Where will you go tomorrow?
Your zoo visits
- Thread starter KönigDerKaffeebohnen
- Start date
Aalborg Zoo.
I had a great day today at Aalborg Zoo. It was a sunny day but not too hot and the zoo wasn’t too busy.
I often know zoos very well even though I have never visited them and that’s especially the case with Aalborg Zoo. I know the layout very well so it felt very familiar to finally visit.
The highlights for me were very active sloths and polar bears.
I have made a polar bear enclosure based on Aalborg’s before and one of my last ZT2 projects was a Danish zoo based on Aalborg. I tried to pick it up in Planet Zoo but at that time was struggling with the game and gave up. I might now have another go when I get home.
Europe really is a great place for zoos, I definitely appreciate that.
Yeah a big zoo tour of Europe is on my bucket list, too. I've seen a handful - Berlin being the most memorable, back when I was 13 - but I'd love to just travel around Europe visiting zoos and castles and museums and such.
Hi everyone, I seemed to have turned the wrong corner and ended up in the state of ohio.. there isn't much reason this scotsman would be in ohio except one thing - the columbus zoo 
. Originally brought to my attention around the release of planet zoo, I've been wanting to travel here and visit the famed zoo and boy it sure did live up to its name.
What better way to visit a huge zoo in early July with large crowds and high temperatures (yes I'm writing this as I'm recovering from sunburn). I visited the zoo for just over 6 hours and left without seeing the entire zoo since i walked over 7 miles (I average 3 miles at home
). But much to my disappointment I couldn't see the tasmanian devil's which I was really hoping to see.
So the Asia Quest area was first visited due to pallas cat being one of the reasons I made this trip. I know I can see pallas cats somewhere in England but wheres the fun in that. As expected the Asia Quest is all Asian animals with every animal being on display apart from the tufted deer due to habitat cleaning. The bridge below is the entrance with a bridge overlooking the deer habitat.
A nicely sized langur habitat was the first animal stop with an outdoor and indoor spaces.
In an indoor building with lots of educational stuff, there was a large habitat with flying foxes, tortoises, chevrotain and some blue faced honeyeater birds. Faster than expected, I got a great 5 second food stop for the birds.
Im always fascinated by elephants despite being well aware of welfare considerations, I'm not too fussy but elephants and polar bears are animals I hope the zoo gives at them some roaming space. So I rarely ever get to visit a zoo that has elephants being in the North so getting to see some Asian elephants was a treat. Capturing the dirt throw in action was quite a wait but I wanted to actually see if the planet zoo animation was a regular thing (yes call me uneducated xD)
After some sleepy red pandas, a cute aviary full of Asian birds and tortoises was quite active with keepers there giving the grand tour. In the picture was the most picturesque bird in the aviary - a Reeves Pheasant.
Heres one of the main appeals of the zoo to me personally, I love cats of all shapes and sizes. The pallas cat habitat is quite spacious for one cat, although I think there must be more of them on cooler days.
Staying a grand total of 30 minutes watching the cat, most of those were spent seeing some itchy action.
And of course I couldn't leave without getting a wonderful portrait of the pallas cat
Alright last animal seen in this area was yet another new animal ( well 90 percent of the zoo was to be honest) - the star of the wetlands pack, the red crowned crane. Not much water like most planet zoo habitats but lots and lots of thick green foliage.
If everyone's interested enough, I got more than plenty of pictures for the rest of the zoo.
. Originally brought to my attention around the release of planet zoo, I've been wanting to travel here and visit the famed zoo and boy it sure did live up to its name. What better way to visit a huge zoo in early July with large crowds and high temperatures (yes I'm writing this as I'm recovering from sunburn). I visited the zoo for just over 6 hours and left without seeing the entire zoo since i walked over 7 miles (I average 3 miles at home
). But much to my disappointment I couldn't see the tasmanian devil's which I was really hoping to see.So the Asia Quest area was first visited due to pallas cat being one of the reasons I made this trip. I know I can see pallas cats somewhere in England but wheres the fun in that. As expected the Asia Quest is all Asian animals with every animal being on display apart from the tufted deer due to habitat cleaning. The bridge below is the entrance with a bridge overlooking the deer habitat.
A nicely sized langur habitat was the first animal stop with an outdoor and indoor spaces.
In an indoor building with lots of educational stuff, there was a large habitat with flying foxes, tortoises, chevrotain and some blue faced honeyeater birds. Faster than expected, I got a great 5 second food stop for the birds.
Im always fascinated by elephants despite being well aware of welfare considerations, I'm not too fussy but elephants and polar bears are animals I hope the zoo gives at them some roaming space. So I rarely ever get to visit a zoo that has elephants being in the North so getting to see some Asian elephants was a treat. Capturing the dirt throw in action was quite a wait but I wanted to actually see if the planet zoo animation was a regular thing (yes call me uneducated xD)
After some sleepy red pandas, a cute aviary full of Asian birds and tortoises was quite active with keepers there giving the grand tour. In the picture was the most picturesque bird in the aviary - a Reeves Pheasant.
Heres one of the main appeals of the zoo to me personally, I love cats of all shapes and sizes. The pallas cat habitat is quite spacious for one cat, although I think there must be more of them on cooler days.
Staying a grand total of 30 minutes watching the cat, most of those were spent seeing some itchy action.
And of course I couldn't leave without getting a wonderful portrait of the pallas cat
Alright last animal seen in this area was yet another new animal ( well 90 percent of the zoo was to be honest) - the star of the wetlands pack, the red crowned crane. Not much water like most planet zoo habitats but lots and lots of thick green foliage.
If everyone's interested enough, I got more than plenty of pictures for the rest of the zoo.
I visited 3 different zoos last month, 2 of which I had never been to before, so it's about time I started posting about some of them here. I'll do one post at a time, in the order that I visited them.
First up is the National Zoo & Aquarium in Canberra, a zoo I didn't have my expectations too high for given I'd never heard much about it, but was nonetheless excited to visit given it had a couple cool species I'd never seen before like leopards and agoutis. I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed it!
When it comes to additions to my captive mammal life list, the National Zoo had three species which were new to me, the most exciting of which was easily the Sri Lankan leopards - I'd never seen a live leopard before. The National Zoo was the first to import leopards back into Australia, in 2019, followed by the Darling Downs Zoo in 2021, and since then the pairs at both zoos have bred, so hopefully it's the start of a new captive population of Sri Lankan leopards in the country (further imports are needed first of course). The other new species I saw were the llama, which I was surprised I could not remember seeing anywhere before (all I see are alpacas seemingly), and Francois' langur.
Unfortunately the agoutis, which I was just as excited to see as the leopards, seem to have been taken off display despite still being on the zoo map and website, with their former habitat now being inhabited by koalas. Koalas in zoos are usually completely uninteresting to me (because they do nothing and I see them in the wild all the time) but this time it was different - I'm used to seeing southern koalas, both in zoos and in the wild, but these were lighter, shorter-furred northern ("Queensland") koalas, the same ecotype that the koalas in PZ are based off.
Another species that was not new but I was very keen to see again were the sun bears, given I hadn't seen one since the bear at the Adelaide Zoo passed away some years ago now. Thankfully one of them was out.
The most exciting animal I saw there however, was rather surprising - I usually have little interest in fish, but Queensland lungfish are my favourite fish species on earth and I'd never seen one in real life before. I didn't even know the zoo/aquarium kept them, so they were a great surprise!
The whole small aquarium building was quite cool, as I haven't been to an aquarium in over a decade (there are none anywhere in my state, let alone within easy driving distance). My favourite part, aside from the lungfish of course, were the black-tipped reef and zebra sharks.
Other highlights included a Goodfellow's tree kangaroo with the zoomies, something I'd never seen before (nor had I seen one on the ground), and a bit of a scuffle between a giraffe and two zebras. Despite the more aggressive reputation of zebras, it seems the giraffe was the main instigator in this fight, and the zebras soon took shelter within their giraffe-proof pen whilst the giraffe lurked menacingly outside.
First up is the National Zoo & Aquarium in Canberra, a zoo I didn't have my expectations too high for given I'd never heard much about it, but was nonetheless excited to visit given it had a couple cool species I'd never seen before like leopards and agoutis. I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed it!
When it comes to additions to my captive mammal life list, the National Zoo had three species which were new to me, the most exciting of which was easily the Sri Lankan leopards - I'd never seen a live leopard before. The National Zoo was the first to import leopards back into Australia, in 2019, followed by the Darling Downs Zoo in 2021, and since then the pairs at both zoos have bred, so hopefully it's the start of a new captive population of Sri Lankan leopards in the country (further imports are needed first of course). The other new species I saw were the llama, which I was surprised I could not remember seeing anywhere before (all I see are alpacas seemingly), and Francois' langur.
Unfortunately the agoutis, which I was just as excited to see as the leopards, seem to have been taken off display despite still being on the zoo map and website, with their former habitat now being inhabited by koalas. Koalas in zoos are usually completely uninteresting to me (because they do nothing and I see them in the wild all the time) but this time it was different - I'm used to seeing southern koalas, both in zoos and in the wild, but these were lighter, shorter-furred northern ("Queensland") koalas, the same ecotype that the koalas in PZ are based off.
Another species that was not new but I was very keen to see again were the sun bears, given I hadn't seen one since the bear at the Adelaide Zoo passed away some years ago now. Thankfully one of them was out.
The most exciting animal I saw there however, was rather surprising - I usually have little interest in fish, but Queensland lungfish are my favourite fish species on earth and I'd never seen one in real life before. I didn't even know the zoo/aquarium kept them, so they were a great surprise!
The whole small aquarium building was quite cool, as I haven't been to an aquarium in over a decade (there are none anywhere in my state, let alone within easy driving distance). My favourite part, aside from the lungfish of course, were the black-tipped reef and zebra sharks.
Other highlights included a Goodfellow's tree kangaroo with the zoomies, something I'd never seen before (nor had I seen one on the ground), and a bit of a scuffle between a giraffe and two zebras. Despite the more aggressive reputation of zebras, it seems the giraffe was the main instigator in this fight, and the zebras soon took shelter within their giraffe-proof pen whilst the giraffe lurked menacingly outside.
Quick amendment, I forgot the wapiti! Another new species for me, they're one of the very few North American mammals still found in Australian zoo collections - the lack of representation for Oceanian species in North American and European zoos goes both ways lol.
The second zoo I visited was the Taronga Western Plains Zoo, this being the zoo I had visited before but not since I was much younger. It's an open range zoo, not quite as grand in scale as my local Monarto Safari Park but arguably has a more diverse collection of species. Back when I last visited they still had an African bush elephant, the last in the country, and while they have sadly passed away in the time since my last visit the zoo is still home to a herd of Asian elephants. This was my first time seeing elephants in over a decade, so naturally I was pretty excited to see them!
The Western Plains Zoo is probably the best place in Australia to see as many species of "pachyderm" as possible in a single day, given as well as elephants they also have hippopotamus and all three species of zoo rhinoceros (black, white and Indian). The only pachyderm you'd have to go elsewhere to see is the pygmy hippo.
Given I'd been to the zoo before there wasn't much in the way of new species for me, but the one new mammal they did have was the Persian onager. They weren't out in their main paddock when I passed by, which made me worry that I might miss them, but thankfully I managed to spot them way off in their back quarters.
Plenty of other hoofstock to gawk at though, my favourite of which were probably the banteng! Great to see one of my favourite bovid species again.
For the obligatory devilposting, the zoo also has easily the biggest Tasmanian devil enclosure I've ever seen. The little guy I saw in there was frolicking about, clearly taking full advantage of the space they had on offer.
Alright I'm more awake now so I can show off more of the columbus zoo. Easily my favourite part of the zoo would be the east section with the North america, polar frontier and heart of Africa.
As expected most of the North america animals were cooling off under shelters like the moose, Mexican wolves, reindeer etc. My favourite here was of course the cougar, likewise one of my favourite planet zoo animals. Below is the view of the cougar habitat, the small climbing structure to the right is where 3 cougars were taking shade from the midday sun.
The other section of North America that I enjoyed was the bald eagle aviary. I was surprised these actually flew around instead of hopping around like most rescued eagles do.
The polar frontier area of course is centered around 2 bears found up north. The only visible animal of the day here was this lovely polar bear, spent time watching the fish in the water and munching on a pumpkin box. There is underwater viewing in this habitat aswell but the water has very low visibility so if the bears are actively swimming you won't see much. The other large habitat here was a rabbit habitat I guess, the grizzly bear was a no show but a cute rabbit eating was the highlight in that habitat.
Moving onto the hottest part of the zoo, I swear the zoo designed the heart of Africa to be 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the zoo. Expecting to see some dromedary at the entrance habitat after reading about it online, I saw domestic donkeys. I love Donkeys but such a disappointment.
Next there was an energetic ostrich getting comfy with people near the fence. This is just a single habitat for them.
Now for the main attraction of the zoo for me, the savanna habitat with tons of african animals to see. Half of my time here was spent in the cafe next to the savanna habitat with great views of mainly African crowned cranes doing zoomies around the giraffes. The below picture is overlooking the hyena habitat with the main savanna habitat in the background. Kudu, giraffe, storks, cranes, zebra, wildebeest, 3 species of gazelle and a couple more were all on display.
Basically impossible to fit the entire habitat with my 18mm camera lens, roughly 80 pictures were taken to capture all the action although the distance made this rather challenging.
More shots of the savanna habitat, this makes me want habitat birds over flying birds even more now.
In topic of the arid pack, some dama gazelle were found at the far corner of the habitat. Occasionally also visited by Thomson gazelles aswell.
The last part of the heart of Africa shows quite a unique lion habitat. A crashed plane offers really close views of lions if sleeping there like in the picture but no other lions were about which was a disappointment. I imagine lions can roam their own portion of the savanna habitat where no visual barriers would have been a great experience. Of course this lion habitat was very popular with a lineup near the glass window for everyone to get some selfies with the lioness.
Other parts of Africa included cheetahs and vervet monkeys but these habitat were nothing special. After seeing all the east part of the zoo, you have to walk all the way back through the east areas to reach the west portion of the zoo. I find it odd the zoo is divided by a busy road , which did ruin the latter parts of the Asia Quest area.
As expected most of the North america animals were cooling off under shelters like the moose, Mexican wolves, reindeer etc. My favourite here was of course the cougar, likewise one of my favourite planet zoo animals. Below is the view of the cougar habitat, the small climbing structure to the right is where 3 cougars were taking shade from the midday sun.
The other section of North America that I enjoyed was the bald eagle aviary. I was surprised these actually flew around instead of hopping around like most rescued eagles do.
The polar frontier area of course is centered around 2 bears found up north. The only visible animal of the day here was this lovely polar bear, spent time watching the fish in the water and munching on a pumpkin box. There is underwater viewing in this habitat aswell but the water has very low visibility so if the bears are actively swimming you won't see much. The other large habitat here was a rabbit habitat I guess, the grizzly bear was a no show but a cute rabbit eating was the highlight in that habitat.
Moving onto the hottest part of the zoo, I swear the zoo designed the heart of Africa to be 10 degrees hotter than the rest of the zoo. Expecting to see some dromedary at the entrance habitat after reading about it online, I saw domestic donkeys. I love Donkeys but such a disappointment.
Next there was an energetic ostrich getting comfy with people near the fence. This is just a single habitat for them.
Now for the main attraction of the zoo for me, the savanna habitat with tons of african animals to see. Half of my time here was spent in the cafe next to the savanna habitat with great views of mainly African crowned cranes doing zoomies around the giraffes. The below picture is overlooking the hyena habitat with the main savanna habitat in the background. Kudu, giraffe, storks, cranes, zebra, wildebeest, 3 species of gazelle and a couple more were all on display.
Basically impossible to fit the entire habitat with my 18mm camera lens, roughly 80 pictures were taken to capture all the action although the distance made this rather challenging.
More shots of the savanna habitat, this makes me want habitat birds over flying birds even more now.
In topic of the arid pack, some dama gazelle were found at the far corner of the habitat. Occasionally also visited by Thomson gazelles aswell.
The last part of the heart of Africa shows quite a unique lion habitat. A crashed plane offers really close views of lions if sleeping there like in the picture but no other lions were about which was a disappointment. I imagine lions can roam their own portion of the savanna habitat where no visual barriers would have been a great experience. Of course this lion habitat was very popular with a lineup near the glass window for everyone to get some selfies with the lioness.
Other parts of Africa included cheetahs and vervet monkeys but these habitat were nothing special. After seeing all the east part of the zoo, you have to walk all the way back through the east areas to reach the west portion of the zoo. I find it odd the zoo is divided by a busy road , which did ruin the latter parts of the Asia Quest area.
To wrap up the zoo, the west portion features many habitats although many on a smaller scale. 3 areas make up the west, shores & Aquarium, Australia & Islands and Congo rainforest. I managed to visit the aquariums and Australia areas but had to miss out the Congo area. By the time I planned to do the Congo, it was after 4pm and I was totally exhausted by this stage, the Congo features I believe gorillas, african leopards, okapi and probably some more african monkeys and birds.
Visiting first to get out the heat was the aquarium area. The indoor portions featured 2 small aquariums that were largely nothing exciting, I would have been more enjoyable if summer camp groups weren't present. So below as we can see stingrays, some tropical fish and manatees swim in this florida themed tank. Above the tank just visible in the picture are some brown pelicans that looked like statues at first.
There is another aquarium with basic fish tanks, kids screaming dory, and a small shark tank but not impressive in the slightest, people who don't visit major aquariums I'm sure would find these fascinating. Outside the aquariums there are some flamingos, alligators (separate habitat of course) and some Humboldt penguins. A very small penguin habitat did have some picture perfect penguins before plunging into the water.
The final part of the shores & Aquarium area was what I assumed to be a small reptile House. I was pleasantly surprised that the reptile House was pretty big. Lots of snakes, frogs, turtles and lizards were on display. Many of which were in the size of the exhibit box ingame so it's not unrealistic. The only downside of the reptile House is that the axolotl tank was empty. I didn't take note of the species in here since there was just so many but here's a turtle just before it dived in the water.
I'm not too comfortable with snakes in any way but seeing them behind glass is one way to reassure me. This was my favourite snake exhibit which I believe is a red spitting cobra, again so many snakes I lost track of which ones I pictured. I could only recognise the rattlesnakes and King cobras instantly.
Leaving the aquarium area to the Australia area was met with a surprise. The keepers brought out an echidna onto the path for everyone to see, what a cute upside down hedgehog. I'm glad I timed this right because the Koalas AND the Tasmanian devil's were a no show. I really wanted to see the devil's as so few zoos have them. Well I did technically but it was buried in a pile of hay and I saw its leg.
The most exciting part of the Australia area was the aviary. This is the best walkthrough aviary I've been in so far and so many colourful birds were seen. The most eager bird was the bali myna right on the path railing.
Meanwhile the most colourful was the Eastern rosella, a bird that I have never heard of before. Other birds included straw necked ibis, nicobar pigeon, spotted whistling duck and the luzon bleeding heart. I half expected a kookaburra but I didn't take note if that was included on the signage.
Now for the islands part of the Australia & Islands area. In this area there was gibbons, Orangutans, otters, komodo dragons and unexpectedly a dinosaur boat ride with animatronic dinosaurs spread around the area. Of course I couldn't resist a picture of those squeaky Asian otters.
An overview of the gibbons Islands where siamangs and lar gibbons roam around. It was really quiet here with none of the gibbons making any noise, the lar gibbons were in their covered shelter swinging around Meanwhile a pair of siamang were observing people walking by in between swinging around.
Well I can say I saw a kiwibut a shadow of one. I don't know why I thought a nocturnal house wouldn't actually be that dark but yeah i saw a kiwi. Other shadows of animals include wombats, tree kangaroo, indian crested porcupine, slow loris and a tawny frogmouth. The picture below is my cameras best attempt at a picture of a binturong and wow these were much bigger than the imagined. I also loved seeing the sugar gliders zooming around.
Visiting first to get out the heat was the aquarium area. The indoor portions featured 2 small aquariums that were largely nothing exciting, I would have been more enjoyable if summer camp groups weren't present. So below as we can see stingrays, some tropical fish and manatees swim in this florida themed tank. Above the tank just visible in the picture are some brown pelicans that looked like statues at first.
There is another aquarium with basic fish tanks, kids screaming dory, and a small shark tank but not impressive in the slightest, people who don't visit major aquariums I'm sure would find these fascinating. Outside the aquariums there are some flamingos, alligators (separate habitat of course) and some Humboldt penguins. A very small penguin habitat did have some picture perfect penguins before plunging into the water.
The final part of the shores & Aquarium area was what I assumed to be a small reptile House. I was pleasantly surprised that the reptile House was pretty big. Lots of snakes, frogs, turtles and lizards were on display. Many of which were in the size of the exhibit box ingame so it's not unrealistic
. The only downside of the reptile House is that the axolotl tank was empty. I didn't take note of the species in here since there was just so many but here's a turtle just before it dived in the water.I'm not too comfortable with snakes in any way but seeing them behind glass is one way to reassure me. This was my favourite snake exhibit which I believe is a red spitting cobra, again so many snakes I lost track of which ones I pictured. I could only recognise the rattlesnakes and King cobras instantly.
Leaving the aquarium area to the Australia area was met with a surprise. The keepers brought out an echidna onto the path for everyone to see, what a cute upside down hedgehog. I'm glad I timed this right because the Koalas AND the Tasmanian devil's were a no show. I really wanted to see the devil's as so few zoos have them. Well I did technically but it was buried in a pile of hay and I saw its leg.
The most exciting part of the Australia area was the aviary. This is the best walkthrough aviary I've been in so far and so many colourful birds were seen. The most eager bird was the bali myna right on the path railing.
Meanwhile the most colourful was the Eastern rosella, a bird that I have never heard of before. Other birds included straw necked ibis, nicobar pigeon, spotted whistling duck and the luzon bleeding heart. I half expected a kookaburra but I didn't take note if that was included on the signage.
Now for the islands part of the Australia & Islands area. In this area there was gibbons, Orangutans, otters, komodo dragons and unexpectedly a dinosaur boat ride with animatronic dinosaurs spread around the area. Of course I couldn't resist a picture of those squeaky Asian otters.
An overview of the gibbons Islands where siamangs and lar gibbons roam around. It was really quiet here with none of the gibbons making any noise, the lar gibbons were in their covered shelter swinging around Meanwhile a pair of siamang were observing people walking by in between swinging around.
Well I can say I saw a kiwi
but a shadow of one. I don't know why I thought a nocturnal house wouldn't actually be that dark but yeah i saw a kiwi. Other shadows of animals include wombats, tree kangaroo, indian crested porcupine, slow loris and a tawny frogmouth. The picture below is my cameras best attempt at a picture of a binturong and wow these were much bigger than the imagined. I also loved seeing the sugar gliders zooming around.Attachments
I looooove Night Safari so much, I'm very very jealous.
I'm back from my vacation. I did a zoo tour in Belgium and the Netherlands (plus three German zoos) and it was amazing. I managed to visit 13 zoos in 9 days, of which 9 were completely new to me. I was also happy to visit one of my favourite zoos, the Burger's Zoo Arnhem after several years again and I was once again amazed by this zoo. It was my favourite of the 13 zoos.
Maybe I'll show some pictures in the next days but I have over 6,500 pictures haha, so I need to put them on my computer first and take a quick look through them. This will take a while
Maybe I'll show some pictures in the next days but I have over 6,500 pictures haha, so I need to put them on my computer first and take a quick look through them. This will take a while
A pleasant weekend
One of the zoos I've visited in the last 1,5 weeks was Pairi Daiza in Belgium and one of the main reasons I went there was to see the Spix's macaw. To my knowledge this zoo is the only public place in the world to see Spix's macaws.
And I was lucky! I felt really happy to be able to see this species live. This was definetely my highlight in terms of animals on my zoo tour.
And I was lucky! I felt really happy to be able to see this species live. This was definetely my highlight in terms of animals on my zoo tour.
I went to Zoo Negara, Malaysia, like two years ago. I couldn't expect Zoo Negara to house another/anymore new species and subspecies and hardly had any reason to go there again. Wasn't giant pandas the last species to be introduced in Zoo Negara?
Here are some pictures of Burger's Zoo in Arnhem. Like I said before my favourite of the 13 zoos on my tour and still one of all time favourites.
The reason why I like this zoo so much, are the three so called eco displays, large halls for mostly free roaming animals of a certain ecosystem. Those are Bush (tropical rainforest), Desert (Sonora Desert) and Mangrove (mangrove forest of Belize). They also have a very large aquarium called Burger's Ocean which is amazing, too. Among these halls there is an outdoor section for South East Asian animals, a large African savannah area, habitats for gorillas and chimps, a bird house and some smaller outdoor habitats for penguins, lemurs, meerkats etc. in between those large sections.
I limit the pictures which I'll show here to the ecodisplays and the Ocean though.
Burger's Bush; although already opened in 1988 it's still one of the largest tropical halls in Europe. In my opinion it may be the best tropical hall, too, because after 35 years everything is really dense and immersive. There are just a few seperate habitats (aardvarks, small-clawed otters, caimans, capybaras and leaf-cutter ants) within the hall, so the rest is free-roaming and therefore has a lot of space and as a visitor you really have to search for all the animals, so you can easily spend a whole day only in this building.
The three free roaming male wrinkled hornbills definetely are a highlight!
The loudest bird in the hall is the screaming piha which is - well - screaming on this picture and very rare in zoos.
A more common bird of tropical halls - a Nicobar pigeon
Burger's Desert, opened in 1996, inhabits free roaming birds and native plants of the South Western deserts of the US. In addition, there are separated areas for peccaries, bobcats, roadrunners and burrowing owls, prairie dogs and North American porcupines, gila monsters, rattlesnakes, the only ringtails in Europe and some smaller rodents.
Turkey vulture
Montezuma quail, also the only ones in a European zoo
Burger's Mangrove, the newest hall, opened in 2017. This was actually new for me, so I was really excited for it and I was not disappointed. It's as amazing as the other two halls. While the manatees are the biggest and most popular animals in the Mangrove hall, I think that the free roaming butterflies and fiddler crabs are the real stars of the Mangrove. There are also some birds, lizards, horseshoe crabs, fish and mangrove jellyfish.
Fiddler crabs
Butterflies
Burger's Ocean, opened in 2000. There you can find the largest living coral reef in Europe and some really gigantic tanks.
The reason why I like this zoo so much, are the three so called eco displays, large halls for mostly free roaming animals of a certain ecosystem. Those are Bush (tropical rainforest), Desert (Sonora Desert) and Mangrove (mangrove forest of Belize). They also have a very large aquarium called Burger's Ocean which is amazing, too. Among these halls there is an outdoor section for South East Asian animals, a large African savannah area, habitats for gorillas and chimps, a bird house and some smaller outdoor habitats for penguins, lemurs, meerkats etc. in between those large sections.
I limit the pictures which I'll show here to the ecodisplays and the Ocean though.
Burger's Bush; although already opened in 1988 it's still one of the largest tropical halls in Europe. In my opinion it may be the best tropical hall, too, because after 35 years everything is really dense and immersive. There are just a few seperate habitats (aardvarks, small-clawed otters, caimans, capybaras and leaf-cutter ants) within the hall, so the rest is free-roaming and therefore has a lot of space and as a visitor you really have to search for all the animals, so you can easily spend a whole day only in this building.
The three free roaming male wrinkled hornbills definetely are a highlight!
The loudest bird in the hall is the screaming piha which is - well - screaming on this picture and very rare in zoos.
A more common bird of tropical halls - a Nicobar pigeon
Burger's Desert, opened in 1996, inhabits free roaming birds and native plants of the South Western deserts of the US. In addition, there are separated areas for peccaries, bobcats, roadrunners and burrowing owls, prairie dogs and North American porcupines, gila monsters, rattlesnakes, the only ringtails in Europe and some smaller rodents.
Turkey vulture
Montezuma quail, also the only ones in a European zoo
Burger's Mangrove, the newest hall, opened in 2017. This was actually new for me, so I was really excited for it and I was not disappointed. It's as amazing as the other two halls. While the manatees are the biggest and most popular animals in the Mangrove hall, I think that the free roaming butterflies and fiddler crabs are the real stars of the Mangrove. There are also some birds, lizards, horseshoe crabs, fish and mangrove jellyfish.
Fiddler crabs
Butterflies
Burger's Ocean, opened in 2000. There you can find the largest living coral reef in Europe and some really gigantic tanks.
