Pairi Daiza Pairi Daiza News 2022

Has there been a couple of lions born in recent months? I noticed photos and comments on their Facebook, but not here. There's also flimsy wire fence around the enclosure that I can't remember seeing before.

 

Yes that's right. Earlier this year, on the 20th of February, two lions were born. They are two males and have been given the names Albi and Leo.

 

Thanks @MennoPebesma
From what I can tell from the comments on Facebook, they are not always on show. I think that's disappointing if PD use their photo at the top of their page. There was no sign of them either yesterday or today. Are there two 'prides' there?

 

Afaik there is only a pair of adult Lions, plus these two cubs.

 

My head must be mashed from excessive driving on the right. At one point I saw a male adult indoors and thought a male was outside still, with a female, both sleeping. The comments on facebook refer to the cubs "alternating" for public viewing or even being out only at the weekends.
Since I was last there (2019?) I thought a male adult had been separated from the rest and maybe had a new partner. Maybe though, I'm just losing the plot. I hadn't been keeping up with PD as I so fed up with not being able to visit in the last couple of years.
Another thing though .... Is the Dome open? If not, why do they have signs pointing in it's direction?

 

There are two pairs of lions. When we went in July, the family were kept inside, while the other male and female were in the outside enclosure.

 

I saw a lion cub outdoors briefly during my visit in Mid-september, which was on a week day. However the parents seemed fairly protective of the cub and didn't let it out for long.

I also saw a pair sleeping outside, but I'm not sure this was the same pair.

With regards to the dome: it is not currently open, I believe it is only used for events, most notably the fall and winter events. Last year I believe they had some stands in there and an aurora borealis projection thing.

And some news:

Three mountains lions were born to mother Cheyenne on June 6th and are getting ready to explore the outdoor exhibit. They were named Hopi, Dakota and Apache.

Drie poema's geboren in Pairi Daiza

 

If anyone who does not have a season ticket was thinking of going for a couple of days soon, then be aware that there might be reduced price season tickets available to visitors (not advertised on-line). I had booked my second day online before leaving, then decided last minute to go the day before as well. Each ticket cost €31 but if on the first day I had converted my day ticket to a season ticket, it would have cost €53 with the option obviously of going back more before January 8th(?). However, as my second day was already bought, I lost out by €8.... actually more than that, as the tickets cost more than I thought, lol!

 

Given that it has been a few weeks now since my visit, and that the things I wish to discuss are more comments and notes than news, I hope this is still appropriate for this thread.

Firstly I will discuss two aspects of Pairi Daiza that I did not yet experience during four previous visits in fours years: the train ride and the animal show. I did not yet have time to do the train ride, and the animal show did not take place in the previous two years for obvious reasons (and also because they were doing archaeological excavations in the show area).

The train ride was nice, but it turned out to be shorter than advertised at the station. The train ride requires the payment of an extra fee, which isn't cheap but also not hugely expensive. Personally I did find it worthy to pay that fee for once, but I don't think I'll do it many more times. The train is occasionally quite noisy and sometimes smells as it is coal-fired, but those nuisances were not too detracting or bothersome. The train ride does offer some different views on some exhibits and lets you see a few exhibits you cannot otherwise view well, or at all. During the ride information is given in French and Dutch, and the info was not bad but at times was in my opinion a little too self-aggrandizing.

The show, now called "Meeting the animals", in the show arena at the foot of the old abbey tower, featured domestic animals, raptors and other birds, and I have made a list I will include below (in order of first appearance). I liked the show, but again it was shorter than advertised. The domestic animal segments were mostly trick training and not super interesting. The raptor and bird parts were also fairly traditional, such a lure-flying with a falcon, back and forth flight with large birds and catching food in the air with kites, although for once they did not let the secretary bird stomp a face snake, but rather run around and perch on a hand, showing different aspects of this species' biology. The biggest criticism of the show that I have is that they gave little information and did not even identify the different bird species used. Personally I recognize most of them, but I guess more ordinary visitors probably would not. I think there certainly is a lot of room for improvement in terms of educational value - and mentioning species' names seem like a fairly minimal effort to me.

• Domestic dwarf goats
• Domestic miniature pigs
• Jackal buzzard
• Domestic horses
• Verreaux’s eagle owl [Held, then launched by person on horseback]
• Falcon, likely Saker falcon, possibly hybrid of saker falcon
• Domestic dogs [Multiple breeds and sizes, resembling Great Pyrenees, young Dalmatian and Pomeranian]
• Secretary bird
• Domestic miniature donkey
• Domestic dwarf zebu
• Yellow-headed caracara
• Crested caracara
• Striated caracara
• Black-chested buzzard eagle
• White-tailed sea eagle
• Bald eagles
• Domestic white ducks
• Marabou
• Common black kites
• Hooded vulture
• American black vultures
• European white storks
• Grey and white domestic pigeons
• Juvenile scarlet ibises
• Western cattle egrets
• Corella cockatoo, possibly Ducorp’s corella or Tanimbar corella [No certain ID, bird only seen quickly from afar and no clear image]

I recently posted an update on the major construction sites at Pairi Daiza, which can be viewed in the gallery. Here I will only briefly comment on the new entrance and "Sanctuary" greenhouse construction projects. All I can say at this point is that it seems like these will be typical Pairi Daiza projects - grandiose, impressive and with a good dose of outlandishness thrown in.

Bird conservation breeding center and New entrance and Sanctuary greenhouse construction sites, 2022-09-15 by KevinB posted 1 Oct 2022 at 4:27 PM

New entrance construction site, 2022-09-15 by KevinB posted 1 Oct 2022 at 4:27 PM

New entrance construction site, 2022-09-15 by KevinB posted 1 Oct 2022 at 4:30 PM

Massive greenhouse "The Sanctuary" construction site, 2022-09-15 by KevinB posted 1 Oct 2022 at 4:30 PM

Another aspect that bothered me during my visit and which I wish to comment on is the state of signage at Pairi Daiza, which unfortunately is not great. Signage was completely missing in the cathedral aviary during my visit, the Oasis had no signage for free-ranging species, besides on that I have never seen so far (Eastern rosellas) and in other areas such as the Tropicalia greenhouse signage did not seem up-to-date. One of the old owl aviaries already held a spotted eagle-owl in June, but was still unlabeled in September, as was the aviary near the brewery now housing kookaburras instead of roadrunners. Signage was also an issue the aquarium building and the Mersus Emergo reptile house, where some of the screens used in those houses were not working properly, making the signage difficult to read or unreadable. Some of the signage there also seemed incorrect or outdated, for example a terrarium with a millipede being labeled for a centipede. For a zoo of Pairi Daiza's nature they certainly could and should do better with the signage, and I really hope this aspect will soon improve.

A final aspect that I wish to comment on is that several aviaries, 4 if I counted well, as well as the hummingbird exhibit, were empty and all but one of these already empty in June. It seems like a bit of a waste to have this much empty space in the Oasis, so I really hope these aviaries will soon again be filled by rare species, or even by common but interesting species.

 

The four aviaries I counted were the former Bulwer's pheasant/cock of the rock, Toco toucan and African hornbill aviaries, and an aviary in the corner near the agouti exhibit. Which is the fifth you found empty?

I indeed saw the cage with the juvenile Spix's macaws, and that was very nice to see. I did not include it in my post as I didn't intend to post animal new. But I do believe a couple pictures are called for, and I added those.

Raising cage for juvenile Spix's macaws, 2022-09-14 by KevinB posted 1 Oct 2022 at 7:39 PM

Juvenile Spix's macaws (Cyanopsitta spixii), 2022-09-15 by KevinB posted 1 Oct 2022 at 7:39 PM

 

I have to offer a small correction to the species list in my earlier post: what I said was a white-bellied sea eagle when looking at and processing the images recently it turned out to actually be a golden eagle. I don't know how I could have made an error like that, and I apologize for it.

 

Which exhibits/species can only be seen from the train?

 

The Asian elephant bull paddock and a domestic species meadow can only be seen from the train, while the American bison paddock and the Blackbuck/Markhor paddock can only be seen well from the train and are only viewable at a distance from the walkways.

 

What is in the domestic species paddock?

 

Donkeys and alpacas. There are also at least one miniature donkey, which also participates in some shows, and some alpacas in the farm area.

Old abbey wall and domestic donkey and alpaca paddock, seen from the train, 2022-09-14 - ZooChat
Old abbey wall and domestic donkey and alpaca paddock, seen from the train, 2022-09-14 - ZooChat

 

Do you know how many Spix are onshow in the aviary near the entrance now?

 

If I am not mistaken that aviary holds either 3 or 4 Spix's macaws.

 

Two Congo african grey parrots hatched on July 13th, but they only came out of the nestbox about a month and about ten days ago. They are male and a female, named Tanguy and Gertrude.

Pairi Daiza NL Facebook post

 

Unfortunately 4 of Pairi Daiza's Australian pelicans have died of highly pathogenic avian influenza Likely the disease was contracted from wild birds like geese that are common in the park.

Pairi Daiza remains open, but to keep other birds save birds will be isolated in aviaries and buildings, and those areas will be closed to the public for the time being.

I really no more birds will die, and that this will not gravely impact the future of Pairi Daiza's bird (walk-through) areas, but I'm afraid it might.

登录 Facebook

FAVV - Persbericht FAVV en minister Clarinval – Besmetting met hoog pathogeen vogelgriepvirus bevestigd in dierenpark Pairi Daiza