Tobu Zoo

Nisha said:
A 5 year old female White Rhino is due to arrive from the Leofoo Safari Park in Taiwan during April. A 10 year old male is already waiting for her at Tobu

https://phys.org/news/2021-03-taiwan-white-rhino-emma-japan.html
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Good the international cooperation may be for animal exchange per se and certainly to be applauded for the ASEAN region (SEAZA organisation), I do believe that it would be more beneficial to create breeding groups of white rhino with multiple cows and a breeding male. Japanese zoos are somewhat lagging behind in developing herds of herd living white rhino as is already practiced in other zoo regions.

As Tobu Zoo is a city zoo with limited space available, it would be nice that they would create new improved rhino habitat / exhibit for a solitary rhino species like black or Indian rhino for a city zoo.
 
I just came across this zoo again because I was thinking about Grape-kun (rip) and was wondering if it’s worth trying to fit into my upcoming trip. Looking over the map on their website, nothing really catches my eye species-wise aside from the firefly house and maybe the fur seal (what species?). Is there anything of note here from an American perspective, for someone who also intends to hit several other zoos that are day trip distance from Tokyo (Ueno, Tama, Zoorasia, Saitama, Inokashira Park)?
 
I thought I would give a little bit of background info about this place, since it seems like it hasn't been done yet.

Tōbu zoo is located in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo. It is both a zoo and an amusement park with rides. It opened in 1981 and hasn't changed much since, at least for the zoo part.

From a zoo enthusiast perspective it is not particularily interesting (extremely outdated enclosures, no rarities). However it is pretty unique in that it belongs to a railway company (the Tōbu railway company).

The Tōbu zoo station is the terminal of one of Tōbu's main lines departing from Tokyo, and serves as a junction with two other lines.

I don't know of any other zoo owned by a railway company so I thought that was pretty cool. Overall this place is a bit of an outlier, but it seems like it's still pretty popular despite its aging facilities. Some websites rank it as the 5th most visited zoo in Japan in 2023, I don't know if that's accurate.
 
Wanderer said:
From a zoo enthusiast perspective it is not particularily interesting (extremely outdated enclosures, no rarities). However it is pretty unique in that it belongs to a railway company (the Tōbu railway company).
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Maybe not for you but I would not snub wreathed hornbill, wapiti, southern cassowary, African elephant (and probably many more species I dont have a clear picture on) which are on their way out in Japan due to improper management and import laws. While I believe that it’s not the only one of its kind, Tobu zoo also has an exhibit for fireflies/glowworms.

I do agree with you regarding the enclosures. It’s inexcusable for a privately owned zoo to not have innovative exhibits or build enclosures that age like milk.
 
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