Pakawi Park Olmense Zoo News

1 of the park's figureheads, the female white tiger Awi, was bitten to death by the park's male tiger, named Waka (there is also Waka's sister, Iwa). For 5 months the park has been trying to introduce Waka and Iwa to Awi, and it worked, until today when Awi and Waka fought and Waka bit her briefly but forcefully, leaving Awi instantly dead. This is already the 2nd death of a tiger in the park this year, after in February the male tiger Paka, Awi's brother, died
 
Two updates I came across recently:
  • The park has placed a ready-made office container, modified with indoor fencing and other animal-related furnishings, as a new, temporary indoor house for their ring-tailed lemurs and meerkats. This container replaces the existing, outdated and non-insulated house until new and permanent exhibits can be built. Perhaps not an aesthetically pleasing or elegant solution, but definitely not a bad one for the time being. The container is certainly better than the naff existing house. The containers will continue to be used as additional indoor housing where needed in the park. Waarom de bureelcontainers in het park? – Pakawi Park
  • Pakawi Park has applied for an environmental permit for their new monkey and ape exhibits, which means they likely intend to start building this infrastructure in the not too distant future. The documents of the application can be found at the following link (in Dutch), but they can only be found there until December 3rd , when the public consultation part of the permit application ends. Omgevingsloket - Publiek loket
 
Sadly 30-year old female Golden-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae) Phoebe passed away yesterday. She was the last golden-cheeked gibbon in Pakawi park and no new golden-cheeked gibbons will be arriving any time soon.

Source:
Instagram of Pakawi Park (10/02/2022) Login • Instagram
 
What's the park looking like these days?
I went in 2017, and it looked so dark, grey and quite sad really.

I read after leaving Belgium the park was in troubles of closing down, clearly they managed to have picked themselves up again
Finally going back "home" again next year, and would love to go back as the animals they have are more of my interest.
 
Moorhunhe said:
What's the park looking like these days?
I went in 2017, and it looked so dark, grey and quite sad really.

I read after leaving Belgium the park was in troubles of closing down, clearly they managed to have picked themselves up again
Finally going back "home" again next year, and would love to go back as the animals they have are more of my interest.
Click to expand...

I lasted visited in 2021 (and don't plan to visit soon), some progress had been made and parts of the zoo look better and cleaner, but a lot of work still remains to be done.

From what I have heard from people who visited recently and from recent updates at the Laafsekikkers, they are actively working on improvements and renovations. But given their history I remain a bit skeptical about these changes.

Nieuwstopic Pakawi Park (2022) - Pagina 3 - Laafsekikkers.be

A while ago they also announced plans and applied for permits to tackle one of their major black spots, a new chimp exhibit. But construction hasn't yet started.
 
That seems like good news though, that they are finally making progress in looking much better.
I won't go back until Easter 2023, so they still have some time, hehe.

Looks nice and green in most pictures now, so definately will look much better then when I was there.
 
Moorhunhe said:
What's the park looking like these days?
I went in 2017, and it looked so dark, grey and quite sad really.

I read after leaving Belgium the park was in troubles of closing down, clearly they managed to have picked themselves up again
Finally going back "home" again next year, and would love to go back as the animals they have are more of my interest.
Click to expand...
The park was closed for 1 month in 2017 and then gradually adapted. In 2019, the park was partially taken over and reopened under the name Pakawi Park. I have been visiting this zoo for a long time and I can tell you that since then, the park has gone through a rapid change, which is still ongoing. Although they seem to make hasty and illogical decisions, the park has been professionalised since then. Until now, however, the focus has been too much on the entertainment of the visitors (almost the entire area around the restaurant has been swallowed up by recreational and entertainment purposes). They say they are going to change this and next year Monkey Island will hopefully open, with new enclosures for the chimpanzees, among others, which now live in small enclosures.
These are the biggest changes since 2017 in terms of animal welfare:
- A new enclosure for tigers on the site of the former wood bison enclosure (a downgrade for the tigers in terms of space). The new Monkey Island will be built on the site of the 2 former tiger enclosures.
- A wooded area was separated from the savannah and now serves as a considerably better and bigger enclosure for the wood bisons.
- A new enclosure for binturongs next to the park entrance at the location where a lemur island used to be (which had been out of use for several years).
- An (as far as I can see) over-the-top bird of prey demonstration area.
- A new reptile corridor in the tropical hall with Philippine crocodiles, among others.
- Merging of the bird of prey aviaries and the aviaries on the 1st level of the tropical hall. A serious improvement for the birds.
- A serious expansion of the white lion enclosure.
Furthermore, many animals moved to other locations, like the emus, the lemurs and more, while other animals leaved the collection like the raccoon (dogs), springboks, skunks, red- and white cheeked gibbons, snow leopards, lynxes and many more.
The park now looks much barer, especially around the entrance and restaurant area, due to the disappearance of several animal enclosures and the felling of forest for seating. The park still has a long way to go, but I am confident (knowing the new owners a bit too much) that the park will eventually become better for the animals, with future new projects like Monkey Island, an expansion of the lion enclosure, a new meerkat enclosure and more.
 
That all sounds very positive though, so hopefully they can keep it up.

I also just realize, I wrote 2017, but it was 2016.
 
Pakawi Park has recently published a Facebook post to announce some recent animal births:
- two servals
- two tufted capuchins
- a ring-tailed lemur
- two squirrel monkeys
- two treeshrews
- a crested porcupine
- an eland
- four meerkats
- scarlet ibisses
- grey crowned cranes
- crested seriemas
- red-crested turacos
- African grey hornbills
- pied crows
- a greater vasa parrot
- four blue-throated piping guans (first breeding of this species at the park)

Link to the full post: Log into Facebook
 
The aviaries in the back of the tropical house have been largely replaced by new enclosures. There are 2 sections each divided into a larger and a smaller (separation) enclosure. The one on the left is finished and houses the cotton-top tamarins (previously in the old reptile house) together with green iguanas and redfooted tortoise. The enclosure of the genets is also enlarged.
At the moment they are building a new indoor enclosure for the cheetah and the fencing around the outside enclosure is being replaced to.
 
New in the tropical house are 2 Western plantain-eaters (Crinifer piscator).

The new indoor enclosure for the cheetahs seems almost ready, as is the fencing around the biggest outdoor enclosure.
 
Added some photos of the new cheetah enclosure in the gallery. The left part is also almost finished. When this is ready, the female can move in.

The meerkats in the tropical house have young, and they are adding more breeding possibilities for the bee-eaters.

Kobe, the last pure panthera pardus shortridgei, isn't there anymore, so I guess it is true that he passed away.
 
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