BioParque do Rio Rio de Janeiro Zoo (Bioparque do Rio)

Bioparque do Rio seems to have the intention to acquire male asian elephant "Sandro" from Sorocaba zoo. One of the keepers mentioned to Rio's mayor during the park's inauguration tour that the institution's wishes to put "Koala" (the female that nowadays lives at the zoo) together with the referred male on the recently refurbished exhibit. The conversation can be heard in minute 10:49

 

I hope this happens. I forgot to say I asked a zookeeper if the zoo planned to accquire new elephants after Koala passes away and I got very surprised by his answer. He told me they plan to bring one (or even two!) individuals, even possibly before her death, so she can have some company.

 

I think that this would be a much better idea (if it indeed proves to be workable) to bring "Sandro" from Sorocaba to Rio rather than bringing in new elephants.

"Sandro" and "Raisa" had spent many years together at Sorocaba and given how social elephants are I think it would be beneficial to "Sandro's" wellbeing to have company in his twilight years.

Moreover, I've always thought that the elephant enclosure at Sorocaba could be put to much better use for its native or South American species.

 

Having recently been to the completely refurbished institution of the now named BioParque do Rio, I decided to add my own review of the institution here to share my points of view of the place. I'm not gonna dive very deep on species lists for the exhibits that keep many different ones, as @Enzo has developed a great one in a thread specifically about it: Species list for Bioparque do Rio [Rio de Janeiro Zoo] I added links through the text to my pictures of the institution posted here in zoochat so that you guys can better understand and view the place's structures.

For those who might not know, the former zoo of Rio de Janeiro city (Rio zoo) once held one of the largest animal collections in Latin America, and still kept a considerably big amount of species, specially native primates, until the begining of the renovation in 2018. From this moment on, with the new population plan, the zoo phased out various species to be able to enlarge it's exhibits, as well as building new ones, for better holding the ones chosen to stay. A very wise decision IMO, once the whole space is around only 30 acres large.

Resuming the review, I couldn't forget to mention at first the main gate. An extremely beautiful piece of art, donated in 1817 to the brazilian imperial house as a wedding gift to prince (futurally emperor) Pedro I, by british duke of Nothuremberg. The gate is a replica of London's Syon house main entrance.
Entrance view from the inside - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Getting in the park, we face the start of the main avenue, named "Macaco Tião" as a tribute to a chimpanzee that used to inhabit the park many years ago. The history of this individual is long and interesting, and we could even talk about it in a specific thread in the future.
Main avenue - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
The first exhibit that can be seen, at the right hand side of the avenue, is the tropical immersion complex.
Tropical immersion entrance - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
It is a completely new structure built over a former outdated macaw aviary and some other smaller exhibits. The complex has six exhibits, being five individual ones and a huge walkthrough aviary, holding 40+ species of the brazilian fauna, between birds, reptiles and small mammals. Between all the conservation programs the zoo claims the complex develops, the scarlet ibis one is one of the most interesting IMO. The species is extinct in Guanabara Bay, and the institution plans to reintroduce it in the future. The big aviary was one of the strongest points of the whole renovation, as it is truly spacious and clearly well structured to satisfy the animals necessities.
Tropical immersion, big immersive aviary - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

As you leave the complex, you follow a trail to the area of the Reptile village, but before we reach the reptiles, we see a square in wich the Lear's macaw exhibit is located. The space was built years before the renovation, while the institution was still Riozoo, and only received a small refurbishment. Good decision IMO as it was already a fairly good structure, with no need of major changes:
Lear's macaw exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Reaching the first reptile exhibit, we face a considerably large enclosure that is still empty, but has a crocodile statue right beside it. One might think the institution's crew plans to add a species of crocodile to the population plan in the future. Following the trail, we see the broad-snouted caiman enclosure, wich also holds a big amount of species of freshwater turtles. The enclosure can be set in two as there is a movable fence in the middle.
Caiman/turtle exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Right after, we reach the python exhibit, wich has a really good size and ambientation. One of the best snake exhibits I've seen, among with Parque das aves enclosures.
Python exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat.

As we leave the trail of Reptile Village, we reach the main avenue again, and I chose to follow to the Amazonian primates islands. The area was built over the former petting zoo, wich was completely destroyed to make way for two lakes with two islands each. Islands from one of the lakes are linked to the other ones from the other lake by a bridge that passes above visitors head, allowing the monkeys to cross them and having access to more space and climbing structures. I like the fact that the islands are associated with a handling area, something uncommon in zoos in Brazil.
Amazonian primates islands - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Amazonian primates islands - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat


After the islands, we reach the maned wolf and Sumatra exhibits, wich are located side by side. Geographically super inacurate, and they visually were built in a hurry, as they were some of the last structures to be finished in this first and larger stage of the renovation. Five grottoes from the old zoo were simply aglutinated in a way to form two exhibits with an ok size. In one of them, maned wolves, and in the other, sumatran orangutans and crab-eating macaques. The brick walls that form the grottoes were simply covered with green paint, and the moats continued identical. Chekck out a picture @devilfish took from the former exhibits and the one I took from what it looks now. Not a lot of difference. Better work could have been made here:
Former exhibit (there were six very similar exhibits like this one): Chimpanzee enclosure - ZooChat
Now: Sumatra exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
and Maned wolf exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

Following the trail, we reach the Cerrado Biome exhibit, holding brazilian tapir, capybara, collared peccary, greater rhea and giant anteater. The exhibit has a good size, considerably good water area and viewing bridge, but the Cerrado Biome exhibit in BH zoo is still more practical (and larger) IMO, although it's possible to have a closer view from the animals in Rio's one.
Cerrado biome exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Cerrado biome exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

Leaving the complex and following the avenue again, we reach two exhibits that are payed apart from the zoo's tickets, wich are the new petting zoo (wich I didn't visit nor payed a lot of attention) and the twilight vivarium, holding owls, reptiles and some species of arthropods (of course, in separated exhibits inside the complex). Nothing much, and not very large, but I liked the theming, although I only saw it from the outside.
Petting zoo - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Twilight exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

In the end of the renovated area, where the fences don't allow you to continue walking through the avenue, there are the Burle marx gardens, based on projects of brazilian architecht Roberto Burle Marx. It holds chilean flamingos, and has a very nice look:
Burle marx gardens - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

Now we follow to the left as we reach the "Kings of the jungle" complex, holding Lions, spectacled bears and bengal tigers. The exhibits have quite a small size when compared to many of the major zoos in the country. They have an ok ambientation when talking about logs, rocks, and water areas, but lack on foliage, in some cases:
Bengal tiger exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Lion exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Spectacled bear exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

As we keep walking, we reach a food kiosk that has a nice view to the bengal tiger enclosure, and reach the "Asian area", wich to this date is only holding the zoo's elderly female asian elephant. The area is divided in two large sized paddocks and a large shelter with visitable quarters, that in the future will probably hold a male asian elephant the crew wants to bring from Sorocaba zoo, and the zoo's rusa deers and blackbucks, that are temporarily being kept in the "African Savanna" complex.
Asian area - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Asian area - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Asian area, quarters - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

As we leave this sector, we reach the "Carnivore conservation center", wich consists in the zoo's former big cat cage row that was refurbished to look a little better and to hold ocelots, jaguars, cougars and tayras, although only the three first ones are actually being held there. Tayras were removed to ope way for capuchin monkeys (I have no idea why). The exhibits are not spacious, and some have quite poor ambientation. The ocelot one is the only that doesn't need many changes, IMO.
Jaguar exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Ocelot exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Cougar exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

Now we have to get back to the zoo's front gate, as we turn the left hand side to reach the "African Savanna", wich took place in an area previously called "Passarela da fauna", that held rheas and deers. It is a considerably large field, that is now equiped with a river safari and an extense elevated path. The institution plans to add giraffes and zebras soon, but for now they only keep ostriches, egyptian geese, aoudads, rusa deers, cassowary and blackbucks (the three last ones will be removed as soon as possible).
African savanna - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
African savanna - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
African savanna - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
The hippo exhibit is located beside everything, and despite not being very large, has a nice underwater viewing and can be seen from the savanna's paths.
Hippo underwater viewing - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
Hippo exhibit - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

There's a nice museum near the exit that holds many interesting archives from the zoo's history and artefacts that were found during the renovations.
Museum - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat

Well, I've talked a bit about most of the structures that are present in BioParque do Rio after the big renovation, so now I'll give my personal opinion (as if I hadn't given it during the whole text ) about the general aspect of the whole place. At the end of all, I surelly think the transformation was a huge improvement to the former outdated structure of Riozoo (wich I haven't visited before all the refurbishment, but seen many pictures and talked to people that went there), despite many areas are still not renovated (more than half of the place has been contemplated by the renovation works, but something like 40% is still fenced and closed to the public). My opinion of the immersive experience they claim to have brought to the place is that the contact with the animals is indeed better, once more glass panels, bridges, walkthrough exhibits and viewing points were added, but I think the natural aspect of the exhibits is lacking. You don't feel yourself in the animal's biome. You do feel yourself closer to the species, in an environment that is visually confortable for them, but not indeed similar to the wild, like when you're in Parque das Aves, for example. I think the "clean" aspect of the trails and barriers make them a little too humanized, although they do well the function they were given. Not saying mock rock/fake concrete logs are the solution for everything, but they surely could have made better use of these artefacts, not only inside the enclosures, but also around glass panels and even as barriers. Foliage could have better use too. The big cat/bear enclosures were the weakest point IMO, as they are much smaller than most of the enclosures of their kind in the other major zoos in the country. Despite that, I hope the administration actually focus on the modern zoo conservative principles as they claim they do. We all know private institutions tend to priorize profit, and that might sometimes cause a lack of effort (and resources) applied to actuall conservation. The place now has a structure that is at least the basic (in many cases, indeed above average) needed to develop decent breeding programs, so let's hope they make their best in the following years to ratify the institution as a real ambassador of conservation in the national and international scene.

 

Thank you so much for the review, David! I haven't visited the park yet, but I'm really hoping to be able to do that soon. Seeing your pictures, I must say that I was expecting more, specially as Cataratas has already done great work in Parque das Aves and AquaRio, I hope it will get better with the growing vegetation.
Do you know what wasn't finished yet? Do they still plan with the North American area? And does the elephant exhibit has a underwater view too? I really like the one at the hippos, it's not really common to see these animals under water in Brazilian zoos, how is the cleanliness of the water?

 

I also have to admit that I was expecting more, at least in the begining, once when I actually got to visit the place, I had already seen pictures of practically all the exhibits, and was already a little disappointed with what I had seen.
I also hope things get better with the growth of vegetation, specially in the bear enclosure, wich has absolutely no trees (they added young palm trees, but the bears managed to destroy them very quick). Somehow, despite a little disappointed, I still got a little relief to see it's actually a decent, yet regular, structure, as I'd been seeing many zoo professionals saying the park was going to be a kind of hoax, have actually bad exhibits, etc. At least they have a minimum structure to develop conservation programs (wich I honestly hope is their priority) and all the exhibits are better than what I've seen of the old Riozoo, at least. Some are above average, but not many... Agree with you about the hippo underwater viewing. It is definitely something new for brazilian zoos. The water was dirty when I visited, but it was still a nice experience. The elephant exhibit also has one, but I think I forgot to post it here. It's quite a nice structure indeed, although I was told by the keepers that the individual of asian elephant does not use the pools very often. Check it out:
Asian area, underwater viewing - BioParque do Rio - ZooChat
As I said, hope they can make good use of the considerable structure they've got now to do what a modern zoo should do...
About the next steps of the renovation, I was told by a biologist I met at my visit that they plan to build meerkat and lemur exhibits in the savanna area, as well as adding crowned cranes, zebras and giraffes. They also plan to build exhibits for the baboons they keep, and also for giant otters, as well as other bird exhibits for the many species of raptor they keep. Also, they have plans to enlarge the reptile area, if I remember correctly, as they nowadays only keep one species of snake.
Unfortunately, I don't think they have plans for a North American area; at least not for now. According to @Enzo , the institution is no longer going to exhibit the individual of brown bear they keep, so I tend to think they might not develop something related to this... A shame, as very few brazilian zoos keep considerable amounts of species from this part of the world.

 

Thank you for the answers! The Aquario Natal announced some years ago that they would be the first with an underwater viewing area for their hippo, saldy it never happened and the animals nowadays just have a small pool. The elephant viewing looks good indeed, but do you think there is a future for elephants in Rio? Is there actually a future for a elephant population in Brazil?
I don't think it's a bad thing to not represent North America, IMO Brazilian zoos should definitley focus on (sub)tropical species. So I think it makes a lot of sense to have spectaled bears, would be even better if we actually have a established population of the species, maybe even having a second tropical bear.

 

Oh yes, I've heard Natal aquarium keeps a hippo that came from Sorocaba, if I'm not wrong, right? What a shame they didn't develop the underwater viewing...
I honestly don't think there is a clear future for elephants in Brazil. The only zoos that, in the present reality, could breed the species would be, IMO, Belo Horizonte and Brasília (I'm only considering the african ones, because we know we haven't got proper asian ones for breeding). Brasília is considering breeding elephants in the following years, but they haven't even introduced their elephants to each other yet. BH does not intend to efectivate reproduction with the three individuals living here (a male and a female), as I was told about it quite a few times by mr. Humberto Mello, the director of the institution.
Rio intends to bring more elephants in the future, but unless they start a breeding program for the asian species (by bringing young and healthy species from other countries) they won't have elephants for that longer.
About keeping north american species, I think it would be kinda interesting, as no zoos in the country have an actual temperate weather species area nowadays. It would be nice to have more representation of this kind of fauna, but of course, considering conservation, it would be way better to focus on the native and tropical species, wich despite being easier to breed, due to the similarity/equality of the weather, are easier to be keept in a high rate of wellfare, without having to spend millions on indoor climatized exhibits.
I also would like if we kept another species of bear (Agree with you, I'm also worried about the spectacled population, as I don't think we have zoos actively breeding the species. BioParque do Rio claims they will breed them, but they need to get other specimens if they wanna do so, as their female is quite an elderly.) Sun bears and asiatic black bears would also fit well to our weather, and black bears could also work somehow, as they occur in some warmer areas of the US and Mexico too...

 

Totally agree with you about spectacled bears being a better option.

South American and native to neighbouring countries and endangered too make this species a far better fit for Brazilian zoos than brown bear or polar bear or black bear.

I would say though that several zoos in the country really do need to improve their enclosures for this species (though no enclosures are awful but rather just adequate and /or poor).

 

Sorocaba zoo have been actively breeding the species and had a couple of cubs over the past few years.

I think Bauru and possibly Curitiba have been breeding them too but not 100%certain on that though I know that cubs born at Sorocaba have been sent to those zoos.

I agree with you that much more could be done in that regard and personally I would like to see inter-Latin American collaboration with the ex-situ of this species.

Perhaps this is a little idealistic but I think it would be awesome for Brazilian professionals to get involved with collaboration and assistance with in-situ in countries like Bolivia and Colombia too and the efforts of colleagues from those countries.

 

I totally agree with you here, and I think our zoos should learn with São Carlos park about how to make an exhibit for spectacled bears.
In the other hand, I tend to think you'll change your mind about the fact of zoos that keep the species in the country not having awful enclosures if you take a little look at sapucaia's
Check it out:

 

If I had to guess, i would say Curitiba is not breeding this species, although I have considerably little updated knowlege about the place, so I can't definitely tell. I had forgotten about Sorocaba's breeding the species though, and now that you mention, i think I have heard something about births of spectacleds in Bauru too, as well as São Carlos.

 

God yes that enclosure is awful.

Looks like a 19th century bear pit.

 

Yes definitely Sorocaba have good breeding success and I believe Bauru too but don't know about SC or Curitiba.

 

I really got surprised when I saw this enclosure for the first time some years ago. Sapucaia is an outdated zoo in general, although they have had success with the considerable breeding of many species such as giraffes (the institution kept at least 9 individuals at some point), camels, chimpanzees, golden-lion tamarin, guanaco, tapir and the own spectacled bears. I would like to visit the institution as soon as possible to see how it contrasts with other brazilian zoos that had a similar structure in the past, but were fortunately updated (not as much as we could, but yes, updated).

 

It definitely looks outdated and should undergo drastic improvements.

Unfortunately it is conditions like that which the animal rights activists (like old man Pedro) point to and use in their propaganda against zoos in general and this legitimises their argument in the eyes of many people.

I think it is in the best interests of both the wellbeing of animals and the public image of zoos in the country to change this sort of thing and make it something of the past.

 

That enclosure could be ok for something like a pair of coypyu or perhaps capybara (and even then it wouldn't be ideal) but it is insane that a bear is being kept in such conditions.

 

Little overview of BioParque do Rio: A small video I developed with images I made on my visit to the place. I think it's possible to have an even better idea of the space with these footage:

 

Looks quite nice. Esp. the aviary and primate habitats. Even the larger paddocks with exotics seem better than probably ever before. I agree with @OC, they need to cousins on native fauna a lot more. Did not see th e giant otters yet.

 

Agree. Specially a zoo like Rio, wich had probably the biggest collection of native birds and primates in the country, should have kept them on the population plan... Anyway, as there's another step of the renovation coming (in the following years, for what I was told) other species might be added, including the many native ones they are keeping in the offshow area.
The giant otters will probably come in this second step. At least I hope they still have plans to keep the species, as it's quite difficult to get giant otters in Brazil nowadays...