Your zoo visits

[Cocolori]

I like the idea that you can tell planet zoo players visiting zoos because they will be the ones taking photos of the infrastructure.

Was at Edinburgh Zoo recently (one of my favourites because I think they make good use of space and they tend to specialise and not try to do everything).

My camera skills are bad but I have a few pics. I paticularly focused on the primates because Edinburgh does it really well.
So first post focuses on the chimpanzee house.

The glass section is one of their indoor spaces, you can see a viewing balcony that was closed when I was there. The outdoor climbing is all situated up to the left behind the water and some trees. You get a clearer view from inside. There are two floors for the visitors but all the indoor spaces for the animals are double height and most of the viewing happens on the upper floor so you are looking down or across at them. There are also indoor spaces on the other side of the building that they can reach by going over the guests in tunnels.

The ground floor entrance has some planting and info about the conservation site and I love the double height murals combines with the quite industrial look of the ceiling and rest of the building and the fake rocks / mud. Interesting contrasts

The upper floor has the circular(ish) viewing holes into each of the 6 or so indoor double height climbing spaces as well as lots of signs and info about the individuals

The centre has various educational bits and pieces and the access tunnel overhead (beautifully smudged glass!)






There is also a lecture theatre with pull out chairs, views out to the outdoor climbing area and to one of the indoor spaces as well.

My favourite thing about the primate buildings in Edinburgh though is the cognition labs they have built in where the chimps or the smaller monkey species can choose to get extra snacks by volunteering for experiments. I didn't get any good pics of the chimp one but did of the capuchins. If anyone is interested I have more pics of the capuchin house and outside enclosures.

 

[FlameWizard492]

View attachment 399380
So apperently camels cant walk down steps, which was news to me.
Its kinda hard to see but the area the camels are on is like 50cm higher than whats behind the rocks, and apperently that is all that it takes to keep them in there.

Yeah, but I bet the guests are still within the camels' spitting range.

 

[Marvinb]

Got to visit the Zoo Osnabrück today, made sure that summer holidays are over now, so it was pretty empty, the fact that it was almost unbearable hot maybe played a part aswell haha.

Got to see a couple relatively rare animals like:
View attachment 399366
Pig tailed macaque
View attachment 399369
Hudson Bay wolves
View attachment 399370
American Black Bear

Also was lucky enough to see the baby chimp trying to figure out how this fake termite mound works:
View attachment 399375
The drills also had young, which is lovely to see with such an endangered aswell as rarely seen animal. Didnt manage to get it on picture tho.

Also saw a couple cool ideas to contain large hoofstock:
View attachment 399378
Cattle grid is ofcourse nothing new to zoos, but this was the first time ive seen it as a habitat barrier essentially. And honestly i wish more zoos would do this, its such an amazing way to view these animals.
They are just right infront of you, just 2 meters away, no moat, no fence, no glass, no wire, just you next to a bison.

View attachment 399380
So apperently camels cant walk down steps, which was news to me.
Its kinda hard to see but the area the camels are on is like 50cm higher than whats behind the rocks, and apperently that is all that it takes to keep them in there.
And like with the bisons this allows you to just get right up to them without anything blocking your view.

View attachment 399381
View attachment 399382
They have this little viewing window for their rhinos and river hogs, and the gang just had their breakfast here. And since the zoo was really empty i could sit down in front of the glass and just hang out with them. Easily sat there for 20-30 minutes without a single soul coming by, it was so amazing!

Forgot to add this habitat for greek tortoises which really showcases why i was so dissapointed that we got the as exhibit animals.
Makes me wish even more for a exhibit null options so you can atleast fake something like this.

 

[PlanetJameson]

I’ve never seen a panda in real life before so I am extremely excited that I’ll be seeing them at Zoo Atlanta next weekend!!! They’re the only pandas in the US and they go back home to China at the end of the year. It’s now or never.

 

[Marvinb]

I’ve never seen a panda in real life before so I am extremely excited that I’ll be seeing them at Zoo Atlanta next weekend!!! They’re the only pandas in the US and they go back home to China at the end of the year. It’s now or never.

Wait didnt they say they will return them all?

 

[Stygi]

I’ve never seen a panda in real life before so I am extremely excited that I’ll be seeing them at Zoo Atlanta next weekend!!! They’re the only pandas in the US and they go back home to China at the end of the year. It’s now or never.

San Diego just got a pair, but cool that you are seeing some, they are amazing animals

 

[Stygi]

Had a great time this summer going to a bunch of zoos now that my exams are over.
I’ve loved both London and Artis but my favourite has easily been Pairi Daiza.
They have an incredible collection of animals including plenty of new ones such as the Gharial and Muskox.
The highlight of the trip was definitely all the birds though, I was lucky to see so many including the Shoebill and Secretary Bird for the first time.

 

[RightWhale]

Well after my trip in NY I will give a short thing about the best parts of each facility I visited:
NY Aquarium

1. the shark building is fantastic, the habitats for the animals look great. Not to mention the theming they use is awesome, I’ll show that off later in my education thread.
2. The African penguins, sea otter, harbor seal, and California sea lions all have an area you can walk behind and see them swim.

Otherwise it’s a fairly standard aquarium, but absolutely worth the visit. Even just as an excuse to visit the rest of Coney Island in NY.

Central Park Zoo

1. Just from the get go, this is THE CENTRAL PARK ZOO. Arguably one of the most famous zoos in the world, and an amazing part of NY history. So visit on that alone.
2. The tropical house is standard, but the use of flora and fauna is very nice. It is humid, lush, and green. With plenty of birds to see. While better than the Roger Williams Zoo equivalent of the tropical house, it’s also not the best “tropical house” I have ever seen. Though I can’t state enough the thick vegetation and plenty of birds are lovely.
3. The bear habitat was very cool, I even caught one of the bears sleeping under the waterfall! Super cute.
4. The highlight of the zoo is hands down the Penguins. 4 species of Antarctic penguins call this zoo home, and if you get sick of them you can go see some puffins!

Bronx Zoo
I don’t know where to begin, the whole place is worth it. I’ll still try to make it highlights.

1. For birds the seabird and bird world areas are awesome. Both have some open aviary areas, with plenty of species on display. The coolest might be with the Inca terns and penguins near the sea birds.
2. The Madagascar house is close to the seabird house, and is also worth the visit. Displays lemurs, fossa’s, radiated tortoises, Nile crocodiles, mongoose, and a decent amount of birds, herps, and invertebrates.
3. Go see the gorillas. It’s in the Congo area, which is also just an awesome area to visit. The whole process of walking through it was amazing. I also mentioned this on the sidechat, but the gorilla habitat may be the best I have ever seen.
4. The Jungle World and Asia Monorail are two more special habitats like the Congo area. Both are right next to each other, both are 100% worth it. Jungle world has a beautiful Asian rainforest, and is gorgeous to walk around. The Asian monorail is awesome for seeing large ungulate species.

Otherwise every other habitat is great, but those are just what I thought were better/ worth mentioning.
Also while I didn’t mention it, both Central Park Zoo and the Bronx Zoo have cool sea lion habitats. They are very similar however, so I didn’t specify highlight either.

 

[Antimony96]

I was in Brooklyn over the weekend for non-zoo reasons, and on Monday morning made a visit to the Prospect Park Zoo. While overshadowed by the world-famous Bronx Zoo and comparably-sized but historic Central Park Zoo, I found Prospect Park very charming and relaxing. Of all the WCS zoos it's focused primarily on being a children's zoo, and due to its small size mostly eschews big-ticket animals in favor of two indoor houses and two small trails around a central plaza, and manages to have a lot of species diversity--mostly common species in AZA zoos, but a few interesting rarities as well.

The whole zoo, again, is centered on one plaza, and in the center of that plaza, and the first animal you'll see, is the California sea lion, the only animal in all five WCS parks. I made it there at opening (10 AM), and after seeing everything at least once, left at 11:30 after the feeding show (which I was unable to get any good footage of due to how much movement both the sea lions and keepers were moving!). Prospect Park's sea lion pool is on the smaller side and holds three cows.

To the right are some cages for a few Asian birds (Taiwan blue pheasant, silver pheasant, and Himalayan monal), as well as the Pallas's cats which are sadly off-exhibit in the summer months.

The nearest thing from this is the Hall of Animals, which has no central theming--you can get a Fly River turtle, a laughing kookaburra, and a zebra mouse immediately next to each other--but there are a few smaller wings for nocturnal animals and amphibians. A few animals here which are pretty rare in North American zoos, like the black-footed cat and the Eurasian harvest mouse (the latter of which might have been the most entertaining animals in the whole zoo)

Spoiler: Hall of Animals

There's a neat mixed habitat in here for dwarf mongoose and a pair of Von der Decken's hornbill, showcasing their symbiotic relationship.

 

[Antimony96]

Past the Hall of Animals is a fairly standard petting barn area. Mostly ignored the typical sheep, goats, and pigs, but the miniature zebus were neat. A keeper was giving the bull some pellet treats and handed the paper cup to me; I gave a few to him (dropping into his open mouth, lol) before handing the cup to another group of guests. There was also a walkthrough butterfly garden (for wild butterflies, not like a butterfly house) with a pond for a mating pair of trumpeter swans and their cygnet nestled within it.

The other animal house is the Animal Lifestyles building. It has a lot fewer species than the Hall of Animals, with a similar mix of herps, New World monkeys, birds, and smaller carnivores (here the sand cat), as well as an Amazon tank including large fish and a couple turtles, but the centerpiece here is a large indoor viewing for an outdoor Hamadryas baboon exhibit, holding a male, several females, and two babies.

Spoiler: Animal Lifestyles

 

[Antimony96]

The left side of the zoo consists of a single walkthrough aviary (again, no central theme--African, Eurasian, North American, and South American birds all together, plus a Reeve's muntjac) and the Discovery Trail, which is a small woodland hike for a mix of medium-sized mammals and birds which also has a large pond for waterfowl and a massive colony of red-eared sliders. All of this works because it's simply built around the natural woodlands of Prospect Park. The dingoes and tufted deer were unfortunately no-shows.

Spoiler: Aviary

Spoiler: Discovery Trail

 

[TheDinoGuy]

Those habitats seem massive compared to even the nicest zoos around here. The lushness in that lynx picture seems really next level.

I visited Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, South Carolina yesterday. It’s an hour and a half drive from me, but it’s still what I’d consider “my” zoo. I’ve been three times this year, I believe. It’s in a bit of a rough intermediary state right now, though, even though I think it’s a generally very nice zoo. The reptile house/aquarium is closed for a major overhaul. Their Malayan tapir passed away a few months ago so its enclosure is currently going unused. Their siamang and meerkat populations have dwindled over the years to the point where I believe they’ve only got two of each now.

And their small mammal area has been in a strange state of flux that I don’t really understand for some time now. I know these smaller species often have shorter lifespans and I can remember other several species in this area in the past like sand cats, fruit bats, and a crocodile monitor, but this seems like a lot of rapid changes from my perspective. The last time I was there their Ecuadorian squirrel monkeys were gone, with their enclosure taken by their two-toed sloths that normally share a space with their armadillo (who was alone in the old shared space). So I assumed they no longer had them, for better or worse. Yesterday there were new, younger looking squirrel monkeys (complete with a new sign referring to them as such, no subspecies designation), and the armadillo was nowhere to be seen… but weirdest of all they had their other monkeys all jumbled up in mixed groups. I’ve never seen that before, they had their golden lion tamarins, white faced sakis, and I believe one other monkey that I’m drawing a blank on paired off in mixed groups. It was obviously very intentional since the signs for them on the outside also reflected the pairings.

They’ve also had binturongs in this area for the past year and a half or so but in my four visits since they’ve been added they haven’t actually been out once. You can sure smell them, though.

Anyway overall it was a great trip as always. And even though I generally know what to expect from this zoo, I always walk away having a different favorite animal from each trip. Sometimes it’s the koalas, or meerkats, or fishing cats, or otters, but yesterday it was easily the squirrel monkeys. They were just so fun and energetic.

I used to live in Columbia when I was younger and went to that zoo many times. I'm sure a lot has changed there.

 

[Hugo98]

Last weekend I've visited Schwerin zoo, a really nice zoo which is very underrated in my opinion. It has some great enclosures like the "Red List Centrum", a whole building dedicated to the IUCN Red List explaining the list and conservation work in general and showcasing at least one species from every level of endangerment (except EX - extinct obviously). The stars of the building and the zoo is the quite large pride of Asian lions (category EN - endangered) and the huge breeding facility for partula snails (especially for the Moorea snail - category "extinct in the wild" (EW)).
Here's a best of my animal pics from that visit

The dikdik photo honestly is already one of my all-time favourites.

 

[Cynogale bennettii II]

While everyone has been wondering about the DLC, I have spent a good part of the day at the specialist invertebrate zoo I first visited last year (info about that can be seen by clicking here #246). These are just some of the things I saw:

The first building has a small museum, a nocturnal house and a room of scorpions. I have seen the giant desert hairy scorpion (the Planet Zoo species) before, but for the first time today I saw the similar Californian desert hairy scorpion. It was right out in the open, whereas most of the other scorpions were hiding away.

The second building begins with a room dedicated to grasshoppers, crickets and katydids that had a huge range of new species - a giant North American katydid that has been recorded catching and eating birds, giant armoured ground crickets, a katydid that mimics ants when it is young, and this beautiful variegated grasshopper from Africa.

There was still an enormous collection of praying mantises - this one pictured is a giant rainforest mantis, native to Australia. It is only a nymph at the moment, but could theoretically grow to over ten centimetres long when fully grown.

The next room is dedicated to a range of invertebrates, including cockroaches, centipedes, leeches and true bugs. The absolute highlight in here was a rather impressive African snail predator, an aquatic bug that was being kept in with some apple snails.

The next room in this building is for shelled animals - snails and crabs. There was a good number of vampire crab varieties, large and bright yellow banana crabs, land hermit crabs and over a dozen snail species. Pictured is a tree-climbing crab from Christmas Island.

The second building has a museum of shells and preserved corals, and a large collection of spiders.

In the third building, the first room is for millipedes. It is surprising just how many beautiful millipedes exist - this is a giant fire millipede, a Critically Endangered species native to Madagascar.

The second room in this building is for stick insects. These are Nui Chua stick insects, discovered by science in 2018, native to an area of Vietnam covering just over 200 square kilometres and one of the handful of species subject to EAZA's current conservation campaign.

After the third room, home to the leaf-cutting ant colony, the final room is home to the zoo's beetle collection. Probably the highlight here was this very impressive Nigerian ground beetle, considerably longer than my finger.

Really looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the place, as literally yesterday they broke ground on their fourth invertebrate house - a tropical butterfly walkthrough exhibit.

 

[Stygi]

Went to Chester zoo for the first time in years (I was too young to remember most of it), I would say it is definitely the best zoo in the UK, I loved the SEA section lots of cool species and well made habitats, seeing the Fossa, Aye-Aye and Sifaka for the first time was the highlight all were awesome. Was disappointed to miss the Spectacled Bear, checked both their habitats twice and didn't see them, (They were offshow when I had a chance to see them at Vienna a couple years ago), third times the charm hopefully. Their new heart of Africa section looks like it will be incredible, a shame its a 4 hour drive to Chester or 6 hours on public transport.

 

[Chuditch]

The weather was nice yesterday, so I popped over to Gorge Wildlife Park for a couple hours around noon. I was originally hoping to get lots of cool pictures, but when I got there I realised I had left my camera battery on charge at home and therefore rendered my camera completely useless. Subpar phone photography it is then!

One of the first things I noticed was that the wildlife park's coatis seem to have passed away - which is really unfortunate, and means Adelaide and Melbourne Zoos are the only two zoos in Australia that house them now. But I was pretty excited to see what was now living in their former enclosure, a spotted-tailed quoll! None of the zoos around me have had quolls since the northern quoll in Adelaide Zoo's nocturnal house passed away some time ago, and given they're among my absolute favourite animals (as all dasyuromorphs are) I'm really happy to be able to see them locally again. It was very sunny, warm and busy yesterday and so, unsurprisingly, the quoll decided to remain hidden for the duration of my visit, but I'll definitely be returning on a cool and quiet weekday sometime to see them!

For other dasyurids though, yesterday was my first time seeing Xavi, Gorge's current Tasmanian devil. No devils were active on my first visit to the zoo last year, so I was happy she came out for a few minutes to say hello.

More pictures:

Australian bustard putting on a show for me

Brolgas, heard these two trumpeting quite a bit yesterday

Neotropical lizards - green iguana and plumed basilisk

Two goannas, the heath monitor and lace monitor. These guys were quite active given the temperature

My good pal, Frontier is scared of him

My good pal's idiot son trying to consume articles of clothing

Additionally, while I was walking around the wildlife park, I decided to make a list of every animal currently on display, which you can see below:

Spoiler: Gorge Wildlife Park species list

Mammals:
Short-beaked Echidna
Spotted-tailed Quoll
Tasmanian Devil
Greater Bilby
Koala
Common Wombat
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat
Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby
Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby
Quokka
Western Grey Kangaroo
Red Kangaroo
Bennett’s Wallaby
Tammar Wallaby
Swamp Wallaby
Domestic Rabbit
Domestic Guinea Pig
Capybara
Patagonian Mara
Ring-tailed Lemur
Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey
Common Marmoset
Emperor Tamarin
Cotton-top Tamarin
Golden Lion Tamarin
Tufted Capuchin
Varied White-fronted Capuchin
Japanese Macaque
Lar Gibbon
Grey-headed Flying-fox
Ghost Bat
Dingo
Asian Small-clawed Otter
Serval
Meerkat
Dromedary Camel

Birds:
Common Ostrich
Emu
Southern Cassowary
Orange-footed Scruvfowl
Indian Peafowl
Golden Pheasant
Brown Quail
Stubble Quail
Chukar Partridge
Bobwhite Quail
Helmeted Guineafowl
Domestic Chicken
Red Junglefowl
Magpie Goose
Freckled Duck
Blue-billed Duck
Chestnut Teal
New Zealand Scaup
Cape Barren Goose
Radjah Shelduck
Australian Shelduck
Ruddy Shelduck
Mandarin Duck
Egyptian Goose
Canada Goose
Brush Bronzewing
Spinifex Pigeon
White-headed Pigeon
Wonga Pigeon
Torresian Imperial-pigeon
Rose-crowned Fruit Dove
Bar-shouldered Dove
Peaceful Dove
Diamond Dove
White-breasted Ground Dove
Beach Stone-curlew
Bush Stone-curlew
Masked Lapwing
Banded Lapwing
Little Buttonquail
Pied Stilt
Australian Pied Oystercatcher
Brolga
Buff-banded Rail
Chestnut Rail
Nankeen Night-heron
Pied Heron
Cattle Egret
Little Egret
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Royal Spoonbill
Glossy Ibis
Australian Pelican
Little Pied Cormorant
Australasian Darter
Black-necked Stork
Little Penguin
Australian Bustard
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Black-breasted Buzzard
Brahminy Kite
Tawny Frogmouth
Laughing Kookaburra
Blue-winged Kookaburra
Dollarbird
Sacred Kingfisher
Nankeen Kestrel
Red-tailed Black-cockatoo
Glossy Black-cockatoo
Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo
Carnaby’s Black-cockatoo
Gang-gang Cockatoo
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Galah
Cockatiel
Blue-and-gold Macaw
Green-winged Macaw
Scarlet Macaw
Sun Conure
Nanday Conure
Mulga Parrot
Red-rumped Parrot
Hooded Parrot
Scarlet-chested Parrot
Superb Parrot
Princess Parrot
Regent Parrot
Australian King Parrot
Eclectus Parrot
Red-winged Parrot
Budgerigar
Rainbow Lorikeet
Little Lorikeet
Dusky Lory
Red Lory
Black-capped Lory
Noisy Pitta
Satin Bowerbird
Spotted Bowerbird
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
Grey-headed Honeyeater
White-cheeked Honeyeater
Lewin’s Honeyeater
Noisy Friarbird
Crested Bellbird
Apostlebird
White-browed Woodswallow
Dusky Woodswallow
Pied Butcherbird
Gouldian Finch
Zebra Finch
Star Finch

Reptiles:
American Alligator
Aldabra Giant Tortoise
Leopard Tortoise
Macquarie Turtle
Black Marsh Turtle
Cunningham’s Skink
Hosmer’s Skink
Green Iguana
Fijian Banded Iguana
Plumed Basilisk
Boyd’s Forest Dragon
Peninsula Dragon
Eastern Water Dragon
Gila Monster
Heath Monitor
Lace Monitor
Boa Constrictor
Blood Python
Woma Python
Carpet Python
Corn Snake
Common Death Adder

Every animal on the list that's in Planet Zoo is in bold. Gorge Wildlife Park has an impressive bird collection for a low budget private zoo, and combined with the fact that marsupials and South American primates also make up the majority of its mammal roster, it's not really the kind of zoo you can recreate in PZ haha.

 

[Spiderhawk]

last month, I finally got to go to the San Diego zoo, truly an eye opening experience. Thanks to animal planet and talking to all of you, I felt I knew the place very well. I was the decision maker on our route, must see were the pandas for my family and my absolute must was the okapis. My family and I were worn out from a previous hike in the heat the previous day so it was a bit challenging to get to all the habitats. We skipped most of the south western areas with a quick run through the reptile house. I always wanted to see an okapi as I didn’t get the chance to see them at the bronx. While the okapis were challenging to reach, I pushed my family through and we made it to see them. I truly lived all the WTE of all the small bird aviaries. In one of them my sister got pooped on which was hilarious. One of the H baboons showed my stepdad something very inappropriate.
I wanted to see more of the butterfly’s, humingbird WTE, reptiles and smaller animals, always next time.

 

[ElectricMonk]

Got back to Australia from California yesterday…. Great chance to check out a couple of zoos that have a whole lot of animals I can’t see at home: San Diego and The Living Desert…. Both were great but my time was a bit limited by kids :/

 

[yoav_r]

Chinese Pangolin at the Prague Zoo today. Sorry for the quality they are keptn in a darkened area.

 

[Mr-Hyrax 2]

I already discussed it on sidechat but I went to the Birmingham Zoo, here is some pic's