I ended up going to the following:
Sunday - Pairi Daiza
Monday - Plackendael
Tuesday - Dierenrijk, Best Zoo, Zie Zoo
Wednesday - Dortmund, Duisburg
Thursday - Wuppertal, Krefeld
Friday - Pairi Daiza
Pairi Daiza was absolutely packed on Sunday, but still very enjoyable, so I returned on the Friday when I expected it to be quieter (it was) and even more enjoyable (it was). The new areas for wolves, bears, puma etc are fantastic additions; I only saw one wolf in with the bears on Sunday, but three on Friday). Although I was disappointed to see the clouded leopard only having an indoor habitat (better than it's previous home, granted) it drew me to the bats, which are a great spectacle; on Sunday afternoon they were inactive, but Friday morning was relatively frenzied after food was put out for them. Also nice to see a couple of squirrel species for the first time in with them. The Javan Leopard was inactive on Friday, but I was fortunate to catch it exploring on Monday evening, although my determination to photograph it, resulted in a split in my trousers due to having a bulky lens in my pocket; that lead to me leaving a little earlier than I'd planned.
Like snowleopard, I much prefer the likes of Planckendael over Antwerp (and Blijdorp over Artis) but contrary to arizondocent's comments, I prefer a sunny visit to a grey day. My day here started under some cloud, felt a bit muggy and was very quiet compared to the previous afternoon at Pairi Daiza. I checked that I could revisit my car, rather than carry a second camera lens, then whizzed around the whole park to a see what was what and weigh up whether I might go to Olmense at some point before heading to my hotel near Dierenrijk. I also realised that I didn't really need the big lens, as there were not many species I was desperate to photograph close up or from great distance. I think on another day, I would have enjoyed the park more as it does have some really nice enclosures, but it was just too quiet. The only two species that really got my interest were the White nosed coati .... and the badger. If the Bonobo were out, I would have been much happier.
Dierenrijk's young Polar bears were my main target for this trip and after finding them, one of the twins raced towards me and hung around the window I was stood at alone for a good ten minutes. Unfortunately, I had chosen to leave the small lens in the car again, it was great being so close to the youngster with no-one around, but I couldn't photograph her(?) at that time. In the background, I could hear an increasing number of children taking over the park and I eventually decided to race back to the car for my other lens hoping to make it back to the bears before the kids reached them. I did, but only by a few minutes. The polar bears have decent, small, enclosures but can be a nightmare to photograph through the plexiglass, as with many of the large mammals here.
The kids eventually drove me away from Dierenrijk in the early afternoon, so I whizzed over to Best, then Zie zoos. A couple of first for me in the shape of the Japanese squirrel and White striped dorcopsis at Best zoo, but unsatisfactory cat enclosure made this the worst zoo for this trip. Zie Zoo has a lot of work going on and is definitely somewhere I'll return to in a couple of years. I do wonder if the bear enclosure is adequate for a family of five though and would like to see them get something bigger. There may be rarer species here, but I didn't actually see them on this visit.
Even though I'd booked a hotel in Wuppertal for Wednesday night, I left Eindhoven that morning with no clear plan. A photo on Dortmund's facebook of what I thought was an Oncilla kitten tipped the balance for me. It's only now that I've noticed their red panda kits had been emerging, with photos published on facebook. I actually quite liked Dortmund, especially the impressive Lynx enclosure, but on realising I was again spending time watching a badger, I wondered if it had enough for me stay the rest of the day. Luckily I noticed one of the masked civets poking out next door and caught a few photos of it. As with the bonobo at Plackendael, the Orangutans here did not come out, which would have entertained me. The big cats have quite small, difficult to photograph enclosures, while the Oncillas remained tucked away completely.
As Duisburg was open until 7pm, I decided to head over there around 1:30 specifically to see the Baby that I'd ignored on my previous visit .....
Maybe if I lived in a warmer/sunnier part of the world, I'd appreciate the cloud and rain more? However, I have now decided to continue with my original plan to include Eindhoven and Wuppertal.
I would be especially interested as I just visited all of those zoos a few months ago.