The Olmense Zoo will be closed as of today by a ministerial order. The main reason is the continued practice of hand-rearing big cats that were perfectly healthy and displaying them like that to the public. This comes together with other complaints like the lack of shelter and very dirty cages. The past 10 years, the zoo already received many fines, but no improvements were made. The zoo has 60 days to react to the closure. news article (in Dutch): Minister Weyts sluit Olmense Zoo: "Wie niet horen wil, moet voelen"
Earlier this year I visited the Olmense Zoo and althrough not all the enclosures were optimal this surtainly isn't a bad zoo ! Here an English article about the closure : A zoo near Antwerp must close its doors immediately
It's open again and the gouverment gave them some time to improve the items which were the reason to close it for some days. From what I've heared they are doing so, so hopefully they can stay open.
I believe it has been open since november; the immediate list of issues has been cleared in the few weeks they were closed, apparently. Did you notice any immediate improvements, @vogelcommando? On top of that, the ownership transferred to the previous owner's son and daughter. I believe they won't risk separating cats from their parents at an early age anymore, unless absolutely necessary. I hope the zoo can make some improvements to make sure something like this doesn't happen anymore! Overall I wouldn't call it a good zoo, but it's definitely no bad zoo either, and I've found myself thoroughly liking the tropical hall and its species line-up on my last two visits.
Have not been there since they temperely closed but have planned to do so in the next months, will report then about my findings....
Not really much news from my visit today, but I can confirm the biggest rarities the park has when it comes to birds, Sahel paradise-whydah and Meves' long-tailed glossy starling, are still present. I saw 2 males of the whydahs, free-roaming in the tropical hall, and 1 of the glossy starlings, in one of the side enclosures together with 2 regular long-tailed glossy starling females. On my visit last year I also saw 2 male whydahs and 1 starling; I'm afraid that's all they have left, which would mean neither species is able to reproduce... I asked a keeper about the pin-tailed whydahs (possibly still present but he hadn't seen them in a while) and European bee-eaters (gone). The departure of the European bee-eaters is unfortunate, but the other two species (white-fronted and carmine) are still present. I also saw a red-headed quelea for the first time today in the tropical hall, which is a nice and rare species that was listed on zootierliste but hadn't been mentioned there since 2016, and which was unsigned in the zoo.
Does one of you have news about Karu, male snow leopard arrived recently from Parc des Félins (France) ?
I visited Saturday. Not sure how well known it is but there is only 1 tiger now, which is an older female White Tiger. Also the Brown-hooded Kingfisher has died. Had I read about the above I'd have visited another zoo but it turned out to be a great visit - lots of hard work and love clearly going into the Zoo and a great variety of cats to see too. To answer Michel, there were two snow leopards there but one was inside all day and the other outside...didn't see any interaction between them both.
A little over a week ago it was announced the Olmense Zoo has a new owner, as it has been acquired by Wim Verheyen, son of the previous owner Charel Verheyen (who will eventually be leaving the zoo completely), and Tommy Pasteels, entrepreneur and currently owner of a luxury movie theater. The new owners are planning to invest in and renovate the zoo with a focus on safety and animal welfare to make the Olmense Zoo a good zoo and to improve its tainted image. They are now developing a new vision and plans for the zoo's future. On June 22nd the new visions and future development plans will be made public. At that time the new owners are also going to announce a new name for the Olmense Zoo - presumably to break with the zoo's tainted history of incidents and controversies that will unfortunately presumably always stick to the current name. The owners are however planning for the place to remain an affordable, family-oriented zoo. Felines will also continue to be an important aspect of their collection. Personally I'm looking forward to see what their plans are - hopefully they are going to make some substantial investments to improve this place, to make it less shabby and more modern and to fully bring it into the 21st century zoo world. Hopefully this will be what the Olmense Zoo needs to become the good, decent smaller zoo it really should be but unfortunately so far isn't fully. Let's just hope it doesn't result in too much of the current collection being cut though. Nieuwe investeerder Olmense Zoo: “Dieren die in hokjes naast elkaar zitten: dat gaat niet blijven duren”
Black panter Malik unfortunately died at the Olmense Zoo last night. He was quite old at 16 but his death still came unexpected. Malik was acquired through a loan with a Danish zoo and at Olmen he sired their black panther Lola. The exhibit he lived in will be empty for a while as there are not immediate plans to fill it. Olmense Zoo
Today there was a first and somewhat unexpected announcement about the future of the Olmense Zoo. It had already been announced the zoo would get a new name and that name has been revealed: "Pakawi Park" will be the Olmense Zoo's new name, starting June 22nd, 2019. Apparently the name references the Swahili word "Paka", meaning felines/cats. The park has also received two new "Bengal" tigers, named Paka and Awi, who according to the article are getting a new, larger exhibit in the zoo by June. Olmense Zoo krijgt nieuwe naam: Pakawi Park I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this to be honest, and I'm not very enthusiastic about this. The name is a bit strange and they still seem to be centering on felines, which have historically been a specilization of the park but also one of the sources of controversy over the zoo. Given that the article also mentions white tigers and it remains unclear whether they are going to continue things like breeding mutant and hybrid big cats, I'm not sure this bodes very well for true change and a real break with this zoo's questionable past. I am skeptical, so far what I'm hearing about the upcoming changes isn't sounding very good.
Greater vasa parrot (Coracopsis vasa) born at the Olmense Zoo/Pakawi Park. Pakawi Park on Instagram: “Graag willen wij u voorstellen aan onze pas geboren en unieke kweek van de grote Vasa. Dit is een papagaaien soort uit Madagaskar. Hier…”
