Emperor Valley Zoo Review - 1.5 hours
This tiny zoo is found in Trinidad & Tobago, and is one of only a handful of small zoos scattered throughout the Caribbean. T&T is a pair of islands only a few kilometers from the tip of South America, and I'm currently spending time at the University of the West Indies campus.
The zoo is as expected rather ghastly, and the only thing going for it is that there are a number of species that I'd either never seen before or had only come across on a couple of occasions. Crab-eating raccoons, jaguarundi, tayra, paca (called lappe here), red brocket deer, kinkajou and giant river otters were some of the rare species that are found here and at not many other zoos that I've been to in North America.
The primate collection is impressive, but the cages have to be seen to be believed. There was a male mandrill banging away on the side of his bars, and the 5 mandrills are scattered throughout 3 horrible little cages. I'll upload photos eventually, but all of the primate "exhibits" have concrete floors, are puny, all have bars on them, and there are barely any climbing opportunities other than the actual bars. The two chimpanzees were in the smallest cage I've ever seen for great apes, and the tufted capuchins, brown spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, white-faced capuchins, green monkeys and red howler monkeys all had diabolical, outdated cages. One zookeeper told me that it's tough to change people's opinions in regards to zoo husbandry simply because there are still Trinis that illegally catch and eat monkeys. Why spend money on lavish exhibits when what is being contained is basically moving food?
The 4 ocelot exhibits ranged from two decent ones, one terrible one, and a cage that was perhaps 6 feet by 6 feet and all concrete and metal. Tigers and lions don't fare much better here, and their exhibits make open-air grottoes actually look good. The tayra, kinkajou, raccoons and jaguarundi all had concrete floors and either steel bars or thick wire mesh over their prison cells.
There are aviaries scattered across the grounds in a haphazard fashion, with many species of macaw, parrot, toucan, quail and egret. All of these aviaries are wire mesh and too small for the occupants, and in some cases there were 5 large birds in a 10 foot by 10 foot wire/concrete cage. Brutal stuff, and the photos will illustrate my point. The 2 caiman pools both didn't contain enough water for the spectacled and black caimans to completely submerge their bodies, and I scratched the back of the neck of the brazilian tapir as the guard rail was far too small.
The good exhibits were the ones for the red brocket deer, red deer, collared peccaries (called quenks here) and horses. Yes, domesticated horses and budgies can be found at this pitiful little zoo.
Overall the Emperor Valley Zoo is easily the worst zoological institution that I've ever been to, as the vast majority of the 66 collections that I've visited have been world-famous or big-name establishments. It was not exactly shocking but rather despairing to spend some time in one of perhaps the top 10 worst places for animals in the Americas. The good news is that on my flight home to Canada in December I hope to spend a couple of days in Miami and with luck will be able to visit the Miami Metrozoo.
Here's a link to this awful zoo:
http://www.geocities.com/emperorvalley_zoozone/
This tiny zoo is found in Trinidad & Tobago, and is one of only a handful of small zoos scattered throughout the Caribbean. T&T is a pair of islands only a few kilometers from the tip of South America, and I'm currently spending time at the University of the West Indies campus.
The zoo is as expected rather ghastly, and the only thing going for it is that there are a number of species that I'd either never seen before or had only come across on a couple of occasions. Crab-eating raccoons, jaguarundi, tayra, paca (called lappe here), red brocket deer, kinkajou and giant river otters were some of the rare species that are found here and at not many other zoos that I've been to in North America.
The primate collection is impressive, but the cages have to be seen to be believed. There was a male mandrill banging away on the side of his bars, and the 5 mandrills are scattered throughout 3 horrible little cages. I'll upload photos eventually, but all of the primate "exhibits" have concrete floors, are puny, all have bars on them, and there are barely any climbing opportunities other than the actual bars. The two chimpanzees were in the smallest cage I've ever seen for great apes, and the tufted capuchins, brown spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, white-faced capuchins, green monkeys and red howler monkeys all had diabolical, outdated cages. One zookeeper told me that it's tough to change people's opinions in regards to zoo husbandry simply because there are still Trinis that illegally catch and eat monkeys. Why spend money on lavish exhibits when what is being contained is basically moving food?
The 4 ocelot exhibits ranged from two decent ones, one terrible one, and a cage that was perhaps 6 feet by 6 feet and all concrete and metal. Tigers and lions don't fare much better here, and their exhibits make open-air grottoes actually look good. The tayra, kinkajou, raccoons and jaguarundi all had concrete floors and either steel bars or thick wire mesh over their prison cells.
There are aviaries scattered across the grounds in a haphazard fashion, with many species of macaw, parrot, toucan, quail and egret. All of these aviaries are wire mesh and too small for the occupants, and in some cases there were 5 large birds in a 10 foot by 10 foot wire/concrete cage. Brutal stuff, and the photos will illustrate my point. The 2 caiman pools both didn't contain enough water for the spectacled and black caimans to completely submerge their bodies, and I scratched the back of the neck of the brazilian tapir as the guard rail was far too small.
The good exhibits were the ones for the red brocket deer, red deer, collared peccaries (called quenks here) and horses. Yes, domesticated horses and budgies can be found at this pitiful little zoo.
Overall the Emperor Valley Zoo is easily the worst zoological institution that I've ever been to, as the vast majority of the 66 collections that I've visited have been world-famous or big-name establishments. It was not exactly shocking but rather despairing to spend some time in one of perhaps the top 10 worst places for animals in the Americas. The good news is that on my flight home to Canada in December I hope to spend a couple of days in Miami and with luck will be able to visit the Miami Metrozoo.
Here's a link to this awful zoo:
http://www.geocities.com/emperorvalley_zoozone/
