Notable Turkish Collections

K

komodoskar

Well-Known Member
I'm planning on visiting Turkey over the Christmas holidays,; flying into antalya and travelling up to Istanbul. The trip won't be a dedicated zootrip, but I have 2 weeks and a very loose intinerary at the moment.
As a zoonerd, I wanted to ask you guys about any collections that are worth visiting in Western Turkey or any that are worth making a detour further out for. I'd love to know if there are any rarities or hidden gems to look out for in Turkey, and also which of the major aquariums are worth visiting if any. I'll probably end up visting Faruk Yalçın, so any tips for that collection would also be appreciated.

TIA
 
Hi,

I have visited to 18 zoos and aquariums in Turkey. Unfortunately Turkey is not a zoo-nerds paradise, and there is only one zoo I can strongly encourage you to take a detour to see. However that would need a huge detour especially if your journey is by the coast, so I won’t be bringing it up. I hadn’t been to the Antalya Zoo nor Aquarium. However neither seem really interesting. Antalya zoo might still have Asia minor squirrels but as you can see per devilfish’s photos the squirrels aren’t seem to be kept in admirable conditions. If you are driving by the coast you can check out Izmir Wildlife Park and Bursa Zoo, but I wouldn’t encourage them since they both seem to be in this state of decay with either a diminishing collection or questionable decisions.

I can’t speak much about fish but other than a handful of birds in facilities that I would advise you to avoid, Turkey isn’t too blessed with rarities. I guess there’s golden jackal and nonsubspecific jungle cat in Faruk Yalçın, which might be interesting if you hadn’t seen them already.

From experience reaching FY zoo is a bit tough with public transportation since Google Maps always suggest taking a thirty five walk by foot. I personally don’t mind walking such a long distance but I understand that not everyone would appreciate such a tiring walk especially before visiting a collection that’s on a slope. A taxi is not something I’d advise either since taxi drivers in my “memleket” can either nickel and dime you or drive recklessly putting your life at risk. I have never been to FY zoo in the winter so I don’t have much precautions for the season. Maybe @conservationistdude might know

Anyways I hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip at Turkey during Christmas.
 
PossumRoach said:
Hi,

I have visited to 18 zoos and aquariums in Turkey. Unfortunately Turkey is not a zoo-nerds paradise, and there is only one zoo I can strongly encourage you to take a detour to see. However that would need a huge detour especially if your journey is by the coast, so I won’t be bringing it up. I hadn’t been to the Antalya Zoo nor Aquarium. However neither seem really interesting. Antalya zoo might still have Asia minor squirrels but as you can see per devilfish’s photos the squirrels aren’t seem to be kept in admirable conditions. If you are driving by the coast you can check out Izmir Wildlife Park and Bursa Zoo, but I wouldn’t encourage them since they both seem to be in this state of decay with either a diminishing collection or questionable decisions.

I can’t speak much about fish but other than a handful of birds in facilities that I would advise you to avoid, Turkey isn’t too blessed with rarities. I guess there’s golden jackal and nonsubspecific jungle cat in Faruk Yalçın, which might be interesting if you hadn’t seen them already.

From experience reaching FY zoo is a bit tough with public transportation since Google Maps always suggest taking a thirty five walk by foot. I personally don’t mind walking such a long distance but I understand that not everyone would appreciate such a tiring walk especially before visiting a collection that’s on a slope. A taxi is not something I’d advise either since taxi drivers in my “memleket” can either nickel and dime you or drive recklessly putting your life at risk. I have never been to FY zoo in the winter so I don’t have much precautions for the season. Maybe @conservationistdude might know

Anyways I hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip at Turkey during Christmas.
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Thanks for the tips

I already figured that Turkey would be fairly light on top-tier zoos, and I'm guessing the zoo you thought would be too much of a detour is Gazantiep Zoo.

I also realise visiting during the winter also puts me on the back foot, in terms of what i can expect to see at most zoos, even the better collections like FY zoo.
 
komodoskar said:
I already figured that Turkey would be fairly light on top-tier zoos, and I'm guessing the zoo you thought would be too much of a detour is Gazantiep Zoo.
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Haha, no… I especially wouldn’t recommend Gaziantep despite its great size and number of crowdpleasers. The zoo I had in mind was Eskişehir. It’s EAZA accredited and seems to take its conservation activities more seriously than Izmir and Bursa in my opinion.
 
I've recently visited Bursa and FY. They are both perfectly fine parks, yet as @PossumRoach mentioned, they don't have anything spectacular. FY has a more diverse collection on a smaller plot of land and neither zoo has any notably bad exhibits (except pythons in Bursa). FY has 3 species of gibbon and 5-6 of species of hornbill, despite not being unique species in zoos, having that much variety is nice imo. Most bird, predator and old world primate enclosures lack indoor viewing so visiting on a day with better weather would help in seeing more species.
 
conservationistdude said:
I've recently visited Bursa and FY. They are both perfectly fine parks, yet as @PossumRoach mentioned, they don't have anything spectacular. FY has a more diverse collection on a smaller plot of land and neither zoo has any notably bad exhibits (except pythons in Bursa). FY has 3 species of gibbon and 5-6 of species of hornbill, despite not being unique species in zoos, having that much variety is nice imo. Most bird, predator and old world primate enclosures lack indoor viewing so visiting on a day with better weather would help in seeing more species.
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Thanks for the tips. It's become more and more certain that if I do go to any zoos it'll probably be FY. Thanks for telling me about the lack of indoor enclosures, ill be sure to go on a clearer, sunnier day :)
 
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