Nikola Chavkosk
Well-Known Member
Hello zoochatters,
I hope so my reviews are interesting in some way to you. Last Saturday I returned from trip in Spain, and here is my short (and informative) reviews of my visits of the Barcelona zoo (on the 28th of March) and the Valencia bioparc (on the 30th of March). I don't visited the L'Oceanographic Valencia (because I need to work 30 hours here for the ticket, but some other next time for sure).
The zoo animals that I saw for the first time in my life in person at these two zoos were: Brazilian tapir, spotted hyena, long-haired spider monkeys, Eastern bongo, mohr gazelle, dorcas gazelle, fossa, aardwark, African white-headed vulture, wattled jacanas, Galapagos giant tortoise, Utila spiny-tailed iguana, among some other smaller zoo animals.
1. Barcelona Zoo (28th March) (ticket for adult 19.9 euro):
- Despite someone wrote that the zoo is decreasing it's animal enclosure qualities or that is facing financial difficulties, the zoo is great and very nice, at the level of Tierpark Hellabrunn, and all of the animals looked well-fed and cared for. I was at the zoo entrance in 09:30, but zoo opened at 10:00 starting with a crowd of French students from primary school. It is easily reachable since it is in the centre of Barcelona neighboring the central city park.
- The part of the zoo that I liked the most was African savannah section (housing African bush elephants, Rotschild's giraffes, white rhinoceros and common hippos). It was under construction. I saw 3 African bush elephants (which as with most zoos, were not very interested in what they are doing), 3 common hippos and just one male white rhino.
- The rhino enclosure was relatively small, it should be bigger.
- The Komodo dragon new exhibit is great, but of 4 Komodo dragons I observed at the zoo, 2 were kept in small terraria in the reptile house.
- We don't have access to the dolphinarium.
- House for tropical birds was nice and hot; I liked that not all tropical birds are mixed in one big aviary, but there were several smaller aviaries with fewer species. Some birds in the tropical house: Common trumpeter, Bali myna, wattled jacanas or Brazilian tanagers.
- Outdoor aviaries mostly for parrots (but also for kokaburra, and some other birds) were eye-catching and high, but had limited opportunities for horizontal flying of the birds.
- Reptile house from outside is old, but inside renovated first-class design (except relatively small teraria for some snakes). I still think that reptilarium without venomous snakes is not complete, as it was the Barcelona zoo's reptilarium. Crocodile part of the reptilarium housed some rare crocodiles (but I don't take a picture because my battery was spent). The terarria for caimans, turtles, tortoises were very creatively build. I saw Utila spiny-tailed iguana. I would prefer natural lights for reptilaria whenever possible.
- The ape section was great, with glass-viewing. There were two groups of gorillas with several youngs.
- Brown bear enclosures were new and quite nice.
- I didn't like the stepped enclosures for lions and tigers (I did not see any tiger).
- The aviary for water birds (like for African spoonbill) was big and some of the birds were flying in circles.
- The zoo is quite demanding and I need several rests to concentrate more so I will pay greater attention to the upcoming enclosures and their inhabitants. I spent 7.5 hours in the zoo.
- The zoo had a lot of visitors, more than Valencia bioparc, and the park was still lively with visitors at 17:20 h, which was not case with Valencia bioparc.
2. Valencia bioparc (30th March) (ticket price for adult 23.8 euro):
- Definitively more exciting than Barcelona zoo, Tierpark Hellabrunn (Munich), Attica Zoological Park (in Athens, Greece) and other zoos I have visited so far. I think it will stay on my list of top 3 best zoos that I will ever visit (together maybe, with the San Diego zoo, and with Cologne/Zurich/Bronx/Zoorasia/ zoo).
- If you are going to visit I recommend to start with the equatorial section on the right of the park because it is more exciting than savannah section. It includes fantastic enclosures for pygmmy hippos, bongos, other tropical rainforest hoofstock, some birds, Madagascar fauna, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, mangabay, drills.
- It is interesting that when you enter the entrance, you are not actually in the park, but first you need to walk very long bridge above non-zoo land (park of Valencia), that will bring you in the zoo proper.
- I enjoyed every square metre of the park. I was constantly saying wow, wow. In this zoo, there is not a square enclosure, classical with mesh. The whole park is an amazing, awe-inspiring concept, despite having mainly African species (around 120), and no parrots for example.
- Unfortunately, I didn't see just the lemur section, because they were working something there.
- The leopard exhibit was fantastic, with several extensions, included grass-paddocks, waterfall and water pond, rocks, roofed with mesh and with glass-viewing from several places.
- There were interesting and exciting interenclosure designs throughout the park, like caves, rocky edges and hills, clefts in rocks looking into the enclosure (like the picture with the forest buffalo or gazelles grazing), narrow elevations, etc. Ape enclosures were fantastic too, different and awe-inspiring when viewed from different corners.
- I saw 5 African bush elephants. The park has potential to expand beyond into surrounding, and that will be great for the elephants, if they will have access to a grassy meadow.
- I attended the bird show (mostly) in the park amphitheatre, which included several species like: CR EN African white-headed vulture, Egyptian vulture, African fish eagle, crowned crane, black-backed jackal, porcupines. It included interesting education talks for conservation of the wildlife on Spanish (which I understand quite a lot).
- Many of the hoofstock (like gazelles or other antelopes, and even giraffes) had access to grassy paddock, but not red forest buffalos, Eastern bongos or red river hogs.
- There was a Rotschild's giraffe dam with its calf, separated in interesting enclosure (I have pictures in the section Valencia bioparc on Zoochat).
- I didn't like a lot the spotted hyena enclosure, which was stepping, but it was quite big and can be extended.
- Throughout the park there are several speakers emitting interesting noises from wildlife, making the general atmosphere more exciting.
- The park visitors number peak was in 13:00 o'clock, and in 16:00 the park was almost empty. It opened at 10:00 (and again I was there at 09:30). I spent 7 hours at the park and made two circles. It is good that you generally need to follow one walking road and will see all of the enclosures - so you can't get lost in the park's network of road.
- I didn't see the Nile crocodile(s) in the pool, but I saw African dwarf croc in a cave.
Any other additional explanations, I will eventually post via new replies.
I stayed in a hostel with Brits, Germans, Argentinians. I won't tell the sex ratio
I hope so my reviews are interesting in some way to you. Last Saturday I returned from trip in Spain, and here is my short (and informative) reviews of my visits of the Barcelona zoo (on the 28th of March) and the Valencia bioparc (on the 30th of March). I don't visited the L'Oceanographic Valencia (because I need to work 30 hours here for the ticket, but some other next time for sure).
The zoo animals that I saw for the first time in my life in person at these two zoos were: Brazilian tapir, spotted hyena, long-haired spider monkeys, Eastern bongo, mohr gazelle, dorcas gazelle, fossa, aardwark, African white-headed vulture, wattled jacanas, Galapagos giant tortoise, Utila spiny-tailed iguana, among some other smaller zoo animals.
1. Barcelona Zoo (28th March) (ticket for adult 19.9 euro):
- Despite someone wrote that the zoo is decreasing it's animal enclosure qualities or that is facing financial difficulties, the zoo is great and very nice, at the level of Tierpark Hellabrunn, and all of the animals looked well-fed and cared for. I was at the zoo entrance in 09:30, but zoo opened at 10:00 starting with a crowd of French students from primary school. It is easily reachable since it is in the centre of Barcelona neighboring the central city park.
- The part of the zoo that I liked the most was African savannah section (housing African bush elephants, Rotschild's giraffes, white rhinoceros and common hippos). It was under construction. I saw 3 African bush elephants (which as with most zoos, were not very interested in what they are doing), 3 common hippos and just one male white rhino.
- The rhino enclosure was relatively small, it should be bigger.
- The Komodo dragon new exhibit is great, but of 4 Komodo dragons I observed at the zoo, 2 were kept in small terraria in the reptile house.
- We don't have access to the dolphinarium.
- House for tropical birds was nice and hot; I liked that not all tropical birds are mixed in one big aviary, but there were several smaller aviaries with fewer species. Some birds in the tropical house: Common trumpeter, Bali myna, wattled jacanas or Brazilian tanagers.
- Outdoor aviaries mostly for parrots (but also for kokaburra, and some other birds) were eye-catching and high, but had limited opportunities for horizontal flying of the birds.
- Reptile house from outside is old, but inside renovated first-class design (except relatively small teraria for some snakes). I still think that reptilarium without venomous snakes is not complete, as it was the Barcelona zoo's reptilarium. Crocodile part of the reptilarium housed some rare crocodiles (but I don't take a picture because my battery was spent). The terarria for caimans, turtles, tortoises were very creatively build. I saw Utila spiny-tailed iguana. I would prefer natural lights for reptilaria whenever possible.
- The ape section was great, with glass-viewing. There were two groups of gorillas with several youngs.
- Brown bear enclosures were new and quite nice.
- I didn't like the stepped enclosures for lions and tigers (I did not see any tiger).
- The aviary for water birds (like for African spoonbill) was big and some of the birds were flying in circles.
- The zoo is quite demanding and I need several rests to concentrate more so I will pay greater attention to the upcoming enclosures and their inhabitants. I spent 7.5 hours in the zoo.
- The zoo had a lot of visitors, more than Valencia bioparc, and the park was still lively with visitors at 17:20 h, which was not case with Valencia bioparc.
2. Valencia bioparc (30th March) (ticket price for adult 23.8 euro):
- Definitively more exciting than Barcelona zoo, Tierpark Hellabrunn (Munich), Attica Zoological Park (in Athens, Greece) and other zoos I have visited so far. I think it will stay on my list of top 3 best zoos that I will ever visit (together maybe, with the San Diego zoo, and with Cologne/Zurich/Bronx/Zoorasia/ zoo).
- If you are going to visit I recommend to start with the equatorial section on the right of the park because it is more exciting than savannah section. It includes fantastic enclosures for pygmmy hippos, bongos, other tropical rainforest hoofstock, some birds, Madagascar fauna, leopards, gorillas, chimpanzees, mangabay, drills.
- It is interesting that when you enter the entrance, you are not actually in the park, but first you need to walk very long bridge above non-zoo land (park of Valencia), that will bring you in the zoo proper.
- I enjoyed every square metre of the park. I was constantly saying wow, wow. In this zoo, there is not a square enclosure, classical with mesh. The whole park is an amazing, awe-inspiring concept, despite having mainly African species (around 120), and no parrots for example.
- Unfortunately, I didn't see just the lemur section, because they were working something there.
- The leopard exhibit was fantastic, with several extensions, included grass-paddocks, waterfall and water pond, rocks, roofed with mesh and with glass-viewing from several places.
- There were interesting and exciting interenclosure designs throughout the park, like caves, rocky edges and hills, clefts in rocks looking into the enclosure (like the picture with the forest buffalo or gazelles grazing), narrow elevations, etc. Ape enclosures were fantastic too, different and awe-inspiring when viewed from different corners.
- I saw 5 African bush elephants. The park has potential to expand beyond into surrounding, and that will be great for the elephants, if they will have access to a grassy meadow.
- I attended the bird show (mostly) in the park amphitheatre, which included several species like: CR EN African white-headed vulture, Egyptian vulture, African fish eagle, crowned crane, black-backed jackal, porcupines. It included interesting education talks for conservation of the wildlife on Spanish (which I understand quite a lot).
- Many of the hoofstock (like gazelles or other antelopes, and even giraffes) had access to grassy paddock, but not red forest buffalos, Eastern bongos or red river hogs.
- There was a Rotschild's giraffe dam with its calf, separated in interesting enclosure (I have pictures in the section Valencia bioparc on Zoochat).
- I didn't like a lot the spotted hyena enclosure, which was stepping, but it was quite big and can be extended.
- Throughout the park there are several speakers emitting interesting noises from wildlife, making the general atmosphere more exciting.
- The park visitors number peak was in 13:00 o'clock, and in 16:00 the park was almost empty. It opened at 10:00 (and again I was there at 09:30). I spent 7 hours at the park and made two circles. It is good that you generally need to follow one walking road and will see all of the enclosures - so you can't get lost in the park's network of road.
- I didn't see the Nile crocodile(s) in the pool, but I saw African dwarf croc in a cave.
Any other additional explanations, I will eventually post via new replies.
I stayed in a hostel with Brits, Germans, Argentinians. I won't tell the sex ratio
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as that from R. Macedonia (9.5 billion euros)).
