Metro Richmond Zoo Metro Richmond Zoo review/partial species list (10/2/24)

[biggest_dreamer]

I visited Metro Richmond Zoo on a dreary gray Wednesday on my way home from a short trip to Washington, DC. I had heard a fair amount about the place going in: its status as perhaps one of the larger/more notable non-AZA traditional zoos in the country, its compelling collection of oddball rarities, and its reputation for poor exhibits. I went in with no expectation of how long I might get to stay, as it seemed like a storm could break at any moment (this was right in the wake of Hurricane Helene).

I didn't initially intend to write much about it on here, hence only grabbing a species list that is incomplete in the following ways: the zoo has several species in multiple enclosures and I only logged each species once and didn't make note of cohabitation; I didn't notate signed but unseen species; and due to being on a race against the weather I wound up skipping the reptile house, safari train, and the stretch of the zoo between the giraffe enclosure and the two small great ape islands (which I believe should have featured lions, white rhinoceros, cheetahs, and plains zebras/addaxes). I know this will make my species list less appealing to some, but I figured I may as well post what I've got with those caveats laid out. I'll make mention of the mixed exhibits and signed/unseen species I do recall, but those will not be exhaustive lists. I'm basically reconstructing this whole thing from my rudimentary list I made for life list update purposed.

Before getting started, I should note that the zoo itself was clean and easy to walk - no unpaved paths, which is always a gamble with non-AZA places. There were also a handful of rides, none of which I would have cared to ride in general (aside from the safari train) but particularly since they all seemed very cheap/kiddie, but I suppose it's worth noting for anyone considering going with children. I didn't eat at the zoo but there were a few food stalls near the entrance and halfway point of the main path that seemed to offer generic attraction food stand items like hot dogs, pizza, etc.

The zoo starts off with a serviceable-looking flamingo pond and a relatively small walk-in aviary consisting of a short loop. The aviary was very muddy so I ended up turning around before completing the loop, but I was able to see the whole thing. I took a picture of the sign so I do have the supposed full species list here, but if accurate there were quite a few no-shows (in italics). An even muddier prairie dog enclosure (the inhabitants sure didn't seem to mind, at least) and a siamang island complete this section of entryway exhibits.

1. Chilean flamingo
2. Walk-in aviary: Crested guineafowl, sacred ibis, demoiselle crane, rosy-billed pochard, golden pheasant, Reeve's pheasant, green-winged teal, wood duck, black-bellied whistling duck, Mandarin duck
3. Black-tailed prairie dog
4. Siamang, mallard, Egyptian goose

A small path branches off to the left leading to a few small mammals, the reptile house (which I did not visit), and a nursery, while the main path continues a bit forward to a few gibbon cages and a large mixed Australia exhibit before splitting into two parallel paths. The meerkat enclosure in particular initially left me shocked by how small it appeared, before realizing that there were multiple connected enclosures - I'd go on to experience this exact first reaction a few more times at this zoo, but unfortunately there wouldn't always be that same "oh, there's more to it" follow-up.

1. Fennec fox
2. Meerkat
3. Komodo dragon (technically part of the reptile house but visible from outside)
4. Nursery: striped skunk
5. Coppery titi
6. Linnaeus's two-toed sloth (signed as just "two-toed sloth" but scientific name was listed as didactylus)
7. Lar gibbon
8. Siamang
9. Red kangaroo, common wallaroo, emu

At the split, I took the path to the right on my way in, and would later return back down the left. The right path had quite a few small mammal enclosures, predominately monkeys, with multiple species appearing in multiple enclosures and several species being signed but unseen. A few of these monkey exhibits may have just cleared the bar of appearing acceptable, but the majority of them were uncomfortably small kennels. That said, and this is pure speculation on my part, but I did notice a few quirks in some of the signage spacing and exhibit sizes that made me wonder if some previously split exhibits had recently been combined into one, giving the inhabitants double the previous space. If true, this is definitely a good direction for the zoo to be heading in.

Behind some of the cages and visible through them was a large enclosure containing some large antelope and cranes. Rounding out this stretch were some giraffes which had a distressingly small exhibit, and a glimpse at the zebras and addax that I wouldn't get a chance to see up close. Aside from the giraffes, all of the hoofstock so far had very comfortable looking exhibits, making the giraffes look even sadder by comparison. Notably, there were two signs for klipspringer here - one didn't seem to be connected to a current exhibit, and the other was in front of a suitable enough yet empty exhibit, but I'll list them regardless.

1. Blue-and-gold macaw
2. Cheetah, domestic dog
3. Bat-eared fox
4. Klipspringer
   
5. Caracal
6. Diana monkey
7. Eastern black-and-white colobus (I don't recall the exact common name they used but the kikuyensis subspecies stood out to me)
8. Southern ground hornbill
9. Lesser spot-nosed guenon
10. Black-crested mangabey
11. De Brazza's monkey
12. Sulawesi crested macaque
13. Allen's swamp monkey
14. Bongo, greater kudu, black crowned crane, demoiselle crane
15. Giraffe
16. Klipspringer
    
17. Plains zebra, addax

The next stretch consists of a handful of domestic and domestic-adjacent species, before taking on a bit of a North American focus. We had bought some food at the entrance, a disappointing cup of dry pellets. Most of it got fed to blackbuck, goats, and sheep in a single enclosure. There was a walk-in budgie enclosure that may have had some other species in it, but I only positively IDed the budgies from outside.

1. Common warthog
2. Budgerigar
3. Domestic chicken (I don't recall which enclosure these were in, surely not by themselves)
4. Dromedary
5. Bactrian camel
6. Blackbuck, domestic goat, domestic sheep, miniature zebu
7. Indian peafowl (I think these were free-roaming?)
8. Bison
9. American alligator
10. Steller's sea eagle
11. Eurasian eagle owl (unsigned)
12. Gray wolf
13. Elk (wapiti)
14. Armenian mouflon (signed as "Armenian mouflon (Ovis vignei)")
15. European fallow deer
16. Common ostrich

This next stretch starts off with a handful of very new lemur exhibits, followed by some heavily under construction other exhibits, notably for Baird's tapir. I feel like they really ought to have a dedicated off exhibit area for the tapirs, because their current partial habitats felt way too small and awkwardly shaped for such large animals. There were several monkey cages here too, but as they were all repeat species, I didn't take specific notes, but I'm almost certain Diana monkeys were one of them. This also took us past the safari train, which I would have probably done if I had more time, but I still managed to see a handful of the animals. A dwindling herd of markhor had previously shared the very large exhibit that still holds Himalayan tahr and blackbuck, but I could see where a third sign had previously been and couldn't locate any markhor in the mix, so I think they're probably gone now.

1. Ring-tailed lemur
2. Black-and-white ruffed lemur
3. empty, unsigned new exhibit identical to the black-and-white ruffed lemurs
4. Red ruffed lemur
   
5. Baird's tapir
6. (handful of inhabited monkey cages)
7. Safari train path: Gemsbok, Thomson's gazelle
8. Baird's tapir, sarus crane
9. Yellow-backed duiker
10. Himalayan tahr, blackbuck

This next segment takes us back up along the left side of the split I previously mentioned. This area has a moderate focus on South American species, including the darkest and most disorienting nocturnal house I've ever stepped foot in, and a surprise encounter with a species that as far as I can tell hadn't been previously known to be currently found in the US - the white-lipped tamarin. There were also, again, several repeat monkey cages. I know there were several in this area for coppery titi alone, but there were a handful of others as well. This is also where I finally got to see the klipspringer, sharing an exhibit with king vultures of all things. I had initially assumed that this was a temporary fixture (perhaps due to excess mud in the previous adequate-looking one I mentioned) as the exhibit seemed ill-suited for the klipspringers, but @TinoPup also saw them here in both 2019 and 2021 per their own species list thread. Huh. Right by the path split, there was a pseudo-walkthrough area containing a handful of pygmy hippos and a lone African clawless otter in separate enclosures. I'm not sure why this area was behind a gate - did it once or sometimes also contain birds?

1. American white pelican
2. African penguin
3. Rock hyrax
4. Swinhoe's pheasant
5. Red-rumped agouti, southern screamer, Lady Amherst's pheasant, salmon-crested cockatoo
6. Black howler
7. Black-handed spider monkey
8. Brazilian tapir, capybara, greater rhea
9. Marabou, white stork, blue crane, Ruppell's griffon vulture
10. White-throated capuchin (Cebus capucinus)
11. White-lipped tamarin (unsigned)
12. Spectacled owl
13. Toco toucan
14. Red-footed tortoise
15. Bornean crested fireback
16. King vulture, klipspringer
17. White-faced saki
18. Colombian spider monkey
19. Common squirrel monkey
20. Nocturnal room: Indian flying fox, straw-colored fruit bat
21. Nocturnal room: two-toed sloth sp. (unsigned, I assume didactylus as with the previous one)
22. Moluccan eclectus (signed as "Eclectus parrot")
23. Serval
24. Laughing kookaburra
    
25. Pygmy hippopotamus
26. African clawless otter

By this point it was starting to drizzle so we opted to cut our losses and head towards the exit, and it wasn't until later that I realized that this decision caused us to miss out on the zoo's white lions, which I'd never seen before. Oh well, I would've been more disappointed if it was a novel species instead of just a novel color morph. I did decide to take a quick detour to get a closer look at the zoo's Asia-ish section on the way out, though. The snow leopard and these particular lar gibbons were actually easily visible from the aviary/flamingo area way back at the beginning, but snow leopards are a favorite that I hadn't gotten to see in a few years so I wanted a closer look. The ape islands seemed woefully small, and to my understanding there's a similar pair for the same species on the safari train.

1. Raccoon
2. Binturong
3. Lar gibbon
4. Snow leopard
5. Asiatic black bear
6. Tiger
7. Bornean orangutan
8. Chimpanzee

And that's it! Honestly, most of the animals seemed better off than I would have thought going in. While I don't think there were many exhibits that I would consider great, most species that weren't monkeys, apes, giraffes, klipspringers, or (at least for the time being) Baird's tapirs seemed to have at least adequate enclosures. And while the place has lost quite a few of the enticing ungulates that initially put it on my radar years ago (bighorn sheep, takin, pronghorn, Grant's gazelle, Gunther's dik-dik, seemingly markhor), it still had enough rarities and life listers to leave me more than satisfied with the animal selection. And that's to say nothing of all of the species they keep that aren't particularly rare within the AZA but certainly are outside of it, such as meerkats, great apes, hyraxes, pygmy hippos, and snow leopards. Once the tapir area gets finished up, I think that if they could focus on reworking their entire monkey setup by reducing the number of repeat enclosures and giving more space to fewer troops, they'd be well on their way to beating their reputation for poor exhibits... but as it stands, some of those monkey exhibits, particularly the kennels along the right side of the split path, were downright awful, and it's a real shame that my current only memory of seeing lesser spot-nosed guenons or Sulawesi crested macaques has them in those dismal little cages.

I'll be back in Virginia for a week next summer and intend to fill it with as many zoos as I can, so naturally the thought of a return trip here has been on my mind as a possibility. And you know, I'm certainly not opposed to it, depending on how the week fills out. And I think that's the best closing note I can leave on.

Tagging in @SusScrofa and @Smaggledagle since they both previously inquired about a review or species list.

 

[snowleopard]

Thanks for the review! As more and more species have been phased out of AZA zoos, the non-AZA collections have begun to look far more interesting. If you want to see rare primates and hoofstock, the trend has clearly been to visit places like Metro Richmond Zoo. It's just a shame that some of the exhibits (like the ones for monkeys) are still old-fashioned cages.