I have posted photos of the interesting animal collections in Florianopolis under this title in the gallery. Here is a short review. Florianopolis is the capital city of the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brasil. It is located on an island with many beaches and natural parks. It recieves many torists during the summer. Its population is about half a million residents. The University of Santa Catarina is an important institution and i was attending a large conference there. Parque Estadual Rio Vermelho is one of the larger natural parks which preserves an ecosystem of freshwater river, mangrove forest and the atlantic rain forest. It has a small collection of rescued animals as well as many free wild species, in particular birds. Visitors must be accompanied by a guide. Some guides are quite good. Some are not. Our guide was not very good identifying species, The signage was OK. The bird aviaries are quite good. There were large aviaries for birds of prey, Hybrid macaws and blue fronted parrots (the most trafficked bird species in south america, according to the guide). A large walk through free flight aviary held more species such as cowbirds, various brazilian parakeets and amazon parrots. it was nice to also phtograph the wild birds in the park, like glossy ibis, southern lapwing, egrets and the black vultures. Next there were mammal enclousures, which were acceptable but not as good as the aviaries. Tall enclousures held rescued primates including black howler monkeys, tufted capuchins and black tufted marmosets. The latter can also be seen in the wild at the park and can be quite bold. Also there was a very active tamandua and a quite tame tigrina. More about the tigrina later. A large pool held brazilian slider turtles. A tortoise pen had yellow footed tortoises. Next to the park set in the mangrove forest is the Tamar sea turtle station. This a nice area that cares for sea turtle hatchlings until release and also holds rescued sea turtles. The station is supported by the brazilian oil company Petrobras ( no doubt to compenstate the ecological damage they do in other parts) and the information in signs and exhibits is quite good. There are models of the five sea turtles found in Brazil, leatherback, green, loggerhead, hawksbill and olive ridley. I saw pairs of green sea turtle, hawksbill turtles and olive ridley sea turtles, the latter were a new species for me. I was quite surprised to see the tigrina at the state park. I did not see tigrina in any brazilian zoo before this. The tigrina was quite tame and did not hide at all. It is mostl likely a confiscated illegal house pet. On Florianopolis island there are no jaguars or ocelots.They were simply exterminated. In this area with out the larger felines the tigrina is more common than on the mainland. Brazilian biologists did the research that separated tigrinas from oncillas. The little tigrina at the park did not look like any feline i had ever seen. The enclousure was only average, a typical feline cage, but tall so the tigrina did have plenty of climbing space. I would be nice if the tigrnas get a better space latter, since Florianopolis and Santa Catarina state seem to be the tigrina´s favorite habitat. .
Thanks for the nice review! I am going to check maps and all tomorrow too!!! Any ops for rainforest travel in the Atlantic coastal area elsewhere?
