This is from my blogsite, from Asia last year. I didn't really write much about the zoo, but I took lots of photos so hopefully I'll put some of them on the forum if I can (me and technology -- not a good mix!). I'll just add here at the start that the attitude of the local visitors to the zoo was deplorable. There were very strongly-worded signs warning people of the fines if they hurt or antagonise any of the animals, but I still saw people spitting at them, poking them, yelling and banging to make them move, things like that.
Today I went to the KL bird park and Zoo Negara (that's "National Zoo"). The bird park bills itself as the largest covered bird park in the world (or sometimes the largest bird park in the world, which is the claim to fame of Jurong in Singapore; Jurong also claims to have the largest walk-through aviary in the world, as does this place and I think this place wins!). The whole place is basically just a walk-through aviary, although to be entirely truthful its a series of connected aviaries not just one so maybe Jurong does still hold out. I don't know how many birds are in there (the promotional material does say but I can't remember) but there's a lot. The most obvious ones are the many many Imperial pigeons, peafowl, crowned pigeons and black-naped orioles, but plenty of signboards keep you informed of all the ones you can't see, like great argus and fireback pheasants. There's various aviaries within the aviaries too, housing hornbills, owls, etc. There was a keeper feeding a mouse to a spotted wood owl through the wire of one cage; I thought it was a dead mouse until the owl got its beak into it and it started to scream.
When I got to the zoo I jumped on the little train that takes people around, then jumped off at "Marrybrown" restaurant; no, that's not a typo. I hadn't eaten for about four hours, so I bought some fish and chips and a piece of chicken at the standard inflated tourist prices. Was quite nice. The zoo was really good. There were a few places where the animals were not being kept as they should (the monkey cages were terrible -- very tall but terrible -- and the bears were little better off), but most were acceptable. The reptile house was very good, as was the aquarium. It only had very common Asian aquarium fish such as you could find in any pet shop, but they were housed so nicely. There were probably between 50 and 100 tanks in there, and most were about 4ft long x 3ft high. On the path to the aquarium was a massive tank with giant fish like the ones at Jurong bird park, but the arapaima in here put the one at Jurong to shame. They were humunginificent! Also huge Pangasius catfish; there was no signage on the tank so I don't know if they were P.gigas or one of the smaller species, but they were big!
Item of interest: Zoo Negara has group discounts (for Malaysian residents only) for groups of 15, 30, 500, 1000 and 2000 people. Wouldn't you love to be at the zoo when a group of 2000 turned up?
Today I went to the KL bird park and Zoo Negara (that's "National Zoo"). The bird park bills itself as the largest covered bird park in the world (or sometimes the largest bird park in the world, which is the claim to fame of Jurong in Singapore; Jurong also claims to have the largest walk-through aviary in the world, as does this place and I think this place wins!). The whole place is basically just a walk-through aviary, although to be entirely truthful its a series of connected aviaries not just one so maybe Jurong does still hold out. I don't know how many birds are in there (the promotional material does say but I can't remember) but there's a lot. The most obvious ones are the many many Imperial pigeons, peafowl, crowned pigeons and black-naped orioles, but plenty of signboards keep you informed of all the ones you can't see, like great argus and fireback pheasants. There's various aviaries within the aviaries too, housing hornbills, owls, etc. There was a keeper feeding a mouse to a spotted wood owl through the wire of one cage; I thought it was a dead mouse until the owl got its beak into it and it started to scream.
When I got to the zoo I jumped on the little train that takes people around, then jumped off at "Marrybrown" restaurant; no, that's not a typo. I hadn't eaten for about four hours, so I bought some fish and chips and a piece of chicken at the standard inflated tourist prices. Was quite nice. The zoo was really good. There were a few places where the animals were not being kept as they should (the monkey cages were terrible -- very tall but terrible -- and the bears were little better off), but most were acceptable. The reptile house was very good, as was the aquarium. It only had very common Asian aquarium fish such as you could find in any pet shop, but they were housed so nicely. There were probably between 50 and 100 tanks in there, and most were about 4ft long x 3ft high. On the path to the aquarium was a massive tank with giant fish like the ones at Jurong bird park, but the arapaima in here put the one at Jurong to shame. They were humunginificent! Also huge Pangasius catfish; there was no signage on the tank so I don't know if they were P.gigas or one of the smaller species, but they were big!
Item of interest: Zoo Negara has group discounts (for Malaysian residents only) for groups of 15, 30, 500, 1000 and 2000 people. Wouldn't you love to be at the zoo when a group of 2000 turned up?
