Me too. After attending ZooHistorica in Antwerp, I intend to spend at least two days in Pairi Daiza; the collection has grown a lot since I was there last.
Pairi Daiza have revealed on social media that they have six Lear’s macaws. This means that together with the four Spix’s and one hyacinth they have a total of 11 blue macaws.
Bulwer's pheasants on-show in the parrot area, they just posted on Facebook! At least one of them has the full wattle, too!
A few notes from today: -Saw the Spix's and Lear's macaws, all of them fairly confined to the top of their greenhouse throughout the day, where they are literally impossible to photograph because of the sun reflecting off of the glass. Only when they come down (which is where the Lear's are fed, thankfully) is it possible to press your camera against the glass and shield the light to get a somewhat decent shot... I'm not a fan of the exhibit nor the location of it, really, though I suppose putting them in the place with the most traffic is the most safe place to prevent theft. -A lot changed in the parrot area, which is now also home to Common squirrel monkeys, White-faced sakis, Azara's agoutis, Bulwer's pheasants, Great blue turacos and Crested seriemas, making it so only about half of the enclosures now have parrots. This diversifying of areas has also spread to the former "crane" area, which is now also home to Chinese gorals, Golden-cheeked gibbons, Japanese macaques, Pere David's deer, Reeves' muntjac, Bharal, Binturong, and an exhibit is being built for Francois' langurs. Most of the crane collection is either still kept here (in combination with the aforementioned species), and some of them moved to the large aviary, the African area, and a very nice new duo of crane exhibits behind the Koala house. -The two small greenhouses are renovated absolutely wonderfully. I was afraid the tropical one would be taken over completely by the bird-of-paradise aviaries, but the opposite is the case; because of better distribution of plants there are now more perches and the foliage is denser for the species that were already there, and because of the very well-done bird-of-paradise aviaries that replaced the poorly-done aviaries for Toco toucan and Bali starling that were previously here, it now looks like a great small tropical house. The bird-of-paradise aviaries consist of three "clusters" of aviaries, one near the entrance and two near the exit, of which respectively one, one and two aviaries face towards the path and a few others are behind them but connected to them (I assume for breeding, in a similar way to San Diego Zoo). There is one male Greater bird-of-paradise and one male Lesser bird-of-paradise on-show, and the third/fourth on-show aviaries have a sign on it still saying it will soon be home to birds-of-paradise. Those two aviaries are significantly smaller than the ones currently inhabited, so I'm hoping this means one of the Cicinnurus species that might be present will come on-show eventually. An addition to this hall that isn't a bird-of-paradise is a Linneaus' two-toed sloth, and at least one Dunnock and one Chaffinch, presumabably wild birds that snuck in. The kingfisher and white-eye are still wrongly signed. The dry area now looks like a hall worthy of being in one of Europe's self-proclaimed best parks again. The entire right side is now a fully glass-fronted and very attractive, though perhaps a little small, Clouded leopard exhibit. Free-roaming species in this area are a group of Lyle's fruit bats, along with Pallas' squirrels (seen) and Swinhoe's striped squirrels (unseen). Squirrel walkthrough exhibits are an interesting concept, and I would have liked to see it with slightly more active animals. -No sign of either amazon yet. I looked at the episode of the TV show a few days ago (as that was mentioned as the source on zootierliste) and I think it might be optimistic and that the video material was from ACTP and not from Pairi Daiza, though what it did definitely do is show that the Dominican government asked Pairi Daiza to help with both ex situ and in situ projects, including trying to keep and breed them in Pairi Daiza eventually. I hope this means on-show! -No sign of the Palestine mole-rats, and their exhibit was inhabited by Naked mole-rats. Same story with the Northern bog-lemmings, now replaced by Long-tailed chinchillas. -All 4 Amazilia hummingbirds are on-show in the former enclosures for Grey mouse lemurs and Reticulated pythons; the latter have moved to the crypt and the reptile house boat respectively. -The bear cuscus is still going strong and was very active today.
The bear cuscus is always active! I have never seen it asleep or hidden away. So glad it's an diurnal species. I've been to PD last month, but the addition of the macaws, pheasants and birds-of-paradise are really making me itch to return soon. Do you have photographs of the new macaque and bluesheep enclosures?
@ralph I don't, unfortunately. The macaques have their enclosure inside the "circle" of covered paths in that area with two artificial waterfalls in the middle of the enclosure. The bharals and binturongs share an enclosure with a crane species, between the "crane area" and the snow leopards.
Like I said before the Amazons are not coming. So who ever put it on zootierliste jumped to conclusions that could not have been made.
The binturong enclose was already finished in may, when I visited last. Macaque and bharal enclosures were not finished yet. I know where they are located, but I didn't see any photo's yet
I'd be inclined to add the qualifier "in the foreseeable future" rather than ruling it out entirely as you do ; ) given the fact that a year ago anyone saying Pairi Daisa would be putting multiple BoP species, Spix and Lears Macaw, and Bulwer's Pheasant on display in one fell swoop would have likely been met with the exact same level of scorn.
Their own publicity video of the Spix shows all four clinging to the mesh very high up. Obviously a reaction to the strange surroundings. I am sure they will show better as they become less nervous and start to use the flight normally.
Couple of questions. 1. Have the Gharial and/or Javan Leopard gone on display yet? 2. I notice on the map it mentions Komodo Dragons and Howler Monkeys as new arrivals which I haven't seen mentioned here yet. 3. Has the Racoon Dog moved into a new enclosure?
The gharials are on-show in the reptile house, in one of the very last enclosures seen shen you enter from the bottom and leave from the top. They are still very small. The Javan leopard is in the Asian temple enclosure near the Asian elephants, where the African leopards used to be. They are both present, yes. The howler is on one of the walkthrough islands close to the reptile house. I'm not positive where the komodo dragons are, but I think I do recall seeing them. The raccoon dogs are in the former binturong enclosure in the Chinese garden area.
5 Francois langurs arrived from the UK and Rotterdam. (source PD Facebook) The FB les zoos del Belgique mentions that Pairi Daiza has managed to breed Shoebills again.
The langurs have indeed arrived and can be seen vaguely in their indoor exhibit from outdoors (they have a fairly nicely decorated aviary in the area where most of the cranes are); I expect it won't be long until they can use their outdoor enclosure as well. Other news from my visit today: -The situation with the viewing of macaws has drastically improved; the top glass panels have been replaced with opaque white panels so there is less light, an additional window into the Lear's enclosure has been revealed on the side, and there is now a sort of cover made of "camouflage netting" (sounds horrible, but doesn't look too bad) above the viewing area so there is less reflection... Still not perfect (and I still don't have a decent picture of Spix's), but a lot better than originally. -As noted on other social media and forums, 4 extra male greater birds-of-paradise have joined the male that was already present; all 5 are now visible with a bit of luck/effort (the original one in the first aviary as you enter, the other 4 in a group of aviaries to the right of the exit of the hall; the pair of lesser is in a group of aviaries to the left of the exit). All of the birds are either full-grown or close to full-grown, but at the moment only one of them really has yellow flank feathers that come close to "full length". The birds-of-paradise are now marked on the map as well, though interestingly enough the drawing is of a red bird-of-paradise.
What constellation of individual animale form which individual doos. Can ot imagine Rotterdam sensing more than Ine. UK ... Belfast, Whipsnade (group???), Belfast, Lympne and ??? All in the frame. Shoebill breeding fantastic
