, so hopefully it will bring change for those animals. Overall though, the enclosures are pretty spacious.

    The collection is also pretty sweet, with some nice nocturnal animals, white-tailed wildebeest, bawean deer and Siberian weasel amongst others.

    I will be updating ZTL in the upcoming days for those interested.
     
    lintworm, FunkyGibbon and Brum like this.