aardvark250's second trip to Japan

Chlidonias said:
I've probably seen worse, but these Sun Bear enclosures came to mind first:

At Bukittinggi Zoo (Sumatra):


At Yadanabon Zoo (Burma):


At Suzhou Zoo (China):
Click to expand...

The first and the third are especially bad.

aardvark250 said:
Shenzhen's one is bigger and have vegetation.
Click to expand...

I can’t remember the vegetation the vegetation as Shenzhen. You’re right, it is bigger, but when I was there I counted 16 bears in the one enclosure, so I think that on the bases of square metres per bear, each animal would have less room.
 
Kyoto City zoo : Species list


Mammals:

Tushima leopard cat

Amur tiger

Lion

Jaguar

Japanese red fox

Raccoon dog

Japanese badger

Japanese squirrel

Japanese flying squirrel

Long tailed goral

Sika

Japanese black bear

Gorilla

Tufted capuchin

Rhesus macaque

Senegal bushbaby

Pygmy slow loris

Asian elephant

Brazilian tapir

Cape hyrax

Mandrill Lar gibbon

Chimpanzee

Bush dog

Red panda

Fennec fox

Hippo

Zebra

Meerkat

Giraffe

Indian flying fox



Birds:

White-cheeked pintail
Common teal
Mallard
Common goldeneye
European pochard
Baikal teal
Spot-billed duck
Mandarin duck
Tufted duck

White bellied green pigeon

Japanese white-eye

White’s thrush

Brown-ear bulbul

Japanese quail

Black-necked stilt

Gray-headed lapwing

Ural owl

Peregrine falcon

Green pheasant

Northern goshawk

Rubby kingfisher(That’s the sign)

Buffon’s macaw

Plain chachalaca

White cheeked turaco

Scarlet macaw

Snowy owl

Red crowned crane

Emu

Peafowl

Humbolt penguin

Northern bald ibis

white ibis

Guineafowl

Greater flamingo
Lesser flamingo
Chilean flamingo
Caribbean flamingo

Black headed gull


Reptiles(I miss a lot of them due to a lack of time):

Japanese striped snake

Mamushi

West African dwarf crocodile

New Guinea snake-necked turtle
Painted turtle
Black-knobbed map turtle

Madagascar day gecko

Indian star tortoise
Green iguana

Ball python


Amphibians:

Japanese giant salamander

Japanese newt

Argentine horned frog

Green and black poison dart frog
 
Kobe animal kingdom species list:

Mammals:

Ring-tailed lemur

Sitatunga

Cape hyrax

Serval

Fennec fox

American beaver

Striped skunk

Collared peccary

Red river hog

Binturong

Red panda

Asian small clawed otter

Spotted seal

Capybara

Patagonian mara

Alpaca

Red kangaroo

Grey kangaroo

LInneaus two-toed sloth

Three-band armadillo

Southern tamandua

Cottontop tamarin

Common marmoset

Fishing cat

Brazilian tapir



Birds(I skip the parrot house because it cost 300yen):

Kea

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo

White pelican

Mallard

Ruddy shelduck

Shoebill

Common shelduck

Mandarin duck

Himalayan monal(not seen)

Ringed teal(not seen)

Whit ibis

Sacred ibis

Blacksmith plover

Black-necked stilt

Scarlet ibis

Marabou stork

African penguin

Black swan

Mute swan

Owl species (ID need)

Eurasian eagle owl

Brown Wood Owl

Salmon-crested Cockatoo

Red and green macaw

Blue and yellow macaw

Violet turaco

White-throated toucan

Victoria crowned pigeon

Toco toucan

Eagle species(ID need)


Reptiles:

Tortoise ID
 
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Tennoji zoo species list:

Mammals:

Tufted capuchin

Grivet

Lion-tailed macaque

Drill

Mandrill

Siamang

De brazza monkey

Crab eating macaque

Pig tailed macaque

Francois’s langur

Egyptian rousette

Japanese marten

Small hedgehog tenrec

Sugar glider

Lesser slow loris

Koala

Spectacled bear

Sun bear

Japanese black bear

Polar bear

Common chimpanzee(not seen)

California sea lion

Hippo

Red panda

Amur tiger

Chinese grey wolf

Dhole

Mouflon

Jaguar

Puma

Lion

Zebra

Giraffe

Spotted hyena

Eland



Birds:

Ural owl

Spectacled owl

Brown kiwi

Waldrapp

European white stork

Spotbilled duck(not seen)

Faclated duck(not seen)

Black-tailed gull

Common shelduck

Grey heron

Black-crowned night heron

Tufted duck

Little egret

Great cormorant

Mallard

Sacred ibis

Great grey owl

Snowy owl

Temminck's Tragopan

Palawan Peacock-Pheasant

Crestless Fireback

Himalayan Monal

Vulturine Guineafowl

Helmeted Guineafowl

Green Pheasant

Edwards's Pheasant

American Flamingo

Chilean Flamingo

Lesser Flamingo

Red crowned crane

Siberian crane

King penguin

Humbolt penguin

　Japanese Golden Eagle

Andean condor

Saker falcon

Turkey vulture

Black vulture

Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture

Grey-crowned crane

　Demoiselle Crane

Black-necked Crane

Whimbrel

Reptiles:

Fat-tailed gecko

American alligator

Aldabra tortoise

Radiated tortoise

Panther gecko

Bearded dragon

Bengal monitor

Chinese alligator

Spotted pond tortoise

Indian roof turtle

Chinese crocodile lizard

Boa constrictor

Water monitor

Black tree monitor

Nile monitor

Alligator snapping tortoise

Amphibians:

African clawed frog

White’s tree frog

Cranwell horned frog

Helmeted water toad

Fish:

Marbled lungfish

Carp
 
I have stopped this for too long. So here it is.


Aardvark250’s second trip to Japan—a detailed review




Part 1:Kyoto Municipal Zoo

Part 2:Kyoto Aquarium

Part 3:Kaiyukan

Part 4:Kobe Animal Kingdom

Part 5:Tennoji Zoo


So let’s start!



Part 1.1 Entrance and cat exhibits


Upon reaching the zoo entrance, I didn’t expect much. The zoo is small and I prepared just 1.5 hours for it. Of course there are a lot more to see, so let’s get start!


The zoo is located inside the city of Kyoto, with very convenience bus service. The train station is also nearby. Just next to the bus stop is the zoo entrance .The entrance is one that is simple, which don’t have much fancy buildings to it.
upload_2018-4-27_17-44-29.png


The admission fee is also cheap.600 yen for adults and since I’m not 18, I enter the zoo free. The first exhibit is already for a rare inhabitants. Tsushima leopard cat(Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus). According to the new felidae taxonomy. This subspecies is not recognized anymore, but rather merge into the Amur leopard cat subspecies. But anyway, a rather cool animal to see. Sadly ,the cat is hiding under a shelter and curve into a ball, and with the iron wire, I can’t photograph it.


A picture of the Tsushima leopard cat exhibit.
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The leopard cat is hiding next to the card box.


As you can see, the exhibit is small, but it provides basic enrichment for the cat. They have place to hide, place to climb, and there is dirt and sand rather than concrete.


After the leopard cat, there are four similar exhibit, housing Leopard (Panthera pardus) , Lion (Panthera leo) and Tiger (Panthera tigris). Though all of them are small, they did tried to provide as much they can. The leopard exhibit has some log, a rising platform and some enrichment such as a ball and a barrel. The ground is also natural and they have indoor area. However, this is too small for two leopards. In my opinion, the zoo should focus on more smaller carnivore, instead of some big ones.


A photo of the leopard exhibit

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Next to the leopard is the lion one. The exhibit house a old lion, claimed to be the oldest in Japan. In my visit, the lion is doing nothing but sleep. It is thin, and don’t look so good. Also, the enrichment for him is less than the one with the leopard. I hope Kyoto Zoo won’t bring back another lion after this one dies.


The last exhibit of this small cat area is for the tiger. They have two exhibit, but they are connected with a walkway. The tiger exhibit is similar to the leopard’s. A platform, some climbing structure and a ball for them. There are at least two of them.

A photo of the tiger exhibit.

upload_2018-4-27_17-44-52.png

This area is the worst of the zoo, but I can see they are not as bad as the one in China. At least there are some form of enrichment, rather than an empty cage. However, I totally agree that these exhibit should not be used for large carnivore. The space is clearly too small. Maybe, they can phrase them out to other Japanese zoo and get some smaller animal……..


Stay tune for part 2:Forest of Kyoto.
 
aardvark250 said:
This area is the worst of the zoo, but I can see they are not as bad as the one in China. At least there are some form of enrichment, rather than an empty cage. However, I totally agree that these exhibit should not be used for large carnivore. The space is clearly too small. Maybe, they can phrase them out to other Japanese zoo and get some smaller animal……..
Click to expand...

You do this all the time and it really annoys me. Which one in China? Certainly not in Shanghai. Perhaps there are worse in Nanjing, but then there are also exhibits there which are clearly better than this as well. There are certainly bad exhibits in Chinese zoos, but the ease with which you jump to this comparison and your eagerness to tar everything with the same brush suggests a rather ugly ulterior motive.
 
I decide it need too much time to go in all the details, so actually,I wouldn't do a walkthrough review .I am planning on other things;)

Kyoto Zoo
Located inside the kyoto city, this zoo is the second oldest in Japan. It is small, and I don't actually want to visit it, until I must go to Kyoto. The zoo is small, and there isn't much to see, and I managed to finish the zoo in 1.5 -2 hours. Of course there are still lifeticks for me, but the zoo really don't provide much.

Cat complex
Refer to post #27

Kyoto forest
This complex is a new one, and it clearly show contrast to other exhibit. The area is in standard and is nicely done for a small zoo like Kyoto. The whole area is dedicate to animals that are found in Japan( except for the goral). All of the exhibit there have natural ground, and the bird one have some vegetation. The bird cage can surely be bigger and higher, but it's an ok for the bird. Other exhibit is on the small side, but is acceptable. The whole complex is not bad, and I can see they really have improve their quality of exhibit (hopefully they can do it on the hyrax and the tapir)

The reptile house
Well, that's mainly a reptile house, with the turtle exhibit on standard, and some terrarium just like other zoos, plus a crocodile and some frogs. However, there's also a small part inside the house with two small nocturnal exhibit, for slow loris and senegal bushbaby. The exhibit is small and only consist of a few branches. Further worse is a really small exhibit for Indian flying fox, which I doubt can fly in such a small exhibit. Outside of the reptile house is four small aviaries for chachalaca and macaw.

The elephant area
This area include three exhibit,the tapir,the elephant and the hyrax. The elephant exhibit is ok to be fair, but too small. The tapir exhibit is clearly too small for even one tapir, and they have three. The hyax exhibit is ugly, with concrete structure forming a slope/stair for the hyrax. Hope they can improve this quickly.

The primates
The gorilla here is the main star. Their exhibit is quite good and they have indoor exhibit, and a computer to play.;) The rhesus macaque is like the Japanese one, with a hole in the floor and give them some rocks and others to play. The other exhibit for capuchin and gibbon are ok, with enough height but not enough area.

Random exhibit
The owl aviary is ok at most, the red crowned crane exhibit is small with a smaller pool, the peacock aviary I don't bother, the penguin exhibit is just a swimming pool with no natural floor.
The red panda have a tunnel going through it and both part have vegetation and climbing facilities, and finally the five(?) bush dog(my lifetick) have a good exhibit with vegetation and water, as well as some tree branches.
The african complex
That's the smallest exhibit I have seen housing zebra and giraffe. They have only two trees and both were not touchable. The hippo exhibit is also the smallest I have ever seen, and the water don't have enough depth for the hippo. The land area is even smaller, and you can get very close to the hippo. The meerkat exhibit is good with sand and indoor exhibit, and the flamingo/bald ibis/white ibis exhibit is not too bad.
Conclusion
The zoo is small. Most of it's exhibit are not big enough for the inhabitants. They can probably sort out some big animals(elephants, hippos, tigers..) and replace them with local smaller animals. The zoo new complex is better, but they still have a lot of work to do. This is just an ordinary, small city zoo, with nothing stand out.
 
Kaiyukan(Osaka Aquarium)

Kaiyukan, located just at the other side of Universal Studio, is an aquarium that has get great reputation. After my visit to the USJ, I decide to visit this world class aquarium. And it is very great indeed.

Kaiyukan aquarium is not a big aquarium, and it only have a few big exhibit. However, it is world class for some reason.
1)Whale shark and devil ray in a huge exhibit in the middle
2)the depth of all exhibit are great
3)offer multi-point of view for visitors

With that being said , let's dive in and see why would I said that.

You start off with a escalator heading up to the roof and then go down. The first exhibit, on the roof with sunlight, is for a group of ASCO. Then down the floor, you see the exhibit again, but with underwater viewing. After that, you follow the geographic region, from Monterrey bay to Rainforest, then to Antarctica and the big pacific ocean.

There are just a handful of tanks, but all are big and deep. The dolphin exhibit is not big, but the exhibit cover three floors. And from each floor, they are basically the same tanks, with maybe some small one on the wall. But mostly it's the same tank from the previous level. You first see the animal from sea level, then descend into the middle, and then to the ocean floor. That's what makes kaiyukan great. Different perspective. It doesn't have a huge viewing window, but it get you deeper and deeper, and eventually to the floor.

Of course the main exhibit is the whale shark, but the aquarium have more to offer. Of course there are some rare species, such as giant isopod in a small tank, and another deep but not big tank for Ocean sunfish.

Through all the exhibit down for 3-4 floor, and go through all the big tanks, there is a new zone. That's the arctic section. They claim to have the first Arctic lyre crab and Arctic shanny on exhibit in Japan, and they have also arctic cod and sea clione(really hard to photograph!) on display. Also special is a really small tank for ringed seal, but what's special is that it is above. You can see the seal at the top of your head. That's really interesting. The exhibit though, is not good.

Almost exiting the aquarium, there are the rockhopper penguin exhibit, which can bring you incredibly close to the penguin. There's also a shark and stingray touch tank.(BTW, stingray touch better than sharks)

The last zone (label as the dory exhibit in CGSwan review), is now a really interesting zone. It display some weird-looking and interesting species , such as stonefish and bering wolffish. The tank for them are just ordinary tanks in the wall and maybe some bigger, but it still have a special exhibit. Megamouth shark. OK that's is not a living megamouth, just a dead specimen. But that's also very cool.

Kaiyukan is a special aquarium. It really leads you down, and you are like going through the ocean, through different area and depth. I can't think of any dolphin exhibit that's as deep as kaiyukan. This is probably one of the best aquarium in the world, but there are severe competition, Okinawa, Toba..... so much great aquarium around Japan. Anyway though, this is a aquarium that's worth a visit.
 
Kobe animal kingdom(14/2/2018)

A small zoo located inside Kobe, this zoo is mostly indoor and thus I visit it with no problem of cold. It was a greenhouse before having mostly plants before transforming into the zoo now. The zoo provide me some lifeticks , although these might be common for others, and some rare animals that are not in my lifeticks.


Entrance

Upon entering the zoo, you are in a greenhouse, with the right side being a aviary for birds. I didn’t enter it because it cost extra money. Then there is two exhibit for also parrots. The kea and Major Mitchell’s cockatoo have exhibit outside the aviary. These exhibit are wooden boxes with glass viewing. I wouldn’t say this is the worst for birds, but for a parrot it’s not good. How can the parrot fly with so little height and space?

And how do they climb? At least there’s two branches inside the exhibit, but that doesn’t help much. They should build higher enclosure and put that cockatoo inside the aviary.


The pet zone

This zone is where people can have interactions—with dog and cats.(and rabbits). I have no interested in any form of children’s zoo so I didn’t enter.


Central area

This is basically a big mixed exhibit. An island is surrounded by water with a bunch of animal living inside. There are various waterfowl, flamingo, ring-tailed lemur and sitatunga. Of course there are shoebill also. It’s quite interesting to watch an antelope get mixed with a stork. Oh, I watch the pelican show which they fly around the exhibit. Overall, the exhibit is quite good, the water is enough for all those ducks (and ibis and flamingo and shoebill), and the land is also enough for the lemurs and the antelopes. However, this is all a walk-in exhibit so I’m unsure,. I don’t know but are sitatunga aggressive? Also shoebill will they attack people? IDK. I think there are a little safety to care about.

There are also three exhibit located outside the mixed area. They are rock hyrax, serval and fennec fox. Those are basically the same design like the kea. Except the serval one is bigger, the hyrax one have more rocks, and the fennec have sand and enrichment. I think larger exhibit need to be make for those animals, and most of them need more foliage (I think). At least they have some sand on the ground.


American zone

At the time I visit there, there were no bears and cougars, so only three animals are in this area. The beaver, skunk and peccary. The beaver have a basic exhibit and I actually see one of the eating a wood. The skunk exhibit is not good, with concrete ground and not much place to hide. But the worst exhibit is for the peccary. The animal live in a small space and only little sand as the only natural ground. The peccary keep pacing and for a pig, you shouldn’t build an exhibit with no water and no mud.


African wetland

One exhibit, three species. The exhibit is ok with both water and land area (more water than land). However the animal is either in the back or sleeping (red river hog), so I don’t see them utilize the exhibit. But it seems to be ok, and the ibis can fly through it.



Asian exhibit

Again three species live here. Binturong, ASCO, and red panda. Three of the exhibit are not too bad, with a few branches for the red panda to climb and also the binturong. The ASCO have land and water in 50/50. The interesting part in here is that the binturong and red panda can actually climb on the branch, which is above the path. So the binturong can drop on you if it wants to. It’s right above my head when I visit there. This is also the case for the red panda. You can get extremely close to them.


Bird show

The bird show is rather good with parrots and falcons. Owls, eagles and parrots flying above your head is cool, and the keeper show the animals and (I suppose) tell a lot of information in Japanese that I don’t understand. This is far better than telling parrots to ride bicycles and count. However though, there aren’t any “spectacular” show as the birds fly out one by one and fly above your head. And that’s it. An owl flying up your head is cool, but not spectacular.( I mean the beauvel one or Jurong is spectacular) Also, I can hold an owl for 300 yen after the show.


Aqua valley

The aqua valley is, well, quite interesting. There you have the chance to feed and touch capybara, mara and tortoise. That itself is really cool. As a zoo saying “interactive”, that is a great experience. I can’t think of any zoo outside of Japan that can do this. The capybara even have a hotspring for them with flower! The capybara skin feel rough and the mara soft. The penguin exhibit is ok although those penguin are probably bad so they put it indoor.

However, there are other bad exhibit here. The spotted seal exhibit is far too small and there are two seals in the exhibit. No enrichment, just water and land. L The swan exhibit is strange,(like the penguin one), and you know both of the exhibit isn’t good when they both look like the seal one. Also, the capybara exhibit has far too less water for ~8 capybaras. I’m also not sure if they like hot spring. And the exhibit, except a little patch of sand, is full concrete for people to walk through. No good for the capybaras.

Tropical rainforest

Another walkthough, this time with birds. Toucan and violet turaco to be exact. The turaco flew on my hand to get food and I’ve never get so close to a turaco before. There is also a sloth together with them, and there are quite the height and width for the birds, as well as branches for the sloth. The other interesting thing is the open-topped armadillo exhibit. Why is it open-topped? Because you can touch the armadillo. The armour is really hard, but the exhibit is a bit small for the animal.

Of course there are some disappointed exhibit. The marmoset exhibit is too small and have too less climbing structure. I can’t see the tamandua but it is certainly not pleasant. The cotton-top tamarin get mixed with a armadillo is also quite strange.

Tropical wetland

No much comment here, except the tapir (it was still there when I visit) is far too small, and the pond is very small. Otherwise other exhibit is ok, and I’ve heard there are fishing cat show although I didn’t see it.

Outdoor area

The outdoor area have a few exhibit. One is the dog show and I didn’t see. Other are a red kangaroo/sika exhibit, a red kangaroo walkthrough, an alpaca exhibit and a natural African penguin exhibit. All of them are ok in average although I quite like the penguin exhibit not having icy structure for them. I feed the kangaroo and the kangaroo is quite heavy and quite strong. No wonder they can stand upright and fight each other.

Summary

Kobe animal kingdom is unique in the interactive opportunities. Lots of animal can be touch, and some even feed. There are lots of children there cause the children loves it. Touching a capybara and feeding it is indeed very cool. However, as the zoo is small, the bigger animal have little space to spend their life and some of the exhibit is ugly with concrete. They seems to be improving though, with the newly open American exhibit outdoor and more natural. The zoo is certainly an interesting experience, but there are still a lot of things need to improve.
 
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