Alipore Zoo in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is one of those really messy sort of zoos with paths going all over the place so you are continually cutting back and forth trying to see everything, and you always leave feeling like you've probably missed something important. It is a pretty big zoo but I didn't catch it at a good time because it seemed like half of it was closed for renovations and reconstructions. Where-ever I was there would be corrugated iron fences up, abandoned cages, old overgrown paddocks, dilapidated aviaries, signs saying “work in progress”. Also India does not believe in tidy, so there's no attempt made to keep anything in order, whether it is the construction areas or just the usual business-as-usual areas. It's sort of like walking around a half-abandoned zoo which just won't be let go. The domestic cats roaming all over the grounds don't help the impression of neglect. I'm not sure if they have downsized the collection (there were a lot of empty enclosures!) or if a lot of animals are just off-show, but it must all be for the future good. I came across the old chimpanzee cage, a nasty nasty concrete bunker now sitting idle behind fencing before it is demolished, and later found the new chimpanzee enclosure which is a relatively large moated island which, while it could certainly do with more climbing structures, is a vast improvement. The zoo map (on sign-boards around the grounds – they did not appear to have a paper version) is actually more a blue-print of what the zoo will look like when finished rather than where everything is now. So I had to use it as a sort of general guide and try to ignore name-tags that said things like “Echidna House” and “Insect House”; I would like to know what would be displayed in a “Sonebursa Enclosure” though!
There's no proper theme to the collection. The birds are mainly housed at one end of the zoo around the lake – and there are a LOT of birds here – while the hooved stock are mostly at the other end, but otherwise everything is just sort of higgeldy-piggeldy. Waterbird aviary then elephants then lions then more birds then hippos, like that. I'll discuss the various animal groups rather than the route as that seems the easiest way. I'm not going to put any species lists at the end because probably half the animals weren't on show anyway.
I'll start with reptiles, just to be different and because it will be quick: the Reptile House was closed for renovation! The only species I saw were a couple of Indian star tortoises in an aviary, a common iguana in a large cage next to marmosets, and the three crocodylians (saltwater crocodile, mugger and gharial). The croc enclosures were far better than in most Asian zoos. They looked like they had originally been home to bears or big cats in the way they had dry moats at the front, but the middle part of each enclosure had been turned into large pools.
Birds: Birds, birds, birds – there were aviaries everywhere! There were loads of wild birds too, especially on the lake where there was an island which had a mixed colony of night herons and little and Indian cormorants, as well as the zoo's Chinese geese and mute swans. A lot of the aviaries were what I call wheel-spoke cages, where a big round aviary is divided into segments by mesh walls. It is a good way of using space but always looks pretty crappy and often just results in really small individual sections. There were also the more standard rows of simple aviaries. For some reason the emus were all in aviaries, although the ostrich was in a yard. The best aviary was the huge waterbird one, which had breeding painted storks, European spoonbills [my first] and white (“rosy”) pelicans. The bird collection was very varied and included lots of pheasants (ring-necked, golden, Lady Amherst's, kalij, silver, red junglefowl, Indian blue peafowl, and lots of grey peacock-pheasants), large parrots (African greys, blue and gold and green-winged macaws, little corellas and Moluccan, citron-crested, greater sulphur-crested and Goffin's cockatoos), and some smaller parrots (mostly lots and lots of budgies, cockatiels and Indian ringnecks, and some lovebirds). Others were a few birds of prey, sarus and black-necked crowned cranes, grey go-away birds and violaceus touracos, a few ducks, hill mynahs, green imperial pigeons. A yellow-footed green pigeon, a Malabar pied hornbill and the European spoonbills were my picks for best birds.
Mammals: I feel like I missed out on seeing a lot of species which should have been there. So many of the enclosures were either empty or blocked off, and I didn't really see anything of particular interest except a jungle cat in a tiny cage and the fabulous Indian giant squirrel. The living spaces were a real mix of good and bad. Most of the hooved stock were in large yards or small paddocks. There were chital, barasingha, brow-antlered (Eld's) deer, sambar, Indian muntjac, blackbuck and nilgai for the natives, and fallow deer, common zebras and giraffes for the exotics (and red kangaroos which were in the hooved stock section). The Asian elephants had a relatively large enclosure (i.e. not a concrete platform). The Indian rhino was not visible. For the carnivores, the lions had a large dry-moated enclosure (these were labelled as Asian lions but I was positive they had hybrids-- from the CZA inventory [see devilfish's post below] the zoo has both pure-bred Asian lions and hybrid lions). In contrast the leopards, jaguar and striped hyaenas had small walled dens. The bears were at least not on concrete. The tigers were a mix. One of the enclosures, for orange Bengal tigers, was by a very long way the best in the zoo and if they can get the whole zoo up to that standard then it would be world-class. There was also a large dry-moated enclosure for a white tiger. But in between those two great enclosures was a row of tiny concrete cells where the tigers just paced back and forth endlessly. Primates were, as far as I saw, restricted to chimps on their new island, common marmosets in large planted cages, and then Assamese macaques, bonnet macaques and grey langurs in horrible concrete cells. However on the map/future plan there was labelled a big open-air primate island.
Summary: at the moment the zoo looks really messy and neglected but I'm sure this is largely due to considerable construction and renovation works going on (although it is combined with the inherent “India” vibe of general chaos!). It appears as if they are attempting to give every animal there better living conditions and turn the zoo into a top-notch facility. I would look forward to returning in a few years and seeing what it is like then. Most of the enclosures there currently are fine, only a few are actually bad (notably the monkeys and some of the carnivores) and these all seem slated for renewal.
There's no proper theme to the collection. The birds are mainly housed at one end of the zoo around the lake – and there are a LOT of birds here – while the hooved stock are mostly at the other end, but otherwise everything is just sort of higgeldy-piggeldy. Waterbird aviary then elephants then lions then more birds then hippos, like that. I'll discuss the various animal groups rather than the route as that seems the easiest way. I'm not going to put any species lists at the end because probably half the animals weren't on show anyway.
I'll start with reptiles, just to be different and because it will be quick: the Reptile House was closed for renovation! The only species I saw were a couple of Indian star tortoises in an aviary, a common iguana in a large cage next to marmosets, and the three crocodylians (saltwater crocodile, mugger and gharial). The croc enclosures were far better than in most Asian zoos. They looked like they had originally been home to bears or big cats in the way they had dry moats at the front, but the middle part of each enclosure had been turned into large pools.
Birds: Birds, birds, birds – there were aviaries everywhere! There were loads of wild birds too, especially on the lake where there was an island which had a mixed colony of night herons and little and Indian cormorants, as well as the zoo's Chinese geese and mute swans. A lot of the aviaries were what I call wheel-spoke cages, where a big round aviary is divided into segments by mesh walls. It is a good way of using space but always looks pretty crappy and often just results in really small individual sections. There were also the more standard rows of simple aviaries. For some reason the emus were all in aviaries, although the ostrich was in a yard. The best aviary was the huge waterbird one, which had breeding painted storks, European spoonbills [my first] and white (“rosy”) pelicans. The bird collection was very varied and included lots of pheasants (ring-necked, golden, Lady Amherst's, kalij, silver, red junglefowl, Indian blue peafowl, and lots of grey peacock-pheasants), large parrots (African greys, blue and gold and green-winged macaws, little corellas and Moluccan, citron-crested, greater sulphur-crested and Goffin's cockatoos), and some smaller parrots (mostly lots and lots of budgies, cockatiels and Indian ringnecks, and some lovebirds). Others were a few birds of prey, sarus and black-necked crowned cranes, grey go-away birds and violaceus touracos, a few ducks, hill mynahs, green imperial pigeons. A yellow-footed green pigeon, a Malabar pied hornbill and the European spoonbills were my picks for best birds.
Mammals: I feel like I missed out on seeing a lot of species which should have been there. So many of the enclosures were either empty or blocked off, and I didn't really see anything of particular interest except a jungle cat in a tiny cage and the fabulous Indian giant squirrel. The living spaces were a real mix of good and bad. Most of the hooved stock were in large yards or small paddocks. There were chital, barasingha, brow-antlered (Eld's) deer, sambar, Indian muntjac, blackbuck and nilgai for the natives, and fallow deer, common zebras and giraffes for the exotics (and red kangaroos which were in the hooved stock section). The Asian elephants had a relatively large enclosure (i.e. not a concrete platform). The Indian rhino was not visible. For the carnivores, the lions had a large dry-moated enclosure (these were labelled as Asian lions but I was positive they had hybrids-- from the CZA inventory [see devilfish's post below] the zoo has both pure-bred Asian lions and hybrid lions). In contrast the leopards, jaguar and striped hyaenas had small walled dens. The bears were at least not on concrete. The tigers were a mix. One of the enclosures, for orange Bengal tigers, was by a very long way the best in the zoo and if they can get the whole zoo up to that standard then it would be world-class. There was also a large dry-moated enclosure for a white tiger. But in between those two great enclosures was a row of tiny concrete cells where the tigers just paced back and forth endlessly. Primates were, as far as I saw, restricted to chimps on their new island, common marmosets in large planted cages, and then Assamese macaques, bonnet macaques and grey langurs in horrible concrete cells. However on the map/future plan there was labelled a big open-air primate island.
Summary: at the moment the zoo looks really messy and neglected but I'm sure this is largely due to considerable construction and renovation works going on (although it is combined with the inherent “India” vibe of general chaos!). It appears as if they are attempting to give every animal there better living conditions and turn the zoo into a top-notch facility. I would look forward to returning in a few years and seeing what it is like then. Most of the enclosures there currently are fine, only a few are actually bad (notably the monkeys and some of the carnivores) and these all seem slated for renewal.
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When do you go to Kaziranga?
