Pairi Daiza Pairi Daiza or the mystery of the hidden echidna ! (September 2022)

Hi everyone,

I visited Pairi Daiza with my father and uncle one month ago and wrote a detailed report for friends that can be shared here too, especially as the guy who made me discover that forum is one of the persons this review was initially addressed to (the member Kakapo which I refer to as "Isidro" in the text).

This is actually my first post here, I've visited a fair number of zoos but mostly in France, and I'm now moving on to the vaster European scale, maybe this forum can be useful to my future visits.

Please, be aware that this is a very relaxed tale that I'm telling here, I've already read highly professional reviews of zoo visits with detailed descriptions of the enclosures and exhaustive inventory of obscure species but mine is not of that kind, I'm just giving my personal experience here and wrote it as a little story to follow with no intention of making a serious analysis.

Day 1

We had planned to arrive as soon as the park opens, so at 9:30 am, but the first day didn’t start so perfectly and my uncle, who is a bit odd, had simply disappeared so we had to look for him and even ask the receptionist to look on security cameras in order to locate him ! Moreover, he is old and slow and, as it was once more proven, has a bad habit of disappearing to wander around so, considering the size of the zoo, we had to be able to contact him in case we lose him during the visit. Unfortunately, none of our drug dealer phones (my dad and uncle both have the same basic non-smartphone device as me) was able to call in Belgium so we normally would have have had to buy prepaid cards to do so but when he finally popped up at 9:30, disappointed not to have found somewhere to take his breakfast (while the hotel was offering it and my father had actually paid for that…), we had no time left for the phone cards and left directly for the zoo.

Walking from the car park to the entrance, it was as late as almost 10:30. But the good thing was that, despite I read on the internet that Pairi Daiza welcomed as many visitors as Beauval per year (2 millions), there was definitely no crowd and we didn’t have to wait for the tickets. Actually, a new colossal entrance is being built and we saw the construction site.

For now, the current entry just looked like that of any big zoo, with only maybe like 8 counters or so, I guess it’s not very convenient on peak days but it also shows that this zoo is in fact maybe not as excessive as Beauval. Of course, there are these security gates with scanners to pass that my friend Isidro seemed to make a big deal about. But they are definitely not comparable to airport ones as he said, they don’t ask you to undo your belt or so, this is actually very discreet.

The very first animal to be presented was probably the biggest rarity in the whole zoo and maybe of all zoos in the world. But the day started bad and we just didn’t see the Spix’s despite looking at every corner of their aviaries. The Lear’s were here though, but being definitely less aesthetically distinctive, I was not as much interested in them.

We didn’t stay to wait for the Spix’s to appear as we had so many things to see in so little time (I wanted every rarity on the check list to be seen on the first day so that I can enjoy a more relax second day) and I was the one guiding the group so I decided to head directly to the Oasis which was supposed to include at least five rarities from what I had studied : the bear cuscus, the two Saint-Vincent and Sainte-Lucie amazons, the Amazilia hummingbird and, possibly, the greater roadrunner which I was not sure of the exact location. Several hornbill species were also kept there and my uncle is fond of hornbills.

That greenhouse reminded me of Beauval’s small original one (they have built another humongous dome since then) which is located at the entrance too and that is a reminder of the origin of the zoo as a humble bird park. Pairi Daiza actually started like Beauval as an ornithological garden and it was funny to see that both biggest private zoological war machines in Western Europe once shared similar embryo forms.

Upon arrival, I saw what I think was a new species for me despite being apparently very common if you refer to zootierliste : the dwarf flamingo.



We also found, after looking for it in the vegetation for quite a while, the great argus that I had missed in the menagerie during my last visit.



But these were only minor checks on the list and we soon had one more disappointment as far as the « main targets » are concerned.

Just next to the small cloud rat enclosure, was the large « aviary » the cuscus shares with a couple of mouse-deers. Only the later were visible and, despite not being a so common critter and definitely an interesting one to see again, I was there for the cuscus. My friend Isidro had told me that he had never managed to see it depite several passages so I was expecting it to be one of the main « Grails » that would be last to be checked. Nevertheless, I was still a bit disappointed and started to worry a bit, especially after missing the macaws which were actually not supposed to resist.

I then quickly comfort myself with the amazons but these were primarily Isidro’s wished species which I just didn’t know before he told me about them and I would have gladly exchanged both these parrots for the cuscus. The fence prevented me to take fully satisfying pictures but I still got decent ones to make my friend jealous. Here is the Sainte-Lucie species, while I deleted my Saint-Vincent’s pics because I took much better ones on the second day that you’ll see later :



Despite not being familiar with these species, I have to admit that they both look very different from usual amazons and are very beautiful birds so not such « freak » checks but rather something normie Ben (well, as compared to Isidro) can definitely enjoy !

The rest of the greenhouse was more anecdotal : hornbills and parrots of several species, including the quite unusual Pesquet’s parrot I had already met in Beauval and that, in addition to bearing the same name as our famous national French Neil Amstrong, has a very unique look...



...a toucan, an armadillo which was sleeping, meerkats and mangooses, prarie dogs etc...

The sugar glider was a notable enjoyable sighting for my father who had never seen it but the hummingbirds were one more « cold water » for me as their aviary was being renovated and they were not currently visible either… Fortunately, I had already seen a hummingbird in London, not sure it was the same species though.

The exit of the greenhouse looked out over the dromedary small enclosure which my uncle seemed fascinated by (we clearly didn’t have the same focus haha).

We let him take shots and videos of them and headed directly to the Chinese area, skipping the « Cambron by sea » place with the aquarium-castle that we planned to do on the second day if we still had time to.

A path surrounded by enclosures on both sides led to Tropicalia, the second greenhouse dedicated to birds of paradise. The enclosure on the left kept a giant panda separated from the other ones for a reason I ignore (I think I remember reading that it was the first born of the main pair and that, being fully grown, it was waiting there to go back to China). However, it was nowhere to be found but never mind because I was way more interested in the inhabitants of the enclosure located on the right.

Not a huge rarity actually but a major species I had never seen : the Asiatic black beer or moon bear. Two individuals were playing to fight each other, rising on their back feet to look impressive and rubbing at tree trunks like real Baloos (although Baloo is a sloth and not a moon bear), that was truly an enjoyable view and the first fully satisfying check on my list. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pics nor videos at the most interesting moments since I was primarily enjoying the scene rather than being focused on the use of my camera so I only got that :



Before Tropicalia was a huge aviary where many wading birds (flamingoes, spoonbills, ibis etc...) were free to fly. Nothing very new so we kept focused on the bears whose enclosure was on the over side of the net.

Tropicalia, much smaller than the Oasis, is just after this aviary as I already said and despite hosting several species of exotic birds, its main focus is definitely birds-of-paradise with three species represented.

These were a major check on my list because they are very iconic and « ABC » birds among the crowd of indistinctive tropical passerines I don’t know much about.

A greater male locked in a cage got all our attention at first, before we realized that several others were in free flight above our heads. That prisoner was very curious and came close to greet us, I took a beautiful portrait of him.



In the background, inside a cage not accessible to visitors, I spotted a green araçari, a small toucan I also wanted to see since the Youtuber Max Bird had made me discover it.

The free birds-of-paradise then gave me the opportunity to shoot their full body.



I was suddenly called by my father who had already reached the other extremity of the greenhouse because a lesser bird-of-paradise (another, smaller but physically quite identical species) was parading in a cage. I was lucky and managed to take a picture with its beautiful feathers fully spread as well as a video for my uncle who likes to make movies of our zoo visits.





Our discussion about why some birds had very developped feathers while others didn’t, attracted a young guy with a big camera who explained us that the feathers fell and then grew again periodically and that it had nothing to do with plumage changes based on seasons like birds of our temperate latitudes. We got on well with each other and chatted as zoological freaks for a while, my father trying to follow the conversation as he could. He taught me that he lived close to the zoo, had a subscription to it and spent most of his free time here, birds being his main focus. He was also familiar with Max Bird’s videos and I learnt from him that araçaris used to be in free flight in the Oasis but were removed for an unknown reason so I was lucky to have seen one. He also showed me a third bird-of-paradise species I had not noticed, the magnificent bird-of-paradise, much smaller and less impressive than the two others but also apparently even rarer. He also made me notice that the lesser dude was not parading « for free » and I saw thanks to him what seemed to be the only female in the greenhouse, hidden in the shadows of the very dark cage and despite not as colourful as her mate, still much over-average as far as passerine beauty is concerned. However, when I showed him my « homemade » map with all the animals I wanted to see, I received new cold water…

I asked him about the location of the roadrunner and he told me those had been replaced by kookaburas three months ago…

I mentionned the giant salamanders and he taught me that they had been replaced too, by gharials this time…

I could live without roadrunners and salamanders but the answer to my third question was the coup de grâce !

I questionned him about the echidna and he said that he thought it was not here anymore either !!!

Indeed, echidnas used to live inside the koalas’ house but after all the koalas died one after another, the house was closed until a new individual arrived to replace the deceased ones. But the informative board about the echidna had disappeared in the meantime, so it was likely, according to him, that the species was not kept in Pairi Daiza anymore !

The echidna was easily ranked on the podium along wombat and walrus, maybe even first as I was still monotreme-virgin !

But I had a back up plan in the worst scenario as I had seen that another much smaller zoo kept, against all odds, another egg-laying hedgehog not far from Brussels in the Flemish city of Mechelen. Indeed, Belgium is certainly the country in Europe with the highest concentration of rare Australian species as this zoo, not content with having an echidna, also presented a Tasmanian devil, a koala and a tree kangaroo !

I told my father that I was ready to pay the tickets for everyone but that I didn’t intend to leave Belgium without my echidna !

 

But for the time being we were in Pairi Daiza and still had many wonders to discover. One of them was the largest bat individual I had ever seen in my life, an Indian flying fox whose species is already the largest one in the world but this one beat every other one encountered before.



It flew freely with its fellow mates in another aviary stuck to Tropicalia where a clouded leopard was sleeping in a large cage. We didn’t pay much attention to it and left for the Chinese garden where the salamanders used to be.

In the middle was a long rectangular bassin where Koi carps swam, with two tanks of the same size on both sides. One of them indeed kept baby gharials and I told my dad that I would have never imagined being upset to see that species I would have died for a few months ago, instead of an even rarer pokemon. It showed that I was reaching a quite elitist level and maybe, one day, I would spend my time searching some Cuban trogons in aviaries haha.

In the other tank was however a more interesting critter and one of the targets of my check list : the Chinese alligator.

The young birdwatcher caught up with us and we exchanged again for a while about animals and zoos, especially all the German ones that I may want to visit one day too (although I would definitely head up first to Czech Republic as Prague and Plzen are for me definitely the most interesting in Europe specieswise after Pairi Daiza).

We then continued our visit and managed to find my uncle who had again escaped and started the Chinese path, a long corridor of Chinese inspiration weaving between enclosures and monkey islands and beginning with a temple replica.

That circuit was very enjoyable and reminded me of a small zoo dedicated to Asian species in Brittany that I like very much and puts a heavy focus on the atmosphere too. Species seen here included snow leopard, red panda, bharal (especially a beautiful male that was resting on a rock), ghoral, beautiful Père David’s deers, an unusual langur species (François’ langur) and Japanese macaques that are rare too although I’m lucky to have a zoo keeping them not too far from my hometown.





We then decided to have lunch because my uncle had not taken his breakfast, despite both me and my dad were not hungry at all for eating A LOT in the morning. Quite conveniently, the main fast-food restaurant was located just at the exit of the Chinese area.

After lunch, we went to the panda’s cave that is the main attraction of most people here. I read that you can have to wait for one hour or so to visit it in the middle of summer, but there was almost no one that day. All pandas were sleeping and I counted four of them : the two breeding pair I guess and their newer offsprings which made 5 with the older brother facing the moon bears.

The pandas’ cave was where our paths splitted as my uncle said he was too tired and wanted to stay close to the restaurant. We agreed to pick him in one or two hours and headed to one of the hotspots of the park : the tiny but extremely rarity-wealthy Australian area.

After a nice yet slightly disappointing morning, I was determined to take my revenge with at least the wombat. Isidro had warned me that I couldn’t expect more than an indistinct sleeping ball of fur in daylight, so that was definitely going to be an even more difficult one than the cuscus and I was aware of that. But, while I’m a very pessimistic person in daily life, I kinda have an unbreakable confidence in wildlife watching and zoo visits which has very often paid off. Lucky at zoology, unlucky in love !

Despite that confidence, the first attempt was unsuccessful and Isidro’s prophecy was verified : we only saw a wombat’s ass barely poking out the small burrow… While it was predictable, the day would have started to smell very bad if only one day of visit had been planned. The Tasmanian devil, that I had already seen well in Beauval before but only thanks to my tenacity and a fair share of luck (I had sent my dad have a rest and drink with my uncle at a nearby bar while I was staying at the enclosure with my phone ready to call them as soon as the devils show up) was also sleeping in the enclosure facing the wombat’s.

However, normies around us were happy watching the red kangaroos. Indeed, the Australian area of Pairi Daiza is absolutely lovely, this a huge contact zone with kangaroos and birds like Australian pelicans (an unusual species in zoos) and white-faced herons (see pic) with separate enclosures kangaroos are free to explore thanks to their jumping ability. Several kangaroos were actually grazing inside of the devil’s enclosure and I’m sure this cohabitation leads to very funny interactions and, if you’re there at the right moment, great pics to take !



Another species separated from the visitors and the kangaroos was the cassowary. This is a species I had already seen but very lately in my zoo freak career so I always enjoy meeting it. Unfortunately the bastard was trolling us too by hiding behind the vegetation.

Animals were definitely not cooperative today and the echidna proved to be the least of them since it was not only sleeping or hiding but simply invisible.

Indeed, directly after leaving the Australian enclosure, we had to search the koala’s house which is a separate building. We finally found it and ended up being the only ones in the house scrutinizing the ground instead of looking at and claiming how cute the sleeping koala was in its tree !



We literally examined the crime scene, looking for evidence and drawing conclusions from our observations.

The ground under the the trees were supposed to be the playground of a potoroo, an uncommon marsupial that I had already seen in CERZA in may. That’s at least what the board said because the critter was hidden. A small enclosure was delimited inside the main one so we deduced that the echidna had to be there if any echidna there was. There must have been since a bowl of water had been placed in the middle, so something was definitely inhabiting this enclosure whatever it was. There was, nevertheless, no echidna board for this enclosure. I mean, there was still the mount for the board but no board itself like if it had been recentely removed. There was a keeper guarding the house to make sure rednecks didn’t yell too loud and disturb the koala so I asked her if the echidna was still there. She didn’t even know what an echidna was which proved me, once more, that zoo keepers are far to be all passionate about what they do and that we enlightened visitors sometimes know more than a fair proportion of them…

The mistery remained complete and, after a quick look at the wombat’s ass that had not moved one bit, I left the Australian area even more frustrated !

But birds had to be our friends during that first mitigated day and as we were walking to the African area, the main target on this continent proved to be more cooperative.

The shoebill was indeed on the bearing of its small African hut, motionless, looking around itself like meditating as the village’s wise man. It was very kind towards us as it could have stood a few centimetres on the left or right, hiden in its hut.

This is a really impressive bird, definitely the size of a marabu stork or even more massive, and with a murderous glance when it’s looking at you. But no one except us paid attention to this wonder, as everyone was captivated by the nearby giraffes, pearls thrown before swines !

The fence was preventing me from taking good pictures but the wood barrier separating the path from the enclosure was low and nobody seemed to be watching so I got closer by stepping over it and shot through the fence’s holes. However the light was not good and the dark background consisting in the inside of hut not beautiful so the pics were not especially amazing, yet satisfying enough for now considering the meh success with other targets I had experienced since then.

Inside of the Togolese village serving as the central crossroads of that area, I saw a keeper feeding red river hogs and asked her about the echidna. She answered the same thing as the girl in the koala house, that she didn’t know what the hell an echidna was and I saw that she clearly thought I was making fun of her when I described an « Australian hedgehog laying eggs »… She told me to look at my Pairi Daiza app that could give me the location of every species in the park but, obviously, I don’t have any app on that phone I cannot even call to the other side of the border with !

The Cape buffaloes were not very far from the village, the zoo actually proved to be much less humongous than I feared and within a same area, everything was more or less close to each other. I technically had already seen this buffalo species since I saw forest African buffaloes in CERZA in may, so the Cape buffalo subspecies was the lowest ranked on my list, yet still on my list anyway. We passed by the enclosure of hyenas to reach them, they were sleeping, and I mentionned it had been maybe 10 years since I had last seen active spotted hyenas in a zoo. Of course, it doesn’t mean that they are lazier than other big carnivorans but being rarer than lions, the opportunity to see them having a walk is smaller too.

The buffaloes shared an enclosure with zebras, wildebeests, scimitar oryxes, impalas and blesboks. Quite a lot of people in not such a vast field. The buffaloes were staying in the background as shown on the map but thanks to my binoculars we managed to see them well.

Since the distances in this zoo were finally way shorter than we expected, we decided to carry on with the visit of the whole African area and the next enclosure probably granted us with one of my most amazing zoo memories of all time.

It kept white rhinoceroses cohabiting with warthogs and, as you know, warthogs are a not so widespread species in captivity that I always enjoy seeing.

One of the rhinos was quite nervous waiting and wandering from left to right before the gate of its enclosure, while all warthogs were peacefully grazing. That unusual behaviour led to a small gathering of visitors wondering what was happening until the gate opened and two other rhinos were led outside by the keepers. Seeing that happen, the warthogs slowly but surely started to stop grazing and walked to the entrance of their den, without much haste though, like if they were perfectly used to what was going on.

As soon as they reunited with the third rhino, the two newcomers started to trot with it and then ran in circle, chasing each other while grunting with joy to see each other again. The game raised a thick cloud of dust in the air that fell down on us, visitors. Honestly, seeing these three tons behemoths charging with all their strenght only five metres away from us or so was truly astonishing. When they calmed down, all the warthogs started coming back to their haystacks as slowly and peacefully as they had left.

Unfortunately… or not as I know by experience that photography obsession can prevent you from enjoying the present moment and make you live it only through the screen of your camera and not with your own eyes and guts, I didn’t record the scene and only kept from this enclosure, a quite poor pic of a peaceful warthog grazing before the storm.



The show and the comments it raised had put people in touch with each other and I started talking with a young woman who was another regular visitor and yearly subscriber to the zoo. Of course, I asked her about the echidna in my quest to solve that mystery and she told us that she had also noticed that the informative board was missing. She confirmed that it used to be there but had been removed during the closure of the koala’s house after the death of the former inhabitants. She mentionned that there used to be echidnas in the Oasis too and that the Oasis and the koala’s house were the only places where a monetreme could live in Pairi Daiza, providing there still was any as nothing was less certain considering the lack of informative board…

It then seemed that no one really knew about that echidna ghost haunting the park and that the zoo itself didn’t communicate about it at all despite a very active instagram account.

After a quick look at sitatungas and hippos, we carried on with the most impressive place of this « Land of the Origins » : the gorilla islands. They recreated a pair of humongous volcanos to host the inside quarters of the apes, with outside islands at the foot of these volcanos. The inhabitants seemed to be divided as they usually are in other zoos : the breeding male with his harem on one island, the other single males on the other one. The breeding male is a gorgeous silverback who came closer to greet us through the glass of his inside cave but the reflections on it prevented any good pic. However, he would grant me with one of my best animal portraits of all time on the following day.

It was more than time to pick my uncle up as we were about to start what had always been scheduled to be the main activity of the afternoon : the discovery of the walruses in the « Land of the Cold » dedicated to polar animals and also including musk oxes, a species I had already seen but badly.

So we came back to the restaurant but he was still not decided to move. My father had a drink with him while, believing that it was close to our location, I decided to go back to the Oasis to have a new try on the cuscus that we had missed in the morning.

However I had wrongly evaluated the distance and never reached it but found instead on my road the discreet entrance to the crypt that one can clearly miss since it’s not on the main path and not even mentionned on the map.

After a room with Egyptian fruit bats in free flight, the crypt is house to the grey mouse lemur, the biggest of the smallest lemurs in the world, which indeed looks like a rodent in its way to move by crawling very fast on four feet. Quite similar to a bushbaby but much less bipedal, it does not jump as a kangaroo like its cousin.



A group of terrariums linked to each other by a complex net of galleries then hosted the most formidable mole rat colony I had ever seen, They are surely more than one hundred and probably weigh much as a species in the 8K animals count of Pairi Daiza.

Another main point of interest in that crypt was the Nazca mummy Hergé got its inspiration from to draw Rascar Capac in the adventures of Tintin and that Pairi Daiza bought by Belgian pride. My father being fond of that comic book, and we were going to visit the Hergé museum on the third day, I knew that we would need to come back here so that he sees that curiosity.

 

Back to the restaurant, we were ready to move to the polar area.

We went by the beach where penguins live, made a little detour to watch the South African fur seals swimming through their underwater glass, the male was humongous and I said that it was some foreplay before the walruses but even the walruses would be nothing compared to the pinniped behemoth that would conclude our trip to Pairi Daiza on the second day… We then crossed the central lake and saw the large colonies of wild birds (storks, herons, and diverse geese and ducks) resting on its islands, a good way for Pairi Daiza to get extra animals « for free » !

At the end of the bridge, we were facing the huge Hindu temple serving as an astonishing « display case » for the Indonesian animals of the zoo and met a few black crested macaques and water buffaloes before reaching the Land of the Cold.



The polar path began with a starved-looking reindeer. In the background behind the reindeer enclosure were the Siberian tigers, three or four of them which is a lot for a non-gregarian species. Pairi Daiza actually surprised me by the number of big carnivorans it was often keeping together, the black and brown bears would confirm me that trend on the following day. Most were sleeping but the largest of them was watching us majestically and only the fence prevented me from taking what would have been a beautiful portrait.

The musk oxes were next and while two tiny females were walking in the enclosure heading to their rack, the big male was only putting its head and half its body out of the barn. But with some patience, he finally decided to catch up with his wives and we were able to fully enjoy what looks definitely like, and actually is, some Ice Age relic that refused to disappear.



At this point, I really didn’t have many good pics but the following polar bears gave me the opportunity to start correcting that. I had always wanted to take a good pic of such a majesctic species, redneck Ben had always been fascinated by this carnivoran as big as a large ungulate, but never found the right angle, the appropriate beautiful background etc... But this time was the right one.





The walrus was among the top priority targets and this was, unlike the wombat or echidna, a safe bet. We didn’t have any difficulty to find these fat buddies and, despite we would have enjoyed to see their adipose tissue on the ground, we enjoyed their sight swimming, especially thanks to the underwater glass in the public hall of the hotel, as several expensive bedrooms (up to 700€ per night!!!) look out onto the walruses’ pond.

The enclosure was divided in two, with a mom and her teenage offspring in the right part and the other adults in the left one. One of the walruses was knocking on the fence as if it wanted to reunite with the female and her child. Another one, with long tusks, was sleeping in a corner using its flipper-feet to « sit » and Archimedes' principle not to fall under its own weight. The two other ones would definitely not let it rest and were constantly annoying it so that it swims with them.

All of them were very noisy, shouting intimidating beast’s grunts or funny fart sounds. Unfortunately, I didn’t record them and only took pics.



A polar bear was watching the walruses and jumping against the glass to try to reach them in vain. Indeed, both enclosures are built in an ingenious but also a bit sadistic way with the walruses’s enclosure being surrounded by the larger polar bears’ one, so that both can almost constantly see each other.

We didn’t have more luck trying to find the penguins than this polar bear trying to reach the walruses : we never managed to find the entrance of their cave and finally gave up. The species presented were supposed to be king and gentoo I think, maybe rockhopper too, and despite they’re not common, I’m used to both species from the largest aquarium in Brittany.

Before leaving, I entered the local shop to check the brand of the figures sold there and was disappointed to see the same Papos as in any French zoo.

The Indonesian area being adjacent and containing less species than any other part, we decided that we had time to do it and then complete the full overall visit on the first day, leaving only the North American land for the following day as it was initially planned since it’s quite far from the centre, the aquarium and vivarrium if we had time and, of course, the chase for the rarities we had missed !

We first went to the Komodo dragon as it was what we were most interested in within this area but we redneck Ben and father were disappointed by its size, certainly not as small as Beauval’s babies but clearly tiny compared with the last one we had seen in Normandy and the one from Aquatis in Switzerland.

Next to the dragon was an out of use enclosure with underground vision and I assumed it used to be the former wombat’s den before the Australian area was created since Isidro had told me not to expect anything else than « a mass of fur sleeping againts the glass inside the burrow ». That enclosure was certainly more convenient as seeing a full body against a glass was still better than seeing a bare furry ass…

In the same postage stamp was a porcupine which frightened us when it suddenly woke up, stood and bristled its spikes while we were leaning just above it.

Animals in this area were more scattered than in any other and after wandering a bit in the Indonesian gardens and meeting a sleeping leopard, we finally reached the top of the temple which is the highest point of the park. I wanted to take a pic but without any visitor on it and there was always someone climbing the stairs so I gave up and was also too lazy to climb myself and enjoy the view so we preferred to go inside of the temple and see the orangutans.

The forest ginger dudes’ accomodation is just as good as their African cousin’s, instead of dwelling a volcano, they live inside a temple with access to an island outside. The engravings on the white marble of the walls were astonishing and the price all these buildings costed, from the Chinese to the Hindu temples without forgetting the volcano and African village must have been crazy.

This was a very small and « nuclear » family here, with one male resting close to the glass, only one female sleeping with her newborn in her arms and a teenager playing on the island outside.

We were almost alone in the temple and, overall, our two days of visit were very enjoyable from that point of view but we read a board saying that it was not allowed to stay in front of the glass and that visitors had to be constantly moving inside of the temple to prevent traffic jam, so we assumed that the so annoying and exhausting Beauval’s crowd sometimes occured here too.

The northest enclosure in the zoo is the Asian elephant’s one, facing the orangutans’ island. I forgot to mention it but Pairi Daiza has African elephants too as you know, between the buffaloes and rhinos/warthogs, zoos keeping both species are not so numerous.

We then left the area going by the white tigers’s enclosure that I wanted to see much more than the tigers themselves, as it is built on another beautiful side of the temple. Using a giant temple to display all the animals from South-East Asia is pure genius and despite being the least interesting species-wise, this area is certainly the best from an architectural point of view.

It was around 6:30 pm and the zoo closed at 7:30 so I still had one hour to kill and was not willing to start a new big activity as it was now obvious that we would need to come back the day after.

So I did what I had wanted to do all the afternoon, that obsession that never fully left me even watching the walruses : I came back to the wombat and… basically waited the full last hour for it to wake up and move !

Indeed, I knew that my best chance to see that nocturnal animal was in this evening and that it would be over if I missed it now as the following day would be the first of september and the zoo would then close as early as 6pm, still the afternoon from a wombat point of view ! Anyway, my father didn’t want to leave later than 4:30 pm as we had a new hotel deeper in Belgium to reach.

I got quite enraged when I saw an ear of corn that had been partially eaten before the wombat’s den ! It had been fed since my last passage and had got up to eat !!!

Outside, the Tasmanian devil had woken up for good and was wandering in its small enclosure, enjoying the tranquility of the evening and departure of most visitors. My father was enjoying the show but I was so obsessed by my wombat’s ass that I didn’t care about the rare species I was dying for one year ago in Beauval !

Soon, the wombat started to move more and more like if it was sleeping less and less deeply. Outside, a young kangaroo was grazing in the enclosure and was watching through the trapdoor, hesitating to enter the wombat’s den. I secretely hoped that it did and create a mess that would give the poor marsupial bear a hell of an awakening !

My father finally left to start going back to the car with my uncle who, as you may have understood, is very slow, while I stayed until the last minute hoping for some miracle…

An old crippled lady entered the wombat’s house with me and confirmed that it was the best time to see it active, if there was any chance of that, since she herself never saw it in its outside enclosure despite being another regular and subscriber to the zoo. She explained me that they used to be two, a male and a female, but only the female was left now and the male used to be the easiest to see. I took the opportunity to ask her about the echidna but she didn’t seem to see exactly what I was talking about. It was more and more obvious that there was no echidna in this zoo anymore but, at least, maybe I could still get the wombat.

The light and temperature were decreasing, the loudspeakers were announcing that it was time to start moving to the exit and the wombat was now stretching its legs and rolling from its belly to its back but it was just slowly awakening and was definitely still asleep.

I waited until 7:28 pm at my watch without having seen more than a wombat’s ass and foot, frustration was high as I knew it was a question of minutes before the critter shows me its cute muzzle, and then had to run to the exit in a now desert zoo. On the road, I saw the former roadrunner’s aviary and the kookaburas that had now replaced them and had a quick look at the Spix’s macaw that didn’t see more than at our arrival in the morning.

After 9 hours inside of Pairi Daiza, the feedbacks of the first day were then, mitigated. Although I enjoyed the park very much as it perfectly combines a huge catalogue of rare species and the refined scenery and inspired architecture I enjoy in all my favourite zoos, it remains very far from my hometown and thus, my stay in Belgium was a unique opportunity to see species I was not going to meet again any time soon. And 7 targets out of 15 were not seen : two were not presented in the zoo anymore, something I couldn’t do anything about, one had just been kept for the second day (the humongous Steller’s sea lion) but three were just missed and one was just a genuine ghost surrounded by an opaque mystery.

While we were enjoying Belgian chips at the funfair of our hotel’s town, I wondered if we would have travelled so far if all these missed species had not been on the zoo catalogue. The answer was probably yes, still, and I know you’ll understand me, I was a bit anxious for the second day of visit as I had not expected so many targets to remain, the plan was initially to use the second ticket to fully enjoy what had been skipped during the first and just wander in the park without much concern.

I didn’t excessively worry about the Spix’s macaw nor even the cuscus as I knew visitors regularly managed to spot them but the wombat was another story and it was for me an even much more dreamt species than the two others. I knew that my only chance was to discover the hour which it would be fed at as I wouldn’t be able to stay late enough to see it wake up for the night. And, furthermore, I intended to see as many things I had skipped as possible, the aquarium, the reptile house, the American area of course, and was painfully aware that all of that would be compromised if seeing the targets took me too much time as they were the absolute priority and I would have stayed all day long before their enclosure if necessary.

I went to bed and fell asleep with my fingers crossed.

 

If you are desperate to score monotreme, perhaps come around UK to visit any of three separate locations with echidna - namely Hamerton, Hemsley, or, most venerably, Paignton perhaps.
I had perhaps chance to see echidna again when I went to Berlin Tierpark this year - but my exploration of the Alfred-Brehm house was not quite comprehensive.

 

Yes, Hamerton is in my sight, especially for the only aardwolves in Europe, but my next travel will be Czech Republic where there are echidnas too.

 

Eshe...
Hamerton is a place of many rarities, but if it is the aardwolves you have in sight, I'm afraid you would be a tad late to the punch - both their remaining animals died earlier this year =S Nevertheless, Hemsley seems to have acquired one, of the Southern [sub]species.
A place in Russia apparently has the eastern [sub]species too, but given the current events in that country it may be less than feasible...

 

Hemsley does have one.
We sadly didn't see him during our 2 visits last week, but there's pictures on their social media.

 

Good to know about the aardwolves but anyway, no visit to the UK is planned for now as I don't want to pay for a passport since Brexit, actually I can't even go to Jersey see the aye-aye while it's only one hour away by boat ^^

 

Thank you very much, I was so fed up and just wanted to solve the problem in order to be able to go to bed !

I'll carry on tomorrow with Part 2 and will split the posts to avoid that problem in the future.

 

Day 2

My uncle wanted to have a rest at the hotel and a walk in the town so we didn’t have to worry about him on the second morning.

However, we arrived late again at the zoo as my father, who is a master dilettante, just didn’t pay attention to the road and took the wrong one to Brussels…

However, that mistake was meant to be important for what is following…

The first thing I did upon arrival was heading to the information office to ask if there was any precise hour for the wombat to be fed. The answer was no, and I suspected the girl not to even know what a wombat was, she talked to me like if I was a redneck, explaining me that all animals had their life and that it was normal not to see them all, that this was the new philosophy of modern zoos blablabla, the lesson she had learnt to recite to the low IQs who are used to knocking on the glass (but who were, it has to be mentionned, much less numerous than in Beauval, especially considering the number of interesting visitors we got in touch with).

Never mind, I would rely on luck (and tenacity haha) to see the marsupial teddy Grail.

It actually soon became obvious that the tide had precisely turned. Indeed, the Spix’s macaws that had remained hidden all day long were now both outside, at the precise location within their aviary that the young ornithologist of the birds-of-paradise’s greenhouse had indicated us.

As often mentionned on forums, this aviary is really not convenient for photography as it seems to be always against the light and the fence prevents from any satisfying shot. However, I still got a souvenir photo for my report and my binoculars allowed us to appreciate the subtle shades of their plumage (especially their grey head) that we wouldn’t have noticed to the naked eye.



We didn’t stay too long as we still had so much to see and headed to the Oasis for a second cuscus attempt. We passed near the bird show which was beginning and although I had been advised not to skip it because of its unique raptor species not visible otherwise, I didn’t take the risk to loose precious time that could be dedicated to the two remaining rarities on my list.

That time would then prove not to be necessary as the cuscus was that time not hard to find since it was having a rest in its wooden basket and striking the perfect pose for a perfect pic !



In less than 15 minutes, two targets out of three had been checked, that day was definitely starting better than the previous one !

On the path to leave the greenhouse, we had a second look at the amazons and I managed to take much better shots of the Saint-Vincent’s species while the Sainte-Lucie’s pair seemed not to have moved in one day. Anyway, I do prefer the plumage of the Saint-Vincent’s much more.



Resolute to capitalize on that good luck, we then walked straightforward to the wombat.

We entered the Australian contact zone at the wrong gate and then had to cross it, which made us meet the cassowary suddenly much more cooperative too as it was lying 50 cm away from the fence. I didn’t resist to take portraits of it although the fenced background was ruining the potential of the shot.





I left my dad contemplating the bird to carry on as I had much more serious business to deal with.

 

And what a surprise I had when I discovered, in the small wombat’s enclosure, a keeper doing some gardening !

I asked with my most feverish voice if she was planning to feed it and she answered that, of course, she had just delivered its breakfast and that it was normally still eating in its den right now !!!

I quickly thanked her and ran like a madman inside to find the most adorable critter savouring its sweet potato brunch !





The joy was indescribable, all was well and would end well finally, and it was not even midday !

I was soon catched up by my father and the keeper who came to put some garden tools away. I explained her that we were coming from Western France especially for that zoo and its amazing species and this wombat was among the most wished of them. She asked me where exactly I was from since she is French too, her family being settled in Tour, not far from Beauval. I also told her my frustration of the previous day as I had stayed for one hour until the last minute, hoping to see the beast. That’s how I learnt that she was supposed to feed the wombat earlier but was exceptionally late and I fully realized how lucky I was since we would have arrived before her if my dad had not taken the wrong road and, without any mean to know what time the wombat would be fed, we would probably have left to come back later and it would then much likely have been already too late as the lazy marsupial only gets up a few minutes per day to eat and then goes back to its hole !

We talked about animals and zoos for a while, I told her she was lucky to be in charge of the best area in the whole zoo and she taught me that she had been on internship in Australia, that’s why she had been selected to take care of the Aussie critters. We exchanged about the crazy dream of seeing one day a platypus in Europe (this is the absolute Grail of zoos, only San Diego keeps it outside of Australia), about the Copenhagen’s Tasmanian devil’s pair which is apparently the only one allowed to breed outside of Australia, about the fierce fight against Antwerpen to have okapis and initiated a detailed comparison of Beauval and Pairi Daiza.

And, obviously, I asked her about the echidna that she was the only one who could solve the mystery about.

She confirmed that there was still one echidna in Pairi Daiza and that it was indeed located in the small separated enclosure within the koala’s house but that she was herself unable to find it, she had tried again this morning without much success as the critter used to burrow itself.

The echidna was then confirmed as the final boss of some Dark Souls game, the legendary pokemon of some FireRed or LeafGreen versions, the Legendary difficulty mode in Halo 2, since even its almost personal keeper was unable to find it.

She told me that there was no chance for me to see it here except maybe by visiting the koala’s house between midnight and 3 am which is not even allowed to hotel residents, and that she would even have gladly exhumed it for me if she knew where the hell it was.

However, she could provide me with a consolation prize and opened the glass door of the wombat den for me and gave it an extra bowl of kibble so that it comes even closer than it already was !

I swear that the chance of her accepting me to stroke it was not small at that point but I didn’t dare to ask haha !





Before leaving her, she confirmed us that Planckendael had indeed another echidna individual that was much easier to see because the ground of its enclosure was not as loose as in Pairi Daiza and thus limited the possibilities of burrowing. But the joy of the wombat VIP meeting had satiated me and I accepted not to see any echidna in Belgium, my stay in this country was already a great success !

Freed from any form of pressure, I could now really enjoy the rest of the day and see what I had previously skipped.

After a drink at the central restaurant where my uncle had spent the whole previous day, we saw that the aquarium was not far and decided to visit it before lunch.

Settled inside of a castle, Pairi Daiza’s aquarium could be an institution of its own and is just as large and good as many small independant ones.

Inside, I found many species that I have in figure form which is always a pleasure. Among other things : red-tailed catfish, pangasius (not giant Mekong catfishes but same genus), all the array of reef fishes of course and what I consider as the best encounter in this aquarium because it provided me with one of my most interesting underwater pics IMO : that fat stonefish.



However, that’s inside of this castle that I noted the main black spot of the whole park : a tiny aquarium hosting huge nurse sharks, the biggest loggerhead sea turtle I had ever seen, a black-tip and a white-tip reef sharks, clearly not enough space for all these large inhabitants, it was a bit shocking compared to the average high quality of the enclosures outside…

The aquarium also had a room dedicated to congenital deformities with horrendous fœtus. This was fun but strange to see here and quite out of place, they should have put that in the crypt.

Talking about the crypt, I brought my father to it as he is fond of Tintin and had to see the Rascar Capac mummy.



I had a hard time finding it again, it’s definitely not obvious to locate, but getting a bit lost gave us the opportunity to attend the feeding of the panda facing the moon bears and I finally got my first shots of a giant panda.





An old lady was taking hundred of pics per minute, she was shaking like a leaf and almost fell in the arms of my father as she crearly was not fully herself anymore. My dad later joked that the giant panda was to her what the wombat was to me.

We finally found the crypt and I photographed a Kaiser's spotted newt that I thought to be extremely rare but it was actually another species Isidro had told me about, not kept in the zoo anymore.



Then it was time to eat a bit and despite we had taken our own food with us, we came back to the restaurant to sit at a table.

 

After lunch we headed to the vivarrium settled inside of the Mersus Emergo, a giant cargo ship. Nothing is ever random or cheap-looking in Pairi Daiza and even the reptiles had to be scenarised in a glorious way.

We had to pass by the gorilla’s « volcano » to go there and the beautiful silverback was now eating on his outside island. We stopped to watch him a bit and I took what will probably become one of my favourite series of animal portraits. I especially love the one which he has a very human smile on.





I didn’t mention it before but the shoebill’s enclosure is at the bottom of the ship. The highly charismatic wading bird was much closer than the previous day and with a much better green background behind it for the perfect shots I dreamt of !









That second day was starting to become interesting even from the photographic perspective, which I wouldn’t have expected 24 hours before. I was literally living my best life and experiencing the very few moments of genuine happiness in the whole year.

The reptile house proved to be equal to the rest of the zoo, there was no astonishing species but it was big, very big, arguably the largest vivarrium part of a zoo I had ever visited, we spent one full hour inside of it. All the usual vanilla residents were presented : anacondas, reticulated pythons, alligators, monitors, iguanas, chameleons and so on.

Their turtle/tortoise collection especially, was impressive and I was again a bit frightenened by my own collection of animal toy replicas as there were sooo many species I had in figure form. I was especially pleased to meet a soft-shelled turtle as it had been quite a long time since I had seen one, that one is not as common as alligator, snapping, mata-mata and pig-nosed fellows.

Of course there were also several unusual squamate species that I had never heard about and that, unfortunately, I have probably already forgotten. I’ll remember at least Shinisaurus crocodilurus and Zonosaurus maximus that I photographed.



My main interest here was however two cobra species that I had never seen but both were partially hidden and didn’t show their head.

The collection of spider has to be mentionned too. I know nothing about arachnids but the number of tiny vivarriums each of them keeping a different species was impressive. I managed to find a good angle on one of them for an interesting pic :



In the toilets at the exit of the Mesus Emergo, a wide glass wall let you see the backstage of the reptile ship with dozens of vivarriums not presented to visitors. In Pairi Daiza, as wide as the tip may seem to you, there is still an iceberg under…

 

At that point only the North American area located in the South-East part of the park was left.

To reach it, we had to cross the « raptor’s village » and it was an opportunity for my dad, who had not seen the secretary bird in that zoo close to Rennes, to check it on his personal list.

Most species of vultures were cohabiting in the same big aviary that visitors used to be allowed to enter but this is not the case anymore and one has now to look at birds from the path.

The secretary bird is among them but was not visible in this deeply vegetated enclosure. Nor was the rare gymnogene which was a secondary target on my list.

Rüppell's vulture however, the champion of high altitudes, was posing for my camera.



Other aviares included usual species always pleasant to see like condors or bearded vultures.



I was also pleased to meet a saddlebill that I had not seen for a while, they used to be more common in my childhood. We definitely need a Papo replica of this gorgeous stork.



In the background of all these aviaries, a wapiti doe was running in circle announcing the North American land.

While less architecturally impressive than most other ones, this area is nonetheless ingeniously articulating its different enclosures with each other.

Indeed, fences seem to be banned here or at least are not very visible and on the left size of the path, moose and black bears seemed to share the exact same vast marsh.

Moose is not such a widespread species in captivity so I was happy to see it again, like the musk ox. A pair and their teenage male offspring seemed to be sharing the territory, here is a pic of the male which was resting very close to the path, by the waterside.



The black bear enclosure was truly impressive as in Pairi Daiza, bears are kept in herds as shown by this video, I counted 10 individuals in total !



Same story on the other side of the path, the brown bears were exactly as numerous despite I didn’t manage to film them because of the glass and the impossible angle.

But I was not there for the bears, despite the enchanting Alaskan salmon party atmosphere these large groups gave to the place.

The final goal of my visit was to be looked for from the Paddling bear’s hotel terrace overhanging the swimming pool of the Steller’s sea lions.

This was certainly the best place to have some coffee but we didn’t have time to stop as my father wanted to leave at 4:30 pm to drive to our new hotel deeper in Belgium.

A few females with their calves were sprawling on the rocks of what is certainly the nicest pinniped swimming pool in the park, much better than the walruses’ for example and definitely nothing compared to the undersized fur seals’.



But what redneck Ben wanted to see was the male behemoth he had seen on the instagram account of the zoo !

It didn’t take us long to locate it, swimming in the other part of the pool with a single female : it had been separated from the cubs and their mothers.



We were about to go downstairs to watch it through the underwater glass but we didn’t need to as we were, once more, lucky.

Keepers indeed came to feed the females and cubs. And, despite they didn’t throw a single fish at the male, it was enough to draw its attention and make the monster emerge on the beach in a terrifyingly powerful grunt.

As usual, I didn’t record the scene with the camera and preferred to enjoy it with my own eyes. I only shot a quick pic but I kinda regret not having filmed instead because I’m not sure the photo really shows how monstruously oversized the beast is. But trust me, this was even more impressive than the funny and fat peaceful giant-looking walruses, that muscular sharp-teethed dude was nothing to be messed with.



That could have been the glorious conclusion of the zoological journey of the year but one more surprise was waiting for us before we say goodbye to what may indeed be the most beautiful zoo in Europe. On the path back to the car, the secretary bird popped up in the vulture aviary and I took a nice portrait of it.



Icing on the cake as my father said

 

Epilogue

On the third day we visited the Hergé museum as my father is fond of Tintin and I like it very much too.

That was very interesting but only because we are Tintin nerds, someone not knowing the comic book would have got bored and my uncle had finished to see everything in 30 min while we stayed more than 4 hours and chatted with a passionate employee for easily one hour more. I managed to find something for his birthday in late september so I won’t have to deal with that later.

It was then too late to go to Planckendael so we just crossed the TRUE border and had a walk in Flanders which is more different from Wallonia than Wallonia is different from France.

However, since we always awoke very early in the morning, we decided that we could afford having a quick visit at Planckendael before going back home on the fourth and final day.

I had commited to pay the admission for everyone but the price was VERY unexpected !

34,50€ while Pairi Daiza was 41 !

So I basically spent 100€ for a stop of only two hours.

My father suggested that we let his brother in the car to make me save money but I told him I was not such a heartless bastard haha !

I actually didn’t visit the zoo at all. It was a beautiful one and seemed to be interesting specieswise but I was here for the echidna so I stayed in the Australian area all the time. I didn’t even saw the bonobos, another crazy rarity I had already seen, unlike my father who left to have a look at them. He actually also went to the rabbit’s enclosure indicated on the map, as I was curious about what kind of lagomorphs they were haha. Only domestic rabbits actually.

Despite a long stay, and despite working my charm on the keeper so that he did the same for me than the wombat’s girl had done in Pairi Daiza, all I saw from the echidna was that :



Far to be fully satisfying but still better than the wombat’s ass on the first day at Pairi Daiza and it was just a bonus for me, I felt already delighted by my week and happy to conclude the echidna narrative one way or another. I now consider myself as not monotreme-virgin anymore but first times are usually disappointing after all and I’ll have better luck next time like with the aardvark that I barely saw sleeping in London zoo long before my wonderful sighting in a nearby French zoo ten years later. I have no doubt an echidna or two will end up in France one day or another and if not, Belgium is not so far after all…

But I will mostly remind Planckendael as the place where I managed to take the picture of a Tasmanian devil baring fangs that I had always dreamt of in the enclosure directly adjacent to the echidna’s. Of course the light could have been better but that’s already more than I expected !