A pity I didn't visit a month later then! Summer Zoos part 1 In the first two weeks of the summer holidays, my parents decided to go to Russia on a group trip. While visits to the zoos in Moscow and St. Petersburg seemed attractive, the prospect of a group trip where the average age would be above 50 did not. The pros? I had access to a free car, non-stop for two weeks. Hence, I decided to maximize my time and just visit most of the major zoos around me. I would’ve done a roadtrip snowleopard-style to eastern Germany or France if it were possible, but I had to be home every night to walk and feed our pets. Luckily I live within 2 hours of the Ruhr area, so that put a lot of possible zoos on the list. Diergaarde Blijdorp https://www.diergaardeblijdorp.nl/w.../07/plattegrond-diergaarde-Blijdorp-zom19.pdf Visited on June 30 Blijdorp is honestly my favourite Dutch zoo. All its enclosures are good if not great. The Oceanium is outstanding, the okapi aviary one of my favourite exhibits ever, Amazonica is one of the better butterfly houses around, the renovated carnivore house with geladas is superb, and the North American area is really solid as well. The only remarks are that it’s just sad to see the lost potential of the Riviera Hall, and the fact that the Asian zone feels really chaotic, and sometimes rather empty as well. I can also understand the qualms with the newly added Conservation Centre in the Oceanium (rare animals, but in pet-shop displays), but I think showing visitors a glimpse behind the scenes like this is a great way to involve them in the conservation work you’re doing. Statistics I saw 138 species in Blijdorp: 51 mammals, 61 birds, 20 reptiles and 6 amphibians. Blijdorp has 11 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. Overlap-wise there’s nothing exceptional: biggest overlap is Berlin at 46 species, smallest is Serpentarium at 4. Blijdorp has a ZooScore of 2,21, which places it below Hagenbeck. Had it had a more extensive reptile collection, (like Artis, Cologne, or Warsaw) then I’m sure it would’ve done a lot better in the ranking. Enclosures Best in Class: Amazonica is the best butterfly house I’ve seen. Sometimes butterfly houses feel like a waste of space if nothing else is exhibited, but in Blijdorp a few amphibians, some fish, some reptiles, and a massive Victoria amazonica. The Okapi Aviary is probably my favourite exhibit in the entire zoo, and one of my all-time favourites anywhere. The okapi aviary combines colourful, active birds with majestic okapi. A combination of large mammals and small birds just works very well in my opinion. Upper Middle Class: While I regret the loss of diversity, I think the reconstruction of the old carnivore house for geladas has been a very solid choice. The combination of modern and historical architecture is very neat. The Oceanium is one of the best zoo aquariums, but some elements feel slightly out of place. The sea lion tank is somewhat small, the Arctic Aviary with seabirds feels out of place with the other species housed in the building, the walkthrough lemur enclosure is an odd choice. Lick of Paint: The European area is currently without animals, so that’s really something that needs to get some attention. The indoor enclosures in Taman Indah are on the small side, especially for the tapirs. The Asian Aviary looks a bit neglected. Could use some replanting. Blijdorp has a very clear lack of Eyesores, which is admirable for a zoo its age. Animal Highlights Visayan spotted deer, Philippine mouse deer, arctic fox, fishing cat, black-and-rufous elephant shrew, François’ langur, Cuban hutia, common murre, Pacific kittiwake, painted stork, western plantain-eater, white-throated magpie-jay, slender-snouted crocodile, lesser Antillean iguana, hawksbill sea turtle, Galápagos tortoise, Lake Pátzcuaro salamander. Zoo Wuppertal https://www.zoo-wuppertal.net/0-pic...wuppertaler-zoo-berglauf-plan-laufstrecke.jpg Visited on July 2 When visiting Wuppertal, I recommend wearing hiking shoes. The zoo is located in a hilly, forest-y area and you will be tired afterwards. It’s not helped by the fact that navigation is difficult in the zoo. The zoo nicknames itself “the green zoo” and that’s definitely true. The forested environment is beautiful, and makes the exhausting hike more worth it. Its collection is better than you’d expect. Especially its bird collection is a gem, but there definitely are some mammal and herp highlights as well. Enclosure-wise, there’s some good stuff and some bad stuff. Comparing it to Blijdorp, it’s definitely not as consistent in its enclosure quality. Statistics I saw 152 species at Wuppertal: 45 mammals, 82 (!) birds, 21 reptiles and 4 amphibians. Wuppertal has 23 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. That’s mostly birds, but still easily above most zoos with similar collections. Noticeably big overlap with Warsaw at 43 species. Both zoos have excellent bird collections though, so that makes sense. All in all, Wuppertal ends up with a ZooScore of 2,97. That’s right between Pakawi and Hagenbeck. Not entirely sure what to think of it. I’d expect Pakawi to be lower and Hagenbeck to be higher. I guess it’s good to have an objective tool then? Enclosures Best in Class: The lion enclosure in Wuppertal is marvellous. It’s basically a meadow on a hill, but it is very large. There are a couple mock rock structures in there to give the enclosure a more African feel. I loved it, but sadly couldn’t spot the lions (which I can imagine is a pretty common issue). Upper Middle Class: The Free Flight Hall attached to the bird house is a gem. It’s not large nor very naturalistic, but it’s beautiful, even more so because its inhabitants are quite rare in zoos. I honestly wish every zoo had purple-throated fruitcrows. The tiger enclosure is good as well, with beautiful views of these big cats. Lick of Paint: Both Cat Houses have cages as outdoor enclosures. Space doesn’t seem to be the issue here (as every species seems to have access multiple cages), but I’d prefer something a bit more…immersive. Eyesores: The polar bear and sea lion enclosures are ugly concrete structures. For the sea lions, it’s small but not too bad. For the polar bears however, it’s way too small, with almost no hiding opportunities. I think this may actually be the worst polar bear enclosure I’ve seen to date. The bull elephant enclosure is of an average size, but much like the one in Pakawi, seems to be rather empty. That’s a shame, because it’d be fairly easy to provide some more enrichment in the enclosure. Animal Highlights Yellow-backed duiker, Sulawesi babirusa, Temminck’s golden cat, Gordon’s wild cat, Arabian sand cat, Indian leopard, Baird’s tapir, drill, Ansell’s mole-rat, blue coua, purple-throated fruitcrow, Pacific hornero, little friarbird, blue manakin, Sunda hooded pitta, great kiskadee, white-tailed trogon, Hosmer’s skink.
I'm thoroughly enjoying this thread, short and easy to read reviews, and a personal ranking system that doesn't leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth. Very good, I look forward to more in due course.
Thanks! That's very nice of you to say! And now a behemoth of a post... Summer Zoos part 2 Pairi Daiza https://www.pairidaiza.eu/sites/default/files/media/file/Plan sept.pdf Visited on July 3 Pairi Daiza is very much a mixed bag for me. It is a great collection with a solid selection of rarities and mostly great enclosures. Yet on the other hand, for all the money it spends on marble temples, enormous hotels, and fake volcanoes; there’s still a fair few (too many) animals housed in subpar conditions. Aside from that, I think that an entrance fee of €34 is excessive. The only zoo that was more expensive than Pairi was Bronx (at approximately €36,50) and that is very much a superior zoo, which does a lot more conservation-wise too. I sometimes feel like, with this expensive entrance fee, I am supporting the construction of hotels and grotesque exhibits, while I’d rather see my entrance fee support in-situ conservation, visitor education, and/or enclosures perfectly suited to its inhabitants – none of which Pairi Daiza does very well in my opinion. What does Pairi Daiza do well then? Getting people more excited about zoos. I’ve never seen people be so impressed with any zoo, ever. Even years after we visited (I think last time she came along was in 2013?), my mom still remembers the Asian Temple complex in Pairi Daiza, but not Burgers Bush, Blijdorps Okapi Aviary, or Lisbons Oceanario. We visited all of those together not even 2 years ago. Statistics Pairi Daiza clocks in at exactly 250 seen species: 84 mammals, 104 birds, 54 reptiles and 8 amphibians. Pairi Daiza has 26 species that I didn’t see anywhere else this year. Much less than I’d expected, but it seems like Pairi’s collection is great, but not exceptionally so. Pairi Daiza has a ZooScore of 4,21 which puts it just 0,03 above Antwerp. Obviously, with the Nocturama closed, Antwerp is a lot lower now. Enclosures Best in Class: Pairi Daiza’s record with shoebill storks is unbeatable, and their shoebill enclosure next to the Mersus Emergo is marvellous. Most of Pairi’s theming is excellent, and I don’t think any zoo can beat its theming in the Middle Kingdom and the Kingdom of Ganesha. Upper Middle Class: The Asian elephant enclosure (or one of them at least) is nothing short of gigantic. Obviously, space is a necessity for the biggest herd in Europe, but even then the enclosure is huge. Much like the elephants, the American bisons have a spacious plains enclosure. Looks great. Most of the Last Frontier area is good as well: spacious enclosures, often with multiple species combined, so there are interesting interspecific interactions. The one thing it lacks, is birds. A sandhill crane enclosure, or some bird of prey aviaries would have been a great addition to the area. Shouldn’t be impossible either, as there are some bird of prey aviaries right next to it, but these definitely don’t feel like a part of it. These bird of prey aviaries are very neat as well. The aviaries are good for sure, but the collection is what makes them shine. I counted no less than 18 different species of bird of prey here, with rare species like African harrier-hawk, booted eagle, and long-crested eagle, but also crowd pleasers like Andean condor, bald eagle, and secretary bird. The free-flying birds-of-paradise are truly a treasure to see. Never mind that there are two other species of bird-of-paradise (I only spotted lesser, but apparently king is somewhere too) in this little hall as well – along with several other birds. The next hall – with flying foxes and squirrels is excellent too. The orangutan islands are excellent too. The marble temple is nothing short of impressive, and the outdoor enclosures have plenty of natural and artificial climbing opportunities. The combination with small-clawed otters on one of the islands also works rather well. Lick of Paint: Pairi’s visitor management can often become a real disturbance to your visit. In most of the park it’s usually not too bad, but in the Mersus Emergo and the Aquarium, you often just queue throughout the entire building. In fact, the Mersus Emergo (reptile house) has a few terrariums that are too small. Most of it is okay, but the alligator tank, the turtle tanks in the beginning, and the snake terrariums are the worst offenders. The clouded leopard enclosure is completely glass-fronted with barely any hiding opportunities. The tiger enclosure is sufficiently big, but lacks any form of environmental enrichment. Pairi Daiza also doesn’t educate on the issue of white tigers. Giant otter enclosure is smallish, and they definitely don’t have enough water. Free contact elephants. I don’t care whether your visitors are amazed by the bathing of your elephants in the lake, elephants in free contact is not something a modern zoo should do. The gorilla volcanoes are cool and all for the inhabitants, but they’re 100% tacky. Not a fan. The pygmy hippopotamuses live in an inappropriate enclosure. There is not enough land area, and the water is rather dirty as well. I think this enclosure is borderline eyesore, but I’ll let this one slip as I don’t think it’s as bad as in Santo Inácio. The African penguins in Cambron-sur-mer have access to a pitifully small part of the pond, but at least this is better than their previous situation when they barely even dared to enter the water for fear of the harbour seals. Eyesores: The Aquarium, like most zoo aquariums, has a few tanks that are too small. Besides that, Pairi has a sea turtle in a tank that’s approximately one tenth of the size it should be, and there’s sharks in there as well! Quite a few tanks don’t look well-maintained, and the signage is just awful. I’ve never liked visiting this building, and I think it needs a major redesign before it can become something good. The Javan leopard aviary is small, and was completely unfurnished for a long time. For a zoo with Pairi’s budget there’s really no excuse for that. Even now, with some climbing structures, there’s still not enough to make this an okay leopard enclosure. During my visit, the Canadian beaver was sitting out in the open, with no decent hiding opportunities. While it’s been suggested that the zoo is giving the beaver branches to build its own den, this was not the case when I was there. A beaver with barely any hiding opportunities is sad. Throughout Pairi Daiza, there are several examples of marvellous theming. Some slip-ups though, are quite unforgiveable. Real mummies are buried in the Crypt, but with the addition of some tacky music it becomes rather tasteless. Animal Highlights Eurasian elk, northern warthog, Steller sea lion, Sulawesi bear cuscus, long-nosed potoroo, long-crested eagle, African harrier-hawk, Amazilia hummingbird, Bulwer’s pheasant, greater bird-of-paradise, lesser bird-of-paradise, shoebill, 4 different species of aracari, Saint Vincent amazon, Lear’s macaw, Spix’s macaw, Cape cobra, Indian gharial. Kölner Zoo https://www.koelnerzoo.de/images/pdf/zooplan.pdf Visited on July 4 When I think back on Cologne, I remember three things: a great reptile house/aquarium, an enormous elephant house/enclosure, and the single biggest collection of waterfowl I’ve ever seen. I like birds, but after Cologne I’d had enough of ducks for a while. The zoo is so much more than that though. I think Cologne is really the definition of an all-round zoo. It has everything, from a tropical hall to ugly primate cages to the biggest meerkat enclosure you’ve ever seen. One thing it lacks is a typical mixed-species savannah, but that’s not something I really miss, since basically every zoo has one. Statistics I saw 239 species in Cologne: 54 mammals, 131 birds (50+ waterfowl and I couldn’t even identify most), 36 reptiles and 18 amphibians. Cologne has 52 (!) species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. That’s a lot, and only zoos with 300+ seen species score better. With a ZooScore of 4,18, Cologne scores equal points to Antwerp. That’s fair enough, even though Cologne has more rarities, Antwerp does have a bigger collection overall. Enclosures Best in Class: Cologne has the single best elephant enclosure I’ve seen to-date. The indoors are enormous, and the outdoors takes up almost a full quarter of the zoo! The meerkats also had an enormous enclosure all to themselves. Plenty of zoos have meerkats, but Cologne gives them the most space, by far. Cologne’s leopard aviary is spacious, and easily one of the better enclosures I’ve seen for the species. While the leopard enclosure in Parc des Felins rivals this one, the aviary at Cologne just looks better. Upper Middle Class: Cologne’s reptile house and aquarium is rather big. While it’s not the most speciose reptile house around, it offers a remarkable variety of varanids and salamanders. Cologne’s Owl Castle is great, and for sure looks the part. It also included a few non-owl species, which gave the exhibit some much-needed activity. The Hippodom is absolutely wonderful. The hippos have plenty of space in- and outdoors, and a supporting cast of coucals, Nile crocodiles, sun squirrels and so on make this greenhouse a rarity-filled treasure. The red pandas have access to ten huge, interconnected trees. That makes it probably the biggest enclosure for the species I’ve ever seen. Lick of Paint: The Madagascar House has some terribly-looking cage-y balls. While the space for the lemurs is good enough, this just looks horrid. Same goes for the enclosure for the red-shanked douc (rip) and Javan langurs. One thing that did kind of annoys me is that almost half of the zoo consists of a seemingly endless amount of waterfowl ponds and crane paddocks. This kind of exhibit just fails to engage when you see it so many times. I admire the dedication of the curator to waterfowl, but I think it’s fair to say that Cologne just goes a little bit over the top. Eyesores: The baboon rock is big enough for maybe 10 of these primates, but not the 50 (ish) that currently call this rock home. Animal Highlights Matschie’s tree-kangaroo, rufous elephant shrew, red-shanked douc, greater bamboo lemur, red-legged sun squirrel, long-tailed hornbill (nominate ssp), African openbill, white-browed coucal, little grebe, Philippine crocodile, common egg-eating snake, 7 rare monitor species, Cayenne stubfoot toad, Cayenne caecilian, Vietnam crocodile newt.
It appears you visited only a week or so before me, at which point the entrance fee had increased further to €38 I think you must have missed a lot at Cologne then, as I am fairly sure it has the larger collection by quite some margin
That's very well possible, if I recall correctly we missed a few species in the bird house, a few in the rainforest house, and I'm sure we only spotted 75% of all ducks. I find €34 quite expensive already, and €38 is outrageous, especially with an €8 parking fee...
Summer Zoos part 3 Natura Artis Magistra https://www.artis.nl/media/filer_pu...570-400f-acd7-ea2f3fc3bac3/artis_p1_mei19.pdf Visited on July 8 Artis is a beautiful inner city zoo. It’s incredibly old, but has for the most part managed to evolve with the times. Obviously, some space issues exist as they do in most historical zoos, but Artis definitely used some nice techniques to become a modern-day zoo. Its collection is less impressive. Whereas most inner-city zoos have quite a few unique species, Artis has nearly none. In fact it scores as one of the lowest zoos in terms of collection quality. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some cool species though, but just…not that many special ones. I didn’t visit Micropia, even though it’s supposed to be more than worth it. I just had a pretty bad day that day and couldn’t be bothered. Statistics I saw 146 species in Artis: 54 mammals, 53 birds, 34 reptiles and 5 amphibians. Artis has 6 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. Only a few zoos got less unique species, and none with this big a collection. Logically, Artis has a remarkably high overlap with nearly every other zoo. Even though Artis has a relatively nice herp collection, it only overlaps in 2 species with Serpentarium. Artis has a ZooScore of 2,17. This put it below Blijdorp, which was a (slightly) smaller collection, but qualitatively better. Enclosures Best in Class: While Artis has many great enclosures, none come close to being Best in Class. Upper Middle Class: Artis’ vulture aviaries are probably the biggest I’ve seen after Tierpark Berlin. It’s also a lovely redevelopment of the old structure. The Bird House/Forest House is a architectural gem, and even though it likely exhibits fewer species than before, it does so in a modern manner, with walkthrough enclosures. Jaguars are exhibited in an enclosure that’s the biggest I’ve seen for the species, and that is rather well-executed. An aviary for snowy owls and red-crowned cranes surrounds some ruins. This exhibit is very well-executed, and really looks great. Lick of Paint: Japanese macaques are exhibited on a smallish artificial rock enclosure-thing? I’m not sure what to make of it, but I don’t think I like it very much. Please, give some more naturalistic enclosures. A group of five (I think?) chimpanzees is exhibited in an aviary across a path from its indoor enclosure. I’m not sure that’s ideal (since this aviary is only accessible through a bridge for the chimps, and could be easily blocked by a dominant chimp). It’s also ugly. Eyesores: While I think that generally Artis is quite free from eyesores, the one thing that’s truly bad is the lion enclosure. The outdoor is too small, but the indoor is even worse. Artis should get rid of their lions here. Animal Highlights Yucatán margay, grey-handed night monkey, red-faced spider monkey, alpine marmot, wrinkled hornbill, red-tailed amazon, northern gannet, mangrove snake. Zoo Veldhoven http://www.zooveldhoven.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/plattegrond-2017-e1494010936942.jpg Visited on July 9 Veldhoven is a rather dreary place, if you’re not a bird of prey. I don’t think I need to say much more, as there’s really not much remarkable about the place. Oh right, there’s thousands of parrots, of almost every species imaginable. Zoo Veldhoven houses a rescue centre for parrots, and while that’s a great cause, it also ensures that some of the parrot aviaries are really overpopulated. Even the smaller aviaries, with only one or two parrots, are rather small. Besides its massive parrot population, Veldhoven also has a large collection of birds of prey. This includes at least 20 white-tailed sea-eagles. These birds are housed in smallish aviaries, but I guess that since they are gigantic, it’s really barely possible to give them the space they need. They are also the only zoo where I saw Verreaux’s eagle, although I saw almost a dozen here. Statistics I saw 114 species in Veldhoven: 8 mammals, 100 birds, and 6 reptiles. Of those 100 birds, 48 were parrot species, often multiple subspecies too. I saw 18 species in Veldhoven that I didn’t see anywhere else this year. 16 of those were parrots. Veldhoven has a ZooScore of 1,90 which puts it at the lower end of the middle tier. Enclosures Veldhoven doesn’t really have any particularly good enclosures. Lick of Paint: The Tropical Hall in Veldhoven looks like it inspired the one in Pakawi, but it is smaller and older (and seemingly also not well-maintained). It looked kind of dead, dust was accumulating left and right. Not a good tropical hall. Many of the parrot enclosures were too small. Lemurs were housed in a few cages, differing in size. Most of them were still too small, and these cages looked rather ugly as well. I honestly think that most of Veldhoven can be described as a Lick of Paint. Not much of the zoo is particularly well-suited to the needs of its inhabitants, but most are not terrible either. Eyesores: Like in Pakawi, some of the enclosures lining the main tropical hall were dark and barren, as well as filthy. That wasn’t a great look. African spurred tortoise and green iguanas were housed in a hut, but without any lighting or UV. Animal Highlights Verreaux’s eagle, short-toed snake-eagle, grey gull, Ducorp’s cockatoo, Tucumán amazon, Jardine’s parrot, northern gannet. Apenheul https://apenheul.nl/media/1420/plattegrond-2019.png Visited on July 9 Luckily after Veldhoven, I visited one of the best zoos in the world. Not collection-wise or rarity-wise (although it has its fair share of rarities), but because Apenheul exhibits so many primates in world class enclosures. There’s not much to say about Apenheul, because that’s all this zoo is really. Wonderful primate exhibits. Statistics I saw 41 species in Apenheul: 34 mammals, 5 birds and 2 amphibians. Apenheul has only 1 species that I didn’t see anywhere else this year. I also couldn’t find the talapoins, as those would have been another addition to the list. Apenheul has a ZooScore of 0,67. That puts it second-to-last in my list, but I don’t think anyone could put it second-to-last in their subjective lists. Enclosures Best in Class: Apenheul has the best walkthrough monkey enclosures. There’s no way you can observe monkeys better than when they’re doing their things in a forest around you. The three major walkthroughs Apenheul has are for squirrel monkeys, callitrichids, and lemurs. All of these are equally amazing in my opinion. Orangutans are one of the species that usually get the short end of the stick. Not so much in Apenheul, where they have plenty of islands to allow any and all of their usual group dynamics to take place. Upper Middle Class: How about everything else in Apenheul? Most importantly, the amazing gorilla island. Sadly its indoor quarters are rather limited. Their barbary macaque enclosure (combined with barbary sheep) is also great, and offers great educational material about the sole European primate. Apenheul doesn’t have anything that’s even remotely Lick of Paint or Eyesore. Everything is average or better (usually a lot better). Animal Highlights Grey-handed night monkey, pied tamarin, collared mangabey, crowned sifaka, blue-eyed black lemur, Lac Alaotra bamboo lemur.
Summer Zoos part 4 Burgers’ Zoo https://www.burgerszoo.nl/media/2073142/2019_a3_plattegrond-nl.jpg Visited on July 10 Burgers’ Zoo is likely the best zoo I’ve ever been to if you only look at the quality of the enclosures. The eco-displays are the main factor in this, as all three of them are truly amazing. But even then, the other exhibits are not at all average: the Rimba has great mixed-species enclosures, the Safari boasts an impressive herd of white rhinoceroses, chimpanzees are housed in a first-of-its-kind island, and while the bird house is rather old, it does display some rare species in appropriately-sized aviaries. Let’s come back to the eco-displays for a second though. Clearly, this type of hall is the best way to exhibit any animal, but especially birds. In the Bush, the Mangrove, or the Desert, nobody feels pressured to look for the birds, as there’s plenty to see besides them. However, I think that it’s almost impossible for any tropical hall to be better than Burgers’. Burgers’ also does plenty of groundbreaking work for zoos: it is basically one of the few institutions in Europe breeding corals and rare fish, it’s almost a rhinoceros-factory, and the births of no less than 3 sun bears last year gives an incredible boost to their population in Europe. Statistics I saw 117 species in Burgers’ Zoo: 44 mammals, 61 birds, 11 reptiles and 1 amphibian. Burgers’ had 21 species that I didn’t see anywhere else this year. On the high side for a zoo with a rather small collection. Burgers’ collection is good, but not very big, resulting in a ZooScore of 1,93, just above Veldhoven. Enclosures Best in Class: Burgers’ Bush is really on another level compared to most other tropical halls. It’s just how I imagine the real tropical rainforest to look like. Add to that a couple of nice rarities, and bam, you’ve got yourself the best tropical hall around. The Bush is not the only world class tropical hall Burgers’ Zoo has. No, no, Burgers’ Mangrove is a candidate to the best manatee tank in the world, and the addition of butterflies and fiddler crabs works incredibly well. The few small birds are a nice addition, but their numbers are still quite low so they can be hard to spot. I personally didn’t like the Mangrove as much as I did the Bush as the Mangrove was a lot busier during my visit. Burgers’ Ocean is probably the best zoo aquarium around. The main shark tank is enormous, and its reef tank(s?) are all very nice and well-stocked. Truly a wonderful exhibit. Upper Middle Class: While the Desert is still definitely world-class, I think it’s starting to show its age. For the birds it’s generally amazing (an enormous amount of space to fly), but for some of the other inhabitants it’s less amazing. The bighorn sheep have relatively little space, and the enclosures for bobcat and collared peccary are not great either. A mixed enclosure for Javan banteng, brow-antlered deer, hog deer, Chinese muntjac, pig-tailed macaque and siamangs is amazing, and while the enclosure itself is not enormous, it manages to separate each species into its own niche. The main savannah is enormous (used to be a drivethrough safari), and showcases a nice selection of African species. Adjacent to the savannah is an enclosure with a few birds, which is really coherent with the main exhibit. Lick of Paint: The only lick of paint I can imagine, and this is really kind of nitpicky, is that the lion and cheetah enclosures are kind of bland. They’re nothing special, and since they’re adjacent to the magnificent Bush, rather underwhelming. Animal Highlights Roan antelope, beisa oryx, California bighorn sheep, European jackal, ringtail, dusky langur, black hornbill, white-winged dove, Chaco chachalaca, Gambel’s quail, scaled quail, inca jay, screaming piha, red-rumped cacique, red diamond rattlesnake. Zoo Duisburg http://www.zoo-duisburg.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Lageplan_Zoo_2019.jpg Visited on July 11 Duisburg could be described as a very average zoo, lifted up into a zoonerds eye by on individual animal: the sole living Amazon river dolphin outside South America. Obviously, this is a major attraction for Duisburg, and this animal alone warrants the entrance fee. Outside of the river dolphin, there are also regular dolphins, which is a rather rare occurrence for regular zoos to have. These are exhibited in a rather small tank. The other exhibits range from amazing to substandard. The zoo also has a remarkable Australian collection, with Tasmanian devils, wallabies, wallaroos, woylies, and Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroos, and the studbook for koalas and wombats in its possession. The wombats are rather hard to spot, as their indoor quarters are not accessible to the public. Statistics I saw 95 species in Duisburg: 50 mammals, 35 birds, and 10 reptiles. Duisburg has 8 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. Obviously, that includes Baby the river dolphin, but also the bottlenose dolphins. With a total ZooScore of 1,44, Duisburg belongs to a lower tier than most of the zoos I’ve posted about above. It really is hurt by the absence of a significant bird or reptile collection. I realize now that I should have posted some sort of explanation about the ZooScore, and I will after I’ve posted the rest of my reviews, along with an overview of all ZooScores again. Enclosures Best in Class: Duisburgs best enclosure is their spectacled bear enclosure. This is a large, well-vegetated enclosure with plenty of climbing opportunities. Upper Middle Class: Duisburgs tiger enclosure is large, with a nicely themed viewpoint for a duo of Amur tigers. The enclosures for Eurasian lynx and European wildcat are very nice, and the log-cabin viewing area is a very nice thematic touch in my opinion. Lick of Paint: The vultures are pinioned, and while I understand that it’s just a remnant of the past (and a large aviary is being constructed for them), it’s still not great to look at. Since it’s in the process of being fixed, I decided not to make it an eyesore. Eyesores: While the Aequatorium is not that bad for the gorillas, it is pretty bad for the primates housed fully indoors. Not only do these primates have little space, they also have no contact to the outside world. That’s not acceptable for any primate barring callitrichids. Animal Highlights Congo blue duiker, Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, Orinoco dolphin, greater spot-nosed monkey, roloway monkey, pink-headed imperial pigeon, white-browed coucal, kori bustard.
GaiaZoo https://www.gaiazoo.nl/CropUp/884x1...-gaiazoo-plattegrond-2019final.jpg?quality=70 Visited on August 11 GaiaZoo is set in a nicely forested area, and this forms a great backdrop to the zoo, which has a focus on mostly forest animals. I’d argue the zoo is above average, but not very much so. It’s also much smaller than I expected/remembered (visited ten-ish years ago), which meant that even if we had planned a whole day there, we still ended up back home rather early. Enclosure-wise there’s nothing extraordinary – a gorilla island, birds in walkthrough aviaries, a large savannah, and a relatively large petting zoo are the major attractions. Statistics I saw 104 species in GaiaZoo: 40 mammals, 56 birds, 2 reptiles and 6 amphibians. GaiaZoo has 4 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. That’s not much at all. GaiaZoo has a ZooScore of 1,62, which puts it in the middle tier. General Overview The enclosures in GaiaZoo are generally good, with no bad enclosures. There’s three major zones in the zoo: a Eurasian forest-y zone, a tropical rainforest zone (with South American and African fauna), and an African savannah zone. I think the Eurasian zone is the best of the three, with a large walkthrough vulture aviary, a nice walkthrough aviary with a few invasive species, and also a big barbary macaque enclosure. The tropical area has a big walkthrough aviary as well, but it looks a bit worse than the Eurasian aviaries in my opinion. This is followed by a few monkey islands, and then a large walkthrough enclosure for squirrel monkeys, red howlers and Darwin’s rheas. The African area has fewer walkthrough areas, but the island for crested mangabeys and gorillas is nonetheless interesting. A nice, rarer touch are the common cusimanse in a smallish side-enclosure. The African area was the least impressive in my opinion. The main savannah with giraffes, white rhinos and greater kudu among others is large, but quite empty. If it’s busy, the path between the two parts of the savannah can also become quite busy. The large aviary for a variety of African waders could use some vegetation. This aviary included 200 greater flamingos at the time of my visit, but this is supposed to increase to 400 soon. Certainly an impressive sight, especially as I’d narrowly missed this flock of flamingos at Walsrode earlier in the year. The African zone is concluded with two good exhibits for African wild dog and lions. The lions are visible through the windshield of a jeep, which makes for a nice safari-like viewing area. Animal Highlights Common cusimanse, Eurasian wolverine, red-faced spider monkey, woolly monkey, garden dormouse, Chaco chachalaca, black-headed weaver, puna ibis.
I have been thoroughly enjoying your reviews, as I've said before, and I find that I am nodding in agreement whenever you post another write-up as almost all of these zoos are ones that I visited in the summer. However, I will disagree slightly with your GaiaZOO review as I think that facility is fantastic. You stated that "The enclosures in GaiaZOO are generally good, with no bad enclosures", but I would argue that the exhibits there are mainly superb, with a few average ones. I raved about this zoo and even though there are only 100 species (basically all mammals and birds) it doesn't matter because the quality of the exhibits is amazing. For example, I would take GaiaZOO over Dusiburg any day of the week (you'd probably agree), with the German zoo having small, outdated enclosures for elephants, dolphins and many primate species. GaiaZOO only takes 4 hours to tour, but it's a fantastic zoo with a far superior set of exhibits in comparison to Duisburg.
I also think that GaiaZoo is absolutely fantastic, and I do indeed agree that GaiaZoo is superior to Duisburg (especially in terms of enclosure quality, I do think Duisburgs collection is just a tad bit better). I think it's fair to say that I downplayed the quality of GaiaZoo a little bit, but that was definitely not intentional. In fact, GaiaZoo is my 3rd favourite zoo in the Netherlands, after Blijdorp and Burgers. I don't think I'd call the majority of the exhibits in GaiaZoo superb, but the standard of exhibitry there is definitely higher than usual.
I agree with Penshet's earlier comments. GaiaZoo is very pleasant but quite unremarkable, except in the sense that it lacks any unpleasantness. It's a great family zoo and would be a lovely local zoo as well; I'd love to be able to go there every couple of weekends for a stroll with a good book in my bag. But having visited once I can't imagine I'll be back in the next decade, even though I will bend and twist routes to take me through Koln at any opportunity.
I do a lot of this as well. I seem to have persuaded my parents to go to Koln as me travel from Brussels to Montpellier because I said it was 'on the way'
Paris Day One My dad travels to Paris rather often for work, and I figured that I might as well join him – visiting zoos during the day and then spending the evening with him afterwards. This turned to be a good idea, as I managed to see a few really nice zoos in these two days. As we went to Paris by car, I used the car on the first day to visit some zoos that are harder to access with public transport. So, on September 4 I got up at 7, had breakfast, hopped in the car and faced the horrible traffic on the Périphérique. Zoo du Bois d’Attilly http://www.zoo-attilly.fr/sites/default/files/450x210_depliant_plan.jpg Visited on September 4 I knew for sure that I wanted to visit Parc des Félins on this day, and added Terre des Singes too because why not. However, I didn’t feel like I’d be able to spend a full day in these two zoos, so I started looking for another zoo. My eye fell on Zoo du Bois d’Attilly, a small zoo 30 minutes away from Parc des Félins. I arrived around opening time (I think 10:30-ish) and managed to do the entire zoo before noon. It’s not a big zoo by any means, but it has some interesting stuff. The zoo has a tendency to have weird combinations. One aviary has Tonkean and Sunda pig-tailed macaques combined with lar gibbons, while in one of the paddocks there are Bactrian camels, Himalayan tahr, blackbuck and one individual of both red-crowned and white-naped cranes. While these are not necessarily impossible combinations, they seemed strange to me. Attilly also had a remarkable amount of megafauna for a smaller zoo. They had giraffes, common hippos (I only saw one though), American bison, American black bear, wolves, chimps, lions, Siberian tigers, and leopards. Most of these are housed in surprisingly adequate enclosures, especially for the black bears, which lived in a fenced-off part of the woods, providing ample climbing opportunities. Statistics I saw 83 species in Attilly: 38 mammals, 41 birds, and 4 reptiles. Attilly has 3 species that I didn’t see anywhere else this year. That’s low, but not unexpected since the zoo focuses more on megafauna. With a ZooScore of 1,19, Attilly dangles near the bottom of all collections, with just Zoo da Maia, Best Zoo and Central Park Zoo below it. Enclosures There was nothing Best in Class or Upper Middle Class in Attilly. Several enclosures were adequate, but rarely were they any better than adequate. Lick of Paint: Attilly is again one of those zoos where most of the zoo could be classified as Lick of Paint. My biggest easy-to-fix issue with the zoo were the enclosures for smaller predators, such as striped hyena, leopard and serval. These enclosures were big enough (barely so in the case of the leopard), but barely had any enrichment or hiding places. Eyesores: The indoor enclosure for the chimps consisted out of one “main” building and some sort of attached room that looked very much like it was quickly built in order to give the chimps more indoor space. The combined surface area of this building was still way too small, and it looked like any semi-serious wind gust would just blow it. While the larger aviary/cage for macaques and lar gibbons is quite spacious, one gibbon was locked in a 2x2x2m cage right next to the main aviary. The animal could barely stretch its arms, let alone live a fulfilling life. I sincerely hope this was a temporary arrangement, because otherwise it would be downright terrible. A trio of juvenile Nile crocodiles was housed in a shack where the only access to water consisted of a half-empty tub. Animal Highlights Blesbok, striped hyena, Tonkean macaque, North American beaver, grey-cheeked hornbill, sandhill crane, Parc des Félins https://www.parcs-zoologiques-lumig...s/2019/01/plan-general-centre-150-x-90-cm.pdf Visited on September 4 Parc des Félins is sure an experience. The place only has cats (and a few lemurs), but the few enclosures it has are enormous. They’re not the prettiest enclosures, but for the cats I’m sure it’s hard to do better. Collection-wise the park is also great: only two of all felines I saw this year weren’t visible at Parc des Félins (black-footed cat and caracal, which is at the park but was a no-show this day). Statistics I saw 32 species in Parc des Félins: 26 felines and 6 lemurs. Parc des Félins has 7 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. 7 is a lot for a zoo this small, and is a testament to the complete collection at Parc des Félins. With a ZooScore of 0,55, Parc des Félins places very low in the list this year. That’s fair though, because their collection is really small. General overview The park consists out of three loops: an African, South American, and Asian one. Then there’s also a duo of spacious lemur islands, and a tiny European section (with jaguars) As you enter, the first exhibit you see after the entrance plaza is an enormous enclosure for cheetahs. I remember thinking that it if this was the average enclosure, then there’d be no way I could spot any cat in this zoo. In fact, all of the big cat enclosures are ridiculously gigantic. In Africa especially, there is a boardwalk that passes over enclosures for East African lions and white tigers, and I’m fairly sure that I’ve been to zoos that are smaller than either of these enclosures. The enclosures for smaller cats are less impressive, but these do a really good job of showing how, even with smaller budgets, you can still construct high-quality enclosures. Places like this make you wonder whether zoos should really need to construct million-dollar lion habitats, because there’s really nothing subpar about this. It doesn’t look particularly natural, but even people with no experience whatsoever in zoos realize that this is good for the cats. If you’re visiting and you want to get a good view of the lemurs, I recommend going during the feeding demonstration. Even though this demonstration is only in French, it’s quite cool to just see lemurs appear even though a minute ago you could only spot the ring-tailed lemurs sitting in the middle of the meadow. Animal Highlights Asian golden cat, jungle cat, jaguarundi, Geoffroy’s cat, southern tigrine, Yucatán margay, Canada lynx, leopard cat (both the nominate and euptilura ssp), rusty-spotted cat. Terre des Singes https://www.parcs-zoologiques-lumig.../01/proposition-plan-general-tds-2019-low.pdf Visited on September 4 Compared to Parc des Félins, Terre des Singes is really, really small. Unless you can watch barbary macaques from really nearby for hours, this is a 1 hour park. The entire collection is some callitrichids, geladas, barbary macaques (in an enormous, gigantic, massive enclosure) and 20 parrot species. There’s two large gelada enclosures. These are basically 2 flat meadows with artificial climbing structures in them. I don’t think they’re bad, but visually they’re just not very pleasing. The barbary macaque enclosure is truly wonderful though. It’s 50% wooded, and 50% meadow. It’s fully walkthrough and the hundreds of macaques roaming around in there form an impressive sight. The parrots are all housed in two walkthrough enclosures. One houses a variety of parrots, and the other some rainbow lorikeets. The first one is rather nice, while the lorikeet safari is not the best I’ve seen. In conclusion, there’s a similar philosophy in both Parc des Félins and Terre des Singes: give the animals plenty of space, and worry less about theming. This results in a very cost-effective way of exhibiting animals, with the animals being the primary focus. I only got one addition to the list from Terre des Singes: blue-crowned conure. They really don’t have any particular special species, but that’s okay.
Paris Day Two On the second day fo the Paris trip, I wanted to do the two inner-city zoos: Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes and Parc Zoologique de Paris. Both of these were completely different to the zoos the previous day Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes Plan de la Ménagerie Visited on September 5 The Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes is a prime example of a historic inner-city zoo using its history as an advantage. They don’t even seem to change a lot in the exterior of the enclosure, and I imagine the zoo looking rather similar 50 years ago. What they do, is just using smaller animals in the same enclosures. Like that, they put Aldabra giant tortoises in the former elephant yard. Due to its small size, this means that the Ménagerie lacks basically most of the common megafauna. There’s no lions, zebras, giraffes here. Large animals are present, but usually the more uncommon species: Indian gaur, Rocky Mountain goats, nilgai and anoa are all featured in this small park. Statistics I saw 113 species in the Ménagerie: 40 mammals, 53 birds, 12 reptiles and 8 amphibians. The Ménagerie had 7 species that I didn’t see anywhere else this year. With a ZooScore of 1,88, the Ménagerie sits right below Veldhoven, and a fair bit above GaiaZoo. Enclosures The Ménagerie doesn’t really have any Best in Class enclosures. Upper Middle Class: An aviary for Asian houbara bustards and European rollers is very nice. I thought it was a little gem, with the houbaras being really active, and interactive with the visitors. The rollers add a more aerial element to the aviary and it just … works. The Great Aviary looks like it came straight from an 19th century zoo, and in fact it did (built in 1888). It’s a cool historical element. The inhabitants are not that exciting, but they provide a good amount of variety between aerial and aquatic birds. Lick of Paint: The Vivarium is nice, but while in the rest of the zoo it’s a good idea to maintain the 19th-century feel, I don’t think it’s a good idea to do this in a reptile house. It just looks like an ancient petshop. Eyesores: The Singerie (monkey house) has some awful enclosures for some rather large primates (lion-tailed macaques, black-crested mangabeys, …) which are all indoors and really small. There’s plenty of climbing opportunities though, but that doesn’t make an enclosure good. Animal Highlights Indian gaur, Transcaspian urial, Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo, dusky pademelon, Pondicherry vulture, Visayan tarictic hornbill, Asian houbara bustard, little bustard, New Caledonian giant gecko, tree skink. Parc Zoologique de Paris https://www.parczoologiquedeparis.f...ils/image/pzp_fond-de-carte.jpg?itok=Le3RKcx7 Visited on September 5 The Parc Zoologique is a magnificent zoo, and the highlight of these two days in Paris. The zoo was closed in 2008 in order to completely renovate it, and only re-opened in 2014. The result is a zoo that is not only well-suited to its inhabitants, but also incredibly coherent. The same style of aviary is used throughout the zoo, and while these aviaries are not particularly special, they are certainly good enough for the inhabitants. The park consists of 4 different biozones: Madagascar, Guyana, Europe, Sahel-Savannah and Patagonia. These are in the opposite direction of the normal walking route. I did them in the order I listed them, because I’m dumb. I think the renovations were very successful. Most of the old zoo was broken down and just rebuilt from scratch, but the Great Rock has original enclosures for vultures, otters, and reinvented enclosures for meerkats and bat-eared foxes (formerly a tiger enclosure). Statistics I saw 126 species in the PZP: 47 mammals, 53 birds, 25 reptiles and 13 amphibians. The PZP has 22 species that I didn’t see anywhere else. This is mostly due to the low presence of European herps in zoos, and Paris has a lot of those. With a ZooScore of 2,11, PZP ranks in the middle of all the zoos I did. Sounds correct to me. Enclosures Best in Class: Few zoos have European herps, and I don’t think any mainstream zoos can match the European herp-collection of Paris. The European Vivarium is also located in the Great Rock, which dates from 1934. The vivarium itself is much more modern though, and I personally thought it was lovely. Upper Middle Class: The enormous Guyana-Madagascar greenhouse with a large manatee pool and various primate and herp side-enclosures is exceptional. The species line-up is great, with bearded sakis, Baron’s mantellas, Betsileo Madagascar frogs and so on. The primate enclosures are somewhat small but well-furnished. The free-flying birds can be hard to see as not everything is visible from the visitor paths, but with some patience you can see a fair few of them. A walkthrough Euro-African aviary is attached to the great rock. The birds get plenty of privacy since the visitors walk over the boardwalk in the middle of the pond, and vegetation provides additional hiding places. Also attached to the great rock is a large vulture aviary. This houses griffon, cinereous and Egyptian vultures, as well as a red kite. I don’t think this aviary was as big as the one in Tierpark, but it was definitely larger than usual. As a testament to the quality of the renovations, I don’t believe there are any Lick of Paints or Eyesores left in the zoo. Animal Highlights Chacoan peccary, Eurasian wolverine, South American fur seal, South American sea lion, South American cougar, woolly monkey, Guinea baboon, crowned sifaka, greater bamboo lemur, red-backed bearded saki, spur-winged lapwing, yellow-knobbed curassow, Parson’s chameleon, viperine snake, ladder snake, ocellated lizard, asp viper, European adder, Spanish pond turtle, Trinidad leaf frog, Baron’s mantilla, Betsileo Madagascar frog
The Guyana area is next to Madagascar and I think some of the terrarium animals are in the Madagascar house.
Guyana and Madagascar are adjoined, and share the large greenhouse (both have outdoor enclosures as well). One side exhibits the bamboo lemurs and Malagasy herps, while the other side exhibits manatees, sakis, sloths, tamarins, ... There's also numerous free-flying birds such as red fodies, scarlet ibises, roseate spoonbills, sun conures, blue-throated piping-guans and Madagascar crested ibises. Tilburg Safaripark Beekse Bergen http://beeksebergen.s3.eu-west-1.am...plattegrond-safaripark-beekse-bergen-2019.pdf Visited on September 10 Beekse Bergen is the only safari park on this list. I’m not a big fan of these, and will usually avoid visiting them too. However, we got a great deal on the entrance fee so we couldn’t resist picking up this sizeable park too. It’s also only a 1hr drive from my home, so that’s nice too. I’m not sure what to think of a park like this. On one hand the enclosures are all great and spacious, and it’s really cool to have a drive-through safari kind of thing as it’s an experience people won’t forget. On the other hand, I think seeing ungulate after ungulate, multiple big cats, and a few charismatic primates gets boring after a while. This sort of collection doesn’t get me going and I don’t believe I’ll be revisiting soon. Statistics I saw 83 species in Beekse Bergen: 51 mammals, 31 birds and 1 reptile. Beekse Bergen has 1 species that I didn’t see anywhere else: the Persian gazelle. Beekse Bergen has a ZooScore of 1,24, placing right inbetween Prospect Park Zoo and Zoo du Bois d’Attilly. Enclosures I don’t think it’s useful to rank the enclosures like I usually do, but I would like to take note of some unusual stuff. First of all, the sea lions/fur seals have access to the entire moat that separates the drivethrough enclosures from the regular ones. While it’s great that they get this amount of space, I’m not sure whether it’s that great for disease prevention and/or eye issues (because I don’t imagine the water quality is great). I believe the zoo is responsible enough to monitor this properly though. The combination of baboons and elephants is interesting, and I very much liked it. Zoos should combine elephants more often imo. Sloth bears are combined with corsac foxes and small-clawed otters. I think the combination could work well, but we went back to the enclosure multiple times and never saw the foxes, which was a pity. Animal Highlights Persian gazelle, southern sable antelope, gemsbok, Indian sloth bear, yellow-billed stork, black-headed weaver, red-billed quelea. De Oliemeulen Visited on September 10 As we imagined, a day wasn’t filled by visiting Beekse Bergen, so we looked if there was any interesting collection nearby. We found the Oliemeulen. To be short, Oliemeulen consists of a building with herps and some fish, and then an outside area with aviaries for some mammals and birds. The herps in the house are decent for the most part. Some enclosures are small (especially for the smooth-fronted caimans and the dwarf crocodiles, these have waaaay too little space), and a few snakes looked overweight. Not sure if the latter is caused by the zoo itself or if it’s a rescued animal though. The floorboards on the first floor (second floor if you use weird English) creaked and I cannot imagine that this didn’t disturb the animals. The outdoor enclosures are also barely sufficient. Worst offenders here are capuchins in a cage, vultures in a ridiculously small aviary (and they’ve added Abdim’s storks now I think?), small cats which were constantly pacing, stuffy cages for owls, and so on. Then at last, in a part of the house that’s only accessible from outside live 2-3 American alligators (in an awfully small enclosure, again) and a three-toed amphiuma. While the indoor parts are mostly okay (although sometimes small), the animals housed outdoors really seem to have caught the short end of the stick. I definitely didn’t like this zoo, and think that it’s the worst I’ve visited in the Benelux. It’s overpriced as well, at €12. Statistics I saw 78 species in Oliemeulen: 12 mammals, 17 birds, 40 reptiles and 9 amphibians. Oliemeulen has 9 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. With a ZooScore of 1,51, Oliemeulen sits just below Santo Inácio, and above Prospect Park. Animal Highlights Caracal, ocelot, American red squirrel, Lebombo flat lizard, eastern casquehead iguana, freckled monitor, beautiful pit viper, three-toed amphiuma.
Warsaw https://zoo.waw.pl/files/433022671/file/zoo_mapa_19_01.pdf Visited on September 14 & 17 While our trip to Warsaw was a surprise, of course we had to include the zoo. I’d been here before in 2016 with friends, but since they didn’t like zoos, we had to rush through large parts. That included the bird house, and everything on the western side of the zoo. This time round, we took our time, and since we had a few hours left before we had to take a train to the airport and the zoo is very cheap (easily cheapest zoo this year), we decided to visit again on the last day. The zoo isn’t great. Many enclosures look a bit neglected, and there is no clear walking route which leads to a lot of backtracking. There’s quite a few square hoofstock yards, which gets boring after a while. The signage is also horrid, with most signs stuck onto wooden posts with Velcro. This means that lots of signs are just lost. Statistics I saw 249 species in Warsaw: 53 mammals, 149 birds, 37 reptiles and 10 amphibians. That’s a large bird collection (5th largest in the list), especially since its collection isn’t supersize. Warsaw has 28 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. 19 of those are birds, which makes sense with their big bird collection. With a ZooScore of 4,25, Warsaw ranks 5th in the list. Enclosures While much of the zoo is good, I don’t think anything in Warsaw is truly Best in Class. Upper Middle Class: The islands for chimpanzees and gorillas are as good as any. The indoor enclosure however, is great, and one of the more decorated ones I’ve seen to date and also spacious. Since it can get quite cold in Warsaw in winter, I thought that this was a good move of the zoo. The Reptile House seemed recently renovated. The ground floor has a series of turtle/tortoise enclosures connected by an artificial stream on one side, and some snake terrariums on the other side. Following these are a couple enclosures for larger reptiles: terrariums for anaconda and mangrove monitor, and enclosures for a trio of crocodile species with both in- and outdoor access. Upstairs there are a few terrariums for 10 frog species. I thought the tortoise enclosures were all very fine, and the stream is a nice touch. All other terrariums are well-furnished and besides the anaconda terrarium (huge snake, small enclosure with a water feature that’s way too small) everything was spacious enough. Lick of Paint: Most of the primates are still housed in cages, which are small. They’re well-furnished and not the worst I’ve seen, but I still feel like it could be better. The Bird House houses an impressive array of species, but I thought the building felt a little neglected and sometimes overstocked. The Aquarium only has 5 tanks, and at least two of these (stingrays and piranhas) were overstocked. The large freshwater tank was nice, but housed mostly pet-shop species. The Insect House housed a cool variety of species, but having a nice indoor house themed as a rainforest and not a single free-ranging species in there … lost potential in my opinion. Eyesores: The outdoor enclosure for the common hippos is all-concrete and incredibly small. This is mitigated by a relatively good (new) indoor house. The addition of a saltwater tank to the hippo house is bizarre, too. The polar bear enclosure is all-concrete as well. The water looked dirty, and the enrichment (I assume?) that was in there only made it worse – plastic barrels in green water are not a nice sight. Animal Highlights Maned wolf, Baltic grey seal, Somali wild ass, Allen’s swamp monkey, Radjah shelduck, slender-billed gull, Eurasian curlew, white-winged dove, bare-faced curassow, see-see partridge, ruffed grouse, black grouse, hazel grouse, spotted nutcracker, red-backed shrike, red-collared widowbird, pin-tailed sandgrouse, Tataupa tinamou, Cuban crocodile, Siamese crocodile, mangrove monitor, black-spotted casque-headed treefrog.
Avifauna https://www.avifauna.nl/Images/plattegrond/plattegrond-zomer-2019.jpg Visited on October 12 I don’t think anyone can ever be truly impressed with bird parks after you’ve visited Walsrode. I kind of wasn’t in Avifauna. The park is great and if I’d visited this one first I would have loved it more I think. There’s definitely fewer rarities than in Walsrode, but in my opinion Walsrode sometimes had a poststamp-collection feel to it. Avifauna doesn’t have this. Its collection is substantially smaller and focusing more on species that are sustainable within captive collections – obviously that means that their species are generally also more common in zoos. I’m not entirely sure what I think of their inclusion of a lemur enclosure next to their waterfowl pond – there is no connection to Madagascar and birds with this area. I think this could’ve been done better (although I do understand the need to make a waterfowl pond more attractive). I do like their tamarin walkthrough though. The only bird here is a nocturnal curassow, but still this enclosure feels more nested within the bird area, and there are a few South American birds in the attached buildings. Signage is another point where Walsrode and Avifauna differ. Walsrode’s is excellent, with outdated signage being few and far between. In Avifauna, outdated signage is common, Statistics I saw 166 species in Avifauna: 9 mammals and 157 birds. Avifauna has 12 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. All birds, of course. With a ZooScore of 3,22, Avifauna places 10th, a fair bit below Tierpark Berlin. Enclosures Best in Class: The Nocturnal Safari, displaying kiwi, tawny frogmouth and brush thick-knees is thus far the only nocturnal bird exhibit I’ve seen, ever. I thought this idea was very cool, and seeing an active kiwi always helps of course. Upper Middle Class: The concept of Lori Landing is often used, but rarely executed as well as it was in Avifauna. There’s a large greenhouse dedicated to these parrots, with some masked lapwings also on-show. Lick of Paint: The first part of the Tropical Hall was lush and has a lot of potential, but felt a little understocked. The mid-sized vulture aviary looked a little neglected and overgrown, but lacked plants inside the enclosure. Avifauna does in my opinion not have any Eyesores. Animal Highlights Plumed whistling duck, silver teal, North Island brown kiwi, white-crowned hornbill, Javan rhinoceros hornbill, Sulawesi hornbill, wattled jacana, picazuro pigeon, motmot, Malay crestless fireback, great blue turaco, Ross’s turaco, white-winged tanager, Guianan cock-of-the-rock, scarlet-headed blackbird, magpie shrike, jungle myna, golden-crested myna, red-legged honeycreeper, Tataupa tinamou.
Vienna In October, the zoo-visiting need started to show its face again, so I had to book a new trip again. This time it was between Vienna + Budapest, or Poznan + Wroclaw. Vienna is a really nice city, so here I could visit some other things as well. The Wroclaw trip would be solely zoo-focused though. Since my girlfriend wanted to come along as well, I let her choose, and she chose for Vienna. Understandably, to be fair, as we'd already been in Poland two months ago. Tiergarten Schönbrunn https://www.zoovienna.at/media/uploads/dokumente/plan2019_winter_eng_web_lr.pdf Visited on November 10 I already travelled to Vienna two years ago, on a visit to a friend of mine who was on an Erasmus exchange programme there. This included a visit to the Tiergarten, but as this friend (and the ones I was travelling with) weren’t into zoos, they didn’t like it much and we skipped parts of the zoo, as well as the Desert and Palm Houses outside the zoo. So this year I wanted to make things right and spend all the time I wanted at the zoo, and I did. We arrived 30 minutes after opening (as we’d arrived fairly late at our apartment the night before and waking up before 8 really wasn’t an option). This was plenty of time, as we’d completed our visit around 3 PM, having spent just under 5 hours in the zoo. I think Vienna is an extraordinarily well-executed example of a zoo using its history as an advantage. The Central Pavillion is of course the prime example of this, but also the Bird House, Cat House and Monkey House are marvellously reinvented to house their inhabitants in line with modern husbandry. It also uses a historic bear cage to show how animals used to be housed in zoos (and so they show the enormous leaps zoos have made in the past century). Something that’s more remarkable for an old zoo like Schönbrunn, is the lack of anything that’s truly bad. No other zoo built in a similar age has achieved this as far as I know, and this makes Schönbrunn one of the best zoos I’ve ever visited: a combination of superb exhibitry, a good collection, and a rich history. What else could anyone want? Statistics I saw 168 species in Schönbrunn: 61 mammals, 71 birds, 26 reptiles and 10 amphibians. This was less than I’d expected and even though we missed a few species, I’d still expected Schönbrunn to be a 200+ species zoo. Schönbrunn has 22 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. With a ZooScore of 3,22, Schönbrunn is tied with Avifauna. Enclosures Best in Class: Schönbrunn has a world-class polar bear habitat called Franz Josef Land. This exhibit has 2 enclosures: one larger one, and a smaller one. It includes underwater viewing. We only saw one polar bear as the other one was busy giving birth to a cub. This zoo also has one of the best enclosures for Indian rhinoceros. These animals are mixed with Asian ungulates (nilgai, blackbuck and sika deer) and have access to spacious outdoor paddocks, with plenty of rocks, trees and bars for scratching, as well as a pool and mud wallows. The indoor is less spacious, but still has more space than the usual rhinoceros barn. Upper Middle Class: The Rainforest Hall in Vienna is an excellent representation of an Asian rainforest. A multitude of species are exhibited here, including but not limited to the biggest amount of blue-crowned hanging parrots I’ve ever seen, java sparrows, leafbirds, small-clawed otters, archerfish, free-flying bats (both flying foxes in the main hall and Seba’s short-tailed bats in a walkthrough cave), and tons of other stuff. Sadly the nocturnal path was closed during our visit. The Bird House doesn’t have an enormous amount of species, but they are exhibited in two marvellous walkthrough enclosures. Some of the birds can be hard to spot, but generally you can easily see all inhabitants. Another historic house is the Cat House, which has been beautifully restored, and where visitors now walk in the former indoor enclosures. Housed here are cheetahs, Amur tigers and Amur leopards. The latter two are housed in spacious aviaries, and the cheetahs are housed in grassy paddocks. Then at last, the Monkey House is also beautifully renovated. While it formerly used to house a multitude of species, it now has half a dozen species, mostly smaller-sized primates. King colobuses are housed here in a decent-sized enclosure along with meerkats. A trio of tamarin species is housed with armadillos, and squirrel monkeys share their enclosure with agoutis. There’s also supposed to be lemurs in here, but these weren’t on-show during my visit. All this is well-furnished, with plenty of natural vegetation. More than suitable for the apes’ needs. The ORANG.erie houses a trio (1.2) of Bornean orangutan. These graceful apes have access to a moated (the moat houses native fish) enclosure filled with climbing structures, and an equally full glass-fronted indoor enclosure. There’s also a lot of high-quality educational material to be found here. Lick of Paint: The European area has some good enclosures, but with only three species, is just lacking in animals. Adding a few more animals, such as brown bears, eagles or an aviary with European waterfowl, would do this area a lot of good. The bird of prey aviaries near the rhino house are mediocre at best, and don’t look well-maintained. That’s not a look that is common at all in Vienna, and while they’re not bad, they still stand out as the worst part of the zoo. The Insektarium has terrariums for many species of beetle, stick insect, and mantis. This is probably the biggest insect house I’ve seen to date, but while it’s a good exhibit, it’s little more than terrariums with name tags. I think some more interactive educational material would work great in this house. The Desert House, outside of the zoo, felt a bit abandoned. Quite a few enclosures looked empty, and there wasn’t much life in the hall. Perhaps this was because of winter, but it just wasn’t in optimal condition when we visited. Animal Highlights Pallas’ long-tongued bat, Egypt hedgehog, king colobus, corn crake, orange-bellied leafbird, green-winged pytilia, blue-backed manakin, purple honeycreeper, eastern paradise whydah, little bittern, black-billed amazon, yellow-billed amazon, northern rockhopper, Morelet’s crocodile, tentacled snake, lesser Antillean iguana, northern river terrapin, little rock frog. Haus des Meeres https://www.haus-des-meeres.at/fxdata/hausdesmeeres/prod/fximg/large/Ebenenplan_4717.jpg Visited on November 13 An aquarium inside a flak tower, who would have though of that? Austrians, apparently. This building is huge, but I’d expected it to be bigger honestly. There’s quite a few tanks on the lower floors, but as you get higher, fewer and fewer tanks are encountered. There’s also a rainforest and a crocodile enclosure with a few free-flying birds. The collection suffers from some serious space restrictions, and it obviously has a hard time expanding. For an entrance fee that’s relatively pricey, I don’t think the zoo is worth it. It’s nice to do if you’re in the city for long enough, but I think there’s plenty other stuff to see in Vienna (or if you want to do zoos, there’s trains to Budapest, Prague and Munich. Statistics I saw 81 species in Haus des Meeres: 6 mammals, 19 birds, 46 reptiles and 10 amphibians. Haus des Meeres had 20 species I didn’t see anywhere else this year. That’s a high amount for such a small collection. With a ZooScore of 1,46, Haus des Meeres ranks below GaiaZoo, and at the top of the lower tier. Enclosures Most of the enclosures in Haus des Meeres are fine but not much more. The worst ones would be a terrarium for 3 (!) Komodo dragons that wasn’t even big enough for one, and an aquarium with a variety of smallish fish and a juvenile black-tipped shark, but that’s awfully small for the species. The rainforest exhibit is quite nice though, with some cool species, and a nice use of the vertical space that’s plentiful in the aquarium. Make sure to look up as you’re buying your tickets, as there’s a glass window above your head which gives a nice view into this crocodile tank. Animal Highlights Silvery marmoset, saddleback tamarin (nominate ssp), eastern yellow-billed hornbill, red-billed buffalo weaver, bank myna, slender-billed starling, rough green snake, common death adder, inland taipan, Taylor’s cantil, Aruba island rattlesnake, spiny-headed treefrog, Surinam toad.
