Belfast has some true rarities from the opinion of someone who has been to a tremendous amount of American zoos. There is at least one Temminck's golden cat, plus red-backed bearded saki monkeys, smooth-coated otters, vicunas, crowned lemurs, crowned sifakas, sitatunga, Javan langurs, Moloch gibbons and white-tailed sea eagles. Some of those species are nowhere to be found in the United States while others are barely represented at all.
On top of those species there are Barbary lions, elephants, sea lions, chimps, warty pigs, sun bears, tigers, gorillas, giraffes, penguins, etc. Going through ZooChat photos has made me want to visit Belfast! Lots of big-name megafauna and a great number of rarities in a zoo that appears to lack a little something in terms of the quality of the exhibits. The animal collection is enticing and many of the enclosures are perfectly adequate but there doesn't seem to be anything truly excellent. Would that be accurate?
The smooth coated otters have been replaced by African spot necked otters.
I agree the collection is outstanding, yes a few enclosures are not the best, they may not have any banner exhibits, but the collection itself is the highlight.
