What a depressing zoo visit I have had today. I have been to zoos which are depressing because they are just plain bad, but even worse is a zoo which you have seen at its peak now reduced to a shabby mess. I last visited Melaka Zoo just under three years ago in 2011 and it really was one of the best zoos in Asia. Now it is a shambles of empty and abandoned cages. Half the zoo is bereft of inhabitants and there are almost no mammals left smaller than a serow. I spent only an hour and 45 minutes there and I was done. The reason is a bit of a scandal of a directorship changeover when most of the animals “mysteriously” disappeared. See here: http://www.zoochat.com/249/melaka-zoo-privatised-299786/ Devilfish visited not too long after this and the following is what he wrote in May 2013 on his thread http://www.zoochat.com/19/devilfishs-asian-adventure-308174/index4.html I had been hoping that a year later it might have picked up again, but if anything I think it has sunk even lower. There was cage after cage sitting empty, neglected, with signs saying “under renovation”, “animals not on show today”, “work in progress”...... Following I shall quote some sections from my original review http://www.zoochat.com/249/visit-september-2011-a-246355/ to provide updates on what the situation is now for those animals and enclosures. At the end I shall re-post my original species lists from 2011 with modifications to show what is left..... This aviary was closed to visitors. Looking through the mesh it was in a real state of disrepair. The only animals I could see were three buffy fish owls. The glass-fronted cages were mostly empty, although there was a single white-fronted lemur in one and at least one ring-tailed lemur in the one behind. Still open to visitors but again in a sorry state. The only animals visible were two greater mouse deer, four common muntjacs, a demoiselle crane, a male red junglefowl, a female great argus, a blue crowned pigeon, a pied imperial pigeon, a green imperial pigeon, and some spot-necked doves. Pretty sad these ones. The waterbird side had just a few painted and yellow-billed storks, two grey herons, two purple herons, a black-crowned night heron and a blue peacock. The formerly bird-heavy passerine side had literally not a single passerine left! There were a lot of wild plantain squirrels in there though! The birds which were in there were green and blue peafowl, a female crestless fireback, a pair of crested firebacks, a female koel, some pied imperial pigeons, some Nicobar pigeons, an emerald dove, a blue crowned pigeon, some spot-necked doves and a mouse deer. The former bird of prey aviaries held a lone sarus crane, three white pelicans, and a lesser adjutant (the fourth aviary was empty). This one was an absolute tragedy. Locked up, almost bare of vegetation (formerly heavily-planted), and with only a pair of white-crowned hornbills and an Oriental pied hornbill inside (and, again, several wild plantain squirrels). So sad. Almost all these birds are gone. The two sets of “orange section” aviaries, where most of the birds were kept, are completely empty and roped off. The few other aviaries contain rhinoceros hornbill and a few parrots. No palm cockatoos, almost none of the formerly large hornbill and pheasant collections left. All three of these houses (grouped together in one spot) were empty and closed off. I snuck a look through the trees and in the Small Mammal House workers were busy demolishing all the inside partitions. I'm not sure if this is because they are opening up the house to make larger cages (definitely a good thing!) or if it is the first stage of demolishing them altogether (which would be even better really because they really sucked as animal housing!). The Taman Mini Safari was closed off, presumably due to lack of animals! The bamboo rat enclosure here has gone, but one individual was still on display in the glassed enclosure right at the zoo entrance (I think it held a small crocodile in 2011). Most of the hooved stock are still present in their original enclosures, but often in reduced numbers. Still lots of Ankole cattle, lechwe, barasingha and nilgai. The five ratite pens now housed an emu in the ostrich pen, another emu in the emu pen, the rhea pen was empty, and the two common cassowary pens still had one in each. The wolves were gone, but there were still two dholes. Most of the primates on the islands and nearby cages are still there, but mostly in fewer numbers; however the glass-fronted enclosures near the zoo entrance where the smaller species were held are all empty and roped off. The spider monkey island now had dusky langurs on it – and there was no sign of the wild dusky langurs which formerly lived in the zoo grounds (and the feeding stations for that wild troop appeared not to have been in use for quite a while)..... Very reduced, now mostly red-eared sliders and Amboina box turtles.
FULL SPECIES LIST FOR MELAKA ZOO FROM 2011 WITH ANNOTATIONS FOR 2014 (I HAVE ADDED THE WORD “GONE” TO ANY NO LONGER PRESENT AND EMBOLDED THE ONES STILL PRESENT FOR EASE OF COMPARISON) The list of what is or is not present is of course referring only to what is on show. Some of these species may still be held off-display (but that is irrelevant from the perspective of the visitor experience). There were a few species on display which I did not see on the 2011 visit, namely dusky langur (I suspect they simply caught the ones which used to live wild in the zoo), one lesser adjutant, black-crowned night heron, a couple of Moluccan cockatoos, a couple of African grey parrots, and a female Asian koel. Scientific names have only been included if there could be confusion. MAMMALS: Black giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) – GONE Prevost's squirrel – GONE Malayan porcupine (Hystrix brachyura) (I SAW FIVE) Asiatic brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus macrourus) – GONE Bamboo rat (Rhizomys sumatrensis) (ONE LEFT) Capybara (TWO LEFT) Slow loris – GONE Ring-tailed lemur (AT LEAST ONE LEFT) White-fronted lemur (ONE LEFT) Brown lemur – GONE Black and white ruffed lemur (ONE LEFT) Pigmy marmoset – GONE Common marmoset – GONE Squirrel monkey – GONE Black-capped capuchin Black spider monkey – GONE Banded leaf monkey (a single baby one) – GONE Pig-tailed macaque – GONE Crab-eating macaque (a single albino baby one) – GONE Stump-tailed macaque (TWO LEFT) Mandrill (THREE LEFT) Bornean gibbon (ONE LEFT) Agile gibbon – GONE White-handed gibbon (ONE LEFT) Siamang (ONE LEFT) Orangutan (which species not labelled) (TWO?) Common chimpanzee (ONLY ONE LEFT I THINK) [Dusky langur was new to the captive animals on this 2014 visit, but were formerly wild in the zoo] Island flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus) – GONE (I THINK) Red panda – GONE Common raccoon – GONE Binturong – GONE Masked palm civet – GONE Common palm civet – GONE Malayan civet (Viverra tangalunga) – GONE Domestic ferret – GONE Small-clawed otter (I SAW FIVE) Grey wolf – GONE Dhole (TWO LEFT) Sun bear (TWO LEFT) Bobcat – GONE Leopard cat – GONE Flat-headed cat – GONE Clouded leopard – GONE Leopard (I SAW ONE SPOTTED AND THREE BLACK) Malayan tiger (THREE ENCLOSURES, FOUR ANIMALS) African lion (ONE PAIR) Miniature horse regular-sized horse – GONE Przewalski's horse – GONE Common zebra – GONE White rhino (TWO) Malayan tapir (TWO) Giraffe (TWO PLUS A BABY, WHICH WAS GOOD TO SEE!) Southern serow (ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE) Malayan gaur (JUST ONE MALE LEFT) Banteng Ankole cattle Nilgai Nyala Red lechwe (on the zoo map labelled as Kafue Flats lechwe, on the enclosure as Red lechwe) Blue wildebeest (JUST TWO LEFT) Sambar Rusa Barasingha Axis deer Bawean hog deer Common muntjac Lesser mouse deer – GONE? Greater mouse deer [on the zoo leaflet map Camel was labelled, and on the signboard maps in the zoo grounds there were labels for Fallow deer and Scimitar-horned oryx, but none of these were apparent on my visit] – AND STILL NOT APPARENT ON THIS VISIT!! Asian elephant (THREE) BIRDS: Ostrich – GONE Common rhea – GONE Emu (TWO) Common cassowary (TWO) White pelican (THREE) Milky stork (I SAW ONE) Painted stork Yellow-billed stork [Lesser adjutant (ONE) was new for the 2014 visit] Demoiselle crane (I SAW ONE) Sarus crane (I SAW ONE) Grey heron Purple heron Cattle egret – GONE [Black-crowned night heron was new for the 2014 visit] African spoonbill – GONE Greater flamingo – GONE Purple gallinule – GONE White-breasted waterhen – GONE Green peafowl Blue peafowl Red junglefowl (ONE MALE) Great argus (ONE FEMALE) Malaysian peacock-pheasant – GONE Lady Amherst's pheasant – GONE Silver pheasant – GONE Crested fireback (ONE PAIR) Crestless fireback (ONE FEMALE) Crested wood partridge (Roulroul) – GONE Mute swan – GONE Chinese goose – GONE Mandarin duck – GONE Lesser whistling duck – GONE White-bellied sea eagle – GONE Changeable hawk-eagle – GONE Black eagle – GONE Crested serpent-eagle – GONE Brahminy kite – GONE Black-shouldered kite – GONE Green-winged macaw Scarlet macaw Blue and gold macaw Indian ringneck – GONE Lovebirds – GONE Cockatiel – GONE Palm cockatoo – GONE Greater sulphur-crested cockatoo Citron-crested cockatoo – GONE Goffin's cockatoo – GONE Blue-eyed cockatoo – GONE Ducorp's cockatoo Eclectus Yellow-streaked lory – GONE Black lory – GONE Red lory – GONE [Moluccan cockatoo African grey parrot -- both new to the zoo for the 2014 visit] Pied imperial pigeon Green imperial pigeon Mountain imperial pigeon – GONE Nicobar pigeon Jambu fruit dove – GONE Little green pigeon – GONE Large green pigeon – GONE Thick-billed green pigeon – GONE Pink-necked green pigeon – GONE Victoria crowned pigeon – GONE Blue crowned pigeon Spot-necked dove Emerald dove Zebra dove [Asian koel was new the zoo for the 2014 visit] Buffy fish owl Spotted wood owl – GONE Barred eagle owl – GONE Rhinoceros hornbill Great hornbill – GONE White-crowned hornbill Oriental pied hornbill Malayan black hornbill – GONE White-rumped shama – GONE Silver-eared mesia – GONE Stripe-throated bulbul – GONE Straw-headed bulbul – GONE Red-whiskered bulbul – GONE Black-naped oriole – GONE Brahminy starling – GONE Asian glossy starling – GONE Common mynah – GONE Jungle mynah – GONE Hill mynah Bali mynah – GONE Red bird of paradise – GONE Lesser bird of paradise – GONE Twelve-wired bird of paradise – GONE King bird of paradise – GONE REPTILES: Elephant-trunk snake (Acrochordus javanicus) – GONE Blood python – GONE albino Burmese python – GONE Reticulated python – GONE Anaconda – GONE Common iguana – GONE Burmese brown tortoise (Manouria emys) Painted turtle (Callagur borneoensis) Giant river turtle (Batagur baska) Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata) Malayan box turtle (Cuora amboinensis) Red-eared terrapin (Trachemys scripta) [I'm not sure if all the turtle species were still present, but almost all the individuals were red-eared sliders and Amboina box turtles. I saw one brown tortoise and some Batagur (or Callagur, not sure which they were)] Spectacled caiman – GONE Estuarine crocodile False gharial
I have the feeling that had one walked through the zoo with a shotgun picking off random animals in 2011, the overall loss to the collection would have possibly been *less* than the loss it has undergone since that date!
That is really unfortunate... Melaka had a good collection and was actually in decent shape a few years back.
I've put some recent photos (mostly of animals) in the gallery Melaka Zoo Gallery (including the giraffe sign for David Brown as always).
I find the tragedy of Melaka Zoo is so similar to many Chinese zoos: the more powerful department forced the zoo-related department to handle their directorship of the zoo, then privatized the zoo and stop all the state financial supply to the zoo, then large-scale animal death occurred in the zoo due to the poor management and short of finance, finally leave an empty zoo and a rich department officer. Fortunately the zoo-privatization trend is stopped in China now due to the large-scale protest and public angry from the whole country.
Oh dear. I was really hoping it was going to improve. I'm surprised that the inhabitants of the small mammal houses have all disappeared though.