Eskişehir Zoo Eskisehir zoo

PossumRoach

PossumRoach

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5+ year member
This zoo opened in Turkey last year April. It had been a subject of controversy while being built and its fist few months when stray dogs entered to the facility and killed off gazelles,the municipality bought five or six pairs of Humboldt's penguins for one million Turkish Lira (one million bottles of water), and when a south American coati got tangled into a electric wire. According to what I heard, the municipality got the animals from a broker who obtained the animals from a closed park. The zoo is now being consulted, and plans to obtain eaza and species 360 membership
 
PossumRoach said:
This zoo opened in Turkey last year April. It had been a subject of controversy while being built and its fist few months when stray dogs entered to the facility and killed off gazelles,the municipality bought five or six pairs of Humboldt's penguins for one million Turkish Lira (one million bottles of water), and when a south American coati got tangled into a electric wire. According to what I heard, the municipality got the animals from a broker who obtained the animals from a closed park. The zoo is now being consulted, and plans to obtain eaza and species 360 membership
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What happened with EAZA and Species 360 since 2018?
 
It seems like I have been neglecting for news for this zoo so here’s some updates I found online on their social media.

An orphaned lynx now calls this zoo home

the zoo has made first time breeding achievements amongst Turkish zoos including Humboldt penguin, trumpeter hornbill and vond der deckens hornbill.
 
Last year representatives from the zoo were invited by Pierre-Yves Bureau to EAZA’s annual conference in Lisbon. Eskişehir Zoo was the only zoo from Turkey to visit the conference. In the conference the zoo displayed their in situ projects in Turkey which was the conservation of lynxes and Egyptian vultures within Turkey.

On instagram, the zoo teased the renovation of a tropical bird house. I am not sure which tropical bird house they are referring to since they never had a building that goes by that name but this aviary looks like a completely new structure. Neither the zoo nor any media outlet ever announced anything about this project before this instagram story.

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Kifaru Bwana said:
What happened with EAZA and Species 360 since 2018?
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Well, you finally have an answer for your question.

The zoo welcomed auditors from the EAZA for two days and had discussions about the accreditation process.

Eskişehir Hayvanat Bahçesi on Instagram: "Hayvanat Bahçemiz, Avrupa Hayvanat Bahçeleri ve Akvaryumlar Birliği (EAZA) akreditasyon süreci kapsamında yurtdışından gelen EAZA denetim heyetini ağırladı. EAZA denetçileri Alexander Sliwa, Arun Idoe ve William Vant Lint’i bahçemizde ağırlamaktan memnuniyet duyduk. 2 gün boyunca süren denetimlerde popülasyon yönetimi, yabani hayvan bakımı ve refahı, koruma eğitimi ve bilimsel araştırma ve genel tesis işleyişi gibi konular gündemi oluşturdu. Batı Asya ve ötesindeki ilerici hayvanat bahçeleri ve akvaryumlar ile diğer ortaklar için standartları belirleyen üyelik kuruluşu olan EAZA, Avrupa ve Batı Asya hayvanat bahçesi ve akvaryum topluluğu içinde eğitim, araştırma ve koruma hedeflerine yönelik işbirliğini kolaylaştırmak için çalışmaktadır. Sürecin başından beri ekibimize desteğini esirgemeyen kıymetli hocamız Prof. Dr. Yılmaz Büyükerşen’e, büyükşehir belediyemize, danışmanımız Koen Brouwer’a ve özverili çalışmalarından dolayı tüm hayvanat bahçesi ekibimize çok teşekkür ederiz. EN @eaza_official Our Zoo hosted the EAZA audit committee from abroad within the scope of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) accreditation process. We were pleased to welcome EAZA auditors Alexander Sliwa, Arun Idoe and William Vant Lint to our zoo. During the 2-day audits, topics such as population management, wild animal care and welfare, conservation education and scientific research, and general facility operation were on the agenda. As the membership organization that sets the standards for progressive zoos and aquariums and other partners in West Asia and beyond, EAZA works to facilitate collaboration towards education, research and conservation goals within the European and West Asian zoo and aquarium community."

I also forgot to mention that the park bred a green turaco for the first time last year. This the first time record for Turkey.
 
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The zoo has announced on instagram that the aquarium has been renewed and that they acquired new species.. While the change isn’t too apparent I could sort of tell since the small marine tanks on the right in the entrance hall has been swapped with freshwater tanks. There are new species such as gar, freshwater stingrays, and a soft shell turtle none of which I was able to identify on a species level.
 
The park has announced its newest in-situ collaboration. The park has started fieldwork to combat the invasive population of Clarias gariepinus/ African sharptooth catfish occupying the Sakarya River, Turkey’s third longest river.
 
JurassicMax said:
At the end of last month female Eastern Atlantic harbour seals (Phoca vitulina vitulina) Lotta and Merle (*2023) were send to Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Zoowere.

Source:
Instagram of Tierpark Bochum (31/08/2024)
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Credit goes to JurassicMax.

A fine addition in my opinion. The question is where will they go? The zoo has three enclosures with underwater viewing next to each other with the enclosures holding great white pelican, Humboldt penguin, and South American fur seal. I speculate that the seals will be moved to the pelican enclosure with the birds moving to another enclosure.

Edit/PS: thankfully the area where the three aquatics isn’t geographically themed in the first place so there isn’t too much immersion breaking there.
 
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The municipality of Eskişehir has announced the arrival of 37 African penguins from Faruk Yalçın Zoo. This begs the question if the zoo still holds Humboldt’s penguins. Also one of the animals in the photos has a stripe between its mask and chest stripe like that of a Magellanic penguin.
 
The park made a post of an overview of 2024. In addition to the cape penguins and harbor seals*, the park has obtained green tree python, sulcata tortoise, and alligator snapping turtles (maybe more).

There’s repair work in many enclosures. At lest one enclosure is getting converted into a closed-top enclosure.

*Lotta amd Merle’s arrival still hasn’t been officially confirmed by the zoo.
 
PossumRoach said:
The zoo has taken in an orphaned Mediterranean monk seal pup and plans to release the pup once the rehabilitation process is complete.

Antalya'da kıyıda bulunan Akdeniz foku yavrusu, Eskişehir'de tedavi edildi
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The seal pup was given back to SAD-AFAG*, the group who initially found it, and started its journey to be released in a location undisturbed by human activity.

Post from Eskişehir Zoo on instagram

I am happy that the government and SAD-AFAG trusted Eskişehir zoo to nurse and rehabilitate the seal pup back to health. However I am baffled that the government and SAD-AFAG weren’t able to find any available rehab facility equipped to treat seals near Antalya (where the pup was found) nor anywhere else near the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts before sending the pup to Eskişehir, which is quite far from any coastal area. It seems like there aren’t enough facilities that are prepared for situations like this and that’s quite disappointing.


*SAD-AFAG: Sualtı Araştırmaları Derneği-Akdeniz Foku Araştırma Grubu. Translates to Underwater Research Association- Mediterranean Seal Research Group.
 
The park announced that it bred bearded dragons. On its instagram post the park says that the offspring will contribute to the protection of this species… despite the fact that this species is already well protected in Australia and well established in the private trade…
 
The zoo has shared a construction project (referred as a renovation) on its instagram story, asking followers to guess what will be residing in this new enclosure.

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The zoo has uploaded another update on its construction project. There isn’t a single clue indicating what might displayed in this enclosure, nor where it is located (the park’s website isn’t too great and the map there doesn’t seem to be updated…)

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The zoo and local news agencies have announced that during the EAZA Directors’ Days, Wskişehir has been selected to represent Turkey within the EAZA’s council. According to EAZA’s website, Faruk Yalçın is currently the representative of Turkey in the EAZA council.

I just thought this news was neat because it shows Eskişehir’s eagerness to represent Turkey within the EAZA and show the community what it’s capable of doing (while other zoos here unfortunately don’t do as much).
 
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