CGSwans flies north for the winter

ANyhuis said:
I've been to the Moscow Zoo twice, including just a couple years ago. On both of my visits, I very much enjoyed my time there. I was not expecting a super modern zoo like Burgers, Omaha, or Singapore. Moscow is a rather old zoo (1864) which suffered for years under the shackles of communism. It takes some time to overcome such a thing. Russia itself has not thoroughly grasped capitalism the way the Czech Republic, (East) Germany, and Poland have, thus we cannot expect Moscow to be at the level of Prague, Leipzig, or Wroclaw. But as CGSwans points out, there's a lot of construction going on at the Moscow Zoo, thus lots of reasons for optimism.

I personally compare Moscow to the Berlin Zoo, though not quite at that level yet. Moscow's exhibit quality is slightly behind Berlin's, and its animal collection in comparable. Moscow has 1,184 animal species, which is 4th in Europe behind only Berlin, Plzen, and Cologne. It has 166 mammal species, again 4th behind only Plzen and the 2 Berlin zoos. While they don't have any high profile animal superstars (giant pandas, koalas, manatees), they do have a very "complete" zoo, with almost all of the animals one would expect from a complete zoo. One more thing, Moscow is Europe's most attended zoo, with over 3 million annual visitors -- over 5 million if you include all of the children and military veterans who are admitted free.
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Yes, they have that big collection, but it's pretty much off-display. The line-up I saw was nothing out of the ordinary for this trip, and easily surpassed by some zoos.

I am certainly hoping Berlin will have a more than 'slightly' better standard of exhibitry, though I don't expect it to match the likes of Zurich or Prague.
 
  • While they don't have any high profile animal superstars (giant pandas, koalas, manatees), they do have a very "complete" zoo, with almost all of the animals one would expect from a complete zoo.
@ANyhuis surely a superstar species that is quite a rarity (in Europe at least) would be beluga? I know they are slightly more commonplace in the USA but not really a common species over here. Also, multiple crocodilians are a great asset for any zoo.
 
Brum said:
  • While they don't have any high profile animal superstars (giant pandas, koalas, manatees), they do have a very "complete" zoo, with almost all of the animals one would expect from a complete zoo.
@ANhyuis surely a superstar species that is quite a rarity (in Europe at least) would be beluga? I know they are slightly more commonplace in the USA but not really a common species over here. Also, multiple crocodilians are a great asset for any zoo.
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There are no belugas at Moscow Zoo.
 
Brum said:
Really? Since when? I know they had them until quite recently but did wonder why you missed them out of your review. Do they still keep dolphins?
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They are kept off show if you get in touch with them sometimes, you are lucky enough to be taken to see them. Believe they keep them off show because they don't trust, the average Moscow zoo visitors not to feed them stuff not good for them.
 
zoogiraffe said:
They are kept off show if you get in touch with them sometimes, you are lucky enough to be taken to see them. Believe they keep them off show because they don't trust, the average Moscow zoo visitors not to feed them stuff not good for them.
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Yikes. That's quite a species to have off-display. I certainly saw a lot of visitor feeding, unfortunately.
 
The offshow Beluga would certainly be one of the biggest attractions for myself, along with the off-display reptile collection :p sadly their biggest attraction of all died a few years ago - the last Zaglossus bruijnii in captivity. This was off-display too, of course.
 
CGSwans said:
Yikes. That's quite a species to have off-display. I certainly saw a lot of visitor feeding, unfortunately.
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Suppose now isn't the time to tell you that sometimes, by arrangement you can stop in the zoo, guest accommodation and see most of the off show stuff, as I know people that have, one even sent me a picture of him stroking a Beluga, thanks for that you swine.
 
The swine in question still has that photograph set as his Zoochat avatar, in fact :p
 
Judging on what you've written so far I think it's safe to say you'll be underwhelmed by parts of the exhibitry in Berlin, although both zoos do offer some stunning ones as well.
I would be astonished if you were disappointed by the collections though.
 
zoogiraffe said:
They are kept off show if you get in touch with them sometimes, you are lucky enough to be taken to see them. Believe they keep them off show because they don't trust, the average Moscow zoo visitors not to feed them stuff not good for them.
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Are you sure they even still have them? As much as I still enjoyed Moscow, I will admit I was very disappointed to see they had eliminated their big central dolphin/beluga/walrus complex, with an inflatable winter roof. On my first visit there, back in 2009, they took me back to pet a walrus and then even to pet a beluga whale.In fact if anyone goes to my Facebook page, you'll see my picture there petting a Moscow beluga.
 
ANyhuis said:
Are you sure they even still have them? As much as I still enjoyed Moscow, I will admit I was very disappointed to see they had eliminated their big central dolphin/beluga/walrus complex, with an inflatable winter roof. On my first visit there, back in 2009, they took me back to pet a walrus and then even to pet a beluga whale.In fact if anyone goes to my Facebook page, you'll see my picture there petting a Moscow beluga.
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Pretty sure they still have them,under the inflatable winter roof.I know they had them 18 months ago.
 
Having stayed at the Moscow Zoo a couple of times,for a week at a time,im bound to be defensive about the zoo.
The amounts of things,particularly snakes,that ive seen for the first time there is amazing and credit should be given to a zoo that manages to hold over a thousand species in one place.I still find the policy of a comprehensive collection to be upheld here and is one to be admired by the zoologically curious..yes,even if the enclosures are NOT the size of those at Dubbo or Werribee.
I cant write an essay on this one so i will try to be succinct. Much of the zoo,including the "seventies" Bird House, was actually built in the nineties in a massive reconstruction programme..some of the choices were possibly dated even then and blighted by poor workmanship /materials too.
The zoo has a municipal commitment to cheap/free entry, this has made crowd behaviour difficult to regulate because of large numbers and resulted in the Walruses being kept inside in the day and let out at night when I was there(we were taken in to meet them..what an experience- great big inquisitive pink mountains of flesh, blowing snot all over the place - brilliant).
Its a zoo you need to know to find things ..a second nocturnal section under the primate house is closed to the masses for instance,and its very good - much better than the official nocturnal house.But you need to request to go there.And believe me,this zoo is VERY hospitable to those who are interested. And the breeding centre too..its a long way out ,maybe 100 miles,but im sure the zoo would have been helpful in getting you there.
In short this unique zoo is a case not of what you know but WHO you know.If you can organise that its a magical place,not without shortcomings for sure,but one full of fantastic experiences and unusual taxa.
 
Oh..and theres a great zoo museum too,above the old Giraffe House - but its the same story-you have to ask to see it.
 
Tim Brown said:
The amounts of things,particularly snakes,that ive seen for the first time there is amazing and credit should be given to a zoo that manages to hold over a thousand species in one place.I still find the policy of a comprehensive collection to be upheld here and is one to be admired by the zoologically curious.
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Wouldn't the "zoologically curious" recognise that a vert-centric collection of ~1000 species is still 3+ orders of magnitude off being "comprehensive"?
 
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