I actually only saw 99 species (amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) at the Oregon Zoo, which isn't a particularly large number for a big zoo, but I certainly didn't feel like there was much missing from the collection. And 20% of species being zoo-lifers is getting pretty high for me
You saw 99 species at Oregon Zoo and 20% of them you'd never laid eyes on before? That summarizes the life of a Kiwi as your location does not allow you access to diverse collections in Australasia. Anyway, nice review of Oregon Zoo and I'd rank that establishment in the top 25 American zoos. As you've pointed out the upcoming brand-new habitats for elephants, polar bears, black rhinos and primates make the future there rather exciting, even with the seemingly endless turnover of staff.
I think it more points to the Oregon Zoo having a high proportion of North American species. He has, after all, been round very many species-rich collections in Europe.
Yes, as Chlidonias says, I think its mostly to do with the Oregon Zoo having a good collection of North American species that are rarely exhibited outside that continent. I think most Europeans visiting this zoo would see a similar proportion of new species. I will figure out what proportion would have been new had I never been out of Australasia, I think it will be much higher, over 50%!
I rarely see more than a few new zoo animals when I'm travelling. If I ever got to Europe or North America the percentage of lifers would be huge.
OK, so if I had never left Australasia, I would have only had the opportunity to see 33 of the 99 species I saw at Oregon Zoo... Which is why travelling is awesome!
Day Eight Today was a really long day. I woke at 5am, after four hours sleep, and caught a taxi to central Portland, from where I caught a bus to Seattle. It was a fairly interesting trip, lots of views of farmland and hamlets. Not much in the way of wildlife though. I arrived in a rather dreary part of town, which was dead at 9.30am on a Saturday. This would explain all the shuffling zombies who followed me like I was the last living soul I suppose. Eventually I managed to find a hotel, and a taxi to my airbnb accommodation. After checking in, and trying to wake up a bit more, I walked five minutes to the Woodland Park Zoo. Woodland Park Zoo is located in a suburb north of the city centre, in a large park. This zoo is renowned for its immersion exhibits, and I was very excited to explore such a progressive and modern zoo. Cost was moderate - $19, and included a token that visitors could put into a container for one of several conservation initiatives the zoo is involved in. The more tokens put towards an initiative, the more money the zoo will donate to it. This was a brilliant way to get people aware of and involved in conservation; every single visitor I saw put their token in, and many spent a few minutes choosing. I hope more zoos do this, I think it’s extremely effective, fairly cheap, and gets visitors in a conservation-type frame of mind as soon as they enter the zoo. Except me, I wanted the token as a souvenir... The first exhibit encountered is the African Savannah. Opening in 1980, this is a key immersive exhibit at the zoo, and the main exhibit is home to a mix of Reticulated Giraffe, Zebra, Fringe-eared Oryx, Grant’s Gazelle, Ostrich and Spur-winged Goose. And while it is a nice, lush and green enclosure, it’s not particularly African. It’s basically a meadow with beautiful deciduous trees that looks like it should be home to some deer and rabbits. The surrounding exhibits, a walkthrough aviary for various African birds, Hippopotamus, Patas Monkeys, Lions and Warthog are all adequate, but the complete lack of a real African landscape means this important exhibit hasn’t aged well and is rather uninspiring. The single worst thing about this exhibit was the Giraffes – these were corralled in a very small pen in a corner of the exhibit, housed behind tall mesh fences, to be fed by a long queue of paying visitors. They seemed to be there all day, literally cash cows, and were basically off-display for anyone who didn’t want to wait half an hour to feed them. The next two immersive exhibits are rather newer, dating from the 1990s, and displaying a range of Asian wildlife. These work much better in terms of immersion, because the vegetation is much more jungle-y, overall much more impressive. The first area, Elephant Forest, holds (unsurprisingly) a small group of Asian Elephants – in a rather long, narrow enclosure. The advantages of this for the animals are obvious, it can’t all be seen at once, and has lots of different areas. It’s not particularly large, and an expansion would be an improvement. I know pigs are destructive, but surely someone can come up with a better way of displaying them than dustbowls with dead wood and rocks. Woodland Park’s Visayan Warty Pigs (and Warthogs) are in exhibits that are among the very best I’ve seen, but both are missing something to endear these creatures. The second area, Trail of Vines, features the most active Malayan Tapir I’ve ever seen – which meant this beautiful creature got a lot more attention than they usually receive. Possibly this was because the animal was in a very shaded exhibit, with much overhanging and ground vegetation, rather than a barren, exposed pen. The Orangs (species?) and Siamangs were inside, in rather cramped quarters, but their outdoor enclosure was much more impressive, many tall trees and options for movement, it would have been great to see them out there utilising it, especially with the tree-top views from the boardwalk. The other species here, Lion-tailed Macaque and Indian Python, rounded out the area nicely, although some birds would be a nice addition. Around the corner a bird show was underway, with a Turkey Vulture that flew off to investigate the nearby Meerkats and had to be re-captured, and a Spectacled Owl, which was much better behaved. Opposite was the Adaptations house, a collection of mismatched small mammals – Meerkats, Two-toed Sloth, Tamandua, Northern Tree-Shrew and Indian Flying-fox, with a large indoor Komodo Dagon enclosure at the far end. Seems like a hang-over from earlier times, hopefully the species can be retained in future, more appropriate, exhibits. A homely paddock for Lowland Anoa was nearby, in a quiet corner which was a nice change from the crowds. Northern Trail, the North American immersive exhibit is another brilliant exhibit – it’s amazing how well native animals can be displayed when effort is put in, they certainly don’t have to be the “boring” animals that so many zoos act like they are. Grey Wolves, Wapiti, Porcupines, Grizzlies, River Otters, Arctic Fox, Owls and Steller’s Sea Eagle made a great and cohesive exhibit that really showcased the local fauna and flora. Not everything is perfect, looking down on Arctic Fox doesn’t really work for example, and again there could be more supporting species (birds and herps). The worst thing is that the trail is a dead-end, which really screws any flow through the exhibit area. And the dumb thing is it looks like it could be a loop, it just hasn’t been connected up. The Australian section is token, basic and disappointing – nothing worth mentioning here. Except Kea, great to see New Zealand species anywhere! The adjacent Snow Leopard cage is much nicer, and marks a return to the Asian animal exhibits. Nearby are old enclosures for Sloth Bears, new exhibits for this species are under construction, as well as for Malayan Tigers, hopefully this will all be connecting up to the Trail of Vines in the future. The first part of this new section, featuring Asian Small-clawed Otter and an aviary with large, hardy Asian birds is already open, and looks like a good start. The last area of the zoo has a very dense collection of exhibits, which I’ll mention only briefly. The first was a reptile house, with an impressive collection; some housed well, some in too small tanks. Also here were Matschie’s Tree Kangaroos. Nearby was a new exhibit for Humboldt Penguins, which was very impressive and certainly one of the bet outdoor penguin exhibits I’ve seen. This was really the start of the South American section, with the next exhibit being the much lauded Jaguar enclosure. This lead into the Rainforest House, which was populated with a very solid collection of South American birds, a handful of herps, Ocelot and Golden Lion Tamarin. Back outside were exhibits for African primates – Red-Ruffed Lemurs, Black-and-White Colobus and Gorillas. These were all stunning, but personally I’d like them to be re-purposed for South American primates, allowing new exhibits for the current species, including the gorillas, who currently inhabit the world’s first immersion exhibit, which has held up well given it was built in the late 1970s. The final section, Temperate Forests, begins with a couple of exhibits for various waterbirds, followed by Cheetah, Pudu, Red Panda and a nice collection of Cranes. This is followed by a huge walkthrough aviary for waterfowl, with a great range of species. I spent ages trying to find everything! This was followed by another walkthrough aviary, with large aviaries lining one side and housing an impressive collection of hornbills, pheasants, and other birds – including many Laughing-thrushes few of which I could see. The Zoo’s final exhibit is the children’s zoo, featuring a farmyard, playgrounds, an insect house, and the last wild animal exhibit – Great Grey Owl. I did like Woodland Park Zoo very much, but it didn’t wow as much as I thought it would. The exhibit quality was very high overall, but there are some exhibits that definitely require attention. The exhibit design is much more reminiscent of Australasian zoos than European ones, much more so than Oregon Zoo, and there are obvious reasons for this. While the zoo wasn’t quite as cohesive as I would have hoped, there was a very diverse and solid collection. All up I saw 162 species, of which 30, or 18.5%, were new (or new subspecies). The majority of these were reptiles and birds, with just two new mammals seen – although these were both beautiful hoofstock species. The best new species were the Tentacle Snake and Hooded Crane. New Species: Hourglass Tree Frog, Giant Leaf Frog, Solomon Islands’ Leaf Frog, Smooth-sided Toad, Colorado River Toad, Grey-banded Kingsnake, Blair’s Kingsnake, Desert Rosy Boa, Southern Copperhead, Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake, Burmese Vine Snake, Tentacle Snake, Pan’s Box Turtle, Large Eyed Pit Viper, Tiger Rat Snake, Lesser Scaup, Black Spur-winged Goose, Hooded Crane, Spur-winged Lapwing, Barred Owl, Black-billed Magpie, Crested Oropendola, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Paradise Tanager, Bananaquit, Red-crested Finch, White-tailed Trogon, Knobbed Hornbill, Fringe-eared Oryx and Grant’s Gazelle.
Nice review of Woodland Park, a zoo that has become legendary and thus can sometimes slightly disappoint overseas visitors. The exhibit quality is very high but there is not a vast number of species on display in comparison to the behemoths of the American zoo world like San Diego, Bronx, Omaha, Columbus, etc. I agree with most of what you wrote, and the Northern Trail ending in a dead end is a major annoyance to many visitors. For many years now there has been hope of an Asian Highlands zone being constructed to round out the loop (snow leopard, red panda, takin) but I have no idea if that idea will see the light of day any time soon. It would definitely maintain the theme of many Asian species on that side of the zoo and it would complement the Northern Trail in an excellent fashion so my fingers are crossed that one day it is built.
An Asian Highlands type exhibit sounds great Snowleopard. It was a great zoo, but my expectations (as usual) were a bit high. It probably didn't help that I was rather tired and extremely pushed for time, I only spent 4.5 hours there.
Days Eight & Nine After the zoo, I caught up with my partner, before we took a bus into central Seattle, where we explored the downtown area, including Pike Market. Seattle Aquarium is located on the waterfront, and has a similar presence to the Sydney Aquarium. By the time we got there it was too late to go in, but I did go in and get a couple of maps. The other major tourist area of Seattle is the Seattle Centre, reached via monorail from downtown, and we explored this area next. This area was built for the 1962 World’s Fair, and is most famous for being the home of the Space Needle, from which we got great views of the city, sea and setting sun. Our visit coincided with a large folk music festival, which we checked out for a bit. The area is pretty cool, and it was a good place to chill for a while. The next day (Sunday) we got up super early, and went into the city to pick up our rental car. We got there 20 minutes before the office opened, but I’m glad we did, we were first in line and by the time it opened there was quite a crowd – some of whom would have had to wait an hour at least – the man behind the counter was useless. I was quite concerned about driving in America (everything is backwards), but I got on to the highway, heading south, and drove for about an hour, before we pulled off to have breakfast at McDonalds. I think NZ/Australian McDonalds is better to be honest. Back on the road, still not very confident, I promptly crashed the car. Not entirely my fault, but still not very fun. I didn’t hit another car, rather the barrier, and the car was insured and drive-able, so we continued on our way. Although I got my partner to do the rest of the driving. Our destination was the Olympic National Park, a massive, mountainous expanse of temperate rainforest which covers most of the Olympic Peninsula, to the west of Seattle. After heading south from Seattle, we turned west to the Pacific Coast, and then north at Aberdeen on Route 101. This took us through some very impressive country, but towering trees, low cloud and showers limited the view to the adjacent forest and occasional lake. Our first stop was Lake Quinault, which was a foggy valley surrounding a very still lake. We explored sites on both shores, including the world’s tallest spruce tree, various waterfalls, and the rainforest itself, which was huge. The scale of the trees there was amazing. After leaving this area, we continued up the coast until we reached Ruby Beach, which was a fairly wild place, with a rocky beach, pines down to the sea and a river dumping logs all over the shore. The next stop was the small town of Forks, famous for being the setting of the Twilight films. This was highly apparent throughout the town, with tour of landmarks and stores selling various movie memorabilia available. Clearly the town’s economy has benefitted immensely from the films. Up the road I saw the first (and only) mammal of the day, a Black-tailed Deer. This was along the shores of Lake Crescent, which was very scenic and calm. Like the most of the Park, we didn’t see any birds here, I assume due primarily to the wet weather. The most common species was the Common Crow, which we often saw flying above the road, presumably searching for roadkill and litter. Reaching the northern coast, we visited the town of Port Angeles, where there is a small aquarium on the shore – although it was closed when we got there. A pier headed out into a sheltered harbour, dotted with Western Gulls. At the end was a viewing tower, giving views over the town on one side, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca (which separates the US from Canada) on the other. From this vantage, another seabird could be seen on the water – the Pigeon Guillemot. We had tea here, and then headed back to Seattle, enjoying the scenery and trees, before reaching the longest suspension bridge I’ve ever crossed – the Tacoma Narrows Bridges. These replaced the original bridge here, which famously collapsed in 1940 due to “aeroelastic flutter” – check the video out on YouTube. New Species: Western Gull, Pigeon Guillemot, Song Sparrow, Stellar’s Jay, Black-tailed Deer.
Too bad you did not have time to drive to Northwest Trek (unless you plan to do it later). It is one of the best, maybe even the best, wildlife parks in the USA.
Yes, that would have been great to visit, I simply didn't have the time however (on day nine we drove over 400 miles/640 km, which doesn't leave much time for much really). I'm not sure I missed out on any species by not visiting though, I don't know that they have anything particularly rare in captivity?
Day Ten We headed north from Seattle on this Monday – which was a public holiday, but I can’t remember what it was called. We drove up to the port town of Anacortes, where we breakfasted at Starbucks before boarding a boat that would take us out whale watching around the San Juan Islands. The boat belonged to Island Adventures and I can definitely recommend them if you are keen to see aquatic wildlife in this area. The first new species of the day we actually saw at dock, a Great Blue Heron, although few people were particularly interested in this. The next species, a pair of Harbour Seals, were much more popular. As we travelled past various small islands, most forested and inhabited, we got an excellent commentary on the natural and cultural history of the area, and saw a few of the more common species, including Bald Eagles and Turkey Vultures. At one point we passed a large buoy, on the lower ledge of which a Californian Sea Lion was resting, and above were Brandt’s and Pelagic Cormorants. Many of the islands we passed were privately-owned, and one of these was Spieden Island, which was a hunting resort but is now owned by the founder of Oakley. In addition to the wild species on this island, several exotic ungulates have been established here, including Fallow and Sika Deer and Mouflon, the latter of which we saw. The main aim of the cruise was to see some whales (there are four large cetaceans in the area), and we were specifically after Orca. In the early afternoon we crossed into Canadian waters, and caught up with a small pod of transient orcas, containing three adults and two calves. These were swimming along an island, and were hunting harbour seals, one of which they eventually caught. We were able to watch them for over an hour, and saw many different behaviours, including spy-hopping by one individual which was very impressive. This was the first time I have seen orcas, and it was amazing, even though we were quite far away (have to maintain a minimum distance of 100m). Definitely a major highlight of the trip. By now we had been on the boat for five hours or so, and so we headed back to Anacortes, passing various ferries and other boats, basking seals and a large number of soaring eagles. Back on dry land, we looked around for other shorebirds but saw none, and so had another coffee at Starbucks before heading back to drop off the rental car in Seattle. That evening we again took the monorail to the Seattle Centre and spent some time being tourists. My overall impressions of Seattle are not great, it was dirty and smelly (downside to legalising weed) and didn’t have a great vibe. The area I was staying however, near the zoo, was much nicer and friendlier. While I suspect Seattle is probably one of the US cities I am most suited to, I didn't *love* it and much preferred Portland. New Species: Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle*, Turkey Vulture*, Brandt's Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Glaucous-winged Gull, Harbour Seal*, Californian Sea Lion*, Orca, Mouflon*. (* = previously seen in captivity)
The ungulates on the island is news to me. And I just had my eye exam and bought a pair of prescription Oakley sunglasses. Considering what I paid, no wonder he can afford his own island!
Day Eleven – Part One Amtrak was one American institution we were keen to experience, and after travelling to the Seattle city centre we boarded the Cascades service northbound. As we departed Seattle, we followed the coast, often right along the beach, which gave great views of various water birds, wharves and wrecked ships. We passed a few small towns, forests and farms, and crossed various rivers and streams. At one point, where a small trickle ran down a rocky beach to the sea, I saw a long mammal dive into the water, which I’m fairly sure was a river otter, but can’t be entirely sure (see attached photo and let me know what you think - its on the left just entering the water). After a couple of hours we passed into Canada, and a little further on came to a stretch of rocky coast where large numbers of eagles were sunbathing on boulders. They were spread along around a kilometre of coast, and included around 60 Bald and Golden Eagles, which were very cool to see. After 250 km on the train, which was brilliant, we arrived in Vancouver, British Colombia. After checking in to our suburban accommodation we headed back into the central city to explore what would turn out to be one of the best cities I have ever been to. Our priority for the afternoon was to visit the Vancouver Aquarium, located in Stanley Park. To reach it, we followed the waterfront path, which wound past modern buildings on one side, and a massive harbour on the other, where cruise ships, yachts and float planes were coming and going. Across the water, the snow-capped mountains of North Vancouver loomed large, and provided a spectacular backdrop to this beautiful city. There were a few birds around this area, notably cormorants in the harbour, and many Canada Geese in the small parks dotted along the waterfront. Stanley Park itself is very nice, partially forested and with many gardens, sculptures, walkways and leisure areas. Vancouver Aquarium (reviewed in the next post) is the largest attraction, and is set in the eastern portion of the island. Wildlife here included many more geese, as well as Mergansers and Mallards, and a very fat Raccoon checking out the rubbish bins. Having never seen a wild raccoon I was very intrigued by this animal, and even got to watch it washing food in a small pond, very cool. After leaving the Park, we headed back along the waterfront, where we had dinner and beers by the water. First impressions of Vancouver = pretty much perfect. New Species Golden Eagle*, American Robin, Common Merganser*, Raccoon* (* = previously seen in captivity).
when you say "just entering the water", do you mean "just gone under the water and only left a patch of ripples"? Seriously though, I have no idea.
Yeah, pretty much. I was on a moving train and it was moving fast too so it was lucky I got a photo at all. I don't know what else it could have been apart from an otter.
