Pairi Daiza Pairi Daiza News 2019

- Good news from Paira Daiza : also the second Southern white rhino seems to be pregnant :)

- New species will go on display : a male Australian bush-turkey arrived at the beginning of 2019.
 
Yesterday the park opened the doors for the new season. The new area "terre du froid" is still a construction site.

All the aviaries in het Oasis are renewed. The four species of arassaris are in a alk through aviary. They now have a Pesquet's parrot and two Saint Vincent amazons (Amazone guildingii) (apperently the only tow in European zoos).

In the bird exhibit next to the giant aviary where three male lesser birds of paradise "free" between the visitors.

The giant panda female was in heat and therefore not te be disturbed by visitors.
 
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First-time breeding of clownfish has taken place behind the scenes of the aquarium at Pairi Daiza. According to the post it has resulted in five baby clownfish. The fish in the pictures added to the message look like Amphiprion ocellaris and A. melanopus.

Pairi Daiza NL
 
The Last Frontier will probably open june 22. Pairi Daiza just updated their website and you can now book rooms in the new hotel and the lodges from this date.
 
Maguari said:
Chester's a full day for me. On my own I can get around everything once in 4 hours or so if I were pushed for time - generally I take the full opening hours over it.

To see Pairi Daiza properly definitely needs more time than any British zoo. Only the Berlins really compare. And actually, I'd much rather do the Berlins in a day each than attempt PD. PD has both lots and lots of animals and lots of space/gardens/walking to see them - probably more a Tierpark Berlin than a Zoo Berlin - but it's even more of a maze, it's not as well signed and there is constant visual stimulus and distraction everywhere ("Hey, that 8ft tall massive sculpture just sat by the wall has been done to look like it's real jade! Oh, it is real jade..." "What's that rock propped up on old bit of farm kit there for? Oh, apparently it's the world's largest opal..." "What's in there?" "A real, giant seaplane").

On our most recent trip we did most of the zoo the first day, with the exceptions of the Chinese gardens area, birds of prey and the then-small North America section. We did these on the second day, plus the elephant bath, train, bird show and repeating some of the more interesting sections.

Both the Aquarium and the Reptile House Boat Thing are deceptively large. And in both places there are also enclosures in the gents to watch for!

It's a two-day zoo to see it fully for pretty much anyone with a zoo nerd's interest levels now. If you want to do it in actual relaxed manner it'd probably need three. That makes it pricey - €35 a day plus food etc adds up - but there is genuinely nowhere like it. I still don't know exactly how much I'd say I really like it - for its scale it ought to be popping up in top 10s and things but it doesn't quite feel like it sits among the 'normal' zoos in that way. But it's something every zoo nerd able to should see!
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I just came back from here... Its all the things you said it was, weird, wonderful, bizarrre- all these things are Paira Daiza!!! Like a cross between an eclectic and high quality zoo and Disneyworld.:D I had one whole day and one half day there. I saw nearly everything I wanted to in that time but I could have spent more time still quite easily. I missed the aquarium and reptiles though (not my particular interests anyway) and didn't discover that the Elephants had a much larger paddock and lake at the back of the house, until I noticed this on the map back in the UK!

Among all the bizzarre temples, the superb japanese gardens, boat restaurant, lighthouse etc the quality of the visual presentation of the animal exhibits is extremely good I think- far superior to most UK zoos with their limited viewing areas etc- that's never an issue at PD. The chinese/asian area and collection in particular I thought was particularly outstanding.


The high spots for me were the Spix macaws, which I have wanted to see for longer than I can remember, those both these and (to a lesser extent) the Lear's next door still don't show very well, clinging on the wire high up a lot of the time. Other species I haven't seen for many years- or never, included the Giant Pandas, Golden takins, Blue sheep, Tassie Devils, Crane sp. Shoebills, Bulwer Pheasants (now moved into the Oasis house) but I could go on and on. Overall impression- there is nothing else like it is probably all I can say...:D Also one other point- for people thinking the extended summer hours are helpful, when its open till late into the evening - I think you would be too exhausted to spend that many hours in the day walking around and still looking at animals! More for evening eating I think... But the additions this year and next of the Polar and Northern areas(currently all just a massive building site) will definitely extend the time needed to see everything properly even further into the 2 or even 3 day time period!
 
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Pertinax said:
Also one other point- for people thinking the extended summer hours are helpful, when its open till late into the evening - I think you would be too exhausted to spend that many hours in the day walking around and still looking at animals!
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You say that, but many of us took full advantage of the long, long opening hours at Tierpark Berlin (0900-1900, and lots of scope to loiter beyond this point) until the new director cut them down! ;)
 
Pertinax said:
Also one other point- for people thinking the extended summer hours are helpful, when its open till late into the evening - I think you would be too exhausted to spend that many hours in the day walking around and still looking at animals!
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I've visited the zoo twice (so far) and both times have been during extended hours. We've only left early to catch the train (around 9pm) otherwise we'd stay until the end. I'm not denying we weren't exhausted though :rolleyes:
 
Maguari said:
I still don't know exactly how much I'd say I really like it - for its scale it ought to be popping up in top 10s and things but it doesn't quite feel like it sits among the 'normal' zoos in that way. But it's something every zoo nerd able to should see!
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I'm thinking maybe one of the flaws, or at least differences from a more typical collection, is that many species are represented by only a pair or so of animals rather than larger groups or herds, because it seemed to me that 'presentation'(which I did think was amazing in many cases) is the paramount importance there. That's not to say species won't increase with time of course.
 
Pertinax said:
I'm thinking maybe one of the flaws, or at least differences from a more typical collection, is that many species are represented by only a pair or so of animals rather than larger groups or herds, because it seemed to me that 'presentation'(which I did think was amazing in many cases) is the paramount importance there. That's not to say species won't increase with time of course.
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It's not only that, I think. Already during my for the time being final visit to Pairi Daiza in 2014 in my experience their focus seems to be singularly on the theming, which at times also distracted from the animals or even was at the expense of animal exhibits and animal welfare in some places. In many places around the park the zoo and the exhibits seemed to be built around and in between the theming, rather than the other way around. Admittedly a lot has changed at Pairi Daiza in those nearly five years, but I have quite consistently read similar sentiments being expressed in reviews in the last couple of years - for example in this 2018 review by our own Lintworm: Pairi Daiza review [Pairi Daiza] . Also all the elaborate theming at Pairi Daiza is just so overwhelming and times even excessive that is difficult to absorb it all and can become a bit oppressive. Lastly I don't think it helps that food and drinks are pretty to very expensive at the park and can be somewhat troublesome to obtain at times.

I'm not ragging on Pairi Daiza here, and it certainly is a very impressive zoo, but it also has some pretty apparent flaws and in my opinion they are going just a bit - or maybe more than that - over the top with all the theming and with everything they have in the park.
 
I do agree that the buildings, particularly the temple-type ones, seem to dominate the whole place and a lot of them seem to serve no purpose whatsoever. And yes, the few snacks I had there didn't seem cheap either- E.2.70 for a tiny cup of capuccino, & around E 3.50 for a regulation ice cream cone, for example. But being used to recent modern zoo developments in the UK zoos which often seem to fall short of expectations viewing-wise, I think PD at least have it nailed with respect to how to make animals visible with all round viewing opportunities.
 
My opinion on Pairi Daiza...

It is a weird beast. Some exhibits are very good. Shoebill storks, birds of prey and bear cuscus had enormous aviaries. Elephants probably enjoyed living in the large herd more than anything, and being taken out for bath. Giant pandas and Asian black bears had nice yards shaded with live trees.

On the other hand, some exhibits were mediocre, like lions, or substandard. The worst were orangutans in sterile glass-fronted cages with just one niches and few ropes. Orangutans did not care about the excessive theming (which looked more Thai than Indonesian, from my tourist memories). Tigers had boring, smallish grass yard with some walls and one(?) dead branch. Gorillas suffered on a sunny grass with few climbing equipment, unsuitable for animals from shady, dense thickets. Cassowary pen and giant otter exhibit were close or below the bare legal minimum.

Most zoo enthusiasts are irritated by the excess theming. I did not enjoy it either. Several broken-down airplanes, tens of skulls and skeletons and many hundreds of elephant scupltures. Frankly speaking, I don't think an average visitor enjoys or notices it much, either. Perhaps the zoo marketing experts might have a closer look into it. Most of it was tacky. Few seemed to be, surprise, faithfully replicated cultural artifacts. However, these were ruined by lack of sensible cultural commentary.

One thing which I liked that it is the zoo which still understands the importance of a diverse animal collection. So you get all ABCs, and also Ds, Es and Fs of the animals world. Clouded leopard, shoebill stork, tasmanian devil, giant salamander were all welcome to see.
 
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