Songkhla is a small town down in the south of Thailand, east of the city of Hat Yai. The zoo at Songkhla is one of the five comprising the Zoological Park Organization Thailand. These are the top five zoos in the country, aiming for high standards in animal welfare, education and conservation. The other four zoos in the organisation are Dusit Zoo in Bangkok, Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi, Korat Zoo in Nakhon Ratchasima, and Chiang Mai Zoo in the northern city of Chiang Mai. I was looking forward to finally seeing the Songkhla Zoo, especially after liking what I saw at the Korat Zoo a week ago. Unfortunately the Songkhla Zoo does not live up to the conditions of the other four zoos.
The zoo is very large - about 360 acres - and is designed to be driven around rather than walked. Getting there is pretty easy without your own vehicle though. I took a songthaew from the market in town for 15 Baht, which took maybe twenty minutes and dropped me at a huge "Songkhla Zoo" archway at a side-road. This isn't actually the entrance to the zoo - that is another 1.5km along the side-road. I did this by motorbike-taxi for 30 Baht. When you reach the zoo's actual entrance there is still another kilometre before you reach the ticket booth. Entry is 150 Baht for a foreigner. So getting there is easy enough, but getting back is not so easy. There is no transport (motorbikes, taxis, etc) at the zoo end. I just walked back to the main road where the archway is, and from there you can get a songthaew back to town.
I had read that the zoo cannot be walked around because it is so big, but that isn't really true. Certainly if you had children or mobility issues then you would need transport, but anybody of average fitness can easily do so. It was fortunate for me that the day was cloudy, though, which made it slightly less hot than it would have been otherwise. I asked at the ticket booth if they had bicycles for rent as at the Korat Zoo, but they did not. The lady also said that there was "no bus". I knew there was some sort of shuttle that went around the zoo - I had been planning on riding it round to get the lay-out and then walk round the bits I needed to see on foot, and I saw the "bus stations" all around the zoo - but perhaps it only runs on weekends and holidays (my visit was on a Friday), or perhaps it has simply been abandoned as so much else at the zoo has been.
Although the zoo is huge, I got round the whole site on foot in four hours. This, no doubt, was helped by the fact that so much of the zoo is in disarray. Everywhere I went there were empty and abandoned enclosures, some blocked off with tarpaulins or shade-cloth and others just sitting there empty. Some cages were better off for being empty, but others seemed to have nothing wrong with them - they were just empty and overgrown, presumably because the inhabitants had died and replacements could not be made for whatever reason. At one point there were ten mostly-occupied parrot aviaries, and then beyond them another twenty-odd blocked off and empty. Further on I came across a disused path along which were at least another twenty aviaries, all abandoned (which judging from the leaf-fall and general state of the path, had been for at least a couple of years). There is a 3.6 acre Water Park (as in a fun park for kids), just near the entrance, which was closed even though fountains and everything were working. There was a large walk-through aviary which was closed, even though it was full of birds. The bird collection must have been fantastic a few years ago, now it is a remnant. There were all sorts of mammals missing too - no Fea's Muntjacs were seen, for example, and there were no Small Cats at all and very few non-ape primates.
Looking at Tripadvisor reviews this seems to be a fairly common account too - over the last few years the standards have gone down and the numbers of empty enclosures have gone up.
There were still plenty of animals to be seen but the overall feel of the place was one of a downward spiral. Neglect would be too harsh a word to use, but there was a distinct listlessness and lack of enthusiasm about the place. There was construction work as well, with new enclosures being built or renovated here and there, but somehow this increased the appearance of the zoo being run-down rather than giving the impression of things being improved.
I think for the review I will break it into reptile, bird, mammal sections rather than being a walk-through, although there will probably be elements of walk-through to it. There's a full species list (i.e. of those species I saw) in the second post.
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The Reptile House was disappointing. It was broken into chelonians (in outdoor pens), crocodiles (in outdoor pens), and snakes (in a house). The only lizards were some Water Monitors, a Clouded Monitor, and a few Common Iguanas. There were quite a large number of turtles and tortoises in standard pens - concrete walls, land area with some plants and logs, and water area. Not too small, but not clean. The crocodile pens were pretty good and well-planted, although not very large. They were closed with the access gate to the walkway padlocked, but from the sign they had three species on show (False Gharial, Siamese Crocodile and Saltwater Crocodile).
The snake house was where I was disappointed. There were a lot of enclosures in here, but at least two-thirds of them were empty. The tanks themselves were quite large but dry as dust, even for those which were occupied. Compared to the large and fascinating snake collections at Dusit and Korat, the house here was horribly lacking. The only species I would have got excited over was Nicobar Cat Snake - except that one of the tanks with this signage held a Mangrove Snake, and the other tank (which seemed to be empty) had a confusing text and photos for albino Burmese Python but with the common and scientific name for Nicobar Cat Snake.
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The bird collection at Songkhla seems to be greatly decreased from what it must have been. There were so many aviaries left standing empty. The birds are scattered about the zoo, with two large walk-through aviaries (one closed but still full of birds), huge hornbill aviaries, a Bird Park (where most of the aviaries are or were), and then penguins, flamingoes, and ratities in various places.
The first walk-through aviary (Bird's Land) is great. It is large, appears to be either new or very well maintained, and has ground-level paths and raised walkways (although partly closed off). There are only eight bird species signed inside the aviary of which I didn't see Siamese Fireback or Kalij Pheasant (I saw them in aviaries elsewhere), and there are apparently Mouse Deer in there as well. The other six bird species on the signage were Silver Pheasant, Indian Ringneck, Blue and Yellow Macaw, African Grey Parrot, Victoria Crowned Pigeon and Nicobar Pigeon. Unsigned birds I saw were Grey Crowned Crane, Purple Swamphen, Golden Pheasant, domestic Chickens, White-eyed Conure, Alexandrine, Sun Conure, Cockatiel, Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Zebra Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Barbary Dove, and a Blue-winged Pitta. Most of the species were apparently present only as one to three individuals, but the Grey Parrots were in a large flock which was brilliant to watch.
The other big walkthrough aviary at the zoo is called "Song Birds". It looked even better than the previous aviary, being very lushly-planted whereas the Bird's Land aviary was more open. However the aviary was locked up, and appeared to have been non-entry for some time. I have no idea why - it was full of birds, and it looked in good shape. With my binoculars I spied out a number of the inhabitants, but it was so thick with foliage that I could only see small parts of it. Most of the passerines in the species lists were seen this way, and I also saw Nicobar Pigeons, Pied Imperial Pigeons, a Purple Swamphen, and a Lesser Whistling Duck.
The parrot aviaries were mock-rock glass-fronted affairs. I didn't like them overly much. They had common avicultural species in them - things like Sun Conures, Green-cheeked Conures, Goffin's Cockatoos. There were ten of these aviaries able to be viewed (two or three being empty), but beyond these the path was blocked by a shade-cloth fence past which were twenty-odd more aviaries sitting empty.
Another lot of aviaries were much nicer, again glass-fronted and rock-walled but very tall with the area above the visitor's viewing being normal mesh. Not much to get excited about here - Brahminy Kites, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Lesser Adjutant, and some pheasants. Half the aviaries had been turned over to small carnivores which I was very pleased about, not because I don't like birds but because civets and the like usually get terrible cages in zoos and here they were in quite large and very tall cages with natural light.
The hornbills were housed amazingly. An absolutely humungous double set of forest-filled aviaries, so tall that the road actually passes through the middle of one of them, and accessible on foot via covered walkways. There were five species of hornbills here (according to the signage) although I only saw Great and Rhinoceros Hornbills, and lots of them.
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The mammal collection at the zoo can be broadly encompassed by hooved stock, large carnivores, and primates. There's not much else other than a few small carnivores, a Two-toed Sloth (on an island), and Malayan Crested Porcupines (in a quite large and acceptable enclosure for once, a huge rarity in Asian zoos where porcupines are concerned!).
The hooved stock is generally housed well-enough. It's difficult to go wrong with ungulates, other than having the pen too small. Here most of the enclosures are large enough, and often with lots of trees and shelter. The Asian species are mostly in the middle part of the zoo (including a large walk-through Deer Park), and the African species mostly at the left side of the zoo (as of the map - I don't know which direction is north). The only real exceptions to the "large enough enclosures" are the Common Hippos, as usual stuck in small pools with little land area, the Malayan Tapirs in very small enclosures, and perhaps the White Rhino although it was hard to judge the boundaries of this one. Many of the other ungulate enclosures were actually very large.
The large carnivores were also, on the whole, well-housed. The Cat Complex has planted islands, backed with mock-rock and fronted with moats, which weren't huge but weren't tiny either. I think there should have been Leopards here and perhaps Jaguar, but the only enclosures I saw were occupied by a trio of Indochinese Tigers, then an orange and a white "Bengal" Tigers, and then a pair of White Lions. The bears were in better-than-normal enclosures which were planted; they were under renovation (albeit still occupied by the bears) so weren't looking their best, but they seemed good enough.
The Spotted Hyaenas were, in contrast, in an awful small cage in the Childrens Zoo. It looked too small when I first passed but while I was photographing the Cassowaries in the adjoining (also small) enclosures the hyaenas came out and then the cage really looked too small. This was actually the first time I've seen Spotted Hyaenas properly - everywhere else they have been hiding or sleeping or in poor positions. To see the pair here, right out at the fence, it is quite extraordinary how big they are.
The Cape Fur Seals and Humboldt's Penguins were also very poorly housed. I went into the indoor part where the seal room was completely empty (of seals and water). The penguin half was incredibly depressing, a small dark horrible-looking room with two suicidal-looking penguins. I know both rooms lead outside, although in both the doors were closed. I think they only go out when there is a show. But the arena was being worked on so there would be no shows. I fear the penguins are inside that little room permanently. I don't know about the seals, whether they were still present or not. They may have been in the outside pool. I didn't take any photos here because the rooms were just too dark.
Just by the seal/penguin house were the previous cages for small mammals, nothing more than tiny glass-fronted boxes and fortunately all empty. One circular pit-style enclosure about the size of a dinner table still had a sign on it for porcupines. I think these boxes must honestly be the smallest I have ever seen in a zoo for mammals of civet-size - I actually thought they were reptile tanks as I approached them, that's how awful they were. Later I found where the civets are now kept, in the bird section in what must have formerly been aviaries. Two of the cages held Large Indian Civets, and then one each for Masked Palm Civet, Common Palm Civet, and Common Raccoon. Several other of the cages were empty.
In another part of the zoo was an enclosure for otters, sign-posted as holding Small-clawed and Smooth-coated. The enclosure was empty and the path blocked (I read the sign through my binoculars), but I saw a Smooth-coated Otter in an off-show cage from one of the other paths. There were a lot of Binturongs at the zoo, mostly in a series of glass-fronted cages near the primates but also one in an open enclosure (but next to the otters, so blocked from access). In the Childrens Zoo was a small heavily-planted enclosure for Meerkats but it appeared to be empty.
And lastly we come to primates. As with the birds and certain mammal groups I think the monkey collection here has decreased somewhat dramatically. There was one monkey species on show. One! Dusky Langurs. In a cluster of very tall and reasonably large cages there were just these langurs and a pair of Ring-tailed Lemurs. Other cages here stood empty. They used to have Brown Lemurs because I saw a sign for them being repurposed for the Nilgai (i.e. flipped over with a new sign put on the back).
All the other primates were apes. The Chimps may be gone - the access path to their viewing was blocked off and the cage looked unused. There was at least one Orangutan on a large island with trees and sturdy log frames. Gibbons were housed on a series of very nice well-planted islands. A couple of islands were too small but most of them were either big enough or were interconnected. There were pairs of Pileated, Agile and White-handed Gibbons on show.
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So, I don't know what has happened to the Songkhla Zoo. It obviously used to be very good indeed and now it is like a shadow. It has good parts - indeed, it has some very good parts - but it also has so much ruin scattered everywhere, like it is simply winding down to a inevitable closure. It reminded me in a way of the Melaka Zoo in Malaysia which went in the space of a few years from one of the best zoos in Asia to a shambolic mess through neglect and corruption. I know why it happened to Melaka Zoo (read through the forums to find out) but I don't think that it is the same cause as for Songkhla Zoo. Maybe it was just never in the right location for a zoo of this size. I really don't know. But it was quite a sad zoo visit.
The zoo is very large - about 360 acres - and is designed to be driven around rather than walked. Getting there is pretty easy without your own vehicle though. I took a songthaew from the market in town for 15 Baht, which took maybe twenty minutes and dropped me at a huge "Songkhla Zoo" archway at a side-road. This isn't actually the entrance to the zoo - that is another 1.5km along the side-road. I did this by motorbike-taxi for 30 Baht. When you reach the zoo's actual entrance there is still another kilometre before you reach the ticket booth. Entry is 150 Baht for a foreigner. So getting there is easy enough, but getting back is not so easy. There is no transport (motorbikes, taxis, etc) at the zoo end. I just walked back to the main road where the archway is, and from there you can get a songthaew back to town.
I had read that the zoo cannot be walked around because it is so big, but that isn't really true. Certainly if you had children or mobility issues then you would need transport, but anybody of average fitness can easily do so. It was fortunate for me that the day was cloudy, though, which made it slightly less hot than it would have been otherwise. I asked at the ticket booth if they had bicycles for rent as at the Korat Zoo, but they did not. The lady also said that there was "no bus". I knew there was some sort of shuttle that went around the zoo - I had been planning on riding it round to get the lay-out and then walk round the bits I needed to see on foot, and I saw the "bus stations" all around the zoo - but perhaps it only runs on weekends and holidays (my visit was on a Friday), or perhaps it has simply been abandoned as so much else at the zoo has been.
Although the zoo is huge, I got round the whole site on foot in four hours. This, no doubt, was helped by the fact that so much of the zoo is in disarray. Everywhere I went there were empty and abandoned enclosures, some blocked off with tarpaulins or shade-cloth and others just sitting there empty. Some cages were better off for being empty, but others seemed to have nothing wrong with them - they were just empty and overgrown, presumably because the inhabitants had died and replacements could not be made for whatever reason. At one point there were ten mostly-occupied parrot aviaries, and then beyond them another twenty-odd blocked off and empty. Further on I came across a disused path along which were at least another twenty aviaries, all abandoned (which judging from the leaf-fall and general state of the path, had been for at least a couple of years). There is a 3.6 acre Water Park (as in a fun park for kids), just near the entrance, which was closed even though fountains and everything were working. There was a large walk-through aviary which was closed, even though it was full of birds. The bird collection must have been fantastic a few years ago, now it is a remnant. There were all sorts of mammals missing too - no Fea's Muntjacs were seen, for example, and there were no Small Cats at all and very few non-ape primates.
Looking at Tripadvisor reviews this seems to be a fairly common account too - over the last few years the standards have gone down and the numbers of empty enclosures have gone up.
There were still plenty of animals to be seen but the overall feel of the place was one of a downward spiral. Neglect would be too harsh a word to use, but there was a distinct listlessness and lack of enthusiasm about the place. There was construction work as well, with new enclosures being built or renovated here and there, but somehow this increased the appearance of the zoo being run-down rather than giving the impression of things being improved.
I think for the review I will break it into reptile, bird, mammal sections rather than being a walk-through, although there will probably be elements of walk-through to it. There's a full species list (i.e. of those species I saw) in the second post.
.........................................
The Reptile House was disappointing. It was broken into chelonians (in outdoor pens), crocodiles (in outdoor pens), and snakes (in a house). The only lizards were some Water Monitors, a Clouded Monitor, and a few Common Iguanas. There were quite a large number of turtles and tortoises in standard pens - concrete walls, land area with some plants and logs, and water area. Not too small, but not clean. The crocodile pens were pretty good and well-planted, although not very large. They were closed with the access gate to the walkway padlocked, but from the sign they had three species on show (False Gharial, Siamese Crocodile and Saltwater Crocodile).
The snake house was where I was disappointed. There were a lot of enclosures in here, but at least two-thirds of them were empty. The tanks themselves were quite large but dry as dust, even for those which were occupied. Compared to the large and fascinating snake collections at Dusit and Korat, the house here was horribly lacking. The only species I would have got excited over was Nicobar Cat Snake - except that one of the tanks with this signage held a Mangrove Snake, and the other tank (which seemed to be empty) had a confusing text and photos for albino Burmese Python but with the common and scientific name for Nicobar Cat Snake.
.....................................
The bird collection at Songkhla seems to be greatly decreased from what it must have been. There were so many aviaries left standing empty. The birds are scattered about the zoo, with two large walk-through aviaries (one closed but still full of birds), huge hornbill aviaries, a Bird Park (where most of the aviaries are or were), and then penguins, flamingoes, and ratities in various places.
The first walk-through aviary (Bird's Land) is great. It is large, appears to be either new or very well maintained, and has ground-level paths and raised walkways (although partly closed off). There are only eight bird species signed inside the aviary of which I didn't see Siamese Fireback or Kalij Pheasant (I saw them in aviaries elsewhere), and there are apparently Mouse Deer in there as well. The other six bird species on the signage were Silver Pheasant, Indian Ringneck, Blue and Yellow Macaw, African Grey Parrot, Victoria Crowned Pigeon and Nicobar Pigeon. Unsigned birds I saw were Grey Crowned Crane, Purple Swamphen, Golden Pheasant, domestic Chickens, White-eyed Conure, Alexandrine, Sun Conure, Cockatiel, Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Zebra Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Barbary Dove, and a Blue-winged Pitta. Most of the species were apparently present only as one to three individuals, but the Grey Parrots were in a large flock which was brilliant to watch.
The other big walkthrough aviary at the zoo is called "Song Birds". It looked even better than the previous aviary, being very lushly-planted whereas the Bird's Land aviary was more open. However the aviary was locked up, and appeared to have been non-entry for some time. I have no idea why - it was full of birds, and it looked in good shape. With my binoculars I spied out a number of the inhabitants, but it was so thick with foliage that I could only see small parts of it. Most of the passerines in the species lists were seen this way, and I also saw Nicobar Pigeons, Pied Imperial Pigeons, a Purple Swamphen, and a Lesser Whistling Duck.
The parrot aviaries were mock-rock glass-fronted affairs. I didn't like them overly much. They had common avicultural species in them - things like Sun Conures, Green-cheeked Conures, Goffin's Cockatoos. There were ten of these aviaries able to be viewed (two or three being empty), but beyond these the path was blocked by a shade-cloth fence past which were twenty-odd more aviaries sitting empty.
Another lot of aviaries were much nicer, again glass-fronted and rock-walled but very tall with the area above the visitor's viewing being normal mesh. Not much to get excited about here - Brahminy Kites, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Lesser Adjutant, and some pheasants. Half the aviaries had been turned over to small carnivores which I was very pleased about, not because I don't like birds but because civets and the like usually get terrible cages in zoos and here they were in quite large and very tall cages with natural light.
The hornbills were housed amazingly. An absolutely humungous double set of forest-filled aviaries, so tall that the road actually passes through the middle of one of them, and accessible on foot via covered walkways. There were five species of hornbills here (according to the signage) although I only saw Great and Rhinoceros Hornbills, and lots of them.
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The mammal collection at the zoo can be broadly encompassed by hooved stock, large carnivores, and primates. There's not much else other than a few small carnivores, a Two-toed Sloth (on an island), and Malayan Crested Porcupines (in a quite large and acceptable enclosure for once, a huge rarity in Asian zoos where porcupines are concerned!).
The hooved stock is generally housed well-enough. It's difficult to go wrong with ungulates, other than having the pen too small. Here most of the enclosures are large enough, and often with lots of trees and shelter. The Asian species are mostly in the middle part of the zoo (including a large walk-through Deer Park), and the African species mostly at the left side of the zoo (as of the map - I don't know which direction is north). The only real exceptions to the "large enough enclosures" are the Common Hippos, as usual stuck in small pools with little land area, the Malayan Tapirs in very small enclosures, and perhaps the White Rhino although it was hard to judge the boundaries of this one. Many of the other ungulate enclosures were actually very large.
The large carnivores were also, on the whole, well-housed. The Cat Complex has planted islands, backed with mock-rock and fronted with moats, which weren't huge but weren't tiny either. I think there should have been Leopards here and perhaps Jaguar, but the only enclosures I saw were occupied by a trio of Indochinese Tigers, then an orange and a white "Bengal" Tigers, and then a pair of White Lions. The bears were in better-than-normal enclosures which were planted; they were under renovation (albeit still occupied by the bears) so weren't looking their best, but they seemed good enough.
The Spotted Hyaenas were, in contrast, in an awful small cage in the Childrens Zoo. It looked too small when I first passed but while I was photographing the Cassowaries in the adjoining (also small) enclosures the hyaenas came out and then the cage really looked too small. This was actually the first time I've seen Spotted Hyaenas properly - everywhere else they have been hiding or sleeping or in poor positions. To see the pair here, right out at the fence, it is quite extraordinary how big they are.
The Cape Fur Seals and Humboldt's Penguins were also very poorly housed. I went into the indoor part where the seal room was completely empty (of seals and water). The penguin half was incredibly depressing, a small dark horrible-looking room with two suicidal-looking penguins. I know both rooms lead outside, although in both the doors were closed. I think they only go out when there is a show. But the arena was being worked on so there would be no shows. I fear the penguins are inside that little room permanently. I don't know about the seals, whether they were still present or not. They may have been in the outside pool. I didn't take any photos here because the rooms were just too dark.
Just by the seal/penguin house were the previous cages for small mammals, nothing more than tiny glass-fronted boxes and fortunately all empty. One circular pit-style enclosure about the size of a dinner table still had a sign on it for porcupines. I think these boxes must honestly be the smallest I have ever seen in a zoo for mammals of civet-size - I actually thought they were reptile tanks as I approached them, that's how awful they were. Later I found where the civets are now kept, in the bird section in what must have formerly been aviaries. Two of the cages held Large Indian Civets, and then one each for Masked Palm Civet, Common Palm Civet, and Common Raccoon. Several other of the cages were empty.
In another part of the zoo was an enclosure for otters, sign-posted as holding Small-clawed and Smooth-coated. The enclosure was empty and the path blocked (I read the sign through my binoculars), but I saw a Smooth-coated Otter in an off-show cage from one of the other paths. There were a lot of Binturongs at the zoo, mostly in a series of glass-fronted cages near the primates but also one in an open enclosure (but next to the otters, so blocked from access). In the Childrens Zoo was a small heavily-planted enclosure for Meerkats but it appeared to be empty.
And lastly we come to primates. As with the birds and certain mammal groups I think the monkey collection here has decreased somewhat dramatically. There was one monkey species on show. One! Dusky Langurs. In a cluster of very tall and reasonably large cages there were just these langurs and a pair of Ring-tailed Lemurs. Other cages here stood empty. They used to have Brown Lemurs because I saw a sign for them being repurposed for the Nilgai (i.e. flipped over with a new sign put on the back).
All the other primates were apes. The Chimps may be gone - the access path to their viewing was blocked off and the cage looked unused. There was at least one Orangutan on a large island with trees and sturdy log frames. Gibbons were housed on a series of very nice well-planted islands. A couple of islands were too small but most of them were either big enough or were interconnected. There were pairs of Pileated, Agile and White-handed Gibbons on show.
............................................
So, I don't know what has happened to the Songkhla Zoo. It obviously used to be very good indeed and now it is like a shadow. It has good parts - indeed, it has some very good parts - but it also has so much ruin scattered everywhere, like it is simply winding down to a inevitable closure. It reminded me in a way of the Melaka Zoo in Malaysia which went in the space of a few years from one of the best zoos in Asia to a shambolic mess through neglect and corruption. I know why it happened to Melaka Zoo (read through the forums to find out) but I don't think that it is the same cause as for Songkhla Zoo. Maybe it was just never in the right location for a zoo of this size. I really don't know. But it was quite a sad zoo visit.
