@EmperorTamarin, @KevinVar and I were very surprised to find 3 Magnificent birds-of-paradise in the Tropicalia hall yesterday and today! As far as we know they appear to be two males and one female of the chrysoptera subspecies. They're unsigned and not really on-show (yet?), but they are in the back aviaries opposite the lesser birds-of-paradise - not the ones adjacent to the path, but the ones behind those. You can just about see them from certain angles if you're lucky, with the female occasionally showing fairly well. I've uploaded some pictures in the gallery of one of the males and of the female. There are now currently 10 birds-of-paradise present in that hall: -4.0.0 Greater bird-of-paradise (ssp apoda) roaming freely throughout the hall; -1.0.0 Greater bird-of-paradise (non ssp) in a first 'aviary complex'; -2.1.0 Magnificent bird-of-paradise (ssp chrysoptera) in a second complex; -1.1.0 Lesser bird-of-paradise (non ssp) in a third complex. From June last year. It seems like my dreams came true! I do wonder where these animals came from, though...
Maybe they are part of the BoPs that arrived at Köln? Also, did you see the Leafy Seadragons? How many are on show?
Potentially, though zootierliste suggests Köln only received 2 males. Other possibilities are the pair that somewhat recently 'disappeared' from Sant Alessio, 1 male that was kept in Al Wabra, or potentially part of Decin's stock - it could be anything, really. I hope they'll give us more (or any) information! We did not see the leafy sea dragons... We did walk through the aquarium very quickly though, so it is possible that they might be hidden in one of the tanks perhaps?
When I visited on July 3rd I saw the leafy sea dragons on-show. I'm not 100% sure about the amount, but I think they had 4 of them.
There was an empty tank that I had assumed was set up for seahorses; I guess that's where they were most recently.
The Giant panda-babies are a boy and a girl . Short video about the bottle-feeding of one of the young : https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1073558656177065
Is this 'assisted' handrearing, i. e. alternating the two cubs to keep one with the mother but swapping them over?
Here's an extract from their facebook, translated "Then, it's my turn to go in the incubator. Liu yang is always slowly entering mother's room, she speaks to her long in Mandarin, she caress her, they are in confidence. She brings him food, and meanwhile liu yang is slowly taking me in his hands and I'm flying for my care. Mom is not worried: she knows that I will be returned very quickly and that the healers are watching over me. We are very close to each other: the incubator is only a few meters from my mom. My little sister, who ends her nap will soon be dropped off at mom's in turn."
What is the best way to travel to Pairi Daiza Zoo from U.K. -thinking of travelling on Eurostar to Lille ( ?) and where is best quality place to stay for a few days near the zoo ? Could also visit Lille Zoo -does it still close in October
You'd be better off getting the Eurostar to Brussels - it is only 45 minutes on the train from Cambron-Casteau, whilst Lille is just short of two hours.
@trachycarpus myself and TLD both stayed in Brussels and got the local train to Cambron-Casteau, walking from that station to the zoo. The zoo does still close in October but this year they will be opening for a brief period during the festive season if I remember rightly... As far as staying in a place, there are a ton of hotels/hostels right by Bruxelles-Midi, the station in Brussels the Eurostar goes to and the place you would get the train to Cambron-Casteau from!
Pairi Daiza will be open until November 11th and re-open for 3 weeks from December 14th till January 5th. Spring re-opening has not yet been communicated.
On the page leszoosdanslemonde.com some pictures from the construction work of the new 'land of cold' world incl. additional background Information have been posted: Some background Information about the new world: Animals presented: Polar bear, walrus, amur tiger, king penguin The whole world is undermined by a cave system that will allow the visitors on one side to watch polar bears and walrus under water and on the other side the tigers The total cave system shall be big enough to cover 1200 visitors at the same time There will be an ice grotto for king penguines including an ice bar with view at the penguines Similar to 'The last frontier' also at 'The land of cold' a hotel facility will be incorporated - a total of 50 rooms split into 5 buildings will be available Last but not least there will also be a new restaurant included Full opening of the new world will be in spring next year. I'm going to visit Pairi Daize end of next week again and already look forward to get a personal Impression on the construction status.
This all sounds very nice but also so very Pairi Daiza like to built such a spectacular area to represent just four (albeit major and space-requiring) species. I just hope they won't let the over-the-top theming keep them from realizing top of the notch animal exhibits, as has happened before in other areas of the park (The Kingdom of Ganesha to just name the worst offending area - then again they did rather well with The Last Frontier in this respect). I fear that on the busiest days room for 1200 visitors won't even be enough - it gets way overcrowded there on busy days. As far as the construction site goes, I saw it on the first day of two-day visit earlier this month and I can tell you it is impressively large - and the buildings under construction are impressively large also.
To give you an idea of the timescale, we loaned P/D two of our Cheetahs for the opening of their African area. The day I visited was very hot, and visitor numbers were down significantly from their expectation. As a result they 'only' had 27,000 people through on that day.. I think their footfall has risen some-what since.
The space for 1200 people is just for the under water viewing on two levels - polar bears, walrus and tigers will also be viewable from outside - so even if it might still get overcrowded some days such a cave system still sounds huge for me. Regarding the quality of the animal exhibits I also hope that they continue the way they have taken with The Last Frontier. When looking at the pictures above at least the depth of the water pools looks impressive to me (height of the scaffoldings).