Suzhou Zoo (Closed) Suzhou Zoo visit, 3 October 2013

Suzhou is a city about half and hour to an hour by train out of Shanghai. The zoo there houses two Yangtze softshell turtles (Rafetus swinhoei), which is half of the world's entire population of the species. That really was the only reason I visited the zoo, apart for me being based in Suzhou for a week. The idea I had of Suzhou Zoo in my head was that it was going to be a large green zoo, sort of a smaller version of Shanghai Zoo. That idea was very very wrong. I think the reason I had thought that was two-fold: I had imagined that a zoo holding the pair of Yangtze turtles would be a very good “proven” zoo; and secondly the Zoochat gallery had only 17 photos in it and all were close-ups of individual rare animals and my mind filled that in to say the enclosures were good (I know that doesn't make sense, but that's how it was). I have now corrected the skewed gallery impression and uploaded a bunch of enclosure photos.....

The Suzhou Zoo is very small, basically one of those concrete and bars city-zoos which I always imagine when I think of the home-spun '70s zoos in England which have largely now disappeared. It is situated on an island in a lake, which probably tells you something of its size (plan here: http://www.zoochat.com/1688/suzhou-zoo-map-338980/) . The cages are all actual cages (almost no “enclosures” or “exhibits” here), with the notable exception of the two pools for the Yangtze turtles which are not elaborate but certainly a good size and surrounded by glass walls. The Chinese alligator enclosure is also an alright size and surrounded by glass, and the waterfowl lake is relatively spacious (although it seemed to be lacking in much waterfowl that I saw).

The map of the zoo is here (http://www.zoochat.com/1688/suzhou-zoo-map-338979/). The first animals seen upon entering are the ratite pens for ostrich and emu (“Cursorial Birds Area” on the map), not bad but not large either. The first two primate cages are good ones, very large for this zoo with grass floors, for ring-tailed and ruffed lemurs. I should mention that I got almost no photos of individual animals, mostly just the cages, because the zoo was packed (it was during a week-long public holiday) and the wire and bars just got in the way too much on most of the cages. The cage for golden snub-nosed monkeys was also grass-floored, rather large and tall but not very wide. There were a pair here, and next to them a smaller cage for a male Francois' langur. The “Monkey Area” was the second-worst part of the zoo. Except for the cages I just mentioned, all the others were ugly concrete and bars cages with very little inside to occupy the monkeys' minds. The rhesus macaque cage was very large it must be said, but all the others (mostly macaques and baboons) were in a row of small horrible cages.

The pools for the Yangzte softshell turtles are next to the monkeys and I had a look at them. (On the map they are labelled “Spotted Turtle Ponds” because the species is also called the spotted or speckled softshell turtle). I only saw one of the turtles, basking near the edge of the land area. The pools are very large and surrounded by glass walls to stop people throwing items into the water.

After seeing the turtle pools and completely not seeing the rest of the reptiles in “Amphibious Venus” (here is why: http://www.zoochat.com/1688/reptile-house-339017/) I went back past the monkeys to the “Common Pheasant House” (two largish open pens for blue peafowl and at least one blue eared pheasant; and green peafowl) and then around the outer path which leads past the “Plant-eating Animals Zone.” This was a series of very small concrete/tile-floored pens for hooved stock, namely red deer, Japanese sika, common zebra, golden takin, blue sheep, Pere David's deer, a Bactrian camel, and red kangaroos (I think I may have forgotten a couple of ungulates too). The giraffe yard was at the end of this path, and this was pretty good in terms of size, certainly much better than all the other hooved stock got.

The bears (“Bear Venus”) were just shockingly appallingly horribly housed. I mean, bears almost always get screwed over by zoos but the cages these ones were incarcerated in were literally the worst I have ever seen. Three cages, all brutally small (to use a snowleopard phrase ), concrete and bars, nothing inside. One cage had a sun bear, one a brown bear, and the third had two full-grown brown bears which spent a considerable amount of their time challenging each other for space. [I think “Bear Venus” was meant to say “Bear Venue”, as in “the place where the bears are kept,” but the map had a typo]

The waterfowl lake was next to the giraffes. The signage had pink-backed pelicans (I think it said pink-backed, might have got that wrong), black swans, and a few ducks. I saw black swans, a couple of swan geese, and a pochard (that last one might have been a wild bird). There were also two really odd aviaries built over the lake, but on the opposite side to the viewing area so that the inhabitants were as good as invisible (http://www.zoochat.com/1688/waterfowl-lake-339005/) . These held a large number of mandarin ducks. Running from the lake was a long narrow stream with pens along it for Oriental white storks and flamingoes (“Waders Zone” on the map).

The “Beast Zone” was where all the cats were kept. This was a row of small, mostly bare, glass-fronted cages. All the cats were locked into the viewing areas and most were asleep (it was quite a hot day, so that's just what cats do). This was quite an unpleasant area but only because the cages were far too small – they sort of reminded me more of macaw aviaries! Increase the size of each one and they wouldn't be much different to a lot of other Big Cat cages in Western zoos (the cagey ones, not the immersion ones obviously). I guess there were eight or nine cages occupied here, and several that were either empty or the cats were inside the shelters maybe. Inhabitants that I saw were two leopards in separate cages, two black jaguars in separate cages, two tigers in separate cages (one labelled as South Chinese, I can't remember what the other one was labelled as), African lions, and a Eurasian lynx. The lynx was the only Small Cat I saw, it was really lanky (!) – I don't know if that is a climate thing, or a subspecies thing....I'm used to lynx looking thick-furred and sort of bulky – and it appeared to be really stressing out, but it may have been waiting to be fed or something (I wouldn't like to judge its behaviour based only on seeing it for a few minutes!).

From the “Beast Zone” I came down through the “Bird Area” (still not being able to get close to the reptile tanks!). The birds mostly came off far better than the mammals at the Suzhou Zoo! The aviaries were all perfectly adequate – not large but not too small – the sort of aviaries you might see private aviculturists with, or even in many zoos elsewhere. The cinereous vulture had one of those awful tall narrow cages which are inexplicably popular for birds of prey, but otherwise the birds were all good. They were mostly common avicultural subjects and mostly parrots. The only one of any real interest to me was a Jardine's parrot because I hadn't seen that species before.

So....that's the Suzhou Zoo. I wouldn't be making a return visit. The funny thing is, although the descriptions I give and the photos I provide make the place look like some hell-hole, when I was walking around the zoo the impression I got was not one of “poor suffering animals” (such as I got at Bukittinggi Zoo in Sumatra in 2009, if you want to find that thread) but rather one of a zoo where the cages may be very poor but the animals are generally well-cared for. Rather than “these animals would be better off dead,” more a case of “these animals sure could do with better cages, but they are still being looked after properly”. The only exceptions I would make would be for the bear cages which should simply not exist, and the monkey row which was really nasty.

I'll also say that the visitors were all very well-behaved! All the animals were getting fed but other than that I saw no issues, and this was a very busy holiday! There were also security guards wandering around keeping an eye on the visitors which was nice to see. I saw one guy get hauled over the coals because he (obviously being an idiot!) had jumped over the barrier around one of the bear cages, I think to get his photo taken next to the bars. If the bears hadn't been busy fighting he may have ended up in a sorry state!

Photos in the gallery: Suzhou Zoo Gallery

 

it is probably worth pointing out that my take on Asian zoos is probably rather different to that of most Western Zoochatters, simply because I have been to quite a few of them. I have seen some shocking zoos, but also some very good ones. When I visit Asian zoos I tend to think of them in comparison to other Asian zoos -- in terms of what Asian zoos are like in general -- and thus I will think better of a zoo such as Suzhou (comparing it to other Asian zoos) than I would if it was in the UK or America, if that makes sense.

Also I tend to look at an enclosure as a whole. If the cage is all concrete and wire that doesn't automatically make it a "bad" cage, because there are other factors to consider as well (e.g. size, enrichment, the habits or individual personality of the animal, etc). On the opposite side, just because an enclosure looks "good" that doesn't mean it is good. I can be critical of many of Singapore Zoo's enclosures, even though to the average visitor they look fantastic, because I can see that sometimes there is a lot of "set-dressing" disguising small or inadequate living areas.

For Suzhou specifically, I guess you could say it is small and ugly, aesthetically unpleasant to Western eyes, but the animals mostly seem well looked after, even if all of them would benefit from larger living spaces. They would need a new site for that however, because there is nowhere to expand where the zoo is currently situated.