I wanted to share some more information I found in the internet regarding kobe animal kingdom's sister location nasu animal kingdom (which is 20 years old this year). The first information I have is the place the facility has on conservation. The director Tetsuya Sato (you can see him in the first minute in the video in the link Reaching Japan's Youngest Consumers - NEWSROOM TOKYO - TV - NHK WORLD - English) is the JAZA Conservation Committee Chairman He was a guest at the Symposium on Zoos and Aquariums in Asia in 2016. The facility keeps Svalbard's ptarmigans and Amur leopard cats probably as representatives of the Japanese ptarmigan and the Tsushima leopard cat respectively. The park has successfully reared ptarmigan hatchings they received as fertilized eggs. This experience (based on what I understand from google translate) can be used to raise the more endangered Japanese ptarmigan. For the Tsushima leopard cat the park raises funds with donations and by selling rice from the region the cat is from. Other rare and endangered species they keep and try to breed are kea, tawny frogmouth, Andean condors, cotton-top tamarin, Atlantic puffins and Manul cat. They previously bred a red panda triplet (which went to kobe), a baby gentoo penguin (decpite the lacking standarts) and a pair of binturongs.
The second information I wanted to share about the park grounds. The park is on farmland away from the city and public transport unlike its sister location in Kobe. The park has two sections: Kingdom town and Kingdom forest. these regions have a grove/forest between them. Visitors can go from one section to another with either a bus, a tractor wagon, or a lift not so high from the ground. The kingdom farm consists a walk-through grey kangaroo enclosure, a stage for the falconry show, a stage for the shepherd show, Raptor enclosures and exhibits for domestic farm animals including horses, sheep, alpaca, geese, bactirian camels, and reindeer. The kingdom town has a walk through capybara and mara enclosure, a binturong house, a "tropical forest" house (common marmosets, Egyptian rousettes, tamandua, short-clawed otters, crowned pigeons, scarlet ibis, black and white stilt, and ringed teal), a (domestic) cat and (small) dog house, a rabbit petting corner, the lesser house combined with the conservation house (manul, red panda,Svalbard's ptarmigan and Amur leopard cat) a dog petting section and the penguin village which consists of indoor and outdoor enclosures (South American fur seal, spotted seal, Atlantic puffin, gentoo penguin, humboldt penguin, African penguin, American beaver and other water birds). I believe the majority of the penguin village along with the "kingdom event hall" (which was used in winter hours when the kingdom farm was inaccessible) will be replaced with the up coming wetlands exhibit.
Last thing I want to talk about is the animal shows and the welfare of the animals. Shows include keeper talks, a falconry show, a shepherd show, a fur seal show and a house cat show. I wouldn't say that the welfare of the animals is bad but it isn't until recently that the zoo has started to provide a more natural habitat for their non domesticated animals. For example the shoebills from Kobe two of which will return to Nasu used to live in a basic room only with dry leaves branches a bucket of water and a river(). Or the small animal house (which was revamped into the cat and dog house) had non-stimulating enclosures with almost nothing but some branches to climb on which I found concerning (), and I am saying this despite being a person who doesn't believe that unnatural=bad. Thankfully the park has started to make more sutable habitats for their animals (new tamandua enclosure to compare with the old one ) Judging by the lack of response I can assume that this isn't much interesting but I hope that the information I shared can be useful for people who are obsessed with zoos in Japan such as me.
I am very interested in zoos in Japan. In fact, Japan is probably one of the most attractive countries in the world for me to visit - there are currently 12 Japanese zoos that hold sun bears, and I would ideally like to get around to visiting them all, or at least most of them (and any others in close proximity) at some point. Unfortunately, until I find a much better paid job, a trip like this is a way out of my price range for now. I miss Japan terribly.
Judging by this list, sun bears are one of the animals JAZA zoos are trying to breed and preserve. If only I knew Japanese and could find JAZA's studbooks... Also are sun bears hard to breed?
I have some information about Japanese sun bears in these 12 zoos which I can share if you would like? I think it is debatable really if sun bears are hard to breed or not - it seems that some zoos really struggle to breed their sun bears and other zoos absolutely have no problems at all.
Found an update on the construction of the upcoming wetland exhibit. It is about obtaining the trees for the exhibition. The trees shown are Chinese Banyan trees. 動物園新施設にシンボルの木搬入｜NHK 栃木県のニュース
Wasn't the tamandua enclosure in Kobe just a wooden box? Edit do you mean the old one or the new one?
Content in the non-European/North American parts of the forum often gets little in the way of responses. It doesn't mean people aren't interested, they just don't have any "context" (for want of a better term) to make comments. As in, Western zoos get lots of comments because most members are much more familiar with them and can make appropriate responses, while zoos in non-Western countries are a bit more "abstract" to them. Lack of response doesn't mean lack of interest though.
I'm obsessed with Japanese zoos too, but in a different way. I'm only interested in those that houses incredible wished species (cetaceans, golden snub-nosed monkeys, dugongs, elephant seals, african forest elephants.... and maybe overall, Ribbon seals), so Nasu doesn't enter in my plants for the 2023 possible trip to the land of sunrise.
Update: the wetland exhibition has been postponed to 24 march due to snow. The planned animals list on the website has also changed. Animals include : shoebill, tapir, toco toucan, flamingo, ring-tailed lemur, sitatunga, red river hog, alligator snapping turtle, scarlet ibis, guinea turaco, burmese python, red billed hornbill, ruddy shellduck, call duck and great whhite pelican
One week left until the new exhibit opens. Park now has the spring opening hours meaning that the farm section is now open to public.
One of the park's twitter accounts shared pictures of the new exhibition and animals Nas_anikinShop on Twitter Nas_anikinShop on Twitter Nas_anikinShop on Twitter What do you people think?
The wetland exhibit is now officially open. Representatives from AquamarineFukushima also came to the ceremony and made a formal alliance with Nasu animal kingdom. アクアマリンふくしま on Twitter
I really like the look of the exhibit in the first and third links, at least from the photos. I particularly like that the Shoebill is full-winged!
