So I have a trip to the Netherlands booked for this summer and picked the collections based on animals I haven’t seen/need to see. Here is the itinerary: Day one: travelling to Eindhoven, pairi Diaza along the way. (Spix’s macaw, st. Vincent Amazon) Day two: Zie-zoo, best zoo(viscacha, yucatan squirrel, woolly opossum, spotted skunk) Day three: de paay, either dolphinarium harderwijk or artis, I need advice on that matter if anyone can help me (little grison) Day four: etten leur eekhorn experience, zoo Antwerpen, reptilienbeurs (lots of squirrels, eastern gorilla) Day five: overloon zoo, travel to cologne (crab eating raccoon) Day six: Krefeld zoo (epauletted bat, mountain anoa, Taiwanese muntjac) Day seven: Frankfurt zoo, tierpark donnersberg (mouse opossum, feathertail glider, African palm civit and more...) Day eight: Köln zoo, travel home (red shanked douc, rufous elephant shrew, grizzly bear and lots of herps)
Your two species for Best I fear you’ll be disappointed with - the opossum is behind the scenes and the skunk is gone from the collection. The grison is definitely a must see at De Paay but the collection itself is not a great place - horrible conditions for the animals and plenty of ‘free ranging’ stock that probably shouldn’t be free ranging! I would actually suggest that you do Dolfinarium and Artis together on one day, or if you are truly set on visiting De Paay that you do it with Ouwehands, given how close the two places are. I’m unsure if you’ll find doing Antwerp, the reptielenbeurs AND the eekhoorn experience on the same day worthwhile. That’s a lot to cram in... I would seriously reconsider doing Donnersberg AND Frankfurt on the same day. Frankfurt whilst being a small collection is more than enough for a day as it allows revisits to the Grzimek-Haus in case you miss your targets the first time. Donnersberg whilst it has a lot of rarities is very similar to De Paay in terms of the conditions for the animals....
We were informed when we visited that the last pair had been returned to the exotics store they got them from originally
That's a shame*, and also a little bizarre. *Though I was lucky enough to see them on two visits during the short window they were there.
Thanks! Shame about the skunks I’m contacting the zoo about viewing the opossums An alternative could be to visit overloon and de paay in the same day so I have a free day to visit artis and harderwijk I have already visited Antwerp a while ago when I didn’t know about the eastern gorilla being present so I don’t have to visit all areas of the zoo.
Good luck - they used to be relatively amenable to such requests (hence the photographs in the gallery) but recently have been solely issuing point-blank refusals.
The viscacha in Zie-Zoo is basically guaranteed when you look through the hole that connects their indoor and outdoor enclosure. Something Zoochatters don't seem to pick up readily. It's not a great view, but it's something.
Mouse oppossum are currebtly behind the scenes in Frankfurt. I am slightly surprised that you omit all the 5 qualitatively best collections of the Netherlands, but maybe you have been to the country before.... Because several of the zoos on your list are quite crappy except for some rarities in boring enclosures.... Day 4 is very much too full, whereas the 5th day is almost empty. Krefeld is also far from a full day zoo, you could add Duisburg, Terrazoo Rheinberg or Dusseldorf there.
I visited Netherlands in 2017. Mainly to go to Duisburg to see baby, I visited burgers zoo and Rotterdam. Thanks for the advice with Krefeld, which of the two collections would you recommend?
Apart from Artis, which is already possibly part of the program, Apenheul and Gaiazoo complement the big 5 of Dutch zoos (Ouwehands, Wildlands, Amersfoort, Avifauna & Beekse Bergen would complement a top-10). If you haven't been to Apenheul (or Vallee des Singes in France) you haven't properly seen primates in a zoo yet. Gaiazoo is not the biggest zoo, but it is very well done, with a lot of spacious naturalistic enclosures.
I was considering gaiazoo in the early stages of my planning. If I am not allowed to view the opossum at best, is there any other reason to visit (apart from some rarities like Allen’s gallinule, which I have read may be offshow) as I could replace it with gaiazoo? Also, with Krefeld, is terra zoo or dusseldorf better (for experience and species)? Thanks
There are several other rarities in Best like White-faced ibis, Dorcopsis, Palawan binturon and Long-tailed tamandua. Enclosures in Best range from crappy to acceptable and the vast majority are quite ugly. As a foreigner you would only want to visit Best because of the species kept, not how they are kept there.
To go with Krefeld, is it right to visit gaiazoo? there only an hours drive apart and are both relatively small.
Thanks, another question, is it best to do dolphinarium harderwijk or ecomare. Basically, which one is best? Thanks.
I have only visited Dolfinarium Harderwijk and I'm not a big fan of it as it is a very entertainment-oriented and commercial facility and can be pretty crowded. However they do have some interesting species like grey seal, walrus, harbor porpoise and Steller's sea lion. Ecomare is on the island of Texel though and I believe you will need to take a ferry to get onto the island, so that might not be easily fit into a schedule.
Thanks, after looking in the gallery, some of ecomares exhibits are horrendous so probably harderwijk
The new itinerey: Day one: travel/pairi daiza Day two: bestzoo, ziezoo, reptilienbeurs Day three: eekhorn experience, Antwerp zoo Day four: Amsterdam zoo, micropia, dolphinarium harderwijk Day five: de paay, travel, overloon zoo Day six: Krefeld zoo, gaiazoo Day seven: Frankfurt zoo, tierpark donnersberg Day eight: koln zoo, travel On another note: my woolly opossum request has been accepted!
