After visiting a few Colombian zoos I thought I'd give a short review of the ones I visited. Generally, Colombian zoos have a very high standard for Latin America. They even rival some European ones when compared for husbandry and enclosures. However, most enclosures are of the cage type or with moats. Landscape immersion and other "modern" zoo architecture themes have not yet been incorporated in the designs. As a whole, enclosure size is smaller then one would want, but not as bad as sometimes heard. Unfortunately, cats and primates are often kept in smaller cages where as birds often have plenty of room. All zoos in Colombia make up for what they lack in design and husbandry by being really progressive when it comes to outreach programs. They all have education for local schools about ways to preserve local fauna and many travel around from school to school teaching these matters as well as sustainable waste management and other things. In the near future I believe Colombian zoos will have husbandry comparable to any European zoo as they have a strong will to improve. Zoologico Santa Fe is located in beautiful cloud forest about 1,5-2 hours from Bogota. It has a wide variety of colombian fauna, as well as tigers and lion. They are very proud of their jaguars which breed very well. Other things of particular interest is white-footed tamarin and tayras. The zoo is quite old and built on a steep slope in the forest. It gets a little dark in some places due to the dark stones which make up all the path ways and the heavy forest cover. They have a wonderful breeding group of Lowland tapirs. Cafam Zoologico is located on the grounds of holiday paradise Cafam. It's small but among the best zoos in Colombia. All animals have ample space and it's a haven for bird lovers. Scarlet, greenwing and Buffon's macaws breed in a huge aviary. Like all other colombian zoos they have Whoolly Monkeys and the group in Cafam has a huge dome where they can climb and forage. Lots of tucans and arrassaris are found in a cylindrical breeding aviary which is divided into smaller compartments like a cake. A single Deroptyus accipitrinus fuscifrons was the only non colombian bird. Two species of titi monkeys, Callicebus torqatus and Callicebus cupreus discolor shared an enclosure and a pair of white footed tamarins had babies on my visit. Reviews of the zoo at Piscilago and Santa Fe in Medellin will follow.
Hi nicholas, its the quiet ones that say the interesting things!! {just to be clear l am refering to your 31 posts since Aug2006 and how interesting this post is} It would be great to see pictures of these zoos. I would never have thought that columbia would have public zoos of this standard. Look forward to your next post.
I am actually in Colombia right now - staying in the city of Cali for a couple of weeks. We plan to visit the zoo here later this week if we can, apparently it's quite good for a Latin American Zoo. When we do make it there I will be sure to take lots of photos. I'll also be spending a few days in Bogota - so I'm wondering if there are any zoos or aquariums close to the city? That Zoologico Santa Fe sounds a little too far away for us this trip.
Hi zooman, thanks for the feedback. Glad you appreciated the post. Sim, I didn't go to Fundacian Zoologico de Cali, but it's supposed to be the best zoo in Colombia. In Bogota you have Zoologico Jaime Duque. It's within city limits, the is Calle 114 #6-92 Local 335. Centro Comercial Santa Bárbara. I never went there so I can't say anything about it.
No - I am staying in Cali on business for a few weeks, so not specifically a trip for visiting zoos and such ... but I figured I may as well take advantage of that while I'm here. Our interpreter here tells us she saw a Colombian bird book in one of the local bookstores that seemed to be in English - I'm going to see if I can track it down so I can identify some of the species I'm seeing around here.
Just FYI - we visited Parque Jaime Duque north of Bogota today, I was surprised at how good their little zoo is. I don't have time to write up a full report just yet, I'll get to that and upload lots of photos when I get a chance. I also managed to visit Cali Zoo twice while staying there and have several hundred photos to upload as well. It may have to wait until we get home in a couple of weeks time though - not sure I'll have time before then.
Hi Sim, FYI: 1) the white-fronted tamarin you mentioned in your 2006 posts are an endangered species Saguinus leucopus. They are subject of a Colchester Zoo's Action for the Wild project in Colombia. It is locally administered and seeks to improve the survival of both adult and infant tamarins in captivity. 2) the ALPZA region and its constituents zoos are supported by EAZA. Hence, in the more active quarters of Latin America zoo improvement and zoo design/immersion will be catching on quite soonish. (I wish ARAZPA would do the same with SEAZA region (SE Asia sub standard zoos) K.B.
