ZOO Antwerpen Antwerp Zoo News 2020

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Penshet

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The former bird of prey aviaries contain their new inhabitants: parrots. There are a couple new species in there, too. The first aviary contains sun conures and yellow-headed amazons. The second one is for swift parrots. The big aviary in the middle has Mexican military macaws, hyacinth macaws and blue-headed macaws. The fourth aviary has grey-breasted parakeets, and the final aviary has lilacine amazons. Since the weather is quite cold, not all parrots are outside yet, but you shouldn't have too many problems spotting them through the doors.

The former gundi enclosure has been redecorated and has signs for northern Luzon cloudrats (from Planckendael I'd guess), but the enclosure also has a still-empty sign on it.

The former hyacinth macaw enclosure in the bird house contains the spectacled owls.

Quite a few terrariums in the reptile house are being refurbished, but most seem to be getting the same inhabitants back.
 
Penshet said:
The former bird of prey aviaries contain their new inhabitants: parrots. There are a couple new species in there, too. The first aviary contains sun conures and yellow-headed amazons. The second one is for swift parrots. The big aviary in the middle has Mexican military macaws, hyacinth macaws and blue-headed macaws. The fourth aviary has grey-breasted parakeets, and the final aviary has lilacine amazons. Since the weather is quite cold, not all parrots are outside yet, but you shouldn't have too many problems spotting them through the doors.

The former gundi enclosure has been redecorated and has signs for northern Luzon cloudrats (from Planckendael I'd guess), but the enclosure also has a still-empty sign on it.

The former hyacinth macaw enclosure in the bird house contains the spectacled owls.

Quite a few terrariums in the reptile house are being refurbished, but most seem to be getting the same inhabitants back.
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That sounds like a very nice selection of parrot species, with most species already in the collection and some returning to being on-show but with a few new species also. As a fan of parrots I'm looking forward to seeing these very much already, although given the weather they probably won't be going outside much for a few more months. That said I still think I'll be going to Antwerp pretty soon to have a look.

Have the Mexican military macaws moved out of their aviary in the bird house yet and if so, is there any news on what will take their place yet?

With regards to the gundi enclosure, while I like the Luzon cloud rats a lot that exhibit to me seems too small and too light to accommodate them comfortably, especially if you compare it to the much larger exhibit they inhabited at Planckendael (or even the one they previously shared with tree shrews). Personally I think the slender loris from the closed Nocturama would have been a better species for the gundi exhibit.
 
There are still military macaws (I saw 2) in the bird house enclosure, as well as the northern helmeted curassow.

The exhibit for the cloud rats isn't that small imo, and they have added a few nest boxes and many branches to the enclosure so it is definitely more suitable now than it was before. That said, I do agree that it is much too light, and I doubt we'll get any good views of the animals in this enclosure.
 
In the "Zoo van Antwerpen" Facebook group I saw a few pictures today indicating that a Northern Luzon giant cloud rat (Phloeomys pallidus) was recently born at Zoo Antwerpen.

The animals recently moved into the small mammal wing in the ape house from the closed tropical greenhouse at Planckendael.
 
KevinB said:
In the "Zoo van Antwerpen" Facebook group I saw a few pictures today indicating that a Northern Luzon giant cloud rat (Phloeomys pallidus) was recently born at Zoo Antwerpen.

The animals recently moved into the small mammal wing in the ape house from the closed tropical greenhouse at Planckendael.
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Some footage a keeper shot of the young Northern Luzon giant cloud rat (Phloeomys pallidus), shared by Zoo Antwerpen on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=654323358731726
 
In a search for information about the six (!) species of pangolin in Antwerpen, I came across a report with the dates of first appearance for mammals between 1843-1960.

Many small mammals make their first appearance in the 1950's, so I wonder if there was some kind of Small Mammal House in this period (the Nocturama wasn't opened yet)? Does anybody know?
 
There used to be a small carnivore building at the station side of the zoo, I think at the current location of the Aquaforum, or where the bird of prey aviaries used to be.
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The place that currently houses koalas/Goodfellow's tree-kangaroos used to be called a small mammal house as well.
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I'd suspect that the pangolins were housed in either of these two locations, or perhaps in the monkey house? Even though that was built in 1978, there used to be a "monkey palace" before, built in 1881.
 
Penshet said:
I'd suspect that the pangolins were housed in either of these two locations, or perhaps in the monkey house?
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Thanks for the information and photos! One species of pangolin was kept at the Reptile House, I read somewhere.
 
Gorilla Gust said:
Zoo Antwerp expects to be ready with the Rhino-exhibit during this summer according to a interview in VRTnews.
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I didn't know about rhinos at the Zoo, but white rhinos seem to come. Do you know where their enclosure will be?
 
AWP said:
I didn't know about rhinos at the Zoo, but white rhinos seem to come. Do you know where their enclosure will be?
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In front of the old, now restored bovine house, where the buffalo and zebra paddocks used to be until a few years ago, and where a playground area sat until last year.

Pretty much the only space left at Antwerp big enough for large mammals as long as they don't give up on keeping elephants in and near the Egyptian temple.
 
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Thanks to both of you. Good to read that this area will be used for an animal enclosure again. I didn't liked it as a playground. So, white rhinos will return to the Zoo after some twenty years I think. The species was kept opposite the temple at my first visit in 2001.
 
AWP said:
Thanks to both of you. Good to read that this area will be used for an animal enclosure again. I didn't liked it as a playground. So, white rhinos will return to the Zoo after some twenty years I think. The species was kept opposite the temple at my first visit in 2001.
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Yes, the last rhinoceros moved out of the old - and pretty tiny - rhinoceros paddock in the early 2000s. The old rhinoceros building has since been restored and is now part of the savanna aviary, serving as a bird house.
 
This past Sunday, May 24th, 2020, I visited Zoo Antwerpen for the first time since December 30th 2019 and for the first time after the zoo was closed for over two months on government orders to contain the coronavirus crisis. I really enjoyed being back.

Below are some things that I noticed and feel are valuable to report on here on ZooChat. I hope to add pictures to the gallery at some point to further illustrate these.

  • Hygiene and social distancing measures are in order throughout the park. The entrance area has painted white lines on the ground indicating the distance that should be maintained as well as crush barrier fences to guide visitor movement, and a similar set-up was in use near some of the restrooms. There are many spots with mandatory hand disinfection stations and lots of signage reminding visitors of social distancing and hand hygiene. Face masks are mandatory in all buildings, indoor viewing areas and walk-through exhibits (even outdoors) and in the restrooms.
The restaurants and playgrounds remain closed, but take-away food is available and can be eaten in areas where sitting is allowed with respect of social distancing. Most visitors are fairly disciplined with the measures, but keeping the distance is sometimes challenging and not everyone does it well all the time. And some areas still get relatively busy.​
  • Despite the coronavirus crisis a surprising amount of renovations and developments have been carried out or are ongoing.
  • In the small monkey house a new ceiling has been installed in the visitor area and the four small callitrichids exhibits have been joined into two larger ones by removing the dividing walls. These exhibits have also been repainted and have had new substrate, climbing structures and plants installed. They look fairly decent and definitely better than before. In the small monkey house the mandrills now had access to two of the visible indoor exhibits on one side, while the spider monkeys had access to the other two.
  • The small viewing areas in the koala/tree kangaroo house remained closed and the sliding doors locked. The male koala Maka has returned from Antwerp to Planckendael.
  • The new parrot aviaries, a rebuilt of the old raptor aviaries, have finally been finished and the parrots have now occupied these for several months. They look quite nice and I think they will become a new favorite spot for me. Unfortunately I did not yet get to see the grey-breasted parakeets or red-lored amazons.
  • At some point there was some big and noisy, but short-lived ruckus in the chimpanzee exhibit. It seems there was some kind of conflict being fought, and at least two chimps were having a go at each other.
  • In the savanna aviary I noticed several Abdim's stork nests. I also noticed there seem to now be way more Senegal doves in this aviary than there were last year.
  • The construction of the rhinoceros exhibits near the old bovine house has continued and has progressed well, the rhinoceros exhibits are taking shape nicely. A new building with what I think will be an elevated viewing area (I saw the winding stairs towards it already in place) is being constructed where the pig house used to be, I believe this building is going to house pigs again as well as small ungulates.
  • In the reptile house several exhibits have undergone thorough cleaning or renovations in the past months. The caiman/turtle/iguana exhibit is still undergoing renovation currently.
  • Unfortunately Antwerp's large reptile, Komodo dragon Jaka, unexpectedly died earlier this month from liver failure. A new Komodo dragon is however expected to arrive from Amsterdam relatively soon, according to signage.
  • The renovation of the jubilee complex is progressing slowly. New signs announcing the future arrival of Amur tigers and snow leopards has been put up, the cage structures of the raptor aviaries on the top floor and of the cat cages at the lower level have been removed. A wooden wall closing off the renovation construction site and a temporary walkway has been constructed on the nearby grassy field. A temporary food/drinks stand and a temporary playground area have been placed here also.
  • Another temporary playground area is being constructed in what used to be the spectacled bear exhibit (bears are at Planckendael for several years, but are supposed to eventually return). I'm not a big fan of so much temporary playgrounds.
  • In the bird house the "dark corridor" was closed for renovations, and the estrildid finches were all in the longest of the lower indoor aviaries. The Goldie's lorikeets that normally live in that aviary were in one of the smaller bird rooms on the other side of the visitor area, next to the mixed rooms, while the other small room held a Brazilian tanager pair. These smaller rooms had not been occupied for quite time.
  • The Congo African grey parrot/Northern helmeted curassow aviary had a sign on it saying the birds will temporarily be behind the scenes for renovations. The parrots however were still in it. The helmeted curassow I saw in the macaw room in the bird house, where at least two Mexican military macaws also remain that seem to not have moved to the new aviaries.
I have already made a reservation for another visit in June.
 
Philipine eagle said:
No more ebony leaf monkeys nor owl-faced guenons?
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The ebony leaf monkeys left a while ago to give the spider monkeys more space.

The owl-faced guenons are still there however, they life in an exhibit on the other side of the building, between the lemur exhibits and the callitrichids exhibits.
 
KevinB said:
The ebony leaf monkeys left a while ago to give the spider monkeys more space.

The owl-faced guenons are still there however, they life in an exhibit on the other side of the building, between the lemur exhibits and the callitrichids exhibits.
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The zoo going out of leaf monkeys is a big loss.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
The zoo going out of leaf monkeys is a big loss.
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I don't disagree with your there as they are an interesting species with the black and orange individuals, but unfortunately they had to make choices for the small monkey house. And while I'm sure they had their reasons to make the choices they did (i.e. mandrills and spider monkeys) any choice would always mean losing species and not winning points with people like us.

That said, I think the Ebony leaf monkeys would have been a very interesting species for the Asian section at Planckendael. But different choices have also already been made there, unfortunately.
 
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