Devilfish's Asian Adventure

Melaka bird park

A single huge walk-in aviary makes up this park. On walking in I felt there were no real 'wow' species, with the 30 species on display being mostly parrots (a very good lory collection, peafowl, mandarin ducks and a pair of aracaris break the rule), but as I was leaving I noticed small green macaws near the roof of the aviary - red-bellied macaws :). I've always missed them elsewhere, so although I couldn't get a decent photo it was a nice surprise to find them here.

The aviary itself is nice. Still new so few shrubs on the ground, but a nice skywalk can be reached by lift [elevator].

I was very pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of the staff; when I asked about a guidebook, a manager offered to be my guide, talking me through logistics and future plans (phasing out non-endemic species and starting captive breeding & release programmes). The curator also joined and was very passionate. He was incredibly happy to see a tourist with an interest in animals, and was absolutely brilliant. Any zoochatters should try to see him if only briefly - he was very helpful and open.

I look forward to one day seeing a large aviary teeming with endangered native species.
 
Rumah aquarium

I came across this small aquarium.at the entrance to the botanical gardens. It was closed when I visited but I convinced a guard to briefly open it for me. His paranoia meant I couldn't take photos once inside, and I want inside for very long at all, but you can see most of the collection by looking through the window. A pet shop set-up, with walls of small tanks (most empty), there were snakeheads, red-eared sliders and cichlids among the fish on display, with empty tanks labelled for peacock bass and lungfish. Not worth a detour (it may well be closed) but if you're walking between the zoo and bird park, Or the 2.5km between the butterfly park and bird park (which I did), then it's on the way.
 
Melaka Zoo 2

I revisited the zoo yesterday as I didn't get my camera out once the rain started the day before, and I still hadn't seen a few animals - including the free-ranging banded langur. Luckily I came across the troop of dusky langurs with the lone Presbytis langur among them. Nothing else particularly remarkable during the visit. I made a few suggestions to staff before leaving.
 
Coral Wonderland 2

After dinner I headed back to coral wonderland. The only reason was to tell the manager how I felt they needed to improve. I can post what I said in detail if anyone wants. I felt I was very nice in my comments and did my best to ensure that they were only productive. The manager appeared not to care much, and she eventually told me to write the problems in an email to central management. She seemed not to know a few of the tanks I was talking about, so I offered to show her. She refused the offer. I didn't see everything last time, so I requested a brief visit, but she refused and got agitated, abd said something to the girls at the reception counter. Eventually I bought my own ticket with no discounts, and when I entered the aquarium, I discovered I had been allocated a chaperone to watch me. I wasn't too pleased about this but the poor guy was breaking a sweat and I felt quite bad for him. As predicted (and as I had warned the manager), a number of fish were dead or dying, to the point where my chaperone would run backstage to remove a fish, only to return and have me point out another. The redtail catfish was also looking very ill, and I suspect it has died by now.

Most of the tanks at this aquarium are absolutely fine, and would fit easily in a European collection. It's just a few which are a bit troublesome.

As I was leaving I was told of plans to move the aquarium to bigger, custom-built premises, the plan is to include the world's longest underwater tunnel. If this collection had more space which they used responsibly, it'd be an aquarium lover's dream.
 
Devilfish, it sounds like you are having an amazing trip in terms of being able to visit many places and actually interact with the people responsible for these places. I'm very sad to hear about the losses at Melaka Zoo, it sounds like many amazing species vanished, presumably into private collections.

I don't think I've ever been able to talk to someone who worked in a zoo (that I was visiting at the time), so I'm very jealous of your ability to talk to people in such important roles about their zoos. How do you talk to them? And how do you get them to take you seriously? Do you have a beard?
 
Thanks, it has been great so far. I've been lucky to have had the freedom and timing up til now, but that'll change when my friends join me next week. I didn't visit any zoos between the start of January abd the start of April (except for an hour at the London Aquarium), so it looks like I'm on track to make up for that.

Haha! Sadly I don't have a beard, but I've gone to a few zoos with overgrown stubble. Maybe that's what did it? ;)

Generally if I have big questions I'll ask a volunteer or keeper, but here they don't speak much English. At melaka zoo I asked at the ticket desk for anyone who spoke English and knew about the animals and so they called the vet. I didn't ask for anyone at the bird park, they just came, and in the aquarium I asked to talk to an English-speaking manager/aquarist (after all, it was effectively a complaint). I don't have a zoological background, so I never expect to be granted a meeting while these busy people are working full-time, and indeed when requested in advance I almost always get rejections. A collection goes up greatly in my eyes when they take such an interest in enthusiastic visitors.
What exactly do you mean by 'being taken seriously'? To get a meeting or for the content of the discussions? I don't really have a great deal to say. Without a zoological background I don't really give advice, but based on my experience visiting zoos, I can make some amateur suggestions which they can choose to listen to.
 
KL deer & mousedeer park

I'd planned to sacrifice today to travel from Melaka to Kuala Lumpur (2h by bus). I woke up late, checked out of the hostel, walked around the old town, watched some monitors and mudskippers, and then got ready to get the bus. But when I got to KL, I was told there wasn't much to do. I found that the deer & mousedeer park is open til fairly late, so I decided to pay it a visit. A pain to get to, despite being clear on maps and seemingly obvious until you get close. The park is divided into two sections: a huge mousedeer enclosure, and a large enclosure for mixed deer species. The mousedeer enclosure is being renovated and looks to be enormous, and the deer enclosure looks quite nice. The fact that I spent so long looking for what was just one enclosure has put me off smaller Malaysian collections a bit more - so I think I'll give Putrajaya a miss. I also didn't go to A'Famosa safari world this morning near Melaka for a number of reasons, but mainly after the lower numbers than expected at the zoo. There was also a turtle place (fairly) nearby which I had considered.
 
It is a shame to hear that Melaka is no longer as great as it appeared to be but from what you've said devilfish, it may become better. I'm enjoying the mini-reviews of places I'd never heard of, even if some of them haven't lived up to your expectations.
What collection is next on your (ever flexible) itinerary?
 
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Brum said:
It is a shame to hear that Melaka is no longer as great as it appeared to be but from what you've said devilfish, it may become better. I'm enjoying the mini-reviews of places I'd never heard of, even if some of them having lived up to your expectations.
What collection is next on your (ever flexible) itinerary?
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Thanks. Today I'll go to the butterfly and bird parks. If there's time later, I might go to the KL tower animal zone, or Aquaria KLCC. Both the bird park and aquarium are very expensive so I don't want to rush either of them.
 
devilfish said:
Thanks, it has been great so far. I've been lucky to have had the freedom and timing up til now, but that'll change when my friends join me next week. I didn't visit any zoos between the start of January abd the start of April (except for an hour at the London Aquarium), so it looks like I'm on track to make up for that.

Haha! Sadly I don't have a beard, but I've gone to a few zoos with overgrown stubble. Maybe that's what did it? ;)

Generally if I have big questions I'll ask a volunteer or keeper, but here they don't speak much English. At melaka zoo I asked at the ticket desk for anyone who spoke English and knew about the animals and so they called the vet. I didn't ask for anyone at the bird park, they just came, and in the aquarium I asked to talk to an English-speaking manager/aquarist (after all, it was effectively a complaint). I don't have a zoological background, so I never expect to be granted a meeting while these busy people are working full-time, and indeed when requested in advance I almost always get rejections. A collection goes up greatly in my eyes when they take such an interest in enthusiastic visitors.
What exactly do you mean by 'being taken seriously'? To get a meeting or for the content of the discussions? I don't really have a great deal to say. Without a zoological background I don't really give advice, but based on my experience visiting zoos, I can make some amateur suggestions which they can choose to listen to.
Click to expand...

I meant to get a meeting. I would have thought many people in senior positions wouldn't really bother talking to visitors, but its great that some do. I agree that it certainly boosts a zoo's image when they make an effort like this.

The deer and mousedeer park sounds interesting, can you provide a species list for it? The turtle place might be interesting too, the Singapore one had a massive number of species, so the KL one might too. Isn't there a decent bird park in KL too?
 
zooboy28 said:
I meant to get a meeting. I would have thought many people in senior positions wouldn't really bother talking to visitors, but its great that some do. I agree that it certainly boosts a zoo's image when they make an effort like this.

The deer and mousedeer park sounds interesting, can you provide a species list for it? The turtle place might be interesting too, the Singapore one had a massive number of species, so the KL one might too. Isn't there a decent bird park in KL too?
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The deer and mousedeer park was home to axis, sambar, fallow deer and lesser mousedeer (not on display).
The turtle place I was actually referring to was a sanctuary outside Melaka. There are meant to be olive ridleys and some albino turtles. I didn't think it was worth the transport costs on its own though.

The bird park in kl is meant to be decent. I'm going today.
 
zooboy28 said:
I meant to get a meeting. I would have thought many people in senior positions wouldn't really bother talking to visitors, but its great that some do. I agree that it certainly boosts a zoo's image when they make an effort like this.
Click to expand...

Just to be clear, I only meet briefly to ask a few questions. I don't get any other privileges and haven't been taken behind the scenes. If I feel that my question has been answered then I don't mind if it's a volunteer, vet or director I talk to, and often I don't talk to anyone. Today for instance I couldn't find anyone at the butterfly park, and wasn't allowed to talk to anyone senior at the bird park.
 
KL butterfly park

When I walked to the deer park yesterday I had to make a few dangerous highway crossings, so today I decided to take a taxi. The butterfly park is very nice. A huge main walkthrough area and a brilliant collection. Butterflies flying about include Malaysia's national butterfly, Rajah Brooke's birdwing, and several Troides species. There's also a good reptile and insect collection housed indoors. I'm very pleased that I visited and was very impressed. The park didn't need it but I spent about 3 hours there.
 
KL bird park

The bird park was very nice. The main aviary is huge, and the collection is great. Now I've been to three places claiming to be the world's largest walkthrough aviary in the space of just over a week. The first (main) aviary doesn't display a huge range of species, but still more than enough to keep you busy looking (including the great argus I only found 4th time round). A bit disappointing to see cramped cage aviaries for owls and hornbills within such a huge space.
The bird of prey and owl collections are absolutely brilliant (including surprise Asian black eagle and grey-headed fish eagle in the show!), with a number of very nice birds on display. Sadly there are no more birds of paradise on display. I've had very bad luck with them so far, seeing only two species at Jurong. I've yet to meet my first king and greater BoPs. No idea where or when yet. I'm not holding much hope for the few species in Thai collections until I receive confirmation.

Most of the bird show was just parrot tricks, and the lovely eagles flew briefly at the end. The last show I'd been to was at River Safari with the crab-eating raccoon. Makes me wonder what I've missed over the years.

KL bird park is a nice park. Overpriced, and not as large as expected (I'd set aside five hours, but in reality two/three were sufficient).
 
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Hi Devilfish

Will you also visit Zoo Negara while you are in KL?

(If so, use a taxi, otherwise it can be difficult to go there).
 
zoomaniac said:
Hi Devilfish

Will you also visit Zoo Negara while you are in KL?

(If so, use a taxi, otherwise it can be difficult to go there).
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Hi zoomaniac, thanks. I've allocated the whole of tomorrow for tge zoo, and will be meeting friends there at opening time. The plan is currently to get the light rail to Wangsa Maju station and get a taxi from there. :)
 
Zoo Negara

Today I visited zoo negara. A pleasant zoo with nice exhibits and lots of interesting animals. I spent the whole day there, despite large areas of the zoo being closed for renovation (mostly in preparation for the pandas). Other exhibits under construction include a new elephant exhibit, hippo enclosure, and rejuvenated bear enclosures. The mammal and insect houses were therefore closed, and the Ussuri bears off display.

The top highlight for me was probably the brilliant aquarium, showcasing mostly native freshwater species. I also really liked some of the reptiles in the collection.
 
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Plans are looking a bit more solid now:
Tomorrow I intend to try and take a day trip to Taiping, followed by visits to Aquaria KLCC and the KL Tower animal zone on monday. On Tuesday morning I fly to Siem Reap (Cambodia), and move on to phnom penh and the south of vietnam. From there we fly to Chiang Mai (Thailand) and then to Bangkok, which will be our base for some time.
 
Given the animals I've recently come across in shows, I tried to give Zoo Negara's multi-animal show a try today. The sign shows a macaw and a sealion. I watched for five minutes and then went back to the aquarium. I'll try to be more open-minded next time. :)

Sorry about all the spelling and grammar errors - I'm still working from my mobile phone.
 
Hi Devilfish,

Very much enjoying following your journey.
 
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