Fantasy Zoo - Rainforest Adventure

[NATY]

Mostly inspired by the Randers Tropical Zoo. This zoo has a half indoors and half outdoors approach, there are the usual big domes and buildings and some outdoor habitats too. There are 4 areas, South America, Africa, Asia and Papua New Guinea.

We start off at the entrance plaza. First thing you see is a pool with a flock of American flamingoes as almost every zoo starts with flamingoes. They're accompanied by fulvous whistling ducks, roseate spoonbills, scarlet ibises and white-cheeked pintails. Nearby is a butterfly house filled with about 20+ species of butterflies, creating a dazzling burst of colour.

South America

We first enter a treehouse looking building and in it are a row of small glass tanks featuring:

• Amazon milk frog
• Amazonian giant centipede
• Emerald tree boa
• Eyelash viper
• Goliath birdeater
• Hercules beetle
• Poison dart frogs (bumblebee, dyeing, golden & green and black)
• Red-eyed tree frog
• Red-tailed boa

There are two tanks with water, a big one and a smaller one, the smaller one has plumed basilisks while the big one is home to a massive green anaconda.

Next, we cross the boardwalk and first off, there's an array of habitats for small mammals. Watch our black-handed spider monkey family swing right above your heads and spot the rare golden lion tamarins and the super adorable pygmy marmosets. South American coatis and a group of tufted capuchin monkeys also call this part their home. The capuchins, coatis, kinkajous and spider monkeys are allowed to roam freely around the boardwalk.

Look below you, and you can now see our capybaras and South American tapirs. If you're lucky, you can catch the capybaras relax in their hot springs. Near them are the giant anteaters, one of the most bizarre animals.

You then proceed to the crown jewel of the zoo, the four-story walkthrough habitat. First off is the emergent layer, right at the top of the tallest trees. Meet the squirrel monkeys and a huge variety of birds like the blue-fronted amazon, blue-gray tanager, 4 species of macaws (blue-and-yellow, hyacinth, military & scarlet) as well as other colourful birds like the king vulture and sun conure.

The canopy layer is home to lots more birds like toco toucans and green aracaris as well as the green iguana, the beloved Linnaeus' two-toed sloth and the kinkajou.

Right at the understory layer, you can see the southern tamandua, prehensile-tailed porcupine and other birds like the Amazonian motmot.

Last but not least is the forest floor layer, home to red-rumped agoutis, red-footed tortoises, great curassows, and a pond housing Cuvier's dwarf caimans, mata mata, yellow-spotted river turtles, wattled jacanas, ringed teals and sunbitterns.

The aquarium is up next and it's home and you're greeted by 4 tanks

• Tank 1: blue discus, Bolivian ram, freshwater angelfish, panda corydoras and silver dollars
• Tank 2: cardinal tetra, common hatchetfish, neon tetra and rummy-nose tetra
• Tank 3: electric eel
• Tank 4: red-bellied piranha

Next is an open-topped aquarium with silver arowana, ocellate river stingray, oscar, severum, banded leporinus and common plecostomus.

There's an enormous fish tank with massive species like arapaima, redtail catfish, ripsaw catfish, tambaqui and butterfly peacock bass. A majority of the fish in the tank are unwanted pets donated to us by their owners after they outgrew their tanks. We kindly advise people to do their research and not buy such large fish.

Proceed to take either the escalator or lift out of the aquarium and you can then see a massive enclosure with a beautiful waterfall, home to our jaguars. They love to swim and you may even be able to see them swimming.

Signing off. Any constructive criticism is appreciated

 

[NATY]

First update! Also forgot to clarify, the zoo is located in Porto, Portugal

Leaving the jaguars, we enter another dome, and here's a massive aviary split into two sections, one representing the wetlands of Africa with various waterfowl like African pygmy geese, Goliath herons, hadada ibis, hamerkops, shoebills and white-faced whistling ducks. There's a small waterfall in the wetlands part. The next aviary allows you to see the various birds that live in the rainforest of Africa, the inquisitive African grey parrot, the red-crested turaco whose call sounds like that of a monkey, the acrobatic speckled mousebird, and many more like the bearded barbet, blue-bellied roller, Congo peafowl, Fischer's lovebird, red-crested turaco and silvery-cheeked hornbill. After this, there are 2 more large aviaries which house the African fish eagle, a close relative of the famous bald eagle and the palm-nut vulture, a vulture that strangely feeds on palm fruits.

Next, you enter a recreation of a dark cave filled with small glass tanks which feature African bullfrogs, ball pythons, emperor scorpions, giant African millipedes, giant African snails, Goliath beetles and two-spot assassin bugs.

This area also serves as a nocturnal house for the zoo. The nocturnal house was only very recently constructed and more species are being planned to be housed in it, such as pangolins, however we haven't had any luck in importing any. Species you can see here so far are aardvarks, dwarf crocodiles, Egyptian fruit bats and Senegal bushbabies.

There are also 3 medium wall tanks. One has multiple species of Lake Tanganyika cichlids like the frontosa for example and the parasitic cuckoo catfish. The next one contains a single West African lungfish. Last one is a Congo community tank featuring various species like Congo tetras, freshwater butterflyfish, Mbu pufferfish, leopard ctenopomas, Peter’s elephantnose fish and Senegal bichir.

Once you get out of the cave you get to the underwater viewing area for our breeding pair of pygmy hippopotamus. We hope that they have a calf soon as pygmy hippos are critically endangered and a calf would be a valuable addition to its European Endangered Species programme.

Exiting the underwater viewing area, you can see the land viewing for the pygmy hippos and take a right turn and there is the habitat for the red river hogs. Not too far away, you can see the eastern bongo, a critically endangered antelope and the okapi, a bizarre forest dwelling relative of the giraffe. Originally, a yellow-backed duiker was housed with the bongos but it had sadly passed away last year.

You can then see 3 island habitats housing 3 types of monkey, the De Brazza's monkey, eastern black-and-white colobus and the mandrill, the largest and most colourful monkey. Take another turn and you can spot an impressively sized enclosure with a jungle gym, that's for our troop of chimpanzees. They were all rescued from a zoo in Estonia which could not afford to take care of them and many of them were sickly so they had to be put under lots of monitoring and care and they're all nursed to health and living their best lives.

Stopping here now, come on and move it move it

 

[NATY]

Moving it on to Madagascar!

After passing the chimpanzees, you enter another walkthrough enclosure, and you can watch as not 1 but 5 species of lemur play around you. These include the black and white ruffed lemur, Coquerel's sifaka, ring-tailed lemur, red ruffed lemur and last but not least, the white-headed lemur. Also in the habitat are greater vasa parrots, Madagascan collared iguanas and radiated tortoises. Just outside of this area are a few statues of prehistoric giant lemurs like the sloth lemur and the koala lemur as well as other extinct Madagascar species like the elephant bird and Malagasy hippopotamus for example, as well as signs showing the habitat destruction in Madagascar and the need to protect these animals.

Step into a large treehouse where you see several glass tanks, featuring Dumeril's boas, false tomato frogs, golden mantellas, Henkel's leaf-tailed geckos, Madagascar giant day geckos, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Malagasy giant jumping rats, panther chameleons and spider tortoises.

Next up you see a netted habitat for the apex predator of Madagascar, the fossa. Taking another turn is an underwater viewing area where you can see our Nile crocodiles having a swim. And just right next to the underwater viewing for the crocodiles is a small yard home to Aldabra giant tortoises, whose relatives lived in Madagascar but are now extinct.

Asia is right next

 

[NATY]

Onwards to Asia! Right at the start, you can already smell a horrible stench, even if you don't see our Asian small-clawed otters you can definitely smell them! You can also see them darting about underwater. Near them are a few tanks housing many different species Burmese pythons (our pythons are all donated pets), Chinese water dragons, Northern Luzon giant cloud rats, Philippine sailfin lizards, pygmy slow loris, the critically endangered Roti Island snake-necked turtle & tokay geckos.

Right on by is a netted habitat for binturongs and a separate aviary houses great hornbills.

The two primate islands are next, these ones are outdoors and the first one, which houses crab-eating macaques, has a shallow pool so you may be able to catch them swimming. The next one has a lot of climbing equipment and you can watch our siamangs and Sumatran orangutans swing from the treetops. Amboina box turtles, Asian arowanas, Bala sharks, clown loaches, giant gouramis & tinfoil barbs live in the moats.

Going back indoors, yet another walkthrough aviary hehe. The animals you'll see here include the Asian fairy-bluebird, Bali myna, black-crowned night heron, black-naped fruit dove, blue-crowned laughingthrush, chattering lory, Indian peafowl, Java sparrow, Luzon bleeding-heart, Nicobar pigeon, Palawan peacock pheasant, pied imperial pigeon, Prevost's squirrel, red junglefowl, silver pheasant & white-rumped shama.

After you exit the aviary, you can see two medium yards, one for a breeding group of Visayan warty pigs from the Philippines and the other is for the world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon. We hope to breed the warty pigs as they are critically endangered and only a few are left in the wild.

And closing off Asia is a large densely forested habitat with multiple viewing areas. This is a rotation habitat between sun bears and Sumatran tigers. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, the tigers are on display while on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, you can see the sun bears. Be sure to come on the right day if you wanna see the right animal!

That finishes Asia and onto the last part, Oceania!

 

[NATY]

FINAL UPDATE

Welcome to Oceania! Several tropical islands, Australia, Papua New Guinea and more.

Right up front is a habitat for southern cassowaries, a beautiful but dangerous bird. Their enclosure is surrounded by a small pond which contains Boeseman's rainbowfish, Lake Kutubu rainbowfish, pig-nosed turtles and red rainbowfish.

We are lucky to acquire a breeding pair of New Guinea singing dogs and they've just had puppies, drawing a ton of people to their enclosure.

After the two outdoor enclosures is a glass building, sort of like a biodome. Look out for the Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo, a unique marsupial. All around them is a large variety of birds, black-capped lory, blue-faced honeyeater, blue-winged kookaburra, coconut lorikeet, dusky lory, eclectus parrot, lesser bird-of-paradise, masked lapwing, palm cockatoo, pied imperial pigeon, radjah shelduck, rainbow lorikeet, red lory, spotted whistling duck and Victoria crownes pigeon. You can also feed the lorikeets sometimes. A Blyth's hornbill lives in its own aviary.

And to conclude your visit, there is a hall of terrariums, with crested geckos, emerald tree monitors, green tree pythons, Indonesian blue-tongued skinks, jungle carpet pythons, prehensile-tailed skinks, thorny devil stick insects and White's tree frog. Two large doors see you out of this rainforest adventure. We hope you enjoyed!