Thanks, I thought Leipzig was very good overall with the ape house in particular really impressive. Being indoors with apes not behind glass is less common these days and it's nice to smell the gorillas. I don't like the name Pongoland though!
The pangolins are truly pholidocious - I saw the male at about five minutes past nine, and then at 1330 the keepers came and fed and inspected them. What cool creatures they are.
Gondwanaland I liked overall, the planting is excellent and in a couple of years should be taller and even better. The individual enclosures are mostly of a fairly good size. One thing that seemed strange to me was the lack of birds; a few ducks, a masked plover, some roulrouls, and two or three softbills flying around, but otherwise very quiet on the bird front. The overall size is very impressive, and you can even see the roof when you are walking from the centre of town. It most reminded me of the Eden Project rather than any other zoo building.
Thanks, I thought Leipzig was very good overall with the ape house in particular really impressive. Being indoors with apes not behind glass is less common these days and it's nice to smell the gorillas. I don't like the name Pongoland though!
I think Ponogloand is probably my second-favourite multi-species ape house - the equally dubiously-named Borgoriwald (Bonobos - Orangs - Gorillas, Wald = forest) at Frankfurt probably takes number one spot.
The pangolins are truly pholidocious - I saw the male at about five minutes past nine, and then at 1330 the keepers came and fed and inspected them. What cool creatures they are.
It really is worth going for the feeding, isn't it? You get some great views. And fairplay to Leipzig for advertising it to give people a good chance of seeing them.
Gondwanaland I liked overall, the planting is excellent and in a couple of years should be taller and even better. The individual enclosures are mostly of a fairly good size. One thing that seemed strange to me was the lack of birds; a few ducks, a masked plover, some roulrouls, and two or three softbills flying around, but otherwise very quiet on the bird front. The overall size is very impressive, and you can even see the roof when you are walking from the centre of town. It most reminded me of the Eden Project rather than any other zoo building.
That bird list is already a great deal more than were in there when we were there (only two species of duck, at that point). It was promised at the time that more would follow, so good to see it's coming along.
I think Ponogloand is probably my second-favourite multi-species ape house - the equally dubiously-named Borgoriwald (Bonobos - Orangs - Gorillas, Wald = forest) at Frankfurt probably takes number one spot.
It really is worth going for the feeding, isn't it? You get some great views. And fairplay to Leipzig for advertising it to give people a good chance of seeing them.
The funny thing is if you were a casual visitor you wouldn't even know they had pangolins until you came upon them. They are not marked on the zoo map and I didn't see any posters or notices about apart from right next to the enclosure. Maybe the zoo was nervous about publicity because they didn't expect them to survive?
A great photo, of the number one reason to visit Leipzig. I'm not entirely sure the number two reason - the Baikal seal - is still alive, but even so I suspect the pangolins make it worth the visit alone!
A great photo, of the number one reason to visit Leipzig. I'm not entirely sure the number two reason - the Baikal seal - is still alive, but even so I suspect the pangolins make it worth the visit alone!
I didn't see the Baikal seal, I asked a keeper in the aquarium who said it goes into the house in the hot weather. I'm not sure what he meant as although it was a warm day it was surely cooler in the water, and most seals don't behave like that. I went back to the pool several times but still no show. I'm not too gutted as I saw them many times at Twycross.
Leipzig Zoo is definitely worth a visit for the pangolins+Gondwanaland. You might be better off going to Irkutsk if you're desperate to see the seals.
I didn't see the Baikal seal, I asked a keeper in the aquarium who said it goes into the house in the hot weather. I'm not sure what he meant as although it was a warm day it was surely cooler in the water, and most seals don't behave like that. I went back to the pool several times but still no show. I'm not too gutted as I saw them many times at Twycross.
Leipzig Zoo is definitely worth a visit for the pangolins+Gondwanaland. You might be better off going to Irkutsk if you're desperate to see the seals.
