I'm one of the few brazilians in ZooChat, so I decided to create a thread to talk a little about some brazilian zoos I/you've been (or not).
Brazilian zoos
- Thread starter FelipeDBKO
- Start date
São Paulo Aquarium (Aquário de São Paulo): Located in São Paulo (my city), it is one of the largest aquariums in Latin America. I visited this place a lot, because most schools choose this place for visits.
Last year, the São Paulo Aquarium has made a reform, bringing various animals that weren't kept in captivity in Brazil or were very rare, including polar bears, red kangaroos, meerkats, mantled guerezas, ring-tailed lemurs, wombats, short-beaked echidnas... After this reform, I visited the São Paulo Aquarium earlier this year. As the São Paulo Aquarium in the begin was only a small aquarium that didn't keep animals of this size, visitors observe the animals indoor and through glasses. This month, the São Paulo Aquarium finally brought koalas to Brazil for the first time!
Before the reform, the São Paulo Aquarium was already good, and exhibited animals like sand tiger shark, nurse sharks, magellanic penguins, amazonian manatee (kept in a large tank with red-tailed catfishes, arapaimas and pacus), Linnaeu's two-toed sloth, Atlantic goliath goruper, electric eel, large flying foxes, sea lion, patagonian sea lion, south american fur seal, subantartic fur seal, gila monster, snapping turtles, brown howler monkey, southern tamandua, neotropical otter...
ANIMALS: Animais do Aquário
Last year, the São Paulo Aquarium has made a reform, bringing various animals that weren't kept in captivity in Brazil or were very rare, including polar bears, red kangaroos, meerkats, mantled guerezas, ring-tailed lemurs, wombats, short-beaked echidnas... After this reform, I visited the São Paulo Aquarium earlier this year. As the São Paulo Aquarium in the begin was only a small aquarium that didn't keep animals of this size, visitors observe the animals indoor and through glasses. This month, the São Paulo Aquarium finally brought koalas to Brazil for the first time!
Before the reform, the São Paulo Aquarium was already good, and exhibited animals like sand tiger shark, nurse sharks, magellanic penguins, amazonian manatee (kept in a large tank with red-tailed catfishes, arapaimas and pacus), Linnaeu's two-toed sloth, Atlantic goliath goruper, electric eel, large flying foxes, sea lion, patagonian sea lion, south american fur seal, subantartic fur seal, gila monster, snapping turtles, brown howler monkey, southern tamandua, neotropical otter...
ANIMALS: Animais do Aquário
Thank you for creating this thread, guess it could become very intresting ( so many almost unknown zoos in such a beautifull country ! ).
Nikola Chavkosk
Well-Known Member
Great thread FelipeDBKO. I am starting with my first question; Do you know from where the koalas arrived at Sao Paulo Aquarium, whether they have been imported from Australia maybe?
Thanks Felipe, it is nice to hear more about Brazilian zoos. So, please do and send us your reviews and all the zoo news we have difficulty getting access to.
On Sao Paulo Aquarium: do they have any freshwater and marine fish breeding programs of note? Is there any breeding of Arapaima or other threatened species here? What about educational initiatives?
On Sao Paulo Aquarium: do they have any freshwater and marine fish breeding programs of note? Is there any breeding of Arapaima or other threatened species here? What about educational initiatives?
Nikola Chavkosk
Well-Known Member
Thanks Chlidonias; Australia becomed a great country in respect to appreciating ex-situ successes for breeding koalas and allowing their relatively easy export from the country, in comparison to some other countries who are imposing bans for exports of wildlife like Mexico or Brazil.
Thanks to all of you!
There are some native species that are most common in Brazil than in other countries zoos... Some of you have already seen Philodryas snakes, Bothrops snakes, Broad-snouted caiman in zoos?
There are some native species that are most common in Brazil than in other countries zoos... Some of you have already seen Philodryas snakes, Bothrops snakes, Broad-snouted caiman in zoos?
Butantan Institute (Instituto Butantan): one of the largest biomedical research centers in the world, the Butantan Institute receives native animals often, and some of them are displayed to the public.
The terrariums are relatively large (something that I believe is quite common in zoos in Brazil). In addition, the Butantan Institute has two large outdoor enclosures (one for boas and another for rattlesnakes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4boI6TVupo (01:40 you can see!)
Most of the animals at the Butantan Institute are native snakes, especially those of the genus Bothrops (I believe they are more than 10 species, such as B. jararaca, B. jararacussu, B. alternatus, B. moojeni, B. erythromelas... And B. insularis, the Golden lancehead!). Also south american rattlesnake, south american bushmaster, false coral snakes, boa constrictor, anaconda, merremi, caninana, Philodryas snakes, Tityus scorpions, brazilian spiders, iguanas, red-footed tortoises...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zc_OUw0dnQ (most species appear in this video)
I've been in this place once... Unfortunately it's a bit far from my house!
The terrariums are relatively large (something that I believe is quite common in zoos in Brazil). In addition, the Butantan Institute has two large outdoor enclosures (one for boas and another for rattlesnakes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4boI6TVupo (01:40 you can see!)
Most of the animals at the Butantan Institute are native snakes, especially those of the genus Bothrops (I believe they are more than 10 species, such as B. jararaca, B. jararacussu, B. alternatus, B. moojeni, B. erythromelas... And B. insularis, the Golden lancehead!). Also south american rattlesnake, south american bushmaster, false coral snakes, boa constrictor, anaconda, merremi, caninana, Philodryas snakes, Tityus scorpions, brazilian spiders, iguanas, red-footed tortoises...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zc_OUw0dnQ (most species appear in this video)
I've been in this place once... Unfortunately it's a bit far from my house!
I've seen all of 'em haha .
It depends on the species... Bothrops jararaca, B. jararacussu, B. alternatus, B. atrox, B. insularis, B. cotiara, B. moojeni, B. erythromelas, B. neuwiedi, B. n. pauloensis, B. n. mattogrossensis, B. fonsecai, Philodryas olfersii, P. patagoniensis, P. nattereri...
Which of these have you seen?
Estimado Felipe, muito obrigado for this nice new thread. Did Sao Paulo Aquarium once have a pair of amazon manatees ? Now they only have a male according to the link that Chli gave us. I have been to Sao Paulo zoo a few times, but always missed the aquarium.
devilfish
Well-Known Member
Welcome to zoochat, Joao. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's jealous of your three months in Brazil! Are you thinking of visiting any zoos in particular?
There are said to be around 130 zoos and aquaria in Brazil, but I can't currently find a complete list for you. The list page on the SZB website is currently down, but there is a list of 67 collections available from the site: http://www.szb.org.br/arquivos/zoos-e-aquarios-brasil.pdf (SZB)
Another potential source is this magazine: Zoológicos do Brasil - Revista especializada em Zoológicos e Aquários
There's a map on the inside cover of each edition which boasts of the diversity of Brazilian zoos and has collections marked (but not labelled).
An alternative is to search Google Maps Gallery, which lets you look at custom maps other people have created and shared. In the UK I don't think I'm able to search others' maps any more, but you might still be able to in Portugal or Brazil.
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devilfish
Well-Known Member
This promises to be a very interesting thread, Felipe. Good idea! I'll try to finish a couple of Brazilian zoo reviews this weekend if I find the time.
Including species kept off-show, Butantan hold some 14 species of Bothrops. I can't remember exactly, but I think this number excludes a couple of other related species which have been reclassified.
Including species kept off-show, Butantan hold some 14 species of Bothrops. I can't remember exactly, but I think this number excludes a couple of other related species which have been reclassified.
Slight correction: The pair came from a southern Australian zoo. The Darling Downs Zoo was contracted to provide pre export quarantine and husbandry as well as to process the export compliance documentation.
did you get some Amazon manatees in exchange?
No - but I did get months of headaches that I could have done without!
Didn't even get a trip to Brazil - our Senior Keeper travelled with them and stayed awhile to settle them in.
It depends where you go!
The São Paulo Aquarium/Aquário de São Paulo is very organized and has animals you rarely find or don't find in Brazil.
The São Paulo Zoo/Zoológico de São Paulo is the largest zoo in Brazil, and has large animals such as elephants, giraffes, hippos, bigcats, etc... There the animals are not very well mantained. It Is next to Simba Safari (like San Diego Zoo and San Diego Safari Park, I think).
The Butantan Institute/Instituto Butantan is good to see animals of the Brazilian fauna that many don't care much... I believe that some of the animals there are hardly found outside Brazil, although not endangered.
Others:
. Parque das Aves - A awesome place to go. It specializes in birds.
. Zooparque Itatiba - The largest private zoo in Brazil. From the pictures the animals seem to be well and have enough space.
. Aquário Municipal de Santos: I've been in this place... It's a good aquarium.
. Aquamundo (Aquário de Guarulhos): I've been in this place... It's a good aquarium.
. Zoológico de Guarulhos: I've been in this city zoo... It isn't a very large and well maintained zoo, but if you're around it costs nothing to spend there (literally, because the entrance is free!)
. Parque Zoológico Municipal Quinzinho de Barros (Zoológico de Sorocaba)
. Zoológico do Rio de Janeiro - a city zoo
. Zoológico de Brasília - a city zoo
. Zoológico de Curitiba - a city zoo
. Zoológico de Americana - a city zoo
. Zoológico de Baurú - a city zoo
. Zoológico de Piracicaba - a city zoo
I never heard of it, and I visited the São Paulo Aquarium at the time that the manatee came... Okay that I was very young, but as I know they never had a couple.