Zoo Aquarium de Madrid Madrid zoo news

SivatheriumGuy said:
The zoo's dolphin pod has left the park:
- The zoo's eight-individual Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus truncatus) pod has left to Hainan Ocean Paradise, leaving the park without dolphins.
The pod has joined other dolphins that have arrived from other European parks, and the animals have traveled alongside their trainers so the introduction at the Chinese park goes as smoothly as possible.
The zoo's dolphinarium might serve as a temporary accommodation center when other parks or institutions require it while working on educational activities in this space. Later, it will be adapted to house other marine animals.

Zoo de Madrid traslada sus delfines a un nuevo parque de última generación
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Since the start of the polemic with the dolphins, I always thought the countdown started, but it's sad I wont see the dolphins one last time:(. I also sare the fear with @Kabomani that the dolphinarium will follow the path that the reptile house did and will remain untouched/bulldozed and never to be used again. Maybe they could house the sea lions, as their habitat is preaty small. Or, in a very unlikley future, they could go the Minnesota zoo way and house monk seals, but instead of hawaiian, mediterranean. But with the lack of new species at the zoo, I think that it's safe to assume that the space will be used for the sea lions.
 
Panda_Fan said:
Since the start of the polemic with the dolphins, I always thought the countdown started, but it's sad I wont see the dolphins one last time:(. I also sare the fear with @Kabomani that the dolphinarium will follow the path that the reptile house did and will remain untouched/bulldozed and never to be used again. Maybe they could house the sea lions, as their habitat is preaty small. Or, in a very unlikley future, they could go the Minnesota zoo way and house monk seals, but instead of hawaiian, mediterranean. But with the lack of new species at the zoo, I think that it's safe to assume that the space will be used for the sea lions.
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Judging just from pictures, I'd be very happy to see the sea lions moved here, I don't think it's a bad switcheroo at all.
 
SivatheriumGuy said:
Judging just from pictures, I'd be very happy to see the sea lions moved here, I don't think it's a bad switcheroo at all.
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I think that with all this modern set-ups given to this species in other zoos it would be a smart move to put them there, and as the zoo prefers, no new species would be added, so it's win for everyone. But, judging from what they say, with the possibility of holding dolphins for a time, I think that the plans for sea lions won't materialize until later on.
 
I remember from my visit some years ago that the sea lion, seals and penguins had very small enclosures. Moving the sea lions to the dolphinarium seems a good idea. Then maybe the penguins could be moved to the sea lion pool and then merge the current penguin and seal pools into one for the seals.
 
I may be wrong, but I think that at Madrid Zoo, or at least there were a few years ago, there are South American sea lions in the dolphinarium complex and then there is a set of exhibits at the other end of the zoo with Californian sea lions, penguins and seals (there were even elephant seals here in the past). Admittedly, these latter exhibits are not very big, but at least they are themed and, although my last visit was a few years ago, they did not look bad. On the other hand, the South American sea lion exhibit follows the brutalist theme of the zoo and is pure concrete, as well as very small. I think that's the exhibit that most urgently needs an upgrade, whether by using the dolphinarium or otherwise. Although to be honest, given the immobility of this zoo or, worse, the typical involution of it, I do not expect much.
 
aramacao said:
I may be wrong, but I think that at Madrid Zoo, or at least there were a few years ago, there are South American sea lions in the dolphinarium complex and then there is a set of exhibits at the other end of the zoo with Californian sea lions, penguins and seals (there were even elephant seals here in the past).
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The website only mentions Patagonian sea lions.
 
aramacao said:
I may be wrong, but I think that at Madrid Zoo, or at least there were a few years ago, there are South American sea lions in the dolphinarium complex and then there is a set of exhibits at the other end of the zoo with Californian sea lions, penguins and seals (there were even elephant seals here in the past). Admittedly, these latter exhibits are not very big, but at least they are themed and, although my last visit was a few years ago, they did not look bad. On the other hand, the South American sea lion exhibit follows the brutalist theme of the zoo and is pure concrete, as well as very small. I think that's the exhibit that most urgently needs an upgrade, whether by using the dolphinarium or otherwise. Although to be honest, given the immobility of this zoo or, worse, the typical involution of it, I do not expect much.
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As far as I know, Aramar is right, the zoo only has Patagonian sea lions, but you also seem to be right on the rest of things. Moving all the sea lions to the dolphinarium and leaving all the space at the pinniped/penguin complex to the African penguins and grey seals would leave pretty well-sized enclosures.
 
I think the number of guests is gonna go down without the dolphins. I have seen days where they had 5 dolphin shows and still every single show was full stage and it was almost impossible to be alone in their underwater view area so it's clear lot of people were visiting because of the dolphins, now without this the zoo is loosing a big part of it.

It feels like Parques Reunidos has zero interest in the zoo, they don't want to put any effort to keep the place alive and improve, that's a shame... I personally wish they just sold the zoo to different company that could do some nice changes. They used to have a nice collection but now it is all going down... My last visit was exactly a year ago (Feb 2024) and I don't plan in visiting again any time soon until I see they have something new to offer.

Btw another thing I thought would be nice if they transfer the steller sea lions from Faunia to the zoo as in Faunia you can't really see them every day, sometimes they are in their behind pools which are pretty small for such a big animal. Dolphinarium could be a nice place for them if they do some adjustments and it would be pretty cool to be able to observe such a big sea lion swimming underwater in their gallery.
 
LiSom said:
Btw another thing I thought would be nice if they transfer the steller sea lions from Faunia to the zoo as in Faunia you can't really see them every day, sometimes they are in their behind pools which are pretty small for such a big animal. Dolphinarium could be a nice place for them if they do some adjustments and it would be pretty cool to be able to observe such a big sea lion swimming underwater in their gallery.
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I've been thinking about that too! I feel like it would be a brilliant move, having Steller's sea lions at your park and not being able to properly display them is a shame, to say the least (in my visit to Faunia they didn't even get them out in the pinniped show...). Although I wouldn't mind the zoo's pinnipeds getting the space at the same time, I know they wouldn't mind an upgrade.
At this point in the day, I'm waiting for Parques Reunidos to give up on the zoo (well, the zoos they manage) and another team or company to start running it properly, because it's more than clear they don't care.
 
New species:
- A new species has joined the zoo, the Southern vicuña (Vicugna vicugna vicugna)! From what I can see in the pictures, they are now housed in the paddock holding guanacos and American bison before that.
Vicuñas are a common sight throughout European zoos, but only two zoos in Spain currently display the species (Jerez and now Madrid).

Ven a conocer a la vicuña | Zoo Aquarium Madrid
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Just catching up on news, it's a shame to hear about the dolphins and the gradual decline this park has faced. The place still has lots of potentialwith some better management, and could house other species if they were to show renewed interest, which seems to be lacking.
SivatheriumGuy said:
I don't know if this is just the case of only European zoos as I don't know if the American parks they run also house dolphins.
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As to this, Parques Reunidos is also the company that owns Sea Life Park in Hawaii, which houses both bottlenose dolphins and I believe a few Pseudorca x Bottlenose hybrids.
 
Visited this week for the first time; and what an absolute disappointment. I was completely unaware of the context nor the history of the place, expecting a modern, well-funded and diverse metropolitan zoo à la London, Paris, or Berlin - what I got was the epitome of ABCs and a slightly tired looking SeaLife centre, and that was basically it. With exception to the Iberian Lynx, European Mink (which I didn't see, alas, despite many attempts all day), Dama Gazelle, Mishmi Takin, Spanish Imperial Eagle and... perhaps the Seychelles Giant Tortoises, there were no noteworthy species, nothing exhibited particularly well, and a general vibe of over-commercialisation. Thoroughly disappointing visit for a zoo nerd, but probably exactly what you want if you're a member of the general public - all the big ticket beasties, a chance to feed some animals, and that's about it.

I felt particularly sad for a few green turtles huddled together in a tank which was far, far too small for them. I guess the new-ish Panda complex is okay, albeit over-crowded (even mid-week in February). Otherwise it's mostly old concrete grottoes and uninspiring paddocks. Not worth a visit except perhaps for a chance to spot the lynx?
 
Tbh it is not just Madrid zoo, I don't think any Spanish zoo is on same level as the main European facilities... I guess Loro Parque and L'Oceanografic would be the only exception here, the two Bioparc also seem to be doing good but that's about it (this is just my opinion, there might be some other cool zoo I haven't check)... The rest of the zoos are too small, feel too abandoned, too much into tourism loosing the focus of the zoo itself, etc. So I understand your disappointed when it comes to Madrid Zoo but it is sadly not an exception for an Spanish zoo.
 
I don't really know the Madrid zoo, but I am a bit saddened that they are giving up on dolphins. I didn't care much for Marineland in Antibes, but there is something weirdly romantic about a zoo with an 'old school' dolphinarium. It's the charm of the obsolete I guess.

Now the only city zoos in Europe with a dolphinarium are Duisburg, Nürnberg and Lisbon.
 
Couple of notes from the visit:
  • Malabo, the male gorilla, has died. The zoo isn't going to try to acquire a bachellor from the fear of him not wanting to accept the son of Malabo, Kibo.
  • It's seems that a new otter, named Sparrow, has joined the only otter that the zoo has, Verano.
 
SivatheriumGuy said:
When did the new giant otter arrive? I saw two individuals in my visit back in January.
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The keeper that told me this said that the otter arrived last year, so it's probable that one of the two you saw was the new otter. I saw it wasn't posted, so for anyone that's interested in tracking the population this could be usefull.
 
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