Including all species seen and signed.
The Kunming Zoo was an exhausting zoo to navigate. The zoo’s map-board is pictured below - it’s not exactly useful and I only saw two of these boards in the zoo anyway. However I did just realise while writing this that the ticket they gave me has a tiny map on the back which is much more helpful than the sign-board map because there are better-marked pathways and little pictures of animals to show where they are, but at the same time it makes the zoo look a lot more organised than it is in reality The zoo feels like it just sort of meanders about within the park it is in, with no clear layout or signposting. A large section of the zoo stretches across one part of the park, although with a tangle of paths on different levels to confuse the visitors, but then there are also enclosures elsewhere completely unconnected to the rest. I was there for four hours, and never really knew where I was or how much I hadn’t yet seen. I’m pretty confident I did manage to find everything in the end though.
There is a wide range of enclosure types. The carnivores and primates were mostly awful, with the notable exceptions of the Red Pandas (in a standard tree-filled walled enclosure) and the Giant Pandas (also well-treed, and viewed from a boardwalk). The Beast Zone was also not terrible; the enclosures could be viewed from the sides and above, and although not huge were at least not tiny and concrete as for some of the other species. The birds were mostly well-housed – waterbirds had lakes or large ponds, and there is a huge walk-through “Peacock Garden”. There is also a fantastic walk-through aviary of Chinese passerines which I found accidentally when I thought I had finished everything, although it is entirely lacking in signage so I’m not sure what else may have been in there that I didn’t see. The reptile house was surprisingly good as well. Most of the furnishings were fake (mock tree trunks and plastic plants) but the tanks were more spacious than often provided and they were visually appealing.
Signage on enclosures was usually present, often in multiple styles, and was entirely in Chinese apart for the scientific name and sometimes the English name as well. Feeding of all animals was prevalent, although it was with vegetables and not junk-food – most people were carrying bags of carrots and green-stuff, which they must sell at the zoo for the purpose.
MAMMALS:
Asian Elephant
Plains Zebra
White Rhino
Common Hippo
Giraffe
Bactrian Camel
Llama
Alpaca
Eland
Blackbuck
Mouflon
Siberian Ibex
Domestic Goat (including Pigmy Goats)
Pere David’s Deer
Sika
Fallow Deer (white)
Reeves’ Muntjac
Primates were (almost entirely) very badly housed in small concrete cages. The Rhesus Macaques were on a large rocky “island”.
Common Chimpanzee
Eastern Hoolock Gibbon
White-cheeked Gibbon (Northern, I think)
Southern Buff-cheeked Gibbon
Golden Snub-nosed Monkey
Yunnan Snub-nosed Monkey
Hatinh Langur (labelled as Francois’ Langur)
Indochinese Grey Langur (labelled as Phayre’s Langur)
Black and White Colobus
Rhesus Macaque
Mandrill
De Brazza’s Monkey
Patas Monkey
Black Spider Monkey
Black-capped Capuchin
Common Squirrel Monkey
Ring-tailed Lemur
Some of the larger Carnivores (Lion, Tiger, Brown and Black Bears) were housed in the Beast Zone where the enclosures were not large but were considerably better than for the other carnivores, like the wolves in a row of tiny cages, and the leopards and lynxes in very small glass-fronted cages.
African Lion
Tiger
Leopard
Jaguar (black)
Eurasian Lynx
Wolf
Dhole
Fennec Fox
Brown Bear
Asiatic Black Bear
Giant Panda (signed, multiple enclosures, but not seen - not currently present as per post number 2 of this thread)
Red Panda
Small-clawed Otter
Meerkat
Common Raccoon
The following were (apart for the porcupines) in a kids farm sort of area along with goats, an alpaca or two, and some ducks, where they could be patted and fed. There would have been some smaller animals here as well (there were some cages inside and general signage indicated other “pet”-type animals)
Domestic Rabbit
Domestic Guinea Pig
Capybara
Mara
Asian Crested Porcupine (H. brachyura)
BIRDS:
The birds were mostly well-housed, in reasonably-sized pens for ratites and cranes, or on large ponds or lakes for waterbirds.
Ostrich
Emu
Common Cassowary
Great White Pelican
(There were a lot of Little Egrets on an island in the pelican pond but I think these were wild birds)
Grey Crowned Crane
Japanese (Red-crowned) Crane
Common Crane
Demoiselle Crane
Greater Flamingo
Caribbean Flamingo
Black Swan
Mute Swan
Swan Goose
Ruddy Shelduck
Domestic Duck
Spot-billed Duck (signed, not seen)
Mandarin Duck (signed, not seen)
Blue Peafowl
Green Peafowl
An unlabelled female pheasant (unsure of species)
Spot-necked Dove
Red Turtle-Dove
Most of the parrot species (apart for an African Grey, a Blue and Gold Macaw, and the flock of lovebirds) were housed in a single large aviary which was walk-through for a fee so people could feed them. The bulk of individual birds in this aviary were mutation Green-cheeked Conures which were free-flying inside. Every other parrot in the aviary was chained by one leg to a branch. I didn’t enter the aviary – only viewed it from outside - so there may have been a species or two in addition to these ones listed.
Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Moluccan Cockatoo (maybe - half-hidden and difficult to see properly in photo)
Galah
Rainbow Lorikeet
Red-collared Lorikeet
Yellow-streaked Lory
Chattering Lory
Red Lory
Eclectus
Derbyan Parrot
Green-cheeked Conure (a very large flock in the parrot aviary, all being colour mutations)
Orange-winged Amazon
Red-lored Amazon
Blue and Gold Macaw
Green-winged Macaw
African Grey Parrot
Fischer’s Lovebird (signed as Masked Lovebirds A. personata)
All the passerines were housed in a large well-planted walk-through aviary (the Spot-necked Dove and Red Turtle-Dove were in here as well). There was no signage so there may probably have been further species I did not see.
Siberian Rubythroat
Siberian Blue Robin
Red-faced Liocichla
Pekin Robin
Silver-eared Mesia
Crested Finchbill
Red-Whiskered Bulbul
Chestnut Bulbul
Brown-breasted Bulbul
Black Bulbul (white-headed form)
Silky Starling
Crested Mynah
REPTILES:
Siamese Crocodile
Aldabra Giant Tortoise (signed, not seen)
African Spurred Tortoise
Radiated Tortoise
Elongated Tortoise
Yellow-margined Box Turtle (signed, not seen)
Boa Constrictor (signed, not seen)
Burmese Python
King Rat Snake (Elaphe carinata)
Beauty Rat Snake (Elaphe taeniura)
Green Bush Rat Snake (Elaphe prasina)
Red Bamboo Rat Snake (Oreocryptophis porphyraceus) (signed, not seen)
Oriental Rat Snake (Ptyas mucosus) (signed, not seen)
Chinese Green Tree Viper (Trimesurus stejnegeri) (signed, not seen)
King Cobra
Chinese Cobra (Naja atra) (signed, not seen)
Lace Monitor
Crocodile Monitor
Tokay Gecko (signed, not seen)
Inland Bearded Dragon
Asian Water Dragon
Common Iguana
Western Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura pectinata) (signed, not seen)
Argentine Black and White Tegu (Salvator merianae)
AMPHIBIANS:
Chinese Giant Salamander
The Kunming Zoo was an exhausting zoo to navigate. The zoo’s map-board is pictured below - it’s not exactly useful and I only saw two of these boards in the zoo anyway. However I did just realise while writing this that the ticket they gave me has a tiny map on the back which is much more helpful than the sign-board map because there are better-marked pathways and little pictures of animals to show where they are, but at the same time it makes the zoo look a lot more organised than it is in reality The zoo feels like it just sort of meanders about within the park it is in, with no clear layout or signposting. A large section of the zoo stretches across one part of the park, although with a tangle of paths on different levels to confuse the visitors, but then there are also enclosures elsewhere completely unconnected to the rest. I was there for four hours, and never really knew where I was or how much I hadn’t yet seen. I’m pretty confident I did manage to find everything in the end though.
There is a wide range of enclosure types. The carnivores and primates were mostly awful, with the notable exceptions of the Red Pandas (in a standard tree-filled walled enclosure) and the Giant Pandas (also well-treed, and viewed from a boardwalk). The Beast Zone was also not terrible; the enclosures could be viewed from the sides and above, and although not huge were at least not tiny and concrete as for some of the other species. The birds were mostly well-housed – waterbirds had lakes or large ponds, and there is a huge walk-through “Peacock Garden”. There is also a fantastic walk-through aviary of Chinese passerines which I found accidentally when I thought I had finished everything, although it is entirely lacking in signage so I’m not sure what else may have been in there that I didn’t see. The reptile house was surprisingly good as well. Most of the furnishings were fake (mock tree trunks and plastic plants) but the tanks were more spacious than often provided and they were visually appealing.
Signage on enclosures was usually present, often in multiple styles, and was entirely in Chinese apart for the scientific name and sometimes the English name as well. Feeding of all animals was prevalent, although it was with vegetables and not junk-food – most people were carrying bags of carrots and green-stuff, which they must sell at the zoo for the purpose.
MAMMALS:
Asian Elephant
Plains Zebra
White Rhino
Common Hippo
Giraffe
Bactrian Camel
Llama
Alpaca
Eland
Blackbuck
Mouflon
Siberian Ibex
Domestic Goat (including Pigmy Goats)
Pere David’s Deer
Sika
Fallow Deer (white)
Reeves’ Muntjac
Primates were (almost entirely) very badly housed in small concrete cages. The Rhesus Macaques were on a large rocky “island”.
Common Chimpanzee
Eastern Hoolock Gibbon
White-cheeked Gibbon (Northern, I think)
Southern Buff-cheeked Gibbon
Golden Snub-nosed Monkey
Yunnan Snub-nosed Monkey
Hatinh Langur (labelled as Francois’ Langur)
Indochinese Grey Langur (labelled as Phayre’s Langur)
Black and White Colobus
Rhesus Macaque
Mandrill
De Brazza’s Monkey
Patas Monkey
Black Spider Monkey
Black-capped Capuchin
Common Squirrel Monkey
Ring-tailed Lemur
Some of the larger Carnivores (Lion, Tiger, Brown and Black Bears) were housed in the Beast Zone where the enclosures were not large but were considerably better than for the other carnivores, like the wolves in a row of tiny cages, and the leopards and lynxes in very small glass-fronted cages.
African Lion
Tiger
Leopard
Jaguar (black)
Eurasian Lynx
Wolf
Dhole
Fennec Fox
Brown Bear
Asiatic Black Bear
Giant Panda (signed, multiple enclosures, but not seen - not currently present as per post number 2 of this thread)
Red Panda
Small-clawed Otter
Meerkat
Common Raccoon
The following were (apart for the porcupines) in a kids farm sort of area along with goats, an alpaca or two, and some ducks, where they could be patted and fed. There would have been some smaller animals here as well (there were some cages inside and general signage indicated other “pet”-type animals)
Domestic Rabbit
Domestic Guinea Pig
Capybara
Mara
Asian Crested Porcupine (H. brachyura)
BIRDS:
The birds were mostly well-housed, in reasonably-sized pens for ratites and cranes, or on large ponds or lakes for waterbirds.
Ostrich
Emu
Common Cassowary
Great White Pelican
(There were a lot of Little Egrets on an island in the pelican pond but I think these were wild birds)
Grey Crowned Crane
Japanese (Red-crowned) Crane
Common Crane
Demoiselle Crane
Greater Flamingo
Caribbean Flamingo
Black Swan
Mute Swan
Swan Goose
Ruddy Shelduck
Domestic Duck
Spot-billed Duck (signed, not seen)
Mandarin Duck (signed, not seen)
Blue Peafowl
Green Peafowl
An unlabelled female pheasant (unsure of species)
Spot-necked Dove
Red Turtle-Dove
Most of the parrot species (apart for an African Grey, a Blue and Gold Macaw, and the flock of lovebirds) were housed in a single large aviary which was walk-through for a fee so people could feed them. The bulk of individual birds in this aviary were mutation Green-cheeked Conures which were free-flying inside. Every other parrot in the aviary was chained by one leg to a branch. I didn’t enter the aviary – only viewed it from outside - so there may have been a species or two in addition to these ones listed.
Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Moluccan Cockatoo (maybe - half-hidden and difficult to see properly in photo)
Galah
Rainbow Lorikeet
Red-collared Lorikeet
Yellow-streaked Lory
Chattering Lory
Red Lory
Eclectus
Derbyan Parrot
Green-cheeked Conure (a very large flock in the parrot aviary, all being colour mutations)
Orange-winged Amazon
Red-lored Amazon
Blue and Gold Macaw
Green-winged Macaw
African Grey Parrot
Fischer’s Lovebird (signed as Masked Lovebirds A. personata)
All the passerines were housed in a large well-planted walk-through aviary (the Spot-necked Dove and Red Turtle-Dove were in here as well). There was no signage so there may probably have been further species I did not see.
Siberian Rubythroat
Siberian Blue Robin
Red-faced Liocichla
Pekin Robin
Silver-eared Mesia
Crested Finchbill
Red-Whiskered Bulbul
Chestnut Bulbul
Brown-breasted Bulbul
Black Bulbul (white-headed form)
Silky Starling
Crested Mynah
REPTILES:
Siamese Crocodile
Aldabra Giant Tortoise (signed, not seen)
African Spurred Tortoise
Radiated Tortoise
Elongated Tortoise
Yellow-margined Box Turtle (signed, not seen)
Boa Constrictor (signed, not seen)
Burmese Python
King Rat Snake (Elaphe carinata)
Beauty Rat Snake (Elaphe taeniura)
Green Bush Rat Snake (Elaphe prasina)
Red Bamboo Rat Snake (Oreocryptophis porphyraceus) (signed, not seen)
Oriental Rat Snake (Ptyas mucosus) (signed, not seen)
Chinese Green Tree Viper (Trimesurus stejnegeri) (signed, not seen)
King Cobra
Chinese Cobra (Naja atra) (signed, not seen)
Lace Monitor
Crocodile Monitor
Tokay Gecko (signed, not seen)
Inland Bearded Dragon
Asian Water Dragon
Common Iguana
Western Spiny-tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura pectinata) (signed, not seen)
Argentine Black and White Tegu (Salvator merianae)
AMPHIBIANS:
Chinese Giant Salamander
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