Paris Zoological Park Zoo de Vincennes Paris News

Recent news from Paris :
- six Humboldt's penguins hatched,
- a male white-faced saki arrived from apenheul to form a new breedibg pair with the resident female Kirsten,
- Mala the female bush dog arrived in 2018 from Chester gave birth to 1.2 pups last April 28th. The pups joined a group with 4 adults.

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I visited today.. some thoughts and words.
The zoo can be done within 3 hours by rushing, though with my priority of photographing most of what was there it looked more like 4 hours.
Exhibits were largely conventional stuff, some [wolves, meerkats/foxes in particular] were rather small.
The Patagonia section was one I quite enjoyed photographing in - as the vicuña here were very close - a species I had only seen before in Berlin by a hair’s breadth. Later in the day the pumas were fidgety and as patience prevailed, some got up to walk around!
The Africa section .. aside from Mhorr Gazelle, nothing very special specieswise. The Guinea Baboons were very interesting to watch.
I didn’t spend much time at Europe, nor did I there see many animals. But I did spend a good amount of time at the vulture aviary. At one point a very funny thing happened - a keeper, presumably cleaning the enclosure, starts to enter. Some bold vultures start going to the keeper-cave … and a large griffon vulture was then sweeper away, with some difficulty, by a broom! This seemed not to deter the birds….history doomed to repeat itself.
Greater South America was interesting. I had not seen before woolly monkey, Chacoan peccary or bush dog. And the house itself…
The tropical house was quite interesting! Yet all the same quite surreal, particularly the anteaters which to my knowledge have no access outside. I recall I was perturbed by Chester’s outdoor sloth enclosure, a xenarthran kept usually indoors found outside.. and so this was then the inverse. But the good news - the anteaters were active. But the house’s largest treasures were just nearby…
Manatees! The manatees were really cool… I recall I said that when people see, say an elephant or hippo for the first time, their mind is taken elsewhere as they have never seen something like it. I believe that the manatees very much evoked this feeling - one I had not felt for a good, long, while.
And then Madagascar…. similarly with Europe I didn’t spend too much time here. The fossa did not show itself.
And so, in my opinion…
It is a very functional, purposeful modern zoo. It is definitely up to modern standards. But it doesn’t experiment enough, I feel. The exhibit types are all those tried and trusted, and it seems rather sterile in regards to ecozones. The animal collection is rather standard stuff… even a family member who went with me noted that most the stuff at this zoo, bar a few - manatees included, could easily be found in the UK. It is very conventional in most areas. But…. It works. As what may well be France’s national zoo, it’s quite a good one.
I would say it is worth visiting - if only to go around that Big Rock, which itself can also be seen from the surrounding streets [it is massive!] and as a supplementary to a Parisian holiday. And also manatees.
 
It's a shame that it no longer has such an iconic lemur collection. It was the first zoo where I saw aye-ayes and greater bamboo lemurs and the only zoo where I've seen a red-tailed sportive lemur and a fork-marked dwarf lemur. It had a hairy-eared dwarf lemur but I never saw it on my visits.
 
Antoine said:
And it did not take too much time before the magic happens : female Zanahary gave birth to four babies in may :)

Zoo de Vincennes : plusieurs naissances chez les animaux rares ces dernières semaines
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The Fossa kits have received names : TIAKO for the male, RENALA, MIALOKA and MANJANRY for the females.
Parc zoologique de Paris on Instagram: "En direct du zoo | Des nouvelles des jeunes fossas nés le 19 mai ! Les quatre petits se portent à merveille, et possèdent désormais des noms : Tiako (mignon en malgache) pour le mâle et Renala (reine), Mialoka (rapide) et Manjanry (florissante) pour les femelles ! Ce carnivore aux allures de félin passe une grande partie de son temps dans les arbres. Il y grimpe pour chasser et marquer son territoire. Il est même capable de sauter d’arbre en arbre comme les singes ! Le fossa est une espèce classée « vulnérable » : ce mammifère carnivore est menacé par la destruction généralisée des forêts de Madagascar. Le Parc zoologique de Paris participe au programme d’élevage européen et soutient les actions de conservation menées à Madagascar par le Fossa Fund. Les petits fossas sont désormais visibles en biozone Madagascar aux côtés de leur mère, Zanahary. Venez leur rendre visite ! À partir de ce vendredi 1er septembre, le Parc zoologique de Paris se met à l’heure de la rentrée et sera donc ouvert de 9h30 à 18h00, du lundi au vendredi et de 9h30 à 19h30 le week-end. © MNHN – F-G Grandin #MNHN #ZooDeParis"
 
Dassie rat said:
It's a shame that it no longer has such an iconic lemur collection. It was the first zoo where I saw aye-ayes and greater bamboo lemurs and the only zoo where I've seen a red-tailed sportive lemur and a fork-marked dwarf lemur. It had a hairy-eared dwarf lemur but I never saw it on my visits.
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A good collection of lemurs remains but we miss surely the night species like the Aye-ayes and others.
 
Visited both Paris Zoos and CineAqua in the last couple of days. I hope I can get to writing an update on the other two parks as well.

The first one up was Vincennes. We picked a very drizzly day, so the visit was a bit rushed.

An intriging zoo, since it’s been recently build, basically from scratch. Some of the decissions made were different from what I would do, but therefore not bad. The first decission was to make each visitor path from very wide concrete slabs. Now that I’m visiting with a stroller, it made for a very convenient walk, but it does detract somewhat from any immersive feeling.

We started off with Madagascar. Almost all lemur cages are pretty bulky, made with heavy steal poles, thick wire and with glass windows for viewing. All of them decent enough, but nothing overly exciting. The lemur collection is still large, but only coquerels sifaka and broad-nosed bamboo lemur are relatively rare. No sign of any smaller bamboolemur species, the mongoz lemur was signed, but didn’t seem to be on show. 2 of the cages were actually inside the large greenhouse.

I liked the greenhouse. When people on Zoochat mention the large greenhouses of Europe, this one seems to usually be overlooked somehow even though it’s pretty big. The manatees have a decent-sized exhibit, although it’s probably now already one of the smaller in Europe. Almost all species within are in individual exhibits, some on the smaller side (bearded saki and giant anteater) and none with outdoor possibilities. The smaller, rare free-flying bird species are near impossible to find, the easy species are very common in European Zoos.

Outside the zoo continues with Guyanan species (jaguar, bush dog, woolly monkeys, etc) and European species. All in decent enclosures, but not one that added anything new to European exhibitry.

The big rock is basically what it says on the tin. It’s a bit of a shame you can’t climb on any of it, and even a bigger shame none of it is used as (part of) an exhibit. There’s a large walk-through wetland aviary that is easily the worst planted part of the zoo, and among the worst planted aviaries I’ve ever seen. Around the corner was a decently sized vulture aviary with the standard inhabitants (griffon, egyptian and black kite).

Inside the great rock was a European vivarium, which looked old but at least the collection was rather novel.

The most noteworthy of the zoo was the African section. The drizzle bordered on rain when we steamed through this section and the zebra’s and white rhino were inside, so I’m basically talking about four exhibits (giraffe / mhorr), Addax, roan antilope and red lechwe, but the vantage points from above and unobtrusive over a small body of water were very nice. Oddly offset by the dullest lion exhibit though.

Last part was patagonia, the sea lions had a nice underwater window, the penguin exhibit was unnoteworthy and the only thing that stood out was a relatively large cougar cage. Mostly because cougars are quite rare in captivity these days, it was probably the biggest exhibit I’ve seen for them and the cage contained at least 5 active cougars.

The main reason I liked visiting the zoo is because it is brand new and it’s interesting to see the choices made when planning the zoo. I find it a bit disappointing that so little innovative was thought out, but some of the choices panned out rather good. The planting all over the zoo (bar the aviary) was also very well maintained and added to the feel.

Considering the weather, a very enoyable visit none the less. If anyone had any questions, then shoot.
 
Arrival of a Male Greater Kudu : BANI, who comes from Munich Zoo (Germany) and born in Slovakia.
Parc zoologique de Paris on Instagram: "En direct du zoo | C’est l’heure de vous présenter notre nouveau pensionnaire ! Arrivé du @tierpark_hellabrunn de Munich à la fin du mois de juillet, Bani, notre mâle grand koudou, s’adapte à merveille à son nouvel environnement. Âgé de 7 ans et 10 mois, il est né en Slovaquie et vit désormais dans la plaine des girafes au sein d'un groupe de 6 koudous. Vous pouvez le reconnaître à ses grandes cornes torsadées caractéristiques des mâles adultes de cette espèce. ⏳ Ce transfert a été effectué dans le cadre du programme de conservation ex-situ de l'@eaza_official. L’objectif est notamment la reproduction de Bani avec nos 3 femelles, mais patience, car la gestation dure entre 7 et 8 mois ! Rendez-vous sur notre site internet pour préparer votre visite au @zoodeparis. © MNHN - M. Descombes #MNHN #ZooDeParis #Wildlifeconservation #Grandkoudou #Tragelaphusstrepsiceros #Bovidae #Greaterkudu"
 
Haliaeetus said:
Arrival of a Male Greater Kudu : BANI, who comes from Munich Zoo (Germany) and born in Slovakia.
Parc zoologique de Paris on Instagram: "En direct du zoo | C’est l’heure de vous présenter notre nouveau pensionnaire ! Arrivé du @tierpark_hellabrunn de Munich à la fin du mois de juillet, Bani, notre mâle grand koudou, s’adapte à merveille à son nouvel environnement. Âgé de 7 ans et 10 mois, il est né en Slovaquie et vit désormais dans la plaine des girafes au sein d'un groupe de 6 koudous. Vous pouvez le reconnaître à ses grandes cornes torsadées caractéristiques des mâles adultes de cette espèce. ⏳ Ce transfert a été effectué dans le cadre du programme de conservation ex-situ de l'@eaza_official. L’objectif est notamment la reproduction de Bani avec nos 3 femelles, mais patience, car la gestation dure entre 7 et 8 mois ! Rendez-vous sur notre site internet pour préparer votre visite au @zoodeparis. © MNHN - M. Descombes #MNHN #ZooDeParis #Wildlifeconservation #Grandkoudou #Tragelaphusstrepsiceros #Bovidae #Greaterkudu"
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I recall when I went I found the Kudu curious to look at - in that their horns were not quite as striking as wild animals', though this one is. Are the horns trimmed for safety reasons?
 
dillotest0 said:
I recall when I went I found the Kudu curious to look at - in that their horns were not quite as striking as wild animals', though this one is. Are the horns trimmed for safety reasons?
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I guess they are castrated individuals, tends to "modify" horn growth when the animals are castrated when young if I remember correctly.
 
jwer said:
If anyone had any questions, then shoot.
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Thanks for a very enjoyable review. Are there still slime moulds in the European Vivarium, as I imagine that this is one of the few zoos to display them (although they are, of course, very common in private trade)? If so, how are they displayed, as I imagine that this is a creature than can be fascinating when displayed creatively, but very boring if not...
 
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Yup, there is still slime mould on exhibit. It’s in a rather boring “terrarium” tank, not very large (about 100x40x40?) with wooden log in it.

The tank is in the middle of a small and rather dark room inside the big rock and one of the walls of the room contain quite a lot of information about slime moulds. The log inside the exhibit contain little flags that state “the mould was here at 9am”, “…here at 10 am” to show that it actually moves, which was fascinating.

So all in all, yes it’s still there and the exhibit was pretty decent considering it’s location in a “bunker” style environment.
 
jwer said:
Yup, there is still slime mould on exhibit. It’s in a rather boring “terrarium” tank, not very large (about 100x40x40?) with wooden log in it.

The tank is in the middle of a small and rather dark room inside the big rock and one of the walls of the room contain quite a lot of information about slime moulds. The log inside the exhibit contain little flags that state “the mould was here at 9am”, “…here at 10 am” to show that it actually moves, which was fascinating.

So all in all, yes it’s still there and the exhibit was pretty decent considering it’s location in a “bunker” style environment.
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That sounds quite nice. I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that they are living and moving things, so it’s nice to see that the display highlights that given that most visitors would wonder why a zoo devotes valuable space to such a thing. I loved the European Vivarium when I visited (so rare to see a zoo focus on native ectotherms) but the moulds were a more recent addition, so I didn’t see them.

I loved Vincennes in general when I visited. The Great Rock is iconic, the Serre Tropicale is excellent, the subspecies-pure pumas are lovely, and it was here that I saw my first manatees. I am starting to think that I may be in the minority, though, seeing as I actually really liked the flamingo aviary. Another highlight was seeing ground hornbills sharing a Savannah with rhinos!
 
Kalaw said:
That sounds quite nice. I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that they are living and moving things, so it’s nice to see that the display highlights that given that most visitors would wonder why a zoo devotes valuable space to such a thing. I loved the European Vivarium when I visited (so rare to see a zoo focus on native ectotherms) but the moulds were a more recent addition, so I didn’t see them.

I loved Vincennes in general when I visited. The Great Rock is iconic, the Serre Tropicale is excellent, the subspecies-pure pumas are lovely, and it was here that I saw my first manatees. I am starting to think that I may be in the minority, though, seeing as I actually really liked the flamingo aviary. Another highlight was seeing ground hornbills sharing a Savannah with rhinos!
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I’m highly in limbo about the vivarium. I do value the fact a zoo devotes so much time and effort on a group of animals that is so underrepresented.

But the cramped, bunker-like setting doesn’t help. To me, the species als do not help. Perhaps I’m not enough of a connoisseur, but there’s only so many green frogs and brown newts I can handle before a zoo looses my interest I’m afraid o_Operhaps there is a reason so few zoos exhibit these animals. And perhaps my expectations about the blob were a bit too high. After staring at a yellowish spot on a wooden log in a dimly lit room for a few minutes, trying to figure out wether it is a slime mould or not, I kinda gave up.

I can understand why you would like the zoo, there’s very little it does wrong. But if you have visited more zoos, you’ll find there’s also very little other zoos haven’t done better (like building greenhouses, manatee exhibits and flamingo aviaries). Which feels, for such a new zoo, a bit of a missed opportunity. That said, I would advise anyone to go, it’s a very decent zoo indeed :cool:
 
jwer said:
I’m highly in limbo about the vivarium. I do value the fact a zoo devotes so much time and effort on a group of animals that is so underrepresented.

But the cramped, bunker-like setting doesn’t help. To me, the species als do not help. Perhaps I’m not enough of a connoisseur, but there’s only so many green frogs and brown newts I can handle before a zoo looses my interest I’m afraid o_Operhaps there is a reason so few zoos exhibit these animals. And perhaps my expectations about the blob were a bit too high. After staring at a yellowish spot on a wooden log in a dimly lit room for a few minutes, trying to figure out wether it is a slime mould or not, I kinda gave up.

I can understand why you would like the zoo, there’s very little it does wrong. But if you have visited more zoos, you’ll find there’s also very little other zoos haven’t done better (like building greenhouses, manatee exhibits and flamingo aviaries). Which feels, for such a new zoo, a bit of a missed opportunity. That said, I would advise anyone to go, it’s a very decent zoo indeed :cool:
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I recall I found the herp area somewhat interesting - but alas for myself much of what was there did not show itself. As much as I like venomous snake diversity...
 
I love the vivarium, one of my favorite "Reptile/Amphibian/Invertebrate house" I've visited thus far. I guess it's just for the sole concept of a European lineup but many of the terrariums in there also look very good.
 
 
Birth of a White-faced Saki on 15th October 2023.
Parc zoologique de Paris on Instagram: "Naissance | Qu'est-ce que Kirsten, notre femelle saki à face blanche, peut bien nous cacher ? Nous avons le plaisir de vous présenter le petit saki à face blanche né au Parc zoologique de Paris ! Sa mère, Kirsten, a mis bas le 15 octobre 2023 ! Amias, son père, accueille quant à lui son premier petit depuis son arrivée au sein du Parc au printemps 2023. Aujourd’hui âgé de presque trois semaines, le jeune rencontre les autres animaux de sa volière située juste après le bassin des lamantins : tamarins bicolores, titi roux, paresseux. Vous pouvez dès à présent l’observer en biozone Amazonie Guyane, soyez patients il est toujours accroché sous le ventre de sa mère ! Venez les rencontrer au @zoodeparis ! © MNHN - M. Descombes #MNHN #ZooDeParis #Wildlifeconservation #Sakiafaceblanche #Pitheciapithecia #Whitefacedsaki"
 
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