Pairi Daiza
What an interesting zoo. Having only just finished my visit (on a very sunny day I'm happy to announce) I am still trying to piece my thoughts together.
Everything you've heard about here is true. Essentially, imagine that a place like the Lost Gardens of Heligan or some other ornamental garden became a zoo and had an enormous Asian temple planted in the middle of it. That's Pairi Daiza. The zoo lies in a 160 acre abandoned monastery, meaning that despite their wheelchair friendly maps (showing which paths are easier to manoeuvre one on) the terrain isn't wheelchair friendly at all. Not only is it incredibly hilly, but other visitors not paying any attention to where they're walking causes trouble for wheelchair users as well. The theming is very lavish and over the top at points, though this doesn't always work against the animals. As the zoo is so huge we didn't get to see all of it, we missed the squirrel monkeys, reindeer, raccoons, pelican lake, capybaras and alpacas. But we got to see everything else. I'll go by section just like Planckendael with a summary at the end. The two sections that will be left out are Vallée de la Source (lakes, pelicans, capybaras and birds of prey) and Terre du Froid (reindeer, raccoons and bison) as we didn't get to either of those areas.
Porte du Ciel
There isn't much to see here other than the Oasis and the bird of prey show, the latter of which we gave a miss. The setting looks impressive in the shadow of the old clock tower, and I'm assuming this where all their birds of prey are kept (secretary bird, crowned hawk eagle etc). We did see what looked like a buzzard eagle as we passed by looking for the entrance to the Oasis, which is incredibly hard to find!! Once actually indoors the large rainforest house can feel very choc-a-bloc, but the rarities within (bear cuscus, New Guinea short-beaked echidna, northern bog lemming and Luzon rufous hornbill) are worth it. Further in this section is a paddock for dromedaries, and multiple bird aviaries for king vulture, silvery-cheeked hornbill, and multiple parrots. Nothing too noteworthy, but the section isn't particularly awful either.
Porte des Profondeurs
My least favourite area. The section consists of the Aquarium, the Crypte and a huge playground. The Aquarium and the Crypte suffer from Pairi Daiza's main problem; theming. Walking through the Aquarium you are led through nautical labs and trinket shops, something I would be perfectly happy with missing. The aquarium itself is ok, the highlight was the olive ridley sea turtle. Other than that there's nothing too fascinating in there. As for the Crypte, this area consists of an underground crypt that has been converted into a bat walkthrough (Egyptian fruit bats and Indian flying foxes), as well as a corridor with enclosures Palestine mole rats (which I missed) and naked mole rats, and a chamber home to multiple newt and toad species in vivaria. For someone with claustrophobia it's not great, but I pressed on to attempt to see the Palestine mole rats. If it wasn't for the mole rats and the turtles I probably wouldn't spend too much time here.
Cité des Immortels
This is the Asian area more or less, there are a few exceptions (two South American walkthrough aviaries next to each other, as well as an enclosure for giant otters). In regards to theming this is beautifully done, but again it just feels very over the top and not really zoo-like. The species list isn't bad; Siberian cranes, Sichuan takins, snow leopards, golden-cheeked gibbons, binturongs, red pandas and giant pandas. Neither are the exhibits for the most part. The walkthrough aviaries are well-done (as were essentially all walkthrough aviaries at the zoo), with species like boat-billed heron and roseate spoonbill. All of the main animal enclosures were good with the exception of the red pandas (quite hard to view) and the giant otters (rather small and in my opinion out of place). Seeing the pandas without having to pay in advance was interesting to say the least. Female and cub were outside together in one half whilst the male was inside asleep in the other. It's not hard to see why the pandas bred so fast, their enclosure is rather impressive compared to say Edinburgh and Madrid. The takins neighbouring the snow leopards is also a nice touch. Again, my main gripe is that there's more theming than there is animal space.
Terre des Origines
The largest section we visited in regards to land occupied, this is the African section, though the clouded leopards are temporarily behind the lion enclosure whilst a new spot for them in the Asian area is located. There are some very nice exhibits, including two savannah areas (one with buffalo, Burchell's zebras, blue wildebeest and impalas, the other with Rothschild's giraffes, ankole cattle and ostriches), an enclosure for a pair of female African elephants, a hippo enclosure with underwater viewing (sadly the water is awfully murky so not much hope of seeing anything), and the two gorilla volcanoes (one of the bachelor groups is housed with colobus). There are also some very nice bird species, including shoebills and open-billed storks. The carnivore areas (lions, spotted hyenas and cheetahs) are average at best, and there are some ideas that fall short (the hippo underwater is one, another is the idea of the volcanoes the gorillas live in, the height is very much wasted here). Here a few of the zoo's ethical dilemmas come to light; in the lemur walkthrough the staff actively encourage the stroking of the ruffed lemurs, and with the pair of gorillas from Vallée des Singes their begging behaviour that they learnt there is encouraged at feeding times. If it wasn't for these, I would be prepared to rate this as one of the, if not the best section in the zoo. But nevertheless it is still a top quality section for a zoo, and I came away impressed.
Lagune
This is a tiny section, comprised of a ship, a small lake, a squirrel monkey island walkthrough, three aquatic enclosures housing South American sea lions, common seals and African penguins, and an Australian area. The ship's interior has been re-converter into a reptile/amphibian/invertebrate house. Again, some nice species (a fantastic venomous section, New Guinea snapping turtle, Chinese alligator) but nothing too groundbreaking, and the layout feels very over the top again. The penguins and seals have lakeside enclosures with part of the lake accessible to the seals, something I was very happy to see. We didn't go onto the squirrel monkey island, but the Australian area is also very well put together, though a walkthrough with very aggressive Australian pelicans left alarm bells ringing in my head. The Tasmanian devil enclosure is the largest I've seen so far, and the koala house is also well designed. Sadly we missed the dorcopsis in the Australian aviary, which was a bit of a downer, but there's always Best I suppose. There's also an enclosure for southern cassowary, small but satisfactory.
Royaume de Ganesha
Finally, there's another very much Asian section. This area surrounds and includes an enormous Asian temple that has been built, and the same that has applied to the rest of the zoo so far applies here; theming is beautiful and nicely thought out, but swallows up the exhibit space. It's nice to see a marble temple, but whether it's necessary to house three Sumatran orangutans is another thing. The big cat enclosures here feel very squashed, and the white tigers one in particular. There are some jewels in the crown, like a water buffalo and Visayan warty pig mixed enclosure with actual rice paddies, a very large Sulawesi crested macaque enclosure, and a fantastically elaborate indoor burrow for Tasmanian wombats. The orangutan enclosures also aren't too bad, the one for the pair in particular (the one for the trio is ok but the temple is incredibly over the top). There are also three onshow elephant enclosures, one for a group of three elderly females, one for an African female and an Asian female living together, and one for a herd of six. I assume there's a bull offshow as the herd of six had calves present. The elephant areas are ok, the large one at the top housing the big herd is by far the best. However, here we experienced a call back to what we saw in Terre; the Asian elephants have free contact with staff. Every day at 1:30 and 4pm a single female is taken out of the main herd and ridden around the section (one staff member atop her shoulders, another with a stick walking behind and to the side of her), with a stop at a bath, as well as a few stops for the public to stroke her. Personally, I don't mind the walk and bathing aspect, but I think the riding is unnecessary and the stroking definitely not required. Regardless, the section is unbelievable in terms layout and theming. It definitely warrants a thorough explore, as there's all sorts of fascinating areas and species to see and to enjoy.
Summary
Again, this zoo is very confusing. There are plenty of great aspects to it; the species list does not disappoint and, to a degree, the theming is rather nice too. However, the laxness of staff with visitors touching the animals and allowing some animals to beg for their food raises some big question marks. The theming is over the top, more in some areas than others, and some places feel rather ridiculous. There are also play areas everywhere, and catering outlets too.
But, unfortunately, that is the future of zoos. Theme park-y zoos are doing better and better (hence why Pairi Daiza, San Diego and Loro Parque are listed as the best zoos of their respective countries on TripAdvisor) as, for the everyman, it's seen as a better day out. I didn't dislike Pairi Daiza and, for my sins, actually preferred it to Planckendael. But I can definitely understand why zoochatters frown upon it. The whole sellout aspect (owned by a billionaire) is very hard to miss.
Did I hate it? No. Would I be happy to revisit soon? Yes. As soon as the other two? Probably not.
A mixed bag through and through, but it's not hard to see why it has done so well with the public. Antwerp still wins out as my favourite of the three though.
FINAL SCORE: 4/5
Wait, there's a volcano in the Gorilla indoor exhibit, and a temple in the Wombat exhibit? Is there a specific reason why? I mean I'm all for a bit of theming, but this is ridiculous.