A review of Mountain View Conservation Centre:
There are certainly some extremely rare species at this small centre, and on the posting a couple ahead of this one I gave a detailed list of the animals currently at Mountain View. The only additions were a pair of emus in a large paddock, and a solitary blue wildebeest that just arrived last week. Other than that the list above is correct.
The tour was just over 2 hours in length, but by arriving early and hanging around chatting afterwards my wife and I were at the centre for a full 3 hours. There were some pleasing aspects of the establishment, but also some negatives. Overall the experience was definitely worthwhile, and the volunteer staff were brilliant in terms of animal knowledge and friendliness.
Notes:
- no mountain tapirs on exhibit was mildly devastating, as I had been desperately looking forward to seeing the pair. Their paddock and barn were empty, which meant that they were somewhere hidden away in the large forested ravine that borders their enclosure. The owners open the back gates of the paddock and allow them to wander in a territory of around 10 acres (according to the guide) and there is no access for visitors to look for them. At least they had an amazingly large amount of space to roam around in! But since there are only about a dozen or less of these marvellous mammals in captivity worldwide it was tough not to be able to view them. Perhaps I'll add the Los Angeles Zoo to my summer road trip itinerary...
- several other animals were off-exhibit as well. The northern spotted owls and Vancouver Island marmots are never allowed to be seen by the public, but today the fossas were also off limits. They are apparently breeding at the moment, and so visitors are deterred from walking past their exhibit. That meant several of the rare cat species were also unable to be seen because they were in adjoining enclosures, but at this centre the animals come first and the humans a distinct second. In reality that is the way it should be, but it's hard not to be disappointed at missing out on some remarkable species.
- the true highlight of the entire tour was seeing Ivan the Indian rhino in his 7 acre paddock. It's hard to imagine that Chester Zoo and Oregon Zoo cram all of their elephants onto 2 acres, while this solitary rhino has 7 acres to himself. He came from San Diego and is awaiting a mate in the near future, and in the meantime has an absolutely enormous landscape to wander around in. The small group of 10 visitors were taken by the 2 guides to the back of the enclosure, where we came within 8 feet or so of the magnificent rhino. He was rolling back and forth in a large watery mudpit, and even walked along the fence while us visitors headed back to the main pathway after admiring him for a good 20 minutes.
- close up views of cape buffalo, malayan tapirs, temminick's golden cat, mountain bongo, geoffrey's cat, etc were also major highlights of the visit.
- massive exhibits for the hoofstock allows for a lot of breeding successes, and the large herd of addax was at one point practically close enough to touch as they surrounded the tiny, open-air tram.
- the african wild dog pair of exhibits are wonderful, with sloping hills, large pools and deep dens for pups. The centre has a staggering 32 of these beautiful dogs.
- one major drawback for me were the exhibits for animals that are not hoofstock. The 5 species of lemur, white-faced saki monkeys, aardwolf, cranes, hornbill, and all of the rare cat species are in "chicken-wire" cages that are completely enclosed with wire. Photo opportunities are zero as the wire is in the way at all times, and these cages were disappointingly tiny for roaming animals. While the hoofstock enclosures were gargantuan in comparison to urban zoos, the lemur and cat cages were lacking any kind of pools and space. These wire cages definitely had a lot of foliage in them, but I still found them far too small.
