I visited the Melaka Zoo on 29 September when in town. I had heard it was a pretty good zoo with a large collection -- a recent press release put them at 530 species, a grossly-overblown figure as it turned out because I counted less than 180 species on the premises (species lists will be posted after the review). It is quite a large zoo and not too bad at all, certainly amongst the better zoos in Asia. When I was walking around I was thinking it was better than the Zoo Negara in Kuala Lumpur but I haven't been there since 2006 so its hardly a fair thing to say without direct comparison. Having said that though, there are rather a lot of "bad" cages scattered throughout the grounds. Nothing exemplifies the hit-and-miss quality of the husbandry better than the primates, the enclosures of which range from lushly-planted islands that blend seemlessly into the surrounding gardens (I actually thought one siamang was loose when approaching its island from a low angle so the narrow moat was hidden to me) through to ugly metal domes with little inside, looking much like giant versions of those mesh covers one puts over food to keep off the flies. Two extremes pictured here http://www.zoochat.com/652/white-handed-gibbon-island-246290/ and here http://www.zoochat.com/652/black-capped-capuchin-cage-246287/
The worst cages by far are those in the Small Mammal and Small Carnivore houses. These two houses are identical, being a rectangular central building for staff access with five outside cages along each long side (so ten cages per house). The cages are small and concrete with a sort of moulded concrete shelf at the back and some branches in the middle. A few had substrate, most were bare concrete. They were fronted with a heavy squarish mesh with quite small holes, behind which were two overlapping layers of even smaller mesh, presumably in order to prevent people pushing their fingers through and getting bitten. The effect for me was like trying to take photographs through a wicker chair!! The Small Mammal house displayed a pair of really angry-looking bobcats, a pair of Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines, a pair of leopard cats, a very sad baby banded leaf monkey, a baby albino crab-eating macaque, a binturong, a masked palm civet, four slow loris, a black giant squirrel (R. bicolor), and a common raccoon that appeared to be suffering a lot in the heat (although it did have water). The Small Carnivore house displayed several masked palm civets, a common palm civet, a Malayan civet, a leopard cat (the cage was empty and the sign said "off-display"), a pair of small-clawed otters, what looked like a very dead domestic ferret, and a flat-headed cat. There's no excuse for cooping up animals in little concrete boxes but really this is typical of how many zoos worldwide keep small mammals. It does really annoy me! The attitude seems to be that because the animal's not very big it doesn't need much room; its even worse if the animal is nocturnal -- say a civet or a porcupine -- because it's asleep all day so gets shoved into an even smaller box than a similarly-sized monkey (for example) would be. There are innumerable examples of this from western zoos in the USA and Europe.
http://www.zoochat.com/652/cage-bobcats-lynx-rufus-246311/
Anyway, rant over.... The Melaka Zoo is really easy to negotiate because almost all the enclosures are arranged along the road that loops around the zoo perimeter. Really the only thing you need to make a major detour for is the Taman Mini Safari in the centre of the zoo which is a reasonably large area of land traversed by a raised walkway. There's no signage in here apart for one warning that the giraffes may bite, so I'm not sure of exactly what's in here. I saw two giraffes, about five zebras, three female nyala, and a few sambar resting in the shade under the walkway. The photoshopped poster outside the entrance depicts giraffe, zebra, gemsbok and Malayan tapir but I think that is just generic advertising. Because the MIni Safari is off the main route I did it last after roaming around the rest of the zoo, and I'm glad I returned for it because right by the entrance is a big dirt-filled terrarium housing three bamboo rats (Rhizomys sumatrensis) which are absolutely fantastic creatures, the sort of rodent George Lucas would have come up with.
http://www.zoochat.com/652/large-bamboo-rat-rhizomys-sumatrensis-246337/
http://www.zoochat.com/652/large-bamboo-rat-rhizomys-sumatrensis-246338/
The zoo is heavy on African hoofstock and Asian animals, and apart for the randoms scattered around is arranged roughly in taxonomic categories, going clockwise from the entrance African and Asian ungulates, then ratites, then big cats, birds, primates, more hoofstock, dogs (grey wolf and dhole), then the Small Mammal, Small Carnivore and Reptile Houses. This latter is basically a row of glass-fronted terrariums for elephant-trunk snake (A. javanicus), blood python, albino Burmese python, reticulated python, anaconda, common iguana and spectacled caiman. Elsewhere in the zoo are estuarine crocodiles and false gharial. There is also a Tortoise Garden by the primates, housing a variety of chelonians in large pens (see the species lists in following posts). Among the more interesting animals in the paddocks are (huge!) Malaysian gaur, Bawean hog deer and southern serow. Otherwise there are a lot of very standard zoo ungulates like nilgai, Ankole cattle, barasingha, etc.
The zoo exhibits a lot of birds, mostly Asian species. Most of the individual aviaries, arranged in clusters, are small and wedge-shaped so that they fit together in circles like orange segments. They are ugly and nowhere near big enough to be housing the hornbills and pheasants that they do. http://www.zoochat.com/652/hornbill-aviaries-246266/ The parrot cages are somewhat better but unfortunately rather crowded. The palm cockatoo aviary held seven individuals, and another was an interesting mix of citron-crested, Goffin's, blue-eyed and Ducorp's cockatoos. Where the zoo does do well with avian exhibitry is with their walk-through aviaries. The first is not far from the zoo entrance and is divided in three parts, two on either side and one in the middle. The middle section doesn't have much in it -- just some mandarin ducks, common iguanas, a yellow-streaked lory and two black lories -- but the other two parts are more interesting. The right half (pictured here http://www.zoochat.com/652/interior-one-walk-through-aviaries-246219/) has painted storks, green peafowl and two lemurs labelled as white-fronted lemurs (they were both asleep in their box so hard to see, but they didn't look like that species to me); there was also supposed to be a binturong in here but I didn't see any sign of it. There is a glass-fronted enclosure attached which is for red panda; the sign on the front said "sorry, animal off exhibit" but judging by the filthy state of the glass I'd say its been a very long time indeed since the animal was on exhibit. The other half of this aviary had island flying foxes (P. hypomelanus), at least one lesser mouse deer and two buffy fish owls, which seemed a rather risky mix. The ring-tailed lemurs were supposed to be in here too, but on my visit were confined inside a glass-fronted cage that was the duplicate of the red panda one.
Nearby is the Mouse Deer Park which is another walk-through aviary, rather sparsely planted but attractive nevertheless, and very large (http://www.zoochat.com/652/inside-mouse-deer-park-246226/). Apart for the several greater mouse deer in here, there were also demoiselle cranes, great argus, blue peafowl and various pigeons etc. The main bird section has two walk-throughs (with large bird of prey aviaries stretching between the two). One is for water birds (http://www.zoochat.com/652/interior-walk-through-waterbird-aviary-246263/), including a lot of painted and yellow-billed storks amongst others; the other (http://www.zoochat.com/652/interior-walk-through-passerine-aviary-246264/) has a hefty list of Asian passerines and pigeons (see species lists in following posts) although I will admit I didn't stay in here long because the top of the aviary was covered in vines which made the heat inside extremely oppressive and I'd also seen most of the species in the wild already.
The best by far of the walk-throughs wasn't even depicted on the zoo map and had no signs pointing to it -- the bird of paradise aviary! Right by the giraffes and lechwe, rather out of place both taxonomically and zoogeographically, this was a startling gem to stumble across unexpected. As well as a few other choice birds such as Bali mynah, Malaysian peacock-pheasant and crested wood partridge, this extremely attractive and well-planted aviary held at least four male red birds of paradise; about three male lesser birds of paradise and three or four of what I assumed to be young males but I saw one being courted by a full-plumaged male so they may have been females; two male twelve-wired birds of paradise; and a single male king bird of paradise. A truly spectacular mix and I spent quite some time in here trying to get photographs. There were no birds of paradise elsewhere in the zoo so I don't know if they have off-display breeding aviaries or if these were all surplus males from somewhere else.
So that's the Melaka Zoo. Like most zoos worldwide a mix of standard and less-common animal species, good and bad enclosures. I would certainly recommend visiting if you're in the area. I do think I would probably rate it higher than your average foreign visitor would, simply because I've been to many really bad Asian zoos. There was a tourist couple outside the zoo at the bus stop when I was leaving and they sort of raised their eyebrows when I said I liked the zoo. I think they may have been of a different opinion! Its obviously popular with the locals though, and there was a near-constant stream of school groups entering the grounds with buses lined up on the road outside waiting to take them back to school afterwards.
There are a lot more photos in the gallery than just the ones linked to in this post: Melaka Zoo Gallery
The worst cages by far are those in the Small Mammal and Small Carnivore houses. These two houses are identical, being a rectangular central building for staff access with five outside cages along each long side (so ten cages per house). The cages are small and concrete with a sort of moulded concrete shelf at the back and some branches in the middle. A few had substrate, most were bare concrete. They were fronted with a heavy squarish mesh with quite small holes, behind which were two overlapping layers of even smaller mesh, presumably in order to prevent people pushing their fingers through and getting bitten. The effect for me was like trying to take photographs through a wicker chair!! The Small Mammal house displayed a pair of really angry-looking bobcats, a pair of Asiatic brush-tailed porcupines, a pair of leopard cats, a very sad baby banded leaf monkey, a baby albino crab-eating macaque, a binturong, a masked palm civet, four slow loris, a black giant squirrel (R. bicolor), and a common raccoon that appeared to be suffering a lot in the heat (although it did have water). The Small Carnivore house displayed several masked palm civets, a common palm civet, a Malayan civet, a leopard cat (the cage was empty and the sign said "off-display"), a pair of small-clawed otters, what looked like a very dead domestic ferret, and a flat-headed cat. There's no excuse for cooping up animals in little concrete boxes but really this is typical of how many zoos worldwide keep small mammals. It does really annoy me! The attitude seems to be that because the animal's not very big it doesn't need much room; its even worse if the animal is nocturnal -- say a civet or a porcupine -- because it's asleep all day so gets shoved into an even smaller box than a similarly-sized monkey (for example) would be. There are innumerable examples of this from western zoos in the USA and Europe.
http://www.zoochat.com/652/cage-bobcats-lynx-rufus-246311/
Anyway, rant over.... The Melaka Zoo is really easy to negotiate because almost all the enclosures are arranged along the road that loops around the zoo perimeter. Really the only thing you need to make a major detour for is the Taman Mini Safari in the centre of the zoo which is a reasonably large area of land traversed by a raised walkway. There's no signage in here apart for one warning that the giraffes may bite, so I'm not sure of exactly what's in here. I saw two giraffes, about five zebras, three female nyala, and a few sambar resting in the shade under the walkway. The photoshopped poster outside the entrance depicts giraffe, zebra, gemsbok and Malayan tapir but I think that is just generic advertising. Because the MIni Safari is off the main route I did it last after roaming around the rest of the zoo, and I'm glad I returned for it because right by the entrance is a big dirt-filled terrarium housing three bamboo rats (Rhizomys sumatrensis) which are absolutely fantastic creatures, the sort of rodent George Lucas would have come up with.
http://www.zoochat.com/652/large-bamboo-rat-rhizomys-sumatrensis-246337/
http://www.zoochat.com/652/large-bamboo-rat-rhizomys-sumatrensis-246338/
The zoo is heavy on African hoofstock and Asian animals, and apart for the randoms scattered around is arranged roughly in taxonomic categories, going clockwise from the entrance African and Asian ungulates, then ratites, then big cats, birds, primates, more hoofstock, dogs (grey wolf and dhole), then the Small Mammal, Small Carnivore and Reptile Houses. This latter is basically a row of glass-fronted terrariums for elephant-trunk snake (A. javanicus), blood python, albino Burmese python, reticulated python, anaconda, common iguana and spectacled caiman. Elsewhere in the zoo are estuarine crocodiles and false gharial. There is also a Tortoise Garden by the primates, housing a variety of chelonians in large pens (see the species lists in following posts). Among the more interesting animals in the paddocks are (huge!) Malaysian gaur, Bawean hog deer and southern serow. Otherwise there are a lot of very standard zoo ungulates like nilgai, Ankole cattle, barasingha, etc.
The zoo exhibits a lot of birds, mostly Asian species. Most of the individual aviaries, arranged in clusters, are small and wedge-shaped so that they fit together in circles like orange segments. They are ugly and nowhere near big enough to be housing the hornbills and pheasants that they do. http://www.zoochat.com/652/hornbill-aviaries-246266/ The parrot cages are somewhat better but unfortunately rather crowded. The palm cockatoo aviary held seven individuals, and another was an interesting mix of citron-crested, Goffin's, blue-eyed and Ducorp's cockatoos. Where the zoo does do well with avian exhibitry is with their walk-through aviaries. The first is not far from the zoo entrance and is divided in three parts, two on either side and one in the middle. The middle section doesn't have much in it -- just some mandarin ducks, common iguanas, a yellow-streaked lory and two black lories -- but the other two parts are more interesting. The right half (pictured here http://www.zoochat.com/652/interior-one-walk-through-aviaries-246219/) has painted storks, green peafowl and two lemurs labelled as white-fronted lemurs (they were both asleep in their box so hard to see, but they didn't look like that species to me); there was also supposed to be a binturong in here but I didn't see any sign of it. There is a glass-fronted enclosure attached which is for red panda; the sign on the front said "sorry, animal off exhibit" but judging by the filthy state of the glass I'd say its been a very long time indeed since the animal was on exhibit. The other half of this aviary had island flying foxes (P. hypomelanus), at least one lesser mouse deer and two buffy fish owls, which seemed a rather risky mix. The ring-tailed lemurs were supposed to be in here too, but on my visit were confined inside a glass-fronted cage that was the duplicate of the red panda one.
Nearby is the Mouse Deer Park which is another walk-through aviary, rather sparsely planted but attractive nevertheless, and very large (http://www.zoochat.com/652/inside-mouse-deer-park-246226/). Apart for the several greater mouse deer in here, there were also demoiselle cranes, great argus, blue peafowl and various pigeons etc. The main bird section has two walk-throughs (with large bird of prey aviaries stretching between the two). One is for water birds (http://www.zoochat.com/652/interior-walk-through-waterbird-aviary-246263/), including a lot of painted and yellow-billed storks amongst others; the other (http://www.zoochat.com/652/interior-walk-through-passerine-aviary-246264/) has a hefty list of Asian passerines and pigeons (see species lists in following posts) although I will admit I didn't stay in here long because the top of the aviary was covered in vines which made the heat inside extremely oppressive and I'd also seen most of the species in the wild already.
The best by far of the walk-throughs wasn't even depicted on the zoo map and had no signs pointing to it -- the bird of paradise aviary! Right by the giraffes and lechwe, rather out of place both taxonomically and zoogeographically, this was a startling gem to stumble across unexpected. As well as a few other choice birds such as Bali mynah, Malaysian peacock-pheasant and crested wood partridge, this extremely attractive and well-planted aviary held at least four male red birds of paradise; about three male lesser birds of paradise and three or four of what I assumed to be young males but I saw one being courted by a full-plumaged male so they may have been females; two male twelve-wired birds of paradise; and a single male king bird of paradise. A truly spectacular mix and I spent quite some time in here trying to get photographs. There were no birds of paradise elsewhere in the zoo so I don't know if they have off-display breeding aviaries or if these were all surplus males from somewhere else.
So that's the Melaka Zoo. Like most zoos worldwide a mix of standard and less-common animal species, good and bad enclosures. I would certainly recommend visiting if you're in the area. I do think I would probably rate it higher than your average foreign visitor would, simply because I've been to many really bad Asian zoos. There was a tourist couple outside the zoo at the bus stop when I was leaving and they sort of raised their eyebrows when I said I liked the zoo. I think they may have been of a different opinion! Its obviously popular with the locals though, and there was a near-constant stream of school groups entering the grounds with buses lined up on the road outside waiting to take them back to school afterwards.
There are a lot more photos in the gallery than just the ones linked to in this post: Melaka Zoo Gallery
