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Moscow zoo Visit to moscow zoo

Discussion in 'Russia' started by Glutton, 8 Sep 2013.

  1. Glutton

    Glutton Member

    Joined:
    28 Jun 2013
    Posts:
    23
    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    In july i got to visit Moscow and it's zoo and would recommend it to everyone.
    The zoo is quite a good size for a city zoo and split into two areas connected by a footbridge ( the old territory and the new territory).I will start with the old territory.
    It was quite interesting to see a south american exhibit featuring capybara plus one each of guanaco,alpaca,llama and vicuna! There was also a native species area for birds and mammals in a semi-circle of rather small aviary-type cages. This was the home of the sable which i was lucky enough to see, as well as beech marten, red squirrel, brown and mountain hare and rather out of place african wild cat! The highlight for me was the nocturnal house which had a great collection of small mammals as well as barn and scops owls and european frogs and toads. This was the first time i had seen Vinogradov's jird, eastern hedgehog, cactus mouse and european flying squirrel. Other highlights in this territory were the beluga and bottlenose dolphins, dhole and musk ox.
    In the new territory there was a lot of work going on in the primate houses so no lemurs or small primates were on show. It was nice to see both species of orangs breeding and gorilla although with the high attendance at the zoo, the popular animals are difficult to see! The indoor area of the monkey house housed a reptile exhibition at the time of my visit which had a lot of snakes i don't think i'd seen before (i'm afraid my knowledge of reptiles is not great and the signs were in russian). This area also had five female northern fur seal, a solitary cape giraffe and a couple of asian black bear (ussuricus subspecies) which again were firsts for me.
    The worst area is the children's zoo. This part is based on fairy tale animals and has a brown bear in a very small cage as well as a mountain hare in a small cage right next to a silver fox!
    The real highlight for me was getting to visit the small mammal research unit which is one of the many off-show areas. This is where the long-beaked echidna is. If that's not enough there is also chinese pygmy dormouse, piebald shrew, yellow steppe lemming, northern palm squirrel, an unrecorded species of mouse-like hamster and a long list of jerboa,jird and gerbil species.
    I certainly was pleasantly surprised by both Moscow and the zoo and the hospitality shown by the staff was second to none.
     
  2. Elephas Maximus

    Elephas Maximus Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    4 Sep 2012
    Posts:
    727
    Location:
    Russia, Ekaterinburg
    Glad to see another thread about Russian zoos :)
    The bear from children's zoo was recently transferred to Stary Oskol zoo.
    He got a more spacious exhibit. Sadly, there's also much of concrete.
    [​IMG]
     
  3. Glutton

    Glutton Member

    Joined:
    28 Jun 2013
    Posts:
    23
    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    Glad to see the bear has moved on.

    I forgot to say that Moscow also has one of the best meerkat enclosures I have seen together with the best looking meerkats!:)
     
  4. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

    Joined:
    6 Oct 2012
    Posts:
    840
    Location:
    Glasgow
    MORE SPACIOUS?????!!!!!????
     
  5. Elephas Maximus

    Elephas Maximus Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    4 Sep 2012
    Posts:
    727
    Location:
    Russia, Ekaterinburg
    The current space is 120 square meters (probably 12 X 10), there's a pool and sleeping den.
    Later this year the enclosure will be expanded.