That is indeed exactly what the binturong looked like And the binturong from Gembira Loka Zoo you linked was indeed the one I photographed, as well, though it looked a little more yellow in real life. I'll try to get as many pictures up as soon as possible It did indeed remind me of a (albeit very large) domestic cat, haha. And thanks for the kind words, devilfish! I thoroughly enjoy writing these reviews haha, almost feels like revisiting the zoo entirely. New update should be coming today, hopefully!
Very beautiful individual indeed! Okay, here goes my attempt on the first half of the maze that is Batu Secret Zoo; As you exit the structure with bear cuscuses, you walk into another elevated, roofed structure, overlooking the entire zoo and an exhibit for saltwater crocodiles (which is 2 floors down!) Then you continue on an elevated path alongside the back wall of the primate exhibits. After a while you turn right, and are faced with a medium-sized aviary for Siamangs. Between the elevated path and the aviary is a rather plain-looking exhibit for gharials and an assortment of large fish not easily identifiable from above. Continuing on an elevated path you can look into exhibits for fennec foxes, bat-eared foxes and hog badgers from above. On the other side of the fence is a slightly lower exhibit that held a single dwarf cassowary (and a daring blue peafowl, who roam freely throughout the park). Opposing this exhibit is another eye-sore of an aviary for a very active pair of rhinoceros hornbills. While the aviary was ugly, it was quite large and seemed to entertain the hornbills well. After this you walked in between exhibits for sitatungas on your left, and patagonian maras on your right. At the end, where there is a row of small, dark exhibits for masked palm civets, common palm civets and more binturong, you can either decide to go left or right. I went left, alongside the stretched out sitatunga enclosure. Opposing the sitatunga exhibit were two wallaby exhibits, one for dusky pademelons and one for Papuan agile wallabies (they seem like the two go-to macropods for Indonesian zoos, haha!). Next up were 2 pygmy hippos in a relatively small exhibit with an underwater viewing window, and on the other side of the path was a very aquatic exhibit for capybaras and (if I recall correctly) black swans. Up next were 3 more monkey aviaries, much larger than the ones at the beginning of the zoo. The first held 2 black crested mangabeys, the second a small group of lion-tailed macaues, and the third a pair of Sumatran silver surilis. After this the elevated path, which we've found ourselves on yet again, curves over another nutria exhibit towards an aviary for crowned pigeons and large flying foxes (the aviary hanging at the right height for the bats to be at eye-level, sadly the lighting wasn't fantastic or it would have made for some great pictures!) and then onto two aviaries, one for each species of ruffed lemur. After this you went down, finally off of the really weirdly twisting elevated path, and were greeted by another group of meerkats, and a horribly small, dark exhibit for raccoons, and, you guessed it, more binturong. Next up was the nutria exhibit you could see from above, and after this an exhibit for American beavers and some waterfowl. Next up was an exhibit for a small group of very loud Asian small-clawed otters in a very mock rock-heavy exhibit, and opposing this yet another highlight of the park... A pair of mountain anoa! It's not often that I'm intrigued by artiodactyla, but I stayed here quite a while to photograph them. Next up, the path continued around a relatively large pen for llamas, green peafowl, and lesser rheas. After this exhibit, you were on the ground floor, in the main central plaza of the zoo, overlooking the pen I just described, two circular glass-fenced exhibits for black-tailed prairie-dogs and Indian crested porcupines, from which you could also view the fennecs, bat-eared foxes and hog badgers from ground level. Also on this central area were various (not incredibly overwhelming) food stands, entrances to the reptile house and aquarium, and you guessed it, more binturong! Next time I'll be describing the first reptile house, and then continuing where we left off after the nocturnal house
Isn't the first link a picture of a Palawan binturong - I thought they were a more silvery grey appearance. The leucistic and piebald individuals are definitely odd/interesting.
About time I continue with this, mainly because I want to get all of this noted before I forget it myself! The entrance to the reptile house is situated right underneath the very first row of primate exhibits in the zoo, but you enter from down at the bottom, near the exhibit for porcupines on a sort of central square. Right before you entered, besides the reptile house itself there was a relatively large terrarium-style exhibit for, you guessed it, more binturongs! The reptile house was quite an interesting one because it just seemed to keep going wherever you went. It was decorated quite nicely, themed as a sort of tropical cave, with mock rock along the walls and support poles disguised as fake trees. The exhibits themselves weren't extremely big, but most were definitely large enough for their inhabitants and not much under the European reptile house norm. I won't be going over every single exhibit because most were rather similar. A rather interesting display in the first area was an open-topped, undecorated exhibit for a dead tortoise; no signs nearby or anything, but all passersby seemed to know that they had to move it around to prove it was 'hollowed out' and weighed next to nothing. The species (among others, I only bothered to list non-ABC species) list for the first area is as follows: -Ortilia borneensis -Varanus panoptes -Hydrosaurus amboinensis -Oxyuranus scutellatus -Morelia amethistina -Varanus nebulosus -Heosemys spinosa -Aerochordus javanicus -Indotestudo porstenii -Candoia carinata -Tupinambis teguixin -Varanus melinus -Lampropeltis getula floridana -Homalopsis buccata -Leiopython albertsi -Varanus macraei -Varanus kordensis -Varanus cumingi After this you briefly exit the building to a small open area with medium-sized outdoor exhibits for giant tortoises and komodo dragons (the latter of which young individuals were also kept indoors) and glass-fronted terraria for Burmese and reticulated pythons. After this, one passed through the open area as described in the beginning of my previous post, where you got a much more "normal" view on the saltwater crocodile exhibit (which also had young in the indoor area of the reptile house). After this you enter yet another hallway of similar (but taller) terraria, containing following species: -Anolis equestris -Carettochelys insculpta -Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus -Epicrates cenchria -Lampropeltis ruthveni -Candoia aspera -Varanus caerulivirens -Tiliqua scincoides scincoides -Kinyongia fischeri -Lampropeltis mexicana -Python brongersmai -Ameiva ameiva -Egernia frerei This hallway ended up in a room with some very small (the animals living in them barely had any moving space at all, which surprised me as all other terraria thus far have been decent to good) for some larger turtle species, and a Cuvier's dwarf caiman. On the other side of the room was a large viewing window looking into what looked like a very large tank, but was actually the false gharial tank in front of the siamang aviary mentioned in the previous post! The fish were a variety of larger catfish and arowana, which was fascinating as I don't think I've seen such large crocodilians combined with large fish before. These are the species kept in the smaller terraria: -Leucocephalon yuwonoi -Paleosuchus palpebrosus -Chelodina novaeguinae -Dogania subplana -Cuora amboinensis After this one walked up a diagonal, open-topped hallway that was lined with small terraria for invertebrates; think tarantulas, scorpions, rhinoceros beetles, stick insects, cockroaches, etc. This hallway then led to a path from which you could see the dwarf cassowary exhibit from below, that curled up and around to a series of big cat exhibits (and the sitatunga exhibit from the previous update, seen from the other side). Hope you enjoyed
@Chlidonias definitely! I don't have many exhibit shots but I could definitely post quite a few animal pictures, it's just that I need to find time to do it. I should finish these reviews as soon as possible as well!
