From April 28th to May 5th I will visit the following zoos by the Baltic Sea: Tallinn Zoo (Estonia) Helsinki Zoo (Finland) Riga Zoo (Latvia) Kaunas Zoo (Lithuania) Klaipeda Sea Museum (Lithuania) Based on the galleries and forums for these places, my feeling is that they are not visited nearly as often as zoos in other former Eastern European countries. So if I can help you by taking a picture of something or commenting on a particular exhibit or basically whatever it is that you may need, let me know in good time and I'll see what I can do about it.
I'm well aware of Finland not being in Eastern Europe, thank you. I'm only going there for a few hours because it is easy with a ferry from Tallinn. As to your point regarding the Czech Republic, I have removed that bit of my post so that it doesn't become the focal point of the thread. It's purpose was to offer people who don't have the same chance to travel as I do to arrange them with information and photos. I would however like to link to the following Wikipedia page: [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Bloc]Eastern Bloc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
For someone in his early thirties you sure do get to travel alot. Geez! Have a fun trip, I have no requests just take plenty of good photos (as you always do.)
Well, living in the UK now gives me access to Ryanair! Too bad though that my savings have drained, now that I'm a student again and not with income. I'm using a part of my student loan to do this. It's just so bloody tempting!
That's Russia's point of view. With more rubles pumped into Iceland, Iceland could be as much Eastern Europe as Czech republic or Poland is supossed to be. And you didn't even bother to read first sentence of that article...
If you could get some pictures of the New Pachyderm House in Tallinn that would be great. It was under construction last I was there. Also, some pictures of the Snow Leopard enclosure would be much appreciated. Have fun in Estonia!
My advice: add Helsinki's reptile zoo to your list. And try to take some good pics of that Golden monkey at Kaunas (and of their Mountain Weasel).
I would be very interested to hear about the practicalities of this trip when you get back as I'm keen to do something similar.
Kaunas Zoo (Lithuania) Gold-colored Capuchin still there, currently they are doing a lot of repairs at the upper part of zoo, some animals was moved to lower part, so don't miss stairs or path to giraffe and birds section or you will miss half of zoo. Big storm in Kaunas still left some tree's on the roofs Fire destroyed some buildings in Riga Zoo (Latvia) too. Dolphins at Klaipeda Sea Museum (Lithuania) moved to Greece, will be back at summer after renovation of buildings.
Dibatag: I took photos of the elephant house/exhibits and the Snow Leopard exhibit. I would upload them, but as there exists neither a gallery for Tallinn Zoo nor for Estonia in general (and any requests of additions have been ignored for the past six months or so, hence no use in asking) none of my pictures will be going on Zoochat. However, if you PM your e-mail address, I will be sure to send you a 'best-of' selection. Sun Wukong: unfortunately I didn't have time to go to the Helsinki Reptilezoo. As to Kaunas, luck wasn't on my side regarding the Golden Monkey or the Mountain Weasel. Not a single monkey was in the outside cages in the very outdated Monkey House and the weasel never showed itself, even if I passed its cage several times. But even if it had, the animal is so small and the bars so thick and dark that even someone with a more advanced camera than mine would have had problems taking pictures. Adrian1963: maps should be on their websites. I know language might not be helping you in locating them, but if you just click on the links, you're bound to find their maps sooner or later. I wanted to take maps for friends but they were included in the ticket price and it was strictly one map per person. Not knowing the languages prevented me from explaining that I was a collector and had friends with the same passion. Ciololo: I found almost only waterfowl and birds of prey on the bottom at Kaunas Zoo. There were next to no ungulates on display in the lower ungulate section, apart from three Caprid species (Siberian Ibex, Rocky Mountain and Barbary Sheep) and two Kulan. Rob: I'll try to e-mail out reports once I'm back from Tobago (leaving Wednesday for two weeks). Tallinn is worth the visit for the Caprid collection alone, but all the zoos have their work cut out for them. I understand Kaunas has had to operate with almost zero budget during some years, but their recently gained status as the national zoo of Lithuania (not that there are any other competitors) instead of just being a city zoo for Kaunas might help them in securing funds for development.
Here are some maps: Helsinki Korkeasaari Zoo Map Tallinn Tallinn Zoo Riga Zoo map Kaunas http://www.zoochat.com/703/kaunas-zoo-167824/
I'm really excited to read your report about Estonia's zoo. One of my favorite professors was from Estonia, and she used to tell stories about her life there in class all the time. I hope you have a safe and fun trip!
