I was really hesitant to visit this zoo but the lure of Tenasserim Langur, Burmese Ferret badger, Siberian Weasel and Banded Linsang made it difficult to resist at least a quick trip on the afternoon we arrived in Bangkok from Koh Samui. I was hesitant to take any of the family with me as their tolerance of too much zoo activity is low anyway (although this was a mostly zoo free trip) and if the conditions weren't great they would want to leave straight away before I saw anything. My 14 year old son was keen to come along to see a zoo in a shopping mall and he has seen all the photos online so I had prepared him as best I could. He is reptile mad so was most looking forward to that part of the visit. I have to say that the zoo surprised me and not in the way I had been expecting. I had expected that a zoo on the covered areas of a shopping mall just couldn't work but that is where the most effort had been spent. It was still bad by a lot of Western standards but the nocturnal section was on par with the enclosures of most of these exhibits and an ingenious use of the fact that you are indoors anyway. The reptile displays were in some parts good with decent size glass fronted displays for larger pythons, cobras or monitors but a lot were in standard aquariums that while large were in some cases positioned so your could walk around them on all sides. An aviary of some sort with large windows to the outside and mynas and doves in it and a large shallow pond with giant chaophraya stingrays but I could only see one and it was pretty small (maybe 1 ft). It is upstairs where things get bad. Hornbills with long tall cages but still on par with those seen in other smaller Asian zoos. Deer in tiny enclosures. A couple of small bear bits. A lone penguin. 3 or 4 leopards. A gibbon with a new born in a circular wire cage about 8 ft around and not much taller. She was visibly distressed every time anyone came up to the enclosure, hissed, grabbed the baby and repeatedly hit her head with her hand. There was a similar cage with albino baby monkeys and in the primate section a setup with a male albino in with a harem of brown females so I assume they are breeding albinos for sale. The small cat cages were as big as say Singapore zoo but mostly rock work. There was a walk through aviary with shrubs and trees growing in it so it was possible to grow plants up there. The jackals had a glass fronted concrete box and were pacing the entire time. There were various small cages for birds and squirrels. The primate section looked more like a row of prison cells. The lone gorilla had a large concrete cage with heavy bars and glassed in as well. There were a few cages of spitting and begging orangutans with babies. A truly awful set of lemur cages - brown, black and white ruffed and red ruffed and a hybrid. These were basically about 10 ft deep perched on the outer edges of the complex so they had a rock ledge on not much else. Most of the other primates are no longer there and all the rest of the primate cages had setups for breeding albino crab eating macaques, stump tailed macaques or rhesus macaques. There was a mixed cage with a lone and hissy capuchin and a couple of green monkeys (or something similar). I didn't see langur as it was no longer there. I suspect linsang is no longer there as cage is still there but no food or water was set out. I think Burmese Ferret Badger is there but I didn't see. I posted a photo of the Siberian Weasel in the gallery. It looks more like some sort of mongoose to me. I dropped back by Pata a second time of the way back from Dusit to try one last time to see the ferret badger and linsang and to get a decent photo of the Asian golden Cat - still not food for linsang, badger still a no show and heavy wire still made cat hard to photograph.
