I visited on Monday (my first visit for over a year so I'm not sure how recent some of the changes I observed are).
Weather: 30°C, light breeze.
Arrival time: 10.00 am
Outside the zoo
- Construction of the new Institute of Technology and the new metro station, both located adjacent to the zoo's car park, has progressed a long way since my last visit. There was still work going on but it can’t be long until they’re complete.
- The abandoned hippodrome, which is also located adjacent to the zoo's car park, remains undemolished for now.
Inside the zoo
- We entered the zoo via the usual gift shop entrance (the first time since early 2020 I think).
- The gelada family group were in the hillside enclosure on the right-hand side of the chairlift. The grass in there looked quite sparse, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are rotated into the Sulawesi macaque enclosure, to the left of the chairlift, fairly soon.
- The bachelor gelada enclosure has had some new climbing structures and shelters installed, with most of the old climbing structure, which was built when the smaller original enclosure was constructed, removed. Looks much better, like it was designed for them.
- The snowy owl aviary has been demolished and a new one of similar size is being constructed in its place.
- Saw two kookaburras perched right at the front of their aviary.
- I saw the six-banded armadillos for the first time.
- Saw the new wolverine enclosure for the first time. I thought it looked superb. Definitely not your typical UK wolverine enclosure, but it's packed full of interest for the animal (rocks, pool, grass, dirt, shrubs, trees, shelters, steep terrain, plenty of climbing opportunities, and various enrichment items) and really makes use of its volume. That spindly old climbing frame with its many wooden ladders is gone and, in its place, a much bigger, chunkier and far more impressive one can now be found. It appears to have been constructed with the same thought, expertise and care that went into building the huge new climbing structures for the new orang enclosure.
I was pleased to see the wolverine itself too – a new species for me. Such a cool species to watch, the way it lollops around at speed over any terrain, but in complete silence, and then vanishes into the undergrowth. Didn’t see it for more than a few minutes but very glad I did.
- Only saw one Arctic fox. Would aardvark work well in that enclosure?
- Only saw the male Sumatran tiger (Joao). I wonder if he and the female (Daseep) are being kept separate for some reason.
- Saw all three bush dogs in their usual enclosure by the tigers.
- Couldn’t see either red panda in their enclosure by the giraffes. However, much further on in the visit we saw two red pandas in the large enclosure at the far end of the row of small primate enclosures behind the old discovery centre. There was proper signage for them and there appeared to be new climbing structures in there too. No idea what’s going on there.
- No changes to the giraffe house or paddock. However, I did spot a cement mixer and a few construction materials behind the house.
- Some keepers were busy doing some work on the climbing structures in the binturong enclosure. I saw one binturong in the on-show portion of the indoor area, but no sign of the civet which I’ve still never seen despite it being at the zoo for over 2 years now. Definitely my ‘bogey-animal’; it makes Bart seem relatively outdoorsy!
- I saw all 3 giant anteaters indoors (I could just about see the male in the dens at the rear of the house. I think he is being kept separate from the other two for the time being). The baby is still very cute despite it being around 6 months old now.
- The cassowary was keeping cool in the shade at the back right of the secondary paddock (he had access to both paddocks).
- Some of aviaries to the right of the cassowary exhibit have been demolished and some new similar ones have been built in their place.
- The sloths were all indoors. Sadly I didn’t manage to see the baby.
- There were no changes to large aviary next to the otters.
- On previous visits the macaw aviary has always been very difficult to see into thanks to the very tight, shiny mesh. However, they’ve since painted the mesh on the front panels black and it has made a massive difference; I think it’s problem pretty much solved. The new flock of sun conures looked great in there too.
- Of course the orangs were the thing I was most looking forward to on my visit. Since I last visited there’s been the arrival of the new adult male (Djimat), the opening of the new outdoor enclosure, and the birth of a baby orang. The new outdoor enclosure is mightily impressive: large area, soft grass floor, good viewing for the visitors, great views for the apes, and a huge intricate climbing structure – no bare concrete trees or single firehoses strung between vertical telegraph poles to be seen here. The wellbeing of the orangs must have skyrocketed. On my visit Benji was in the new outdoor area, sitting in the shade on the grass with his trusty red bread crate by his side. The other four had access to the old outdoor areas. Djimat and Sprout were lounging around outside in the shade. There were lots of professional photographers about, but Jazz and baby were keeping out of the heat and out of sight throughout.
Visiting the orangs this time felt like such a different experience than what I’ve always been used to. No shoulder-sagging moment, just a feeling of being very pleased for the zoo and what they’ve accomplished, and for the orangs themselves. There’s still a bit to do for the orang facilities, but with the completion of the new outdoor area the largest hurdle has been cleared and the orangs have suddenly become a real centrepiece for the zoo.
- I saw the new green aracari for the first time, a new species for me. I never knew how small they are. The young scarlet ibis have now matured and are looking scarlet.
- Counted only 4 Humboldt penguins. I thought there’d be signage explaining what had happened but I couldn't see any. I then thought that no explanatory sign is probably for the best as it might otherwise bring a massive downer on lots of visitor’s days out.
- I didn’t see the giant Asian pond turtle in the reptile house, although there was signage there for it. The zoo really needs to do something about improving the awful amateurish camouflage paint scheme that can be seen in several of the reptile house’s exhibits.
- I saw both the male and female black howler monkeys in the new exhibit by the chimp outdoor viewing area. Seems to suit them well.
- I saw the baby naked mole rats in their exhibit in the chimp indoor viewing area. Weird yet strangely cute. One of them had ventured off into a different chamber and was trying to gnaw on some courgette. The chimp indoor viewing area usually has an exhibit containing vampire crabs, but they were no longer there. It looks like the zoo have had problems with the leaf cutter ants again; the colony was confined to the vivarium containing the nest, where their food had been placed, as all the tubes had been disconnected. This is fine, but why oh why have they just left thousands of dead ants to lie in the tubes – not a great thing for visitors to see.
- The lorikeet walkthrough was a noisy flurry of feathers as usual. We were asked to sanitize our hands and walk through a tray of disinfectant before we went in. I saw all three Victoria crowned pigeons (one of which was on a nest). I could only see one rather elderly-looking white-throated monitor lizard in its usual exhibit. The Meller’s ducks were in the larger pool at the far end.
- One last thing, the exit barrier for the car park didn’t work when we put the token in, so we had to reverse and drive out through the entrance lane (thankfully the entrance barrier was permanently raised).
Overall, a very nice visit. There is so much that has improved about the zoo over the past few years and, largely thanks to the existence of the new orang enclosure, the whole feel of the zoo has improved immensely and best of all there’s more to come.
Pics are in the
gallery.
