Zoo Saint-Martin-la-plaine!
If you are a species hunter, spending your time scouring through Zootierliste for your next victim, you inevitably pass Zoo Saint-Martin-la-Plaine. Grey-cheeked mangabey, tonkean macaque, black-cheeked red-tailed monkey and yellow-nosed red-tailed monkey should make any hunter dribble.
When I was looking for a zoo to visit during a stopover in the Lyon region, my heart jumped a little when I realised this zoo might be a contender and all things considered, I was very happy to visit today.
Oddly, although this isn’t a mini zoo at any sorts, very little news or pictures of this zoo make it outside the French Zoo world. So, much of this zoo was unknown to me, bar whatever was on Zootierliste.
Upon arriving, it was clear this zoo is far from unknown with the French as the (admittedly small) parking lot was overflowing. The zoo is a little off the beaten track, which resulted in me visiting a zoo without any other Dutch people all day, an occurance I can only count on one hand. The zoo appeared well visited, even though the weather predicted 37 degrees celsius (for your US people, that’s pretty dang hot).
The zoo starts off at the bottom of two hillsides, with enclosures on both sides. This appears to be the older part of the zoo. On the left side there are sloped enclosures for
snowleopard, European lynx, mckenzie valley wolf and
generic wolf. All enclosures are decent in size, but nothing major. All have glass fronts and most have either concrete walls or chain-linked fences to keep the animals in. There is a short path up the hill to look into the wolf enclosures, but at a dead end. From a great distance, you could see that a herd of
nilgai were using the rest of that slope, but I couldn’t see any path close to them.
On the right side there are similar enclosures, but as the path winds up that side, all enclosures on that side can be viewed from both below as above.
Striped hyena, sun bears, coati (not seen) and
drills are here, and partly because of the sloped terrain all the enclosures looked OK, although the drill were sitting quite barren. Up the slope for better views of the above and smallish enclosures for
binturong (not seen) and
ocelot. From here you could see that the rest of the lower part of the slope was used for
barbary macaque. Although big, much seemed to be barren grassland with some climbing poles.
Round the bend was the
first indoor enclosure for
lowland gorilla. It was a nice greenhouse-type hall, with a glass front and artificial grass, with separation cages in the back. Along the walls were three floors with smaller cages that visitors could not come close to, but from a distance I saw at least
common marmosets and
cotton-top tamarins. The outdoor space was small and barren, but at least there was some.
Onwards was a large chainlink-fenced area for a group of about 6-8
tonkean macaque. This species is somewhat of a French delicacy and a lifer for me. Their exhibit had some wooden climbing structures and seemed adequate for the job.
The hillside continued with a row of big cats.
Amur tigers, Sri Lankan leopards and
lions were in standard enclosures, the leopards in a full cage and the other two in walled enclosures, again viewable from below and above. In the bend lay stables for
Visayan spotted deer, and
Dingo’s. The deer could use a large well grown in part of the lower slopes (making it a very nice enclosure) and the dingo’s had a grassy yard, but both species remained elusive. Among the higher vantages for the big cats was also a small exhibit for
serval, which also remained unseen.
On top of the hill was the first highlight of the day. The “serre des primates” is a very large greenhouse, containing many rather large “corn-crib” style cages which are all interlinked and the greenhouse also has 4 or 5 large outdoor cages attached. The serre is very nice to be in and contains
yellow-nosed red-tailed monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, a macaque (unsigned, I thought barbary but since zootierliste also says the zoo should hold rhesus I am now unsure)
, white-handed gibbon, kikuyu guereza, black-capped capuchin and
white-crowned mangabey. To be fair, some species were held only indoors and in 1 or 2 enclosures at a time, which seemed way too small (specially for the gibbons). But the fact they are all interlinked and space can therefore be added or taken away at will means that they can be rotated, which makes it pretty decent. The greenhouse itself is one of Europe’s greatest monkey-houses, if not the greatest. After the demises of Antwerp, Osnabruck and Edinburgh, I can think of only Wroclaw to rivel it (bar for the Berlins perhaps, which I did not visit yet). The fact it held at least two lifers added to the experience.
After this comes the
second lowland gorilla indoor exhibit. Glass fronted and fully closed in, this was a concrete monstrosity of the likes Stuttgart would rebuild in the 20th century for no apparant reason. It did the job, holding in 2 silverbacks and at least one
black-cheeked red-tailed monkey.
When you walk out of this bunker, you walk straight into the second highlight of the day. A very large walk-through aviary build from massive wooden beams, something I have only seen before at Walsrode’s freiflughalle. Visitors walk through on a raised walkway, adding to the experience of looking at
demoiselle crane, european spoonbill, african spoonbill (unsigned), white-cheeked turaco, red ibis, hamerkop, boat-billed heron, white-faced heron, lilac-breasted roller (signed, unseen) flying about, while many
tortoises (unsigned) and
dik-diks scurry around on the ground. A very impressive sight indeed.
Outside the aviary and round the hill are a few more outdoor enclosures for big apes. The second indoor enclosure for gorilla’s links to a smallish outdoor enclosure, with next to it two smallish outdoor enclosures for
chimpanzees. Pretty lackluster, which is why they are building a huge new indoor (and outdoor) enclosure elsewhere. It is scheduled to open in 2024, but there was quite a lot to do yet.
Around the hilltop is the third and final highlight of the day, the
third indoor enclosure for
lowland gorilla’s. Three domed greenhouses adjacent each other, all seemed to be modelled on the first indoor gorilla house but much larger. The three all appeared the same, without glass but moated at the front. The side-walls had three levels of planting and the floor was also lined with artificial grass. The three exhibits could be linked, but today weren’t because the zoo seemed to hold quite a few silverbacks (I think at least 5?), one in each indoor exhibit. If the exhibits were interlinked, I would count this indoor facility probably the largest and best I’ve seen. As it was, even one of them seemed OK for a small group of gorilla’s.
Around the visitors area was also a glass fronted, well planted and large but shallow mixed exhibit for
geoffroy’s marmoset, together with
white-faced saki.
Underneath the gorilla house is a small vivarium, housing what seems to be mainly ex-pets, like
corn snake, boa constrictor, carpet python, royal python and birmeese python among
west-african mud turtles and a juvenile
nile crocodile. Nothing to write home about, most snakes seemed either too cramped or too crowded.
On the far side of the third indoor enclosure is another outdoor enclosure for gorilla’s, before passing the large construction site for chimps and a final few chainlink cages. The first one holds
ring-tailed lemurs, the second a mixture of rescued parrots (I identified at least
cockatiel and
greater alexander, among quite a few other species), the third
eclectus parrot and the last s few
african grey parrots, before ending up at a grassy yard for
red-necked wallaby and
emu. Two more chainlink aviaries, one small one containing a single
yellow-and-blue macaw and a large one containing a flock of
green-winged macaw and
patagonian parakeet.
Everywhere among the zoo they mention their ex-situ conservation projects, there is a ton of information about (the origin of) their inhabitants, many if which are rescues.
Like I said, it seemed crowded with French people with not a tourist in site, which added to the experience. No enclosure was truly awfull, many were OK and three places were very nice indeed. I really enjoyed my visit. Perhaps not worth a major detour, but if you’re nearby I would recommend it
If there are any questions, then shoot!
Arkane Aron Atimé Fin des votes vendredi à 18h00 ! #naissance #chimpanzee #primate #zoo #conservation"
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