Small review from my last friday visit :
- the two refurbished aviaries are nothing special and don't think really good in my opinion. The volume is not so important and the net is shiny which prevents to see the birds when it is sunny. The first one is for sun conures. The second one replaced a raw of four old aviaries where there were philippine coockatoos, blue-headed macaws and others). There are now hyacinth macaws, blue-headed macaws and guira cuckoos and they want to add curassows.
- sad news but the birds tropical house looks empty with the deaths of lot's of the interesting birds (including two males andean cock-of-the-rock, one female pesquet parrot, african firefinches...). So now, the place is just full of victoria's crowned pigeons and lories ! Luckily remain : 2 females cock-of-the-rock, 1.1 pesquet parrots, 0.1 toco tucan, 1.0 green broadbill, 0,1 great blue turaco, 1.2 javan rhinoceros hornbill, collared kingfishers.
- the white tigers enclosures received new plantings and developments. They look better but are still too small.
- the new conservation house look nice but was closed during my visit (only open wednesday and week-end until end of june),
- all the four indian rhinos (1.3) were together.
- Akili, the new male african elephant was in the sand paddock. He seems to feel well but I didn't see any zookeeper to ask for more details. The six ladies were all together in the large grassy paddock.
- the young common hippo born last year was int the inside pool with her mother. The two other hippos were outside.
- southern bald ibisses, abdim's storck, open-billed storcks, african spoonbills and hadada ibisses were all on nest.
- a young male bongo was in the lesser kudus enclosure and was rotating with the kudus group. I suppose it was before he left the zoo.
The tropical dome :
- the female yellow anaconda died so there is now just the male on display.
- the Tonkin bug-eyed frogs are now off-show and have been replaced by red-tailed ratsnakes.
- the adult tomistomas have already mated and are now much more visible.
- the young tomistomas grow very well and I think some will leave the enclosure in not much more time.
- the coconut crabs died last year.
- the sand fiddler crabs will now stay off-show.
- the earless monitors will never be on show as they are too difficult to present.
- partula snails will be on show in the future in the Beauval camp.
- two grey-winged trumpeters (arrived last year) are mixed with the squirrel monkeys and southern tamanduas.
- the red-shanked doucs are really shy. They stay in the upper part of the aviary all day long and only sneak back down to take food. Hard to take some pics but the group with the two babies is amazing.
- a red-crested turaco is free in the dome together with nicobar pigeons, scarlet ibisses, roseate spoonbills, crested partridges and superb starlings.
To finish with good news :
- another douc pregnancy.
- three females manatees are pregnant. A rather good news but with 13 manatees in the pools I think the zoo must stop breeding or think about some transfers...
Photos to follow in some days.
- the two refurbished aviaries are nothing special and don't think really good in my opinion. The volume is not so important and the net is shiny which prevents to see the birds when it is sunny. The first one is for sun conures. The second one replaced a raw of four old aviaries where there were philippine coockatoos, blue-headed macaws and others). There are now hyacinth macaws, blue-headed macaws and guira cuckoos and they want to add curassows.
- sad news but the birds tropical house looks empty with the deaths of lot's of the interesting birds (including two males andean cock-of-the-rock, one female pesquet parrot, african firefinches...). So now, the place is just full of victoria's crowned pigeons and lories ! Luckily remain : 2 females cock-of-the-rock, 1.1 pesquet parrots, 0.1 toco tucan, 1.0 green broadbill, 0,1 great blue turaco, 1.2 javan rhinoceros hornbill, collared kingfishers.
- the white tigers enclosures received new plantings and developments. They look better but are still too small.
- the new conservation house look nice but was closed during my visit (only open wednesday and week-end until end of june),
- all the four indian rhinos (1.3) were together.
- Akili, the new male african elephant was in the sand paddock. He seems to feel well but I didn't see any zookeeper to ask for more details. The six ladies were all together in the large grassy paddock.
- the young common hippo born last year was int the inside pool with her mother. The two other hippos were outside.
- southern bald ibisses, abdim's storck, open-billed storcks, african spoonbills and hadada ibisses were all on nest.
- a young male bongo was in the lesser kudus enclosure and was rotating with the kudus group. I suppose it was before he left the zoo.
The tropical dome :
- the female yellow anaconda died so there is now just the male on display.
- the Tonkin bug-eyed frogs are now off-show and have been replaced by red-tailed ratsnakes.
- the adult tomistomas have already mated and are now much more visible.
- the young tomistomas grow very well and I think some will leave the enclosure in not much more time.
- the coconut crabs died last year.
- the sand fiddler crabs will now stay off-show.
- the earless monitors will never be on show as they are too difficult to present.
- partula snails will be on show in the future in the Beauval camp.
- two grey-winged trumpeters (arrived last year) are mixed with the squirrel monkeys and southern tamanduas.
- the red-shanked doucs are really shy. They stay in the upper part of the aviary all day long and only sneak back down to take food. Hard to take some pics but the group with the two babies is amazing.
- a red-crested turaco is free in the dome together with nicobar pigeons, scarlet ibisses, roseate spoonbills, crested partridges and superb starlings.
To finish with good news :
- another douc pregnancy.
- three females manatees are pregnant. A rather good news but with 13 manatees in the pools I think the zoo must stop breeding or think about some transfers...
Photos to follow in some days.
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: if I am correct there is a new species in the reptile house, instead of the common iguanas : the utila spinytail iguana Ctenosaura bakeri
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