Mo's Mustelid Marathon

Quick photomontage of raw images from today's visit to Prague Zoo.

Top row: black-faced ibis // Sumatran orangutans // banded spiny-tailed lizard // shoebill
Middle row: west Caucasian tur // Sumatran tiger // black-winged stilt
Bottom row: brown hyaena // Cuban ground iguana // clouded leopard // Malayan tiger

Other highlights include: very active honey badgers, red river hogs mixed with De Brazza's guenons, and wild white storks looking for nesting material among the crane aviaries.

This will be the only visit on this trip where I would not be solo. He's not a zoo nerd, but when I told my partner that I consider Zoo Praha to be one of the best I have visited, he agreed to come along, and said that it is indeed the best he has been to.

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Mo Hassan said:
Quick photomontage of raw images from today's visit to Prague Zoo.

Top row: black-faced ibis // Sumatran orangutans // banded spiny-tailed lizard // shoebill
Middle row: west Caucasian tur // Sumatran tiger // black-winged stilt
Bottom row: brown hyaena // Cuban ground iguana // clouded leopard // Malayan tiger

Other highlights include: very active honey badgers, red river hogs mixed with De Brazza's guenons, and wild white storks looking for nesting material among the crane aviaries.

This will be the only visit on this trip where I would not be solo. He's not a zoo nerd, but when I told my partner that I consider Zoo Praha to be one of the best I have visited, he agreed to come along, and said that it is indeed the best he has been to.

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Interesting as my partner wasn't too keen on Praha due to how big it was - she enjoyed the pangolin, polar bear and elephant, however, as someone who isn't a zoo nerd, she stated it was just too much ground to cover in a day. I saw 90% of the species that I wish to see, aside from the birds and covered quite a few lifeticks.
 
Baringogiraffe12 said:
Interesting as my partner wasn't too keen on Praha due to how big it was - she enjoyed the pangolin, polar bear and elephant, however, as someone who isn't a zoo nerd, she stated it was just too much ground to cover in a day. I saw 90% of the species that I wish to see, aside from the birds and covered quite a few lifeticks.
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That makes sense. It wasn't my first visit so I didn't mind not seeing everything, so we left together at a convenient point in the day. I was prepared to spend two hours with him and the rest of the day on my own, so it ended up being just enough for both of us. I planned a tentative route that started by Africa up-close, went via polar bears to Indonesian Jungle, down the slope to red pandas, stop at Ocean Restaurant and gift shop, then Darwin's Crater, vultures, cliffs, wetland birds, cat and reptile house, sky lift up, then wolves and hyaena, elephants, and Dja Reservation. Obviously there were a bunch of no-shows (mostly at Darwin's Crater, but that was expected) and a lot was missed, but we'll definitely be returning together.
 
Jana said:
Did you maybe mean grey herons that have a large colony here? Because nearest wild white stork nest is over 20 km away from the zoo.
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Interesting. We definitely saw both herons and storks, and I witnessed one of the storks flying out of the secretary bird/crane aviary, for which white storks weren't signed. Hopefully they're starting to colonise.
 
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Photo-montage from today's half-day trip to Zoo Plzen. Constant rain and plenty of hills, but neither were able to crush my spirit (although my camera seemed to suffer a bit).

Top row: East African banded mongoose // Spider-tailed horned viper // Common brown lemur // Senegal bushbaby // Prehensile-tailed porcupine

Middle row: Haussa genet // "Barbary" lion // Iberian warty newt // Horned parakeet // Nyala

Bottom row: Epaulette shark // Canada lynx // Southern tree hyrax // Western red panda

Was very pleased to finally spot the spider-tailed viper which was excellently camouflaged in its new vivarium on display.
 

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Mo Hassan said:
Interesting. We definitely saw both herons and storks, and I witnessed one of the storks flying out of the secretary bird/crane aviary, for which white storks weren't signed. Hopefully they're starting to colonise.
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The zoo keeps a small group of rescue white storks that live in the last crane pen, all of them are unable to fly due to old injuries. However, after short proding, it seems a single adult wild stork decided to move into the zoo recently. Staff saw it on 14th December for the first time. Hoepfully he will breed here. Last time wild storks nested on zoo ground was in summer 1998, from what I could find out.
 
Time for a quick update.

Monday was Zoo Děčín. A simple little zoo with mostly hardy northern hemisphere animals. I saw everything on my list pretty well, with the exception of stone marten, which I think has left the collection. Highlights: active jaguarundi, gorgeous huge Kamchatka brown bear, lovely European mink, both west and east Caucasian turs, and small bird house with both king and magnificent birds-of-paradise.

Tuesday and Wednesday was Dvůr Králové. With it being winter, the safari was closed and much of the more sensitive bird-stock was off-show. Regardless, being able to visit multiple times at different times of day enabled me to see all carnivorans (except serval) on display, all three bush vipers, lesser kudu, and more. Highlights, other than the above: African civets, small-spotted genets, honey badger, and the new southwest African aviary featuring greater flamingo and other water birds, including my first ever Cape shoveler (only saw a female). Will definitely return in the summer one year.

Today I visited Zoo Brno for the morning only, due to lagging energy levels and worsening weather. Despite that, I saw two of my top highlights well, those being the Javan ferret badgers and Siberian wolverines. Couldn’t spot the Siberian weasels in their converted log habitat, and European badgers were not active in the morning. Shame I couldn’t stick around to see the tropical houses, but I enjoyed what I did see of Zoo Brno.
 
There are rumours that the Guardian Spirit of Zoonerdery chose to manifest Himself in a new location this morning, illuminating the dark and narrow passageways of Naturhistorisches Museum Wien with a golden light as He appeared unto @Mo Hassan and bestowed his Boto Blessings upon our friend as he continues on his mustelid marathon.

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And although His golden light has faded once again for another year, and the beloved visage of Baby is once again only memory, we can be certain that the coming days will be fruitful and enjoyable for Mo, who has seemingly been selected as His Emissary on this mortal plane!
 

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Aww, bless you @TeaLovingDave and Baby. I'm having a rough time. I got eaten alive by bedbugs at one or another place I stayed between Prague and Vienna, and I'm considering burning all my luggage and returning early. If last-minute flights weren't so expensive, I'd be doing that but I'm away for a few more days and need all the motivation I can get to stay. I can do this!
 
Unfortunately, I decided to return home. I'm back in London as I write this. Although I didn't get to enjoy Vienna, or visit Nuremberg, or return to Berlin, I had several fruitful visits to some of my favourite zoos in Europe, as well as visiting some collections for the first time. I saw and photographed two brand new mustelid species (Javan ferret badger and European mink), saw some new mammal, bird, reptile, and other taxa, and obtained great photos of a number of species. I plan to return to those cities in the near future.
 
Mo Hassan said:
Time for a quick update.

Monday was Zoo Děčín. A simple little zoo with mostly hardy northern hemisphere animals. I saw everything on my list pretty well, with the exception of stone marten, which I think has left the collection. Highlights: active jaguarundi, gorgeous huge Kamchatka brown bear, lovely European mink, both west and east Caucasian turs, and small bird house with both king and magnificent birds-of-paradise.

es. Couldn’t spot the Siberian weasels in their converted log habitat, and European badgers were not active in the morning. Shame I couldn’t stick around to see the tropical houses, but I enjoyed what I did see of Zoo Brno.
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I am greeenwith envy, being in Děčín in summer, had no luck with mink (and marten too)
Brno doesn t keep european badger anymore (or is planning to get rid of them)
 
xmoose said:
Brno doesn t keep european badger anymore (or is planning to get rid of them)
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Interesting, they were signed, but it makes sense: the outdoor visible part of their enclosure was completely barren.
 
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