Zoo #9: Zoo Barcelona, Spain, 31/03/2017
I'll presage this by saying that I am ploughing through writer's block to try to get this post up, so if it reads as undercooked please forgive me. It's either that, or I just know from past experience that this thread will end here.
This is the last stop on the Iberian leg of the tour. Before coming here I'd eaten a meal at a vegan restaurant the night before and spotted a poster mentioning the Barcelona Zoo. Curious, I asked what it was about and between my non-existent Spanish and the waiter's scarce English we established that it was a petition for changes to the zoo - though not, apparently, for its closure - to make it more scientifically-focused and to improve animal welfare. I'm 100% on board with that, though I wasn't going to sign a petition I couldn't read. When I got to the zoo the next day I confess I couldn't really tell what they were on about. It's a surprisingly good zoo.
I arrived perhaps an hour after opening time - I have fallen inexorably into holiday mode, such that it's a good day when I manage to leave my hostel before 10 - and took about four hours to meander through the zoo in no particular order. It's a layout that lends itself to doing that, with lots of bits and pieces that I found myself having to turn back towards. It's a nice contrast with Valencia: as much as having a single pre-defined route makes good design sense, I am coming to the view that it makes for a poorer visitor experience.
On the way in I had seen some vagrant Quaker parrots - my second set of vagrant parrots in three days - though it seems certain that these are the result of escapes from the zoo as a) I didn't see them anywhere in Barcelona except the immediate vicinity of the zoo and b) I later saw ring-necked parakeets and a sign saying that no fewer than four parrot species frequent the zoo.
There are little bits and pieces of construction work going on everywhere, and the entire savannah section is apparently in the process of being replaced. Because this area houses the elephants, giraffes and hippos, though, it looks like the work is being done in stages and all of these species were still on display, with the development going on around them. The dolphin arena is closed and unless the aquarium only ever consisted of two tiny tanks then it's under redevelopment too. Quite a lot of enclosures are empty, although I'm not sure whether that's a direct consequence of the works or simply that then collection is down-sizing.
I recall seeing some division on a thread recently about the Barcelona reptile house, with somebody saying that it had nice species but sub-standard exhibits. Again, I'm not sure I can see the problem; what I found was a series of excellent, attractive enclosures that were of a great size for everything except two Komodo dragons, which do urgently need bigger accommodation. The most notable species for me was the Nile soft-shelled turtle, which Zootierliste tells me are also at Valencia, though I didn't see any there.
I almost missed out on the bird house, which I overlooked on the map until I was heading towards the exit. This would have been a terrible mistake as it is or of the better features of the zoo - though it's not of the same quality as the Bronx, which remains the best-in-class for this type of exhibit that I have seen. The flaw here might be that the exhibits are all variations on the same theme: tropical rainforest aviaries. Nevertheless, this building was also important as it netted me about ten passerines for the Zoochat challenge, my single greatest haul, though I think we're all playing for second after Vision. I shall endeavour to bring my counts for both that and the primate challenge up to date to reflect my Spanish swing.
Most of the rest of the zoo is serviceable, but non-descript. I liked what I took to be a massive outdoor enclosure for callitrichids, though from what I could tell only one of the half-dozen or so groups had access to it, with the rest confined to rather more modest night quarters (still viewable by the public). I assume access is rotated, but the only golden-headed tamarin I saw actually outside was still sticking close to the night quarters, where the rest of its group were. I wonder, can callitrichids in breeding situations be mixed readily? If not the outdoor section should perhaps be sectioned off to provide more regular access to each species - it would still be an excellent set of exhibits. The other primate exhibits are much more modest, with a series of small-ish open exhibits for great apes and a row of cages for old world monkeys (and howler monkeys). I don't really have much to contribute on carnivore exhibits.
On the whole, I think Barcelona pips Lisbon as the best zoo I've been to thus far, but I am conscious that I haven't quite hit any of the big name traditional zoos of Europe yet (though I have probably been to its two best aquaria). That'll change fairly soon.
We obviously have very different conceptions of exhibit quality, though - although the lemur walk-through really is excellent.
