Last I heard the playground and visitor areas also have yet to be finished (although I haven't been to Planckendael in a few weeks now), so I'm inclined to agree with you here. That said, later this month the people working in construction in Belgium will have their collective holiday for a few weeks, so I presume that they want most if not all major construction work done before that time as not to cause too many further delays.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2435196800070275 Zoo Planckendael Facebook Planckendael has confirmed on their Facebook page that starting yesterday the new bonobo exhibit has been opened to the public so that people can now see the bonobos in their new housing. Above is a small preview clip. From what I understand though the area around the new exhibit (i.e. the new playground) has not yet been finished.
I was at the zoo yesterday; I didn’t realise the new house had just opened that morning! It looks very nice, but I couldn’t work out how much is genuinely new, and how much is a tarting up of the old house? Likewise, is the island (to which the bonobos did not appear to have access yesterday) new in any way?
Most of the house is new actually, only the part that is closest to the African village, with just one of the four publicly viewable bonobo rooms, is the renovated old house. All the rest, like the visitor hallway show in the clip above, is actually newly built. The island (which they indeed might not yet be on for reasons of them still getting used to things and the ongoing construction of the playground) has not changed very much from was existed before apart from some ground work and growth of the vegetation. I do not believe they have yet added or plan to add any new play or enrichment structures to it. I think the island was pretty good as it was personally, but maybe it too could have done with some renovations.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=496228804480256 Another clip was posted earlier today that shows more of the actual bonobo indoor housing.
Do you have any data, area of the indoor (how many 'cages' in the house visible and off shiw) and outdoor enclosure? Thank you very much.
There are seven different rooms in the new building, four of which are visible to the public. The indoor housing has a total surface of 400 m² that is available to the animals (just ground surface, of course they also have plenty of vertical space), which is five times as much as in the previous building. According to a little bit of measuring I did the total ground surface of the entire building is roughly 900 m² and the island is about 2.900 m². Planckendael opent Expeditie Bonobo: “Voorbeeld voor de wereld”
Anyone know where to the last Planckendael youngster giraffe were sent to. It should be a zoo in France ...., but which one???
Zootierliste says that 1.0 arrived at Parc Animalier des Auvergne in Ardes sur Couze from Planckendael in February 2019.
Today juvenile crested black macaque Rojo escaped from his enclosure at Planckendael. Around 10 AM the animal was noticed to be missing. Drowning in the moat was initially feared, but a search was started and some time later the animal was found on the roof of a house near Planckendael. After a while the monkey was able to be sedated, netted and returned to its family. Planckendael does not at this point know how the escape happened, but they are going to investigate. The crested black macaques are now temporarily off-exhibit I understand but are expected to be back on display as soon as possible. On a Facebook fan page related to Planckendael I read that this particular monkey has apparently tried to escape before and that time ended up in the separation area of the Asian small-clawed otters that also have access to the macaque island. ZOO Planckendael Kuifmakaak Rojo ontsnapt uit Planckendael, maar wordt snel weer gevat
Three black crowned crane chicks have hatched in the African waterfront aviary at Planckendael. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=500130274054192
A couple of weeks ago I visited Planckendael for the first time (thereby completing the Big Three of Belgium). I wrote a review but didn't post it as I wasn't very happy with it. I do want say a couple of things about this zoo without writing an in depth review, so here goes: Planckendael is very fine zoo with very little weak points. The theming is generally good and they seem to be able to keep it at the right level. The enclosures are decent to good, and a very select few reach brilliance. The collection has a couple of treasures, but while being mostly ABC it is still very strong. The zoo is expensive but the numerous playgrounds and restaurants make it easily a whole-day affair for families. There’s a strong educational focus and Planckendael seems to be concerned with genuine conservation and research. I could go and nit-pick at some of its minor weaknesses, such as the lion enclosure, the relatively ABC collection or the lack of just about anything cold-blooded (more on that later), but the fact is that Planckendael is a very good zoo. Heavily themed, but they never even try to hide the fact that one is still in a (very good!) zoo. And while I really liked it, there’s something that keeps me from truly loving this place. Planckedael seems to play safe, both in terms of the species it showcases and the way those species are exhibited. There’s an oddball species here and there, and an unusual exhibit every now and then, but that’s it. Planckendael seems to take things that zoo often do and do it really well. But because of that, they rarely go beyond the very good into the brilliant. They don’t seem to risk building something major for a species few zoos highlight, or exhibit a species in a way that hasn’t been done before. The other side of the coin is that using a conventional set-up with conventional species is that there’s enough knowledge do it right, and as such Planckendael’s strength (consistently doing conventional things really well) can be seen as a trade-off against originality. Unfortunately for me, originality is something I really appreciate in zoos. On the lack of cold-blooded beasts: Planckendael and Antwerp are supposed to complement each other. But while Planckendael mostly seems to stay away from small critters and focus on larger mammals and birds (why no large reptiles?), Antwerp seems to only increase its focus on large species. This situation keeps the two from truly complementing each other. I feel that either Antwerp should focus more on small animals (which is the option I prefer) or Planckendael should also diversify and be as complete a zoo as Antwerp (the more realistic option I think), including a more than rudimentary collection of non-endotherms.
Last weekend for the first time a bonobo was born in the new bonobo house that opened this summer. Female Djanoa has given birth, the gender of the baby is not yet known.
Great news: Planckendaell has just announced they will get orang-utan’s in 2020. They will live in the Asian hall
Article in a Belgian newspaper about this. This was not quite the development I was expecting - or hoping for, for that matter - with regards to the Asiatic greenhouse. I am not sure exactly how to feel about this at the moment, but let's just say I have very mixed feelings about this. There are also plenty of open questions raised by this - with the other birds gone, will the lorikeet walk-through (still there at the end of December) stay there? What is going to happen with the dark area where the Luzon cloud rats are kept? Where will the outdoor exhibits for the orangutans go (current gibbon and macaque islands?) and in that case, what is going to happen with the gibbons and macaques? And will they get Sumatran or Bornean? Personally I question whether they are truly getting the renovation for orangutans done before the end of 2020. The renovation has yet to start and according the article linked below the plans haven't been completed yet. I also think that major construction will be needed, so I have serious doubts whether they'll be able to complete this in 2020. Lastly, I do hope that there will still be some room leftover for some birds and small mammals around the orangutan exhibit in the future. Planckendael verbouwt Aziatische serre voor komst orang-oetans
