Your zoo visits
- Thread starter KönigDerKaffeebohnen
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Yesterday was practically a total day zoo, I visited my two local zoos because It will be the last time I will visit them for a long time (I am moving to northern Mexico the next week, and I'll live that at least for 2 years)
So excuse me for the little spam of my pictures
and it includes some inspiration for your tropical zoos
So excuse me for the little spam of my pictures
and it includes some inspiration for your tropical zoosI need them
Geoffrey's Spider Monkey habitat for zoo number 1
Geoffrey's Spider Monkey habitat for zoo number 1
Complete outdoor exhibit for American Crocodile
part 3 hahaha and last post, sorry for this little spam i just wanted to show you my tropical local zoos
A chachalaca, Red-lored Parrot and a bird, all together in this exhibits, is funny to me because the 3 are my super common backyard animals
Tour of the Meliponas Bees garden
Source: https://youtu.be/fQFw9hiDhsQ?si=D-6zqmQSbNOtHjyJ
Some reptiles from both zoos, one fun fact is that the all exhibits only are covered with mesh in the roof, beacuse the humity and temperature of here is enough and good for their welfere, also almost all the species are local, and finally all the snakes were very active that day that was so strange but awesome
The roof is mesh and no glass, also almost all are 4x4 exhibits like in PZ lol
My first time seeing a nile monitor ( new adquisition)
Mexican Crocodile
The roof is mesh and no glass, also almost all are 4x4 exhibits like in PZ lol
My first time seeing a nile monitor ( new adquisition)
Mexican Crocodile
A chachalaca, Red-lored Parrot and a bird, all together in this exhibits, is funny to me because the 3 are my super common backyard animals
Melipona bees are a genus of bees that do not have a sting so they are not aggressive towards humans and do not sting. They are native to the region of the Yucatan Peninsula where I live. Around 5 species of melipona bees live in this garden. all of different sizes and colors, I just uploaded a tour on YouTube if you want to see this garden a little better, this type of bees would be very good for the WE of the game
Tour of the Meliponas Bees garden
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Goodbye!
I know you're talking to the pandas, but that is oddly ominous lol
Heh. I do like messing with people’s heads sometimes.
Not an actual visit, but I have recently got the chance to look back at the history of Colchester, my 'home' zoo - for their 60th anniversary, I found and purchased online a guidebook of theirs from 1972 (nine years after they opened). A lot of animals they don't have today, all in a much smaller area than I am now familiar with. It's definitely a fascinating read.
Visited Zoo Knoxville for the first time on Saturday and I was absolutely floored by several of their exhibits. Their massive, intensely vertical American black bear exhibit and multi-enclosure "Red Panda Village" are fairly widely discussed in zoo-centric circles, but seeing pictures and seeing them in person are two entirely different things. One of the red panda enclosures is essentially a walkthrough, with the only thing separating you from the pandas is a waist-high fence and small moat.
But even more than those, the lar gibbon and tiger enclosures left a massive impression on me. The gibbon enclosure is three stories tall, and allows you to walk down a winding path encircling the entire thing. At the same time, you’re taken from having a birds-eye view of the tigers, to merely looking down on them, at which point you can continue descending to come face to face with them in what is one of the largest tiger enclosures I’ve ever seen that absolutely offers the best viewing opportunities - and lots of them. Just about every exhibit offered multiple great vantage points.
The zoo also keeps the rare silvery lutung in an exhibit that I’d say was great but maybe not quite as stunning as the previously mentioned ones, as well as similarly great gorilla, chimp, and Hamadryas baboon enclosures. Also a fun little beaver habitat that’s netted over to inexplicable share the space with a large flock of cockatiels and budgies for some reason. All incredibly impressive for such a small zoo. Unfortunately I arrived at the zoo about an hour and a half later than I intended to due to intense traffic, so I didn’t even have time to check out what many seem to consider its crown jewel, its brand new ARC. I’m slightly disappointed, but what I did manage to see throughout the rest of the zoo more than made up for it.
I’m not a big photo taker, but here’s what I did take of the ABB (oof, that glare), red
panda, and lar gibbon exhibits:
But even more than those, the lar gibbon and tiger enclosures left a massive impression on me. The gibbon enclosure is three stories tall, and allows you to walk down a winding path encircling the entire thing. At the same time, you’re taken from having a birds-eye view of the tigers, to merely looking down on them, at which point you can continue descending to come face to face with them in what is one of the largest tiger enclosures I’ve ever seen that absolutely offers the best viewing opportunities - and lots of them. Just about every exhibit offered multiple great vantage points.
The zoo also keeps the rare silvery lutung in an exhibit that I’d say was great but maybe not quite as stunning as the previously mentioned ones, as well as similarly great gorilla, chimp, and Hamadryas baboon enclosures. Also a fun little beaver habitat that’s netted over to inexplicable share the space with a large flock of cockatiels and budgies for some reason. All incredibly impressive for such a small zoo. Unfortunately I arrived at the zoo about an hour and a half later than I intended to due to intense traffic, so I didn’t even have time to check out what many seem to consider its crown jewel, its brand new ARC. I’m slightly disappointed, but what I did manage to see throughout the rest of the zoo more than made up for it.
I’m not a big photo taker, but here’s what I did take of the ABB (oof, that glare), red
panda, and lar gibbon exhibits:
Attachments
This weekend I visited what could be considered my new local zoo after moving out: Terra Natura Benidorm (Spain). I had a nice day enjoying the animals and the views, since the park is themed and beautiful. This is very different from my former local zoo in Finland. I took many pics, so here's part 1:
The elephant enclosure is very big and themed. They share with blackbucks and deer. The Indonesian theme on the background is a hotel, which contasts with the Indian theme of the Asia area of the park.
I saw many animals for the first time, like siamangs and clouded leopards. Both species were very active and easy to see (you can spot a leopard in the background of the siamangs, which is pretty cool!).
Of course, gibbons were loud and active too:
The park has a big volcano which houses many poisonous animals, including lots of snakes. However, the king cobra is located in other part of the park with a prominent enclosure. It's very similar to Planet Zoo exhibit boxes. There were 2 cobras, but with the reflection of the sun my pics were blurry. Frontier, plrase...
The park has many deer species: axis, swamp, red, fallow and sambar deer.
I saw many animals for the first time, like siamangs and clouded leopards. Both species were very active and easy to see (you can spot a leopard in the background of the siamangs, which is pretty cool!).
Of course, gibbons were loud and active too:
The park has a big volcano which houses many poisonous animals, including lots of snakes. However, the king cobra is located in other part of the park with a prominent enclosure. It's very similar to Planet Zoo exhibit boxes. There were 2 cobras, but with the reflection of the sun my pics were blurry. Frontier, plrase...
The park has many deer species: axis, swamp, red, fallow and sambar deer.
Heyyy TerraNatura! I've visited it a bunch of times, glad to see it around here!
I hate to burst your bubble though, but that elephant paddock has always saddened me a lot. It used to be huge and housed a tremendous breeding herd of Asian elephants and blackbuck, but is now home to four elderly elephant cows alongside bachelor herds of barasingha, axis and blackbuck (The park only houses three bucks and three cows of what used to be a gigantic breeding herd). This isn't necessarily bad, zoos have to and should be housing nonbreeding herds of species, it's good for the populations, but the sad part comes when it comes to the hotel in the back.
That hotel is built over what used to be even more ground the elephants had access to, and if anything is good for an elephant that is space to roam and forage for food. Not only is it crappy when it comes to space reduction, but loud music is played at the hotel that can be heard from the other side of the paddock, with the clear harm this can produce in the welfare of such animals as elephants. I've seen all four individuals stereotype like crazy in those exhibits, mostly observable on the two cows that are restricted to the smaller paddock by the temple. I like elephants and I do think the welfare of the ones at TerraNatura has to be improved.
Picture of what the elephant enclosure used to look like. You can easily compare it with the picture Aramar posted, half of the paddock in the back has been eaten up by the hotel. The second picture depicts how the enclosures usually functioned, it was divided in three yards (one of them being where you can see the water buffaloes in the first picture, the second being the one in front of the temple) two of which were separation pens and the yard in the back had a lot of space for the whole herd. It was far from peak elephant husbandry back then, but it's even worse now...
Another downgrade the park suffered was the reduction of the multi-species Asiatic ungulate enclosure they once had. This paddock was once home to a breeding herd of gaur, barashinga and sambar deer, as well as other miscellaneous species like zebus, dromedaries, pot-bellied pigs, non-breeding axis, and blackbucks,... TerraNatura destroyed this enclosure to make way for a must-pay-for children's playground, transforming this whole area from one of the best ungulate enclosures in the country to a tiny paddock for a bunch of female barashingas, an elderly sambar buck and three blackbucks. They built a new siamang enclosure in there (which has been the only good to come from thus development) as well as the nonsensical wallaby and emu enclosure in an area entirely devocated to Asia, with some pic nic benches. Very very sad to see this happen.
There are other downgrades throughout the park (The bird collection in the South American aviary, some of the enclosures aren't aging the best, tiny exhibits for the bigger carnivorans, the whole America zone feels super abandoned) but they have also done some amazing things! believe it or not, the current clouded leopard enclosure used to house Sumatran tigers and it's much better suited for it's current inhabitants, the recent incorporation of margays was amazing, the Volcano reptile house in the Pangea area has an amazing collection and is always innovating bringing in rare species,... TerraNatura is a very fun zoo, I like many aspects of it.
I really like it's animal collection and some of the original theming is still there, and is genuinely super cool in some aspects. Love the king cobra enclosure, love it when zoos give extra care to a reptile enclosure.
Did you see the dhole pups?
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@SivatheriumGuy Thanks for the information! It's always interesting to learn how zoos evolve and I'm sad to read things wer better before. I agree that the lions and jaguars enclosures are too small. I was also super confused about the emu and wallaby in Asia. However, for a first visit, I enjoyed it.
Yes! Although they are already quite big, almost like the adults. Pics will come later!
Here are more pics from my visit:
The "Bengal" tigers and lions were the only animals that weren't active during my visit. The lions habitat is way too small, but I like the bamboo fence.
The Indian muntjacs were very active and curious about visitors. I want them more and more in Planet Zoo!
The Siamese crocodiles were doing what crocs do better:
More deer, this time chitals sharing with nilgais and a gaur:
The park has two Asian small clawed otters, but I think their enclosure is also very small.
The flying foxes were supercute!
I finish this part 2 with a very active herd of dholes! First time I saw this animal and the cubs were playing a lot, although they are almost fully grown up now.
The Indian muntjacs were very active and curious about visitors. I want them more and more in Planet Zoo!
The Siamese crocodiles were doing what crocs do better:
More deer, this time chitals sharing with nilgais and a gaur:
The park has two Asian small clawed otters, but I think their enclosure is also very small.
The flying foxes were supercute!
I finish this part 2 with a very active herd of dholes! First time I saw this animal and the cubs were playing a lot, although they are almost fully grown up now.
And the last group of pics from my visit. Hope you liked them!
The zoo has a very big walk-through aviary in the South American area, although it has birds from other continents too. There's also a sloth and some monkeys:
Next we have our capybara friends an tufted capuchins
The jaguars have a very small enclosure in my opnion, but they were playing together. Unfortunately there are many reflections on the glass because it was too suny.
The bossy llama:
Charly, the sea lion:
This is another zoo that has my most wanted exhibit animal. It's sad we don't have them yet in Planet Zoo:
And talking about reptiles, I saw the Asian water monitor!
Last but not least, Terra Natura has 3 Indian rhinos and I think they have been able to breed them a couple times. I was shocked that the water area is on the human eye level and there's no barrier, you can basically touch the rhinos if they get close (and there's a big chance that they will splah water at you when they are playing).
That's all, thanks for reading!
Next we have our capybara friends an tufted capuchins
The jaguars have a very small enclosure in my opnion, but they were playing together. Unfortunately there are many reflections on the glass because it was too suny.
The bossy llama:
Charly, the sea lion:
This is another zoo that has my most wanted exhibit animal. It's sad we don't have them yet in Planet Zoo:
And talking about reptiles, I saw the Asian water monitor!
Last but not least, Terra Natura has 3 Indian rhinos and I think they have been able to breed them a couple times. I was shocked that the water area is on the human eye level and there's no barrier, you can basically touch the rhinos if they get close (and there's a big chance that they will splah water at you when they are playing).
That's all, thanks for reading!
There is a lil hidden wall in the water preventing the rinos getting too close to the visitors, I love the TerraNatura rhinoceros enclosure!
And the aviary might just be my favourite walk-through aviary in any Spanish zoo, it feels like a rainforest in there. I wish they sticked to the south American themeing for it though, because right now it's infested with sacred ibises and it ruins the immersion. Although seeing those blue-and-gold macaws fly over you is an amazing experience, the amazing Maguari storks, the only San Blas jays and Band-tailed pigeons in any European zoo.... It's such a cool experience! Did you see the sloths? I wasn't lucky enough.
Talking about TN, here is what might be the best zoopic I've ever taken
I saw 1, well I saw a ball of fur up on a tree, if that counts
That's way more than what I saw in three visits ahahahI saw 1, well I saw a ball of fur up on a tree, if that counts
Yeah, we NEED chameleons. I feel like they’re the last absolutely essential exhibit reptile.
Chameleons yes please, but cobras and geckos too, the holy trinity of forgotten reptiles.
