Hello, everybody, and happy World Animal Day!
I visited BioParque do Rio today.
The original plan was to visit the zoo this Sunday, but a series of events made me decide that it would be better to go on Saturday instead.
The main reason was the opening that day of a new exhibit: Reino dos Axolotes (Portuguese for “Kingdom of the Axolotls”), a “new" area dedicated to the aforementioned Mexican amphibians and various arachnids. I will elaborate about it later on the thread.
So, I started my day by waking up early and getting ready to go to the zoo. After getting dressed, my father and I hit the road and headed toward Rio.
When we arrived, the two of us noticed the park was crowded (after all, it was the weekend), but not enough to ruin our day. We parked our car and then went in.
As always, we began our visit at the Cerrado exhibit. This enclosure is shared by capybaras (currently, there’s a newly arrived male named Capivaldo and a female named Juliana; the male that used to live with her, Afonso, had recently passed away), rheas (two females), giant anteaters (two females—mother Gaia and daughter Maria Cupim; the male, Bauru, may have been transferred to another zoo), and a grey brocket deer (a female named Aurora). There also used to be a Brazilian tapir (Sebastião) and two collared peccaries in the enclosure, but the former died in 2023 and the latter passed away this year. Although spacious, the enclosure is not very naturalistic and doesn’t resemble the biome it’s meant to represent. The lack of typical vegetation and the trimmed grass make the exhibit look way less appealing. I reckon the bridge which goes through the exhibit and above the lake should be removed.
Next are the spider monkey islands, but I’ll cover those in the next paragraph or two, so for now I’ll focus on the capuchin monkey enclosure, which has undergone zero changes since my visit in September. The only difference is that the sign for Sapajus xanthosternos had been removed, though individuals of that species were still present, which leads me to believe that some updates will be made to the signage before it returns.
After that, we went to see the orangutans, but both were asleep, so our attention turned to the female crab-eating macaque. She has been alone for a few weeks, ever since the other female of the species at the zoo died.
The next enclosures are home to Amazonian primates. Although there was plenty of activity on all the islands, what interested me most was seeing up close the baby Peruvian spider monkey, born in March. He was very active and played a lot during our time at the zoo. After watching the little one, we finally reached the newly reopened area.
The Kingdom of the Axolotls is located in a structure previously used as an aviary for owls and as a reptile house for creepy-crawlies. However, the aquariums for these salamanders are housed in a recently built, container-like structure, so the only animals still kept in the original dome area are the new arthropods, whose selection includes several new taxa.
The three tanks are sizeable and you can see an effort was made to make their aquascaping look naturalistic, but a lack of substrate and plants definitely made them look barren. Otherwise, we spent very little time inside the new area because we were able to find most of the arachnids very quickly, although I can say I did like the look of the terraria, which are pretty big for a few of their residents.
Next was the petting zoo. The horse and pigs were moved to one of the former goat enclosures. The goat pens received extra fencing to avoid physical contact with the visitors (I am guessing headbutts were a common issue and the zoo didn't want any new lawsuits) plus their shelter was boarded up with wooden planks (perhaps the zoo wanted to give them some more privacy). No birds on sight, but the chicken and duck pen was going under an upgrade (it is being netted over due to concerns over the avian flu).
The carnivore area, once again, has undergone zero changes. The jaguar and one of the cougars were very active today, which made me happy. The crab-eating fox and one of the ring-tailed coatis were both seen, but were sleeping, while the ocelot was a no-show, as expected.
We then headed to the elephant enclosure, where elderly Koala was inside the barn, very close to the visitors. Opposite to her were the buffalo, most of which were wallowing in their pool, but the male and a female were outside (possibly mating?).
Next was the spectacled bear, who was very active today (although displaying stereotypic behaviour walking around doing repeated movemens), followed by the otters, who were sleeping. So was the lion.
We walked across the main avenue and reached Jardim Burle Marx, whose lake seemed to be devoid of any birds (once again, most likely due to concerns over the avian flu). Following suit, the tortoises were not very active and the maned wolves were a no-show.
Next was the white-lipped peccary, which replaced the cassowary Dragão after it tragically passed away. Then, the baby turtles and pelicans, which were more of the same.
Finally in Aldeia dos Répteis, we saw the pythons, most of which were near the viewing panes. We were able to see most of them, including the zoo's sole Malayopython reticulatus, which I suspect could be descendant of the pair imported to Belo Horizonte in 2000.
The caimans and turtles were next, but once again, no changes, just like the king vultures. Opposite to them however, we noticed the flamingo exhibit was netted over and many exotic birds were in with them. The next post will be a species list, so don't worry.
We were unlucky while inside the Education Center, but I was happy enough to have seen the Caatinga rainbow boa (and an off-show capuchin monkey, whose species I couldn't really identify).
In the walkthrough aviary, more of the same, although an old resident showed up back again: the cherry-masked conure. The lowland paca also surprised us when it showed up after a long time being a no-show. A few species seem to have gone missing from the exhibit, though.
The scarlet ibis aviary was more of the same, just like the exhibits for the hyacinth macaw (although no toucans were on sight), the Uta Hick's bearded-sakis and the howler monkeys, but the black-fronted piping guan had new guests in its enclosure (ariel and toco toucans [one of each]).
The savanna was more of the same, although no guineafowl were on sight.
We then had lunch while overseeing the primates and reading a few old books, but we ran low on time so we left around 13:00 after recircling the axolotl exhibit and were already back home by 13:30.
Species list on the next post.
I visited BioParque do Rio today.
The original plan was to visit the zoo this Sunday, but a series of events made me decide that it would be better to go on Saturday instead.
The main reason was the opening that day of a new exhibit: Reino dos Axolotes (Portuguese for “Kingdom of the Axolotls”), a “new" area dedicated to the aforementioned Mexican amphibians and various arachnids. I will elaborate about it later on the thread.
So, I started my day by waking up early and getting ready to go to the zoo. After getting dressed, my father and I hit the road and headed toward Rio.
When we arrived, the two of us noticed the park was crowded (after all, it was the weekend), but not enough to ruin our day. We parked our car and then went in.
As always, we began our visit at the Cerrado exhibit. This enclosure is shared by capybaras (currently, there’s a newly arrived male named Capivaldo and a female named Juliana; the male that used to live with her, Afonso, had recently passed away), rheas (two females), giant anteaters (two females—mother Gaia and daughter Maria Cupim; the male, Bauru, may have been transferred to another zoo), and a grey brocket deer (a female named Aurora). There also used to be a Brazilian tapir (Sebastião) and two collared peccaries in the enclosure, but the former died in 2023 and the latter passed away this year. Although spacious, the enclosure is not very naturalistic and doesn’t resemble the biome it’s meant to represent. The lack of typical vegetation and the trimmed grass make the exhibit look way less appealing. I reckon the bridge which goes through the exhibit and above the lake should be removed.
Next are the spider monkey islands, but I’ll cover those in the next paragraph or two, so for now I’ll focus on the capuchin monkey enclosure, which has undergone zero changes since my visit in September. The only difference is that the sign for Sapajus xanthosternos had been removed, though individuals of that species were still present, which leads me to believe that some updates will be made to the signage before it returns.
After that, we went to see the orangutans, but both were asleep, so our attention turned to the female crab-eating macaque. She has been alone for a few weeks, ever since the other female of the species at the zoo died.
The next enclosures are home to Amazonian primates. Although there was plenty of activity on all the islands, what interested me most was seeing up close the baby Peruvian spider monkey, born in March. He was very active and played a lot during our time at the zoo. After watching the little one, we finally reached the newly reopened area.
The Kingdom of the Axolotls is located in a structure previously used as an aviary for owls and as a reptile house for creepy-crawlies. However, the aquariums for these salamanders are housed in a recently built, container-like structure, so the only animals still kept in the original dome area are the new arthropods, whose selection includes several new taxa.
The three tanks are sizeable and you can see an effort was made to make their aquascaping look naturalistic, but a lack of substrate and plants definitely made them look barren. Otherwise, we spent very little time inside the new area because we were able to find most of the arachnids very quickly, although I can say I did like the look of the terraria, which are pretty big for a few of their residents.
Next was the petting zoo. The horse and pigs were moved to one of the former goat enclosures. The goat pens received extra fencing to avoid physical contact with the visitors (I am guessing headbutts were a common issue and the zoo didn't want any new lawsuits) plus their shelter was boarded up with wooden planks (perhaps the zoo wanted to give them some more privacy). No birds on sight, but the chicken and duck pen was going under an upgrade (it is being netted over due to concerns over the avian flu).
The carnivore area, once again, has undergone zero changes. The jaguar and one of the cougars were very active today, which made me happy. The crab-eating fox and one of the ring-tailed coatis were both seen, but were sleeping, while the ocelot was a no-show, as expected.
We then headed to the elephant enclosure, where elderly Koala was inside the barn, very close to the visitors. Opposite to her were the buffalo, most of which were wallowing in their pool, but the male and a female were outside (possibly mating?).
Next was the spectacled bear, who was very active today (although displaying stereotypic behaviour walking around doing repeated movemens), followed by the otters, who were sleeping. So was the lion.
We walked across the main avenue and reached Jardim Burle Marx, whose lake seemed to be devoid of any birds (once again, most likely due to concerns over the avian flu). Following suit, the tortoises were not very active and the maned wolves were a no-show.
Next was the white-lipped peccary, which replaced the cassowary Dragão after it tragically passed away. Then, the baby turtles and pelicans, which were more of the same.
Finally in Aldeia dos Répteis, we saw the pythons, most of which were near the viewing panes. We were able to see most of them, including the zoo's sole Malayopython reticulatus, which I suspect could be descendant of the pair imported to Belo Horizonte in 2000.
The caimans and turtles were next, but once again, no changes, just like the king vultures. Opposite to them however, we noticed the flamingo exhibit was netted over and many exotic birds were in with them. The next post will be a species list, so don't worry.
We were unlucky while inside the Education Center, but I was happy enough to have seen the Caatinga rainbow boa (and an off-show capuchin monkey, whose species I couldn't really identify).
In the walkthrough aviary, more of the same, although an old resident showed up back again: the cherry-masked conure. The lowland paca also surprised us when it showed up after a long time being a no-show. A few species seem to have gone missing from the exhibit, though.
The scarlet ibis aviary was more of the same, just like the exhibits for the hyacinth macaw (although no toucans were on sight), the Uta Hick's bearded-sakis and the howler monkeys, but the black-fronted piping guan had new guests in its enclosure (ariel and toco toucans [one of each]).
The savanna was more of the same, although no guineafowl were on sight.
We then had lunch while overseeing the primates and reading a few old books, but we ran low on time so we left around 13:00 after recircling the axolotl exhibit and were already back home by 13:30.
Species list on the next post.