GaiaZOO Kerkrade GaiaPark Kerkrade Zoo

Had a fantastic visit to GaiaZoo yesterday. The enclosure for Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies is finished, they just need the animals to arrive. I have posted some pictures. The enclosure of the wolves is still there and I also heard the Macaws so no works done there just yet.
 
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GaiaZoo posted some updates, two of which unfortunately are sad.

Ontwikkelingen in GaiaZOO - GaiaZOO
  • A giraffe calf was born on Monday morning. It was the mother's first calf and she failed to properly care for it. I was at GaiaZoo on Tuesday and I heard the calf wasn't starting to feed, I also saw them separating the mother and calf and lot of staff watching during noon break time. Keepers eventually tried assisting in feeding the calf. Unfortunately their efforts were in vein and the calf died after a few days.
  • GaiaZoo has moved its greater kudus to another zoo to make space for their mhorr gazelle herd and to prevent interspecies aggression. Their current three female mhorr gazelles will be joined by more females and a male to form a breeding herd of this critically endangered species. Verandering op savanne in GaiaZoo: diersoort verdwijnt om conflict te voorkomen
  • Sadly the red panda male and female have both unexpectedly fallen ill and died shortly thereafter from a viral infection. The cubs are alive and for the time being healthy but have been taken off-show as the keepers will have to assist them in transition from milk to solid food, something the mother would normally do.
  • GaiaZoo's 21-year old male lion is getting extra care for old age-related health issues.
Some other updates and comments from my above mentioned visit last Tuesday (September 30th):
  • The 20 years of GaiaZoo jubilee exhibit in the former gift shop was quite nicely done and showed a good mix of materials.
  • The central tank on the bottom floor of the Limburg House housed Eurasian minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus) instead of the previously housed three-spined sticklebacks. No signage was yet present for this species. The snail terrarium held garden snails (Cornu aspersum) instead of Roman snails (Helix pomatia).
  • Two Kirk's dik-diks recently arrived, they were in the indoor bongo exhibit.
  • I liked the new indoor exhibits for mountain bongos, Kirk's dik-diks and pygmy hippos quite a bit. The viewable indoor exhibits look nice as does the visitor area, and the animal housing is well done and of a high standard. The expansion of the bongo exhibit is a good addition, as are the addition of some partially forested land areas to the pygmy hippo exhibits. The new terrace next to the pygmy hippos is also nicely done. The viewing area for the indoor exhibits has education about bais in the African rainforest, with mention of African forest elephants, which I als found a nice addition.
  • They currently have 9 bush dogs (breeding pair and young from three litters). Watching them getting to rip apart a few geese was a nice little spectacle to see.
  • The Puna aviary seemed understocked and a bit poor in species selection to me at the time of my visit, it certainly has been better and more enjoyable during past visits. This aviary could perhaps do with a make-over, preferably with a permanent avian influenza measure proof viewing area (like they did with the Taiga aviary) and a larger species selection and more birds.
  • The giant anteaters were attempting to mate.
  • I found the lesser kestrels in the Taiga aviary for the first time in several years/visits.
  • Seeing active wolverines was quite nice, even if I got few decent photos of them.
I hope to post some photos, mainly of the new indoor bongo and pygmy hippo exhibits but also perhaps of some other updates, in the coming weeks.
 
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According to ZTL the Chaco Chachalacas aren’t in collection anymore, but no reason why is given.
Edit: several birds are removed from the current holdings without any reason especially the ones that were housed in the Puna aviary
 
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Paul.Haerle said:
According to ZTL the Chaco Chachalacas aren’t in collection anymore, but no reason why is given.
Edit: several birds are removed from the current holdings without any reason especially the ones that were housed in the Puna aviary
Click to expand...
The last Chaco chachalaca and Puna teal were moved to other zoos at the beginning of this year. The Chaco chachalaca moved to Zoo Zamosc and the Puna teal to ZooParc de Beauval.
 
MennoPebesma said:
The last Chaco chachalaca and Puna teal were moved to other zoos at the beginning of this year. The Chaco chachalaca moved to Zoo Zamosc and the Puna teal to ZooParc de Beauval.
Click to expand...
is there a specific reason for the "depopulation" of the Puna Aviary, epscially with the puna teal, are they tryign to rebrand the aviary to a diffrent ecosystem ?
 
I at least hope the keep a interesting mix of species. As large free flight aviaries, are besides the big indoor halls the best a zoo has to offer
 
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