Well, Vienna has a great Reptile house, some rather cute terraria for their native reptiles and amphibians and a few other things scattered around the zoo. On the other hand, Beauval has some really nice fish exhibits in the Gorilla house, a few terraria for Australasian reptiles, amphibians and fish, a large tank for cichlids near the hippos and of course all the exhibits in the Equatorial Dome, of which I have given a quick run through below: Golden mantellas Blind fish spp. Poison dart frog spp. Guppy spp. Zebra fish spp. Pleco spp. Arapaima Arrau turtle Pacu Red-tailed catfish Emerald tree boa Mission golden-eyed tree frog Lesser Antillean iguana Mata mata turtle Red-bellied piranha Yellow anaconda Rubber eel Mississippi alligator Cuvier's dwarf caiman Neon tetra spp. Radiated tortoise Lots of species of cichlid Aldabra giant tortoise Coconut crab Green tree skink Moss frogs Boelen's python Box turtle Philippine sailfin lizard Reticulated python Eastern long-necked turtle Komodo dragon Sunda gharial Pig-nosed turtle Malaysian giant turtle Southern river terrapin Earless monitor lizard Emperor scorpion Leaf stick insect spp. It is also worth noting that the dome holds 24,000 fish, 600 insects and 150 reptiles.
Vienna actually has quite a lot to offer. In several places in the zoo there are terraria for a good range of native reptiles and amphibians. There are a couple of large outdoor aquaria for native fish. Then the zoo has a nice insect house, focused mostly on grasshoppers and both the desert and rainforesthouse have a good number of fitting reptiles, amphibians and fish. The aquarium-terrarium building is not huge, but still houses a good variety of ectotherms, including many rarer species. Additionally Vienna does a lot when it comes to breeding reptiles, amphibians and fish. A sectiom of the aquarium is devoted to rare freshwater fish that are bred on site. Additionally the zoo also has an amphibian breeding centre partly on show. Behind the scenes a lot more reptiles are kept and in recent years the zoo had several world or european first breedings, including the forst European breeding of Earless monitors.
...this is the moment, where some pictures and reports from the equatorial dome could prove decisive. Alas, nothing yet it seems.
Indeed. Not having visited either zoo it's hard for me to make a proper decision based on the little that's been posted here. For now I've gone with Vienna mainly for their breeding work with freshwater fishes, but I could easily be swayed in favor of Beauval if proper arguments were made. ~Thylo
Yes - it seems the visitors to the zoo are much more intent on taking photos of the scenery and plants than of the enclosures I have tried to assemble as many photos as possible of the Dome's exhibits for ectotherms but couldn't find many of decent quality. Anyway, here we go: Arapaimas, Pacus Alligator Yellow anaconda (there is a larger terrarium for green anacondas further into the dome) Lots of climbing opportunities. On the third one the dragon is poking its nose up in the centre right of the photo. Young tomistoma pool with 4 babies. (1.3) Larger than this, but just showing the depth of the pool and was the best still from the video I could find. Turtles Cichlids in the Hippo house
From Vienna's site, which does a pretty good job listing all their species, I got the following species numbers: 43 reptiles, 20 amphibians, 119 fish and 73 invertebrates. The Rainforest House has side enclosures for Burmese python, vampire crabs and some frogs. There are also a few tanks for rainforest fish: eyespot pufferfish, giant gourami, archerfish and mudskippers. Most notably, however, are the displays of rock frogs and northern river terrapin, for both of which Vienna acted as a pioneer to keep them in captivity. The Insectarium displays most of Viennas insects, and is one of the better insect houses I've been to, with only ARTIS' coming close. The Aquarium and Terrarium House houses almost all of Vienna's herps and fish. Highlights here are the reef tank, the Crocodile Pavillion, the breeding of endangered fish species, the rhinoceros iguana/Haitian ameiva terrarium, the stingray/caiman lizard terrarium and the lovely outdoor terrariums. Even though there are other ectotherm enclosures dotted around the zoo, the final major ectotherm habitat is the Desert House. Highlights here are black-tailed rattlesnake, angulate tortoise and armadillo girdled lizard. Coincidentally, all ectotherm conservation also counts as aquatics, so I've detailed their conservation and research efforts here already.
I have never visited Vienna but I am quite sure it's far better than Beauval for ectotherms. Beauval has more species and more exhibits (with the dome) but the problem is that the collection is boring (for major part) with few endangered species and it does not breed ! In addition, I think the terrariums are better equipped and prettier in Vienna.
Just I rectify a small error: The last photo of the amur leopard post is the giant otter pool, not the tomistomas.
Are you sure? That came from a video from Beauval of them sliding into that pool and swimming in it on the Carnet de Bord, since there was nothing else I could find of use. I'm quite sure it is the tomistoma pool unless of course the keepers got it wrong and had to catch them from the pool again and transfer them
Don't be so sure about yourself ... This is the giant otter pool, I explain to you what happened: - the tomistomas arrived but their pool was not finished so they were temporarily placed in the otter enclosure - when their enclosure was finished the tomistomas were restarted and the otters came to their enclosure.
