Serow Exhibit at Berlin Zoo, 31/08/11

Home to Japanese Serows.

I love seeing the pair of Japanese serows at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, but there are literally only a handful of North American zoos with those mammals. In Berlin of course the hoofstock collection is rather extensive and it is nice to see such a lush, green paddock for a relatively uncommon animal. Apparently serow are found in dense, hillside forests and rocky ledges, so perhaps both Berlin and Woodland Park haven't found the exact mixture of foliage to recreate a truly great serow habitat.

Of course, the problem with dense, hillside forests is they aren't exactly the easiest situations for viewing animals.

Serows are great - far from common over here either but they seem to be maintaining their small population.

Calgary has managed to put together quite a nice exhibit for them. It is generally flat,but has a nice lagoon, dense conifers and it is still easy to see the animals. It is nothing fancy, just some fencing around a bit of forest, but that is all that they really need.