The 'Asia in Danger' complex is four outdoor enclosures surrounding a large indoor dome made to resemble an Asian marketplace, with several enclosures branching off from the central square. Visitors first enter the indoor house, where they start by roaming in a temperature-controlled pristine rainforest, complete with live vegetation, pre-recorded bird and animal calls and even a small number of live invertebrates to truly complete the illusion. While visitors scan the vegetation for the aforementioned invertebrates (namely Oriental scarlet dragonflies, blue-spotted tiger beetle, common rose butterfly and owlet moth), they become aware of the sounds of chainsaws. As the wander down the trail, visitors find themselves confronted by a large cinematic screen with wooden seating, that plays a five-minute film about the threats of deforestation, and how it opens up the forest for humans to enter and cause havoc with the local wildlife.
Following on from this are the four outdoor areas for some of the larger animals. One interesting fact about this complex is that, apart from the insects and fish, all came from several rescue centres dotted around Southeast Asia. The first outdoor enclosure houses a troop of ten Southern pig-tailed macaques. These animals, like all the species in the outdoor enclosure, have live vegetation for foraging purposes, with several sturdy fig trees and tougher vegetation such as bamboo, Japanese knotweed and rattan palms forming the basis for most of the vegetation in all the outdoor enclosures. The macaques, as well as having plenty of outdoor vegetation, also have a spacious and lushly planted indoor area, divided into three sections to allow the monkeys to avoid each other if they wish. One of the indoor areas overlooks the second indoor area, home to a pair of Malayan sun bears. Along both the indoor and outdoor viewing windows, there are large graphic boards showing the Asian wildlife trade. Underneath lift-panels there are images that show bears in bile cages and macaques being prepared for sale into the exotic pet trade. The bears indoor area has a bile cage nearby that enables visitors to experience what it would be like to be a bear living in the bile factories. Also there is a glass display case showing appliances used for removing the tips of the teeth of potentially dangerous animals being sold into the pet trade. Following on from this is the next exhibit, that has an open outdoor viewing area, and a spacious indoor environment. Centrepiece of this enclosure are five hog deer, all rescued from the wildlife trade, but unable to be released due to their attachment to humans. One of the bucks has a visible snare-mark around his neck, and as with all the animals, there are ambassadors nearby to ensure that no stress comes to the animals, and also to both answer visitor questions and tell visitors the stories of each of the animals. Visitors may notice this enclosure is netted over, because roosting in one of the fig trees visitors may well spot the male spotted wood owl, rescued from an illegal wildlife market in Thailand, and here he is awaiting a rescued female, to form a captive breeding programme. The final enclosure houses a pair of Owston's palm civets which are poached so their scent glands can fuel the medicine trade, and also for their meat. Information boards show the risk of SARS from eating civet meat, and also displays a map of all the Asian civet species, and how they are threatened accordingly by the wildlife trade.
Having seen this, visitors leave the forest and enter the marketplace. This is an interesting combination of real shopping and information areas, with some stalls selling souveniers while others display fake animal products such as bottles containing 'bear bile' or tables of tiger bones that visitors can pick up and look at. An interesting section is a table that appears to be selling live insect larvae for sale, with several in small individual tanks. In fact, these are the larvae of dawn dropwing dragonflies, that rotate between the individual tanks and several spacious ponds to ensure that each of the larvae gets a chance to recuperate and develop further. Behind the buildings, there are several smaller enclosures housing other interesting species. The first is a spacious semi-arboreal habitat with viewing from both a longhouse over the water and an underwater viewing window. Living on the ground are blood pythons while green tree pythons perch on branches above, that are completely inaccessible by the larger snakes. Living in the pool is a shoal of Jullien's golden carp. Graphics show how wild snakes end up in the pet trade in the western world, how blood pythons are unsustainably harvested for the snakeskin trade and how the local fishing practices have almost wiped out the local fish populations. Then, the next enclosure can be found by the largest building in the dome, an authentic Asian restaurant. The menu has been adapted, to look like illegal products such as bear, civet and pangolin meat have been crossed from the menu, and while visitors eat, they can observe a range of animals interacting in a large mixed enclosure. Greater chevrotain, pygmy slow loris, red-billed blue magpie, greater yellownape woodpecker, long-tailed parakeet, violet cuckoo, white-headed bulbul and Asiatic softshell turtle all live together, making for a fascinating and informative display. An observation hide allows visitors to see the animals at the main pool, and a small underwater window means visitors can see the turtles as they forage among the aquatic plants. All along the pathway that passes through and then over this enclosure, there are information boards about the hunting of chevrotains, the massive trade in rare Asian turtles and the exotic pet trade that is affecting both the birds and the lorises. As mentioned earlier, at one stage the pathway enters the enclosure and becomes a walk-through aviary, where visitors can enjoy an extremely close encounter with some of the species. Following on from this is one of the most important enclosures dedicated to wildlife rescue, and the building that overlooks it has been aptly named 'The Pangolin Rescue Centre'. Within the centre there are smaller information boards about two of the species that inhabit this enclosure, while the main species, the Malayan pangolin, dominates both floors of the building, with information on their capture, trade and how the zoo coordinates a rescue and rehabilitation programme in nine Asian countires affected by the trade, along with traps and cages used to catch and transport these unique animals. Permanent residents in this enclosure are Vietnamese red giant flying squirrels and Blyth's giant frogs, the latter of which tend to be collected unsustainably for culinary use across Asia. Finally in the main enclosure, there are thirteen Malayan pangolins that rotate between the display enclosure and a series of off-display breeding enclosures. There is also a series of boards about each individual pangolin, with the ambassador regularly switching around the name tags for each individual that is on display. The final enclosure included around the market is home to a breeding pair of wrinkled hornbills and a lone female clouded monitor lizard, the latter of whom sadly lost a leg in a snare in her native Cambodia. Information boards state how hornbills across Asia are currently threatened by the bushmeat and pet trade, and also how the helmeted hornbill was almost hunted to extinction for 'hornbill ivory', with the hornbill ambassador holding a real example of a carved honbill ivory piece, and a fake helmeted hornbill skull for educational purposes.
Having left the marketplace, visitors think they have completed their visit, but there is one extra enclosure to delight the visitors. The area is based upon a Filipino sea gypsy camp, with a nearby fishing boat stranded on a sandbar. Inside the sea gypsy buildings there is a series of ineractive images of how these people are sustainably using their resources, and show films of coral reefs, seahorses and coral farming. This was originally going to be a much larger part of the area, but spacial issues and overall costs meant that interactives and ambassadors had to be used over real animals. However, from the outdoor viewing area, and several underwater viewing windows within the camp, visitors can see a large sandy tank complete with three tiger sharks. These giant fish were sent over from aquariums in the US to help highlight the threats facing sharks worldwide. Having viewed the sharks both from above the water and from vieiwing windows, the visitors then enter an underwater tunnel that the sharks can pass over. Visitors then enter the hull of the storm-driven boat, where they learn about the threats to sharks from their finning for sharkfin soup and hunting for their jaws and teeth as souveniers. Glass containers hold confiscated jaws and teeth from over twenty shark species, there are images showing the finning process and a crate is show to contain tins that represent sharkfin soup. There is finally an interactive display showing how many sharks have to die to make a day's worth of sharkfin soup.
The final area is a large culmination of the entire complex, with large posters lining the walls of the long corridor. On one side of the corridor, the posters show live animals, while opposite them the posters show the animals being exploited by some way. At the end of the corridor is a quote of Buddha, that states 'The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life activity; it affords protection to all beings, even offering shade to the axe-man who destroys it' in order to get the visitors thinking as they enter the final room. This final areashows details about all the conservation projects the zoo is involved with, including sharks, Owston's civets, sun bears, macaques, pangolins and softshell turtles. There are then donation boxes, a large wall with expansion plans that hope to include future species such as tigers, orangutans, gibbons, small cats, other small carnivores, crocodiles and coral reef fish among other species and a live streaming webcam in the zoo's specially purposed conservation reserve in Cambodia, where endangered Asian wildlife is protected. Next to this webcam are a series of refresh webcams from elsewhere in the reserve, a daily sightings list and an internet database of the species found at the reserve, and any recent news on releases or rescues. A final centrpiece for this is a giant fig tree, where visitors can sit on benches under its shade and listen to conservation-themed talks every hour.
Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed reading about this exhibit. Below is the species list, with latin names for the insect species.
1:1 Malayan sun bear
1:1 Owston's palm civet
1:1 Pygmy slow loris
4:6 Southern pig-tailed macaque
1:1 Greater chevrotain
2:3 Hog deer
4:9 Malayan pangolin
2:2 Vietnamese red giant flying squirrel
1:0 Spotted wood owl
1:1 Wrinkled hornbill
1:1 Violet cuckoo
1:1 Greater yellownape woodpecker
1:1 Red-billed blue magpie
3:3 White-headed bulbul
1:3 Blood python
1:1 Green tree python
6:5 Asiatic soft-shelled turtle
0:1 Clouded monitor lizard
3:3 Blyth's giant frog
2:1 Tiger shark
6:9 Jullien's golden carp
0:0:12 Common rose butterfly- Atrophaneura aristolochiae
0:0:14 Owlet moth- Peridrome orbicularis
0:0:15 Dawn dropwing dragonfly- Trithomis aurora
0:0:6 Oriental scarlet dragonfly- Crocothemis servilia servilia
4:4 Blue-spotted tiger beetle- Cicindela aurulenta