Mr Gharial's zoo design
- Thread starter Mr Gharial
- Start date
Why, yes. Yes it is.
@Van Beal, I think that is indeed, a bush dog; which I’m really excited for when Part 5 comes around.
Glad to hear it!
So far with the project I've been doing them in sets of two a week in every upload. I think I could finish part 6 in time to be able to upload it this week too, but I'm gonna take it easy and give myself an extra week to type out Part 6: the Sula shore
Spoiler alert, but we will actually be getting more spiders in part 5 than in part 6
Technically, out of all the parts that will have spiders, part 6 will have the least amount of spiders... Ironic, huh? Only just realised that...
So far it seems like I'm going to have to split part 5 in two. I already have 16 reference photos planned and I'm coming up on 4000 words. I'm very glad I decided to switch to word after my draft got deleted (before I got too far into it, luckily).
A lot of original Suriname photos for this one, including a few from my 2017 vacation there. I hope to have it out by this Saturday at the latest, but I actually have to bike into town to take a picture of something there's a surprising lack of photos of in the ZC gallery.
It will have the shortest species list so far with only 9 animals not counting free-roamers or the second Cane toad viewing point (feel free to guess the 9 new animals), but I do think it might be one of my favourite parts of O Rio Dourado as a whole, and definitely my favourite so far!
A lot of original Suriname photos for this one, including a few from my 2017 vacation there. I hope to have it out by this Saturday at the latest, but I actually have to bike into town to take a picture of something there's a surprising lack of photos of in the ZC gallery.
It will have the shortest species list so far with only 9 animals not counting free-roamers or the second Cane toad viewing point (feel free to guess the 9 new animals
), but I do think it might be one of my favourite parts of O Rio Dourado as a whole, and definitely my favourite so far!
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Alright, folks. Computer issues have been mostly resolved (apart from the fact that ZooChat didn’t save my first draft for this post, womp womp), so here I am with the next part of O Rio Dourado.
We’ve walked quite a bit down the route of the giant tropical greenhouse, up to a point where we’re now nearing the other end of the giant structure. Not that we would know from here, since it’s blocked by plants and the canopy.
We’re nearing the halfway point of O Rio Dourado now, I welcome you to part 5: The Fishing Town
After leaving the Kapuwa Syoro viewing window behind us, the path slopes back up and we can get a good view of the larger section of the O Rio Dourado river. Even in this smaller section it’s at least 5 meters across, but it’s not the river that draws out immediate attention…
Much more intimidating is the giant mountain on the other side of the river. Now you might think having a “mountain” inside a greenhouse is unrealistic (I certainly did when I first thought of it), but to that I raise you (and myself, I suppose) the Bush waterfall, which is a total of 17 meters high.
The Rio Dourado mountain will be a lot taller than that, though. Reaching out a whopping 30 meters above the water level of the river, made possible by a combination of a rather tall roof, and the “floor” of the indoor rainforest being a lot lower than the “floor” of the outside world. The Rio Dourado mountain is based heavily on the Kasikasima mountains in Suriname, made iconic by their round tops and ridged walls.
In the river, in front of the mountain, are two huge boulders, fallen off the mountain after years of the river eroding away the rock. At least, that’s what it’s meant to look like. It’s still an artificial ecosystem of course. On top of the large, bare rocks are three of the largest free-roaming animals of the greenhouse. A trio of American black vultures are sunbathing on that high point, one of the few areas where they can relax in full sunlight without being bothered by the dense jungle plants.
In the distance, seemingly coming from the mountains, we can hear an iconic bird call…
Feeet-feee, fee-weew
Further along the river we can just barely see a few docks on both sides of the river, but with rocks on one side and dense foliage on the other, we can’t really get a proper view. As we continue walking the path leads us into a denser section of the jungle. To our left there’s a shortcut that heads directly into the town, but that would mean missing… well, missing whatever this little sign says.
“LUKU BUN: ANANSI DE NA PASI”
Don’t you just love it when zoos include a bit of the language of whatever area they’re presenting? Anyways, does anyone know what that says? I definitely didn’t forget, I’m just… creating audience participation! Yes, that’s definitely a plausible excuse…
We can hear a few chirps and cheeps coming from around us in the bushes. Violaceous euphonias, beautiful little birds with a yellow underside and a dark blue back. There’s a pretty large flock of them here, joined by another small group of Blue-backed grassquits, the males of which are once again dancing.
As we continue into the dense foliage the path takes a bend. This is to avoid hitting the wall of the greenhouse, although visitors won’t notice due to the dense jungle all around us. Our attention is suddenly drawn by a quick, shrill call from the bushes. Among the plants there’s a single fake, dead bush. Or rather, a collection of dried sticks with various fruits and vegetables skewered on the ends. Perched on one of the branches, next to a sizeable chunk of mango, is a Green aracari, one of the smallest toucan species with a beautiful yellow-and-maroon bill.
He cheeps at us again as he stares at us… judging us… He quickly grabs a strand of mango before flying off towards the mountain. Seems we interrupted his lunch…
Going further along the path we can see a large, glass box cutting off a section of the jungle. Perhaps a way to keep a mold in check? The plants inside don’t exactly look healthy… Although, there is a sign next to it, so it is an exhibit. Maybe an exhibit for some sort of South American fungus species held here in a large colony? Let’s take a closer look to see what is held in this habitat.
Oh…
Guys, I just remembered what “Anansi” translates to…
I hope none of you have arachnophobia because next up is spiders, and a lot of them...
This spider species is quite rare in captivity and doesn’t have a common English name, but the park’s signage calls it the Brazilian red-headed social spider, Latin name Anelosimus eximius. Most spiders are solitary, but this teeny tiny arachnid makes up for its miniature stature by living in huge colonies of up to multiple thousands of spiders. In their large numbers they’re capable of taking up entire sections of the canopy, which is why we keep this enclosure under a tight lid.
What the enclosure would look like (imagine this but with a glass box around it):
Further along the path we come across our first little hut. Inside, there’s a large viewing window on the right side through which we can see a large sectioned-off part of the jungle. This aviary is the indoor enclosure for a sizeable pack of Bush dogs, and we can see a few of them lazily laying around in a shady spot.
Now, I have been in Surinamese native villages before, but in the most recent one we weren’t allowed to take pictures. That is to say, in most Surinamese native villages you aren’t allowed to take pictures, partially because we in the Western world have a different idea of what is considered “nudity”. Looking through my dad’s pictures from 2017, however, I did find this picture of a native outpost, where they’ll leave supplies to pick up later on longer boat trips. These “open concept” buildings are what the Bush dog viewing point (building B) is based on.
As we look up into the rafters of the building, we can see a row of tails hanging downward. The average visitors won’t be able to recognise them… hell, the average visitors probably wouldn’t even be able to spot them. But regulars and season pass holders will know that these are the tails of Bolivian night monkeys, who use the little houses of the village as sleeping spots during the day.
As we walk out of the viewing hut we are almost immediately greeted by another hut, this one with actual walls this time. On the roof, we can see a large group of bright, yellow birds. Saffron finches have gathered in a pretty large flock here. As enrichment, the zookeepers hide beetle grubs and seeds between the leaves that form the building’s roof and the finches are happily digging between them to find their meal.
Inside the hut (building C), there aren’t any animals. But there are various educational signs on the Surinamese indigenous peoples and ways that they are threatened. Suriname is the only South American country I’ve visited (three times now, as my father grew up there), so I’m basing this quick educational section purely on mine and my father’s observations on the country, and anecdotes I’ve heard from the people living there:
(I will put this in spoilers as it is a bit lengthy)
There will, of course, also be other topics discussed in this education hut, including education on the wildlife and climate of the amazon, but that’s things we, as Zoo nerds, already know. There will also be various interactive displays and a donation point for replanting efforts.
Exiting the education hut we once again walk straight toward the next little house (building A). Another open concept one, this hut is based on a little boat house we came across near the ferry boat (more like ferry canoe) between Paramaribo and Meerzorg. We walk down a short staircase down into the workplace, on our left side there’s a large, turned-over canoe “in repair”.
Usually I try to use pictures without any people in the shot, but didn’t exactly have O Rio Dourado planned as far back as June 2024 so I didn’t take a picture of the boathouse myself. Luckily, my aunt did! So here’s the picture of the boathouse with my dad (and me in the back) for scale. Note that we’re both close to 2 meters tall.
Now, as we can all see, the real boathouse has a view of the Suriname river, Paramaribo, and the Mangroves that surround the boathouse. The version in O Rio Dourado is instead partially sunk into the ground, and at the end of the boathouse there is a large viewing window into the larger section of the titular river of gold. Inside, we can see some of the many giant fish species that call this river home. A huge, mixed school of over 100 Striped silver dollars and Black band myleus’ part to make way for some of the river’s biggest residents, three Kelber’s peacock basses. Half-buried in the sand we can see multiple Pearled river stingrays and from behind a large piece of driftwood emerges a Southern striped raphael, a rather large, black catfish with beautiful dark yellow stripes.
On the wall of the boathouse there’s a fisherman’s guide style poster that lists the various fish species that call this section of the river home. Some other notable species include the Barred sorubim, the Kissing prochilodus, the Emerald cichlid, the Black arowana, and the Royal panaque. Looking into the water for a bit longer we can also discover Golden mascara tetras and Stoplight tetras in one of the planted areas, as well as a single Spotted pike-characin swimming between some semi-submerged tree roots. Scratch that, two Spotted pike-characins between some semi-submerged tree roots.
Going back up the little staircase and walking out of the Boathouse, we are now next to the village’s little dock. Similar to the same boatyard in Suriname that the boathouse is also based on, there’s multiple discarded boats and a generally messy vibe. Amongst a few discarded boats there are also two fully functional boats next to the docks. These are two pully boats! I’m not sure how common these are outside of the Netherlands, but over here they’re everywhere.
Boatyard:
Pully raft:
(I had to bike into town to take a picture of this, as there are barely any photos of these boats in the ZC gallery, even though I know of at least 3 zoos that have them in the Netherlands alone
)
Although pully rafts are usually typical square rafts made of planks, the pully boats in O Rio Dourado are in the same style as the ferry canoes that go between Paramaribo and Meerzorg. Another difference between typical pully rafts is that in the Rio Dourado Rafts you are supposed to sit down. Usual pully rafts are done standing up, but since we are over a deeper river full of fish, visitors are encouraged to sit down while in the raft. Due to the size of the canoes, they only seat four at a time. Let’s see… the posts are getting around 10 likes, plus myself. That with two, four-seaters boats… Looks like we’re going to have to double back with at least one of the boats, guys. You guys will have to call shotgun for who gets the first boat.
As we’re on the boat to the other side we can look into the water and see more of the fish species. We can recognise a Many-banded headstander lower in the water, as well as a large Barred sorubim. Other fish, that don’t have patterns on their backs, can also be seen, but who knows what those are. Wait, no! I can definitely say those are a school of eartheaters down there near the bottom. There are two species of eartheater in the river though, and from here I can’t tell them apart…
Also from the boat, we are now right next to the O Rio Dourado mountain, the imposing rockwork looming over us. From up top we can hear a loud bird call.
Feeet-feee, fee-weew
Due to ZooChat's photo limit, this post is split in two
We’ve walked quite a bit down the route of the giant tropical greenhouse, up to a point where we’re now nearing the other end of the giant structure. Not that we would know from here, since it’s blocked by plants and the canopy.
We’re nearing the halfway point of O Rio Dourado now, I welcome you to part 5: The Fishing Town
After leaving the Kapuwa Syoro viewing window behind us, the path slopes back up and we can get a good view of the larger section of the O Rio Dourado river. Even in this smaller section it’s at least 5 meters across, but it’s not the river that draws out immediate attention…
Much more intimidating is the giant mountain on the other side of the river. Now you might think having a “mountain” inside a greenhouse is unrealistic (I certainly did when I first thought of it), but to that I raise you (and myself, I suppose) the Bush waterfall, which is a total of 17 meters high.
The Rio Dourado mountain will be a lot taller than that, though. Reaching out a whopping 30 meters above the water level of the river, made possible by a combination of a rather tall roof, and the “floor” of the indoor rainforest being a lot lower than the “floor” of the outside world. The Rio Dourado mountain is based heavily on the Kasikasima mountains in Suriname, made iconic by their round tops and ridged walls.
In the river, in front of the mountain, are two huge boulders, fallen off the mountain after years of the river eroding away the rock. At least, that’s what it’s meant to look like. It’s still an artificial ecosystem of course
. On top of the large, bare rocks are three of the largest free-roaming animals of the greenhouse. A trio of American black vultures are sunbathing on that high point, one of the few areas where they can relax in full sunlight without being bothered by the dense jungle plants.In the distance, seemingly coming from the mountains, we can hear an iconic bird call…
Feeet-feee, fee-weew
Further along the river we can just barely see a few docks on both sides of the river, but with rocks on one side and dense foliage on the other, we can’t really get a proper view. As we continue walking the path leads us into a denser section of the jungle. To our left there’s a shortcut that heads directly into the town, but that would mean missing… well, missing whatever this little sign says.
“LUKU BUN: ANANSI DE NA PASI”
Don’t you just love it when zoos include a bit of the language of whatever area they’re presenting? Anyways, does anyone know what that says? I definitely didn’t forget, I’m just… creating audience participation! Yes, that’s definitely a plausible excuse…
We can hear a few chirps and cheeps coming from around us in the bushes. Violaceous euphonias, beautiful little birds with a yellow underside and a dark blue back. There’s a pretty large flock of them here, joined by another small group of Blue-backed grassquits, the males of which are once again dancing.
As we continue into the dense foliage the path takes a bend. This is to avoid hitting the wall of the greenhouse, although visitors won’t notice due to the dense jungle all around us. Our attention is suddenly drawn by a quick, shrill call from the bushes. Among the plants there’s a single fake, dead bush. Or rather, a collection of dried sticks with various fruits and vegetables skewered on the ends. Perched on one of the branches, next to a sizeable chunk of mango, is a Green aracari, one of the smallest toucan species with a beautiful yellow-and-maroon bill.
He cheeps at us again as he stares at us… judging us… He quickly grabs a strand of mango before flying off towards the mountain. Seems we interrupted his lunch…
Going further along the path we can see a large, glass box cutting off a section of the jungle. Perhaps a way to keep a mold in check? The plants inside don’t exactly look healthy… Although, there is a sign next to it, so it is an exhibit. Maybe an exhibit for some sort of South American fungus species held here in a large colony? Let’s take a closer look to see what is held in this habitat.
Oh…
Guys, I just remembered what “Anansi” translates to…
I hope none of you have arachnophobia because next up is spiders, and a lot of them...
This spider species is quite rare in captivity and doesn’t have a common English name, but the park’s signage calls it the Brazilian red-headed social spider, Latin name Anelosimus eximius. Most spiders are solitary, but this teeny tiny arachnid makes up for its miniature stature by living in huge colonies of up to multiple thousands of spiders. In their large numbers they’re capable of taking up entire sections of the canopy, which is why we keep this enclosure under a tight lid.
What the enclosure would look like (imagine this but with a glass box around it):
Further along the path we come across our first little hut. Inside, there’s a large viewing window on the right side through which we can see a large sectioned-off part of the jungle. This aviary is the indoor enclosure for a sizeable pack of Bush dogs, and we can see a few of them lazily laying around in a shady spot.
Now, I have been in Surinamese native villages before, but in the most recent one we weren’t allowed to take pictures. That is to say, in most Surinamese native villages you aren’t allowed to take pictures, partially because we in the Western world have a different idea of what is considered “nudity”. Looking through my dad’s pictures from 2017, however, I did find this picture of a native outpost, where they’ll leave supplies to pick up later on longer boat trips. These “open concept” buildings are what the Bush dog viewing point (building B) is based on.
As we look up into the rafters of the building, we can see a row of tails hanging downward. The average visitors won’t be able to recognise them… hell, the average visitors probably wouldn’t even be able to spot them. But regulars and season pass holders will know that these are the tails of Bolivian night monkeys, who use the little houses of the village as sleeping spots during the day.
As we walk out of the viewing hut we are almost immediately greeted by another hut, this one with actual walls this time. On the roof, we can see a large group of bright, yellow birds. Saffron finches have gathered in a pretty large flock here. As enrichment, the zookeepers hide beetle grubs and seeds between the leaves that form the building’s roof and the finches are happily digging between them to find their meal.
Inside the hut (building C), there aren’t any animals. But there are various educational signs on the Surinamese indigenous peoples and ways that they are threatened. Suriname is the only South American country I’ve visited (three times now, as my father grew up there), so I’m basing this quick educational section purely on mine and my father’s observations on the country, and anecdotes I’ve heard from the people living there:
(I will put this in spoilers as it is a bit lengthy)
- The Surinamese indigenous peoples are affected extremely badly by Global warming. The melting ice caps are a famous talking point in the subject of global warming, but the extension of the dry periods in South America are much closer to putting people, and wildlife, in danger. Suriname, and most of the tropics I suppose, doesn't work with Winter, Summer, Spring or Autumn, but instead with the great dry season, the great rainy season, the small dry season, and the small rainy season. Due to a lack of rain fall in the dry periods, most of the rivers in Suriname run a lot lower than usual. The great dry period has been getting longer with each passing year due to global warming. And sometimes, the river completely dries up, meaning an indigenous village could be without fish or transport for weeks.
When you hear “indigenous tribe” you might think these villages in the middle of the rainforest are almost completely cut off from the world, but that’s not true at all. They have multiple concrete buildings, they regularly host tourists, they have electricity and running water, etc. They’re definitely more cut off than the Native Americans of the USA, but they’re still partially dependent on regular supply runs from Paramaribo. Clothes, soda, doctors, teachers, all come to these villages by boat since the only way into the rainforest is through dug-out canoes.
- The country is very proud of it’s rainforest, the first thing you see when you step out of the plane is a large sign that says “welcome to the most forested country in the world”. However, a lot of it is being cut down by two major factors:
The first is gold. The Surinamese mountains are chock full of gold, and mining operations are everywhere. Toxic runoff full of Zinc ends up poisoning not only the rainforest, but especially the rivers. And there are empty craters left in the wake of these operations everywhere. With donations, Wetlands Park Europe hopes to replant these Gowtu-olo’s. It will be impossible to stop these mining operations, but there is possibility to work together with these organisations (no matter how bad they may be) to mine in a much more eco-friendly way and to not leave these empty craters behind, but instead refill the barren landscape with rock and soil and start a replanting effort.
The second is a lot more difficult to address in the real world, as it’s due to politics. Corruption and US meddling in the Caribbean haven’t left the Surinamese economy in a great state. Our taxi driver had three other jobs just to stay afloat, just to name one example. Unfortunately for the Surinamese rainforest (and its indigenous people), China has seen a great opportunity here. They build hospitals, houses and sports fields at no monetary charge, which is of course welcomed by the Surinamese government and most of its people. But this is all in exchange of natural resources, especially lumber, land and Bauxite (used to make aluminium). The government allows China to buy large plots of land, including land belonging to indigenous tribes, to be cut down and not replanted, in exchange for large sums of money that doesn’t go back into the Surinamese economy but instead into the pockets of the politicians.
- Due to a lack of education on the subject, the Surinamese people are quite afraid of the wildlife, especially snakes. Due to colonialism, Christianity has a tight grasp on Suriname. And in the eyes of Christianity, snakes are the greatest evil. The mentality of “the only good snake is a dead snake” is very much alive here, even though most of Suriname’s snakes are harmless constrictors. Organisations such as Snake Patrol Suriname not only relocate snakes, but also do a lot of education about reptiles at schools, meaning this mentality is hopefully on its way out. More on SPS later though . This fear of animals leads to a lot of unnecessary animal deaths, my father has a story that showcases this mentality well.
While he was volunteering in an indigenous village (I believe it was buildings wells or something similar), he became quite attached to a Collared peccary that was held in a pen in the village, going there every day to scratch and play with it. One day he decided to let it out of its pen and people, of course, immediately started running after it to try to get it back in its pen. When cornered, the Peccary bit one of the villagers in fear. Immediately everyone started screaming that it had to be killed immediately, for it had become a Kras’meti. Apparently they believed that as soon as an animal bites a human, it becomes a bloodthirsty monster and will go on a murderous rampage unless killed immediately. Despite my father trying to explain to them that that’s ridiculous, the peccary was killed that day.
Together with organisations like Snake patrol Suriname and the Suriname Sloth Sanctuary, Wetlands Park Europe will try to increase education on the wildlife and nature of Suriname.
When you hear “indigenous tribe” you might think these villages in the middle of the rainforest are almost completely cut off from the world, but that’s not true at all. They have multiple concrete buildings, they regularly host tourists, they have electricity and running water, etc. They’re definitely more cut off than the Native Americans of the USA, but they’re still partially dependent on regular supply runs from Paramaribo. Clothes, soda, doctors, teachers, all come to these villages by boat since the only way into the rainforest is through dug-out canoes.
- The country is very proud of it’s rainforest, the first thing you see when you step out of the plane is a large sign that says “welcome to the most forested country in the world”. However, a lot of it is being cut down by two major factors:
The first is gold. The Surinamese mountains are chock full of gold, and mining operations are everywhere. Toxic runoff full of Zinc ends up poisoning not only the rainforest, but especially the rivers. And there are empty craters left in the wake of these operations everywhere. With donations, Wetlands Park Europe hopes to replant these Gowtu-olo’s. It will be impossible to stop these mining operations, but there is possibility to work together with these organisations (no matter how bad they may be) to mine in a much more eco-friendly way and to not leave these empty craters behind, but instead refill the barren landscape with rock and soil and start a replanting effort.
The second is a lot more difficult to address in the real world, as it’s due to politics. Corruption and US meddling in the Caribbean haven’t left the Surinamese economy in a great state. Our taxi driver had three other jobs just to stay afloat, just to name one example. Unfortunately for the Surinamese rainforest (and its indigenous people), China has seen a great opportunity here. They build hospitals, houses and sports fields at no monetary charge, which is of course welcomed by the Surinamese government and most of its people. But this is all in exchange of natural resources, especially lumber, land and Bauxite (used to make aluminium). The government allows China to buy large plots of land, including land belonging to indigenous tribes, to be cut down and not replanted, in exchange for large sums of money that doesn’t go back into the Surinamese economy but instead into the pockets of the politicians.
- Due to a lack of education on the subject, the Surinamese people are quite afraid of the wildlife, especially snakes. Due to colonialism, Christianity has a tight grasp on Suriname. And in the eyes of Christianity, snakes are the greatest evil. The mentality of “the only good snake is a dead snake” is very much alive here, even though most of Suriname’s snakes are harmless constrictors. Organisations such as Snake Patrol Suriname not only relocate snakes, but also do a lot of education about reptiles at schools, meaning this mentality is hopefully on its way out. More on SPS later though
. This fear of animals leads to a lot of unnecessary animal deaths, my father has a story that showcases this mentality well.While he was volunteering in an indigenous village (I believe it was buildings wells or something similar), he became quite attached to a Collared peccary that was held in a pen in the village, going there every day to scratch and play with it. One day he decided to let it out of its pen and people, of course, immediately started running after it to try to get it back in its pen. When cornered, the Peccary bit one of the villagers in fear. Immediately everyone started screaming that it had to be killed immediately, for it had become a Kras’meti. Apparently they believed that as soon as an animal bites a human, it becomes a bloodthirsty monster and will go on a murderous rampage unless killed immediately. Despite my father trying to explain to them that that’s ridiculous, the peccary was killed that day.
Together with organisations like Snake patrol Suriname and the Suriname Sloth Sanctuary, Wetlands Park Europe will try to increase education on the wildlife and nature of Suriname.
There will, of course, also be other topics discussed in this education hut, including education on the wildlife and climate of the amazon, but that’s things we, as Zoo nerds, already know. There will also be various interactive displays and a donation point for replanting efforts.
Exiting the education hut we once again walk straight toward the next little house (building A). Another open concept one, this hut is based on a little boat house we came across near the ferry boat (more like ferry canoe) between Paramaribo and Meerzorg. We walk down a short staircase down into the workplace, on our left side there’s a large, turned-over canoe “in repair”.
Usually I try to use pictures without any people in the shot, but didn’t exactly have O Rio Dourado planned as far back as June 2024 so I didn’t take a picture of the boathouse myself. Luckily, my aunt did! So here’s the picture of the boathouse with my dad (and me in the back) for scale. Note that we’re both close to 2 meters tall.
Now, as we can all see, the real boathouse has a view of the Suriname river, Paramaribo, and the Mangroves that surround the boathouse. The version in O Rio Dourado is instead partially sunk into the ground, and at the end of the boathouse there is a large viewing window into the larger section of the titular river of gold. Inside, we can see some of the many giant fish species that call this river home. A huge, mixed school of over 100 Striped silver dollars and Black band myleus’ part to make way for some of the river’s biggest residents, three Kelber’s peacock basses. Half-buried in the sand we can see multiple Pearled river stingrays and from behind a large piece of driftwood emerges a Southern striped raphael, a rather large, black catfish with beautiful dark yellow stripes.
On the wall of the boathouse there’s a fisherman’s guide style poster that lists the various fish species that call this section of the river home. Some other notable species include the Barred sorubim, the Kissing prochilodus, the Emerald cichlid, the Black arowana, and the Royal panaque. Looking into the water for a bit longer we can also discover Golden mascara tetras and Stoplight tetras in one of the planted areas, as well as a single Spotted pike-characin swimming between some semi-submerged tree roots. Scratch that, two Spotted pike-characins between some semi-submerged tree roots.
Going back up the little staircase and walking out of the Boathouse, we are now next to the village’s little dock. Similar to the same boatyard in Suriname that the boathouse is also based on, there’s multiple discarded boats and a generally messy vibe. Amongst a few discarded boats there are also two fully functional boats next to the docks. These are two pully boats! I’m not sure how common these are outside of the Netherlands, but over here they’re everywhere.
Boatyard:
Pully raft:
(I had to bike into town to take a picture of this, as there are barely any photos of these boats in the ZC gallery, even though I know of at least 3 zoos that have them in the Netherlands alone
)Although pully rafts are usually typical square rafts made of planks, the pully boats in O Rio Dourado are in the same style as the ferry canoes that go between Paramaribo and Meerzorg. Another difference between typical pully rafts is that in the Rio Dourado Rafts you are supposed to sit down. Usual pully rafts are done standing up, but since we are over a deeper river full of fish, visitors are encouraged to sit down while in the raft. Due to the size of the canoes, they only seat four at a time. Let’s see… the posts are getting around 10 likes, plus myself. That with two, four-seaters boats… Looks like we’re going to have to double back with at least one of the boats, guys. You guys will have to call shotgun for who gets the first boat.
As we’re on the boat to the other side we can look into the water and see more of the fish species. We can recognise a Many-banded headstander lower in the water, as well as a large Barred sorubim. Other fish, that don’t have patterns on their backs, can also be seen, but who knows what those are. Wait, no! I can definitely say those are a school of eartheaters down there near the bottom. There are two species of eartheater in the river though, and from here I can’t tell them apart…
Also from the boat, we are now right next to the O Rio Dourado mountain, the imposing rockwork looming over us. From up top we can hear a loud bird call.
Feeet-feee, fee-weew
Due to ZooChat's photo limit, this post is split in two
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First another picture of the map:
We step from the boat onto the docks on the other side of the river. To our left, the mountain towers over us. On the other side of the docks there’s a small building built against an odd separated pool in the river. More about this later though, as we walk over the route that leads us away from the river. The main path goes further right, towards the path of part 4, but we take a hidden adventure path that heads between the mountain wall and a large boulder that broke off from the main mountain.
(The O Rio Dourado mountain staircase would look quite a bit rougher than this one)
The adventure path staircase heads up quite steeply. Past the mountain wall we’re completely surrounded by extremely dense foliage, both ground level and tall trees. Some squeaks and rustling of the foliage catch our attention as we look up to see a small family of Silvery marmosets, the third free-roaming monkey species we’ve seen in the O Rio Dourado greenhouse. One by one, they jump between some large hanging roots to get over the gap in the foliage formed by the path. We can see five of them in total.
Continuing up, the path splits in two. The path to our right heads back down the mountain and to the path of part 4, but of course we first go straight ahead and higher up the mountain. The path meanders a bit, to make the steep hill a little more manageable. One the side of a tree, if we’re a bit quiet as to not spook it, we can see a Tree runner, an interesting lizard species that’s adapted to sticking to the sides of tree trunks. The head looks quite similar to that of an agama, but it’s actually more closely related to Lava lizards and such.
As we get closer to the top of the (reachable) mountain, the path start to flatten out a bit. The foliage is even denser up here, creating a strange, seemingly infinite space as we can’t quite see the edge of the mountain, apart from the end of the path straight ahead. Suddenly we all cover our ears as a near-deafening bird call plays right next to us.
FEEET-FEEE, FEE-WEEW
Sitting nonchalantly on a branch in the foliage next to us is a medium-sized, unassuming, grey bird. Staring at us as if we’re the crazy ones for overreacting. It moves its head backward ever-so-slightly as it prepares to call again…
Feee…
Instinctively we cover our ears again and prepare for the impact.
Feee…
Counting down like a ticking timebomb it stares at us again, almost taunting us.
FEEET-FEEE, FEE-WEEW
This bird lives up to its name as the Screaming piha. It definitely has the most iconic bird call of the whole South American region, possibly even the whole zoo. We quickly walk to the end of the path, even if it’s just to put some distance between us and the fire alarm mimic over here. At the end of the adventure path, the mulch path suddenly transitions back into concrete. On the near-top of the mountain there’s a lookout point that gives us an awesome overview of the village. We can see the tops of the houses, the little boats, the islands in the river that we haven’t even gotten to yet, and the top of the aviary that the Bush dogs are located in. We can even see the three vultures, still on their rock, which is located right next to the viewing platform.
After taking in the view for a bit, and hearing the Screaming piha still calling just a little too loud for comfort, we turn around and head back into the jungle. Despite being near the top of the mountain, there’s still some rocks towering a few meters over us. As we slowly head back down we come across a few more Red-rumped caciques, collecting more nesting material for their hanging basket nests. We can actually see one with a grasshopper in its beak, which are occasionally released into the greenhouse from a separate enclosure we’ll come across later.
The Tree runner seems to have found a different lounging place as the spot where we saw it earlier is now empty. We continue further and further down the mountain and this time we take the other route. The steep adventure staircase heads down towards the river, although the hill we’re on still means we’re not exactly close to it. As the path slowly smoothes out from a steep staircase to a gentle slope, we walk parallel with a short rock cliff. On the leaves of a Swiss cheese plant hanging off the side of the cliff, we can see an adorable little Clown tree frog. Depending on your personal opinion, this species could be seen as having beautiful patterns… or maybe you just think it looks like bird poop, which might be what its camouflage is supposed to represent.
Also along this lower section of the mountain path we can once again see the large flock of Ruddy quail-doves, which seems to have migrated from the Kapok grove to the mountain in their foraging. Most of them turn back to the path of Part 4 to let us pass, although a few get separated for a bit and run out ahead of us before turning the corner around another one of the boulders.
Eventually we reach the end of the adventure path. Here, we are greeted with the barren branches of the large, fallen tree that creates the border of the Cane toad enclosure. On one of those branches we can see a beautiful, large bird with pale green feathers, a blue forehead and an especially interesting tail. This is the Blue-crowned motmot, also known as the Amazonian motmot. Three brothers free-roam the greenhouse, Wetlands Park Europe also holds a breeding pair behind the scenes.
Next to the branches of the fake, fallen tree there’s a second viewing point to the large Cane toad enclosure, this time having a simple, low glass barrier to separate the toads from the path… Hmm, that pun works better in Dutch… From here we can actually see the toads a little better, as quite a few of them have squished themselves partially under the large log.
Between the toad habitat and the building along the river we can once again get a glimpse of the islands in the middle of the titular Rio Dourado, and once again I tell you; more on that later .
Lined up on top of the river building is a group of six decently large birds, Blue-throated piping guans seem to really like the roofs of the buildings in O Rio Dourado as places to perch on. Walking into the building we can see multiple large education signs and a lowered area with viewing into the three pools outside. This building is the Amazon fish nursery! The signage is about the issue of a lot of fish from the Amazon river being taken out of the wild to be transported to the western world for the aquarium trade. Something that both O Rio Dourado and me in real life are guilty of as Hatchetfish owners, a fish species that does not breed in captivity.
Many fish species, including many Plecos, Tetra’s and Hatchetfish, don’t breed in captivity and are therefore collected from the wild. Although many fish are collected ethically and sustainably, being collected after the flooded forest recedes and many fish are forced into small ponds and essentially await death there. However, Wetlands Park Europe still wants to help zoos move away from all forms of wild-collected animals. By building fish nurseries in Amazonian towns, and working together with local ecologists in the Amazon and local universities in the Netherlands, WPE hopes to research the breeding habits of Amazonian fish and see how we could replicate it in captivity.
These fish breederies in the Amazon are created by creating separated sections in the Amazon river, especially smaller creeks, where fish species are held in single-species group and allowed to breed without fear of predation. This concept is basically completely based on this pool I saw in Suriname:
By first researching the fish breeding habits in the Amazon, WPE hopes to recreate these breeding habitats in captivity, possibly in a greenhouse environment, so other zoos can get captive-bred Amazonian fish. Since this greenhouse breeding would probably be too expensive for home aquarists, the sustainable fish collecting will still continue to boost the South American economy.
In case you’re wondering why this part of O Rio Dourado is strangely two-sided, that’s because I only found out that collecting wild Amazon fish is surprisingly sustainable mid-write, way after I finished working out the “Amazon fish nursery” concept
.
After the Amazon fish nursery we can take one more look at the outside fish pools before stepping back onto the little boats and pulling ourselves back to the titular fishing town. To our left, on the other side of the docks than the boathouse, there’s another small building. On the roof we can see a beautiful, dark red Tanager species with a recogniseable silver beak. Hence the name, Silver-beaked tanager!
It flies off quite quickly after we step out of the little boat and onto the docks. You’ll notice that the town has two little buildings labelled “E”, this is because both buildings hold the same animal. We walk toward the left-most of the two. Inside, we can see some sort of stock room. Fruits, fish, a small fridge filled to the brim with soda (they really love their soda in the tropics), all of it fake, though. This is actually a room-sized enclosure for Brown rats. A strange addition to a South American region, you might think, but education further along our route explains it.
Wetlands Park Europe isn’t the only zoo to display rats in a domestic setting:
(This example is in a European style, the O Rio Dourado one will of course be South America themed)
There is some general information about invasive species such as the Brown rat, the African giant land snail, the Asian house gecko and, most notoriously, the Common hippopotamus finding their way to South America. There’s also some signage on South American species doing the opposite, like Pacus and Green iguanas becoming big nuisances in places like Florida and South-East Asia.
The second building E is a small washhouse, for washing clothes, getting a drink, and any other things you may need water for. Of course, this exhibit too is behind a plexiglass wall to keep the rats in. The two houses are connected through underground tunnels. The outside of this little washhouse also has a bottle refilling station in case you get thirsty, it is hot and humid in here, after all.
We come out on the other side of the washhouse into a little secluded area between buildings E-right and D. On the edge of a small planted area between E-left and D we can see a tiny little black frog, the Marañón poison frog. A beautiful species with very dark skin and little white spots all over it, when we lean in to take a closer look it quickly jumps into the bushes and we lose sight of it.
It's a bit of a squeeze to get between buildings E, but we manage to all get through. From here we can walk around and toward the entrance to building D (opposite C). In here there’s a lot of education on Bush dogs. How they’ve only been discovered relatively recently and not much is known about them due to how rare they are, and how they’re threatened by feral dogs in South America spreading canine-specific diseases. This little house opens to a viewing deck, which gives us a second viewing point into the large Bush dog indoor enclosure.
Close to the viewing deck there’s a small creek, this actually runs throughout the whole Bush dog indoor enclosure. All the way in the back of the exhibit, we can just about see a few of the Bush dogs heading outside. We’ll see these little guys again… Eventually…
As we walk from the porch to the second mini-building of building D, there are once again educational signs. Although this time not about Bush dogs. The signage here is about some Surinamese folklore, the tales of Anansi. Anansi, also being the Surinamese word for spider, is a trickster deity and a sort of “Antagonistic protagonist” (I wouldn’t call him a villain per se, but he’s not exactly the good guy in all his stories). Similar to the Fox in French (and general European) folklore, Anansi lies, cheats and tricks the people and animals around him to get his way. He’s incredibly lazy and will do pretty much anything to get out of doing any work. To put it elegantly, he’s a real Halichoeres bivittatus.
What’s most interesting though, is that this lazy piece of work transformed into an icon of anticolonialism. The tales of Anansi originated in West-Africa where, as we all know, a lot of European countries (the Netherlands being a pretty big one in there) did a whole bunch of truly horrifying stuff. When enslaved people were brought to South American countries like Suriname, the stories of Anansi, who was famed for overcoming opponents much mightier than him through cunning, became a folk hero and an inspiration for standing up against the oppressor. The enslaved people in Suriname who managed to escape into the rainforest, formed new tribes that our guide elegantly called “the Afrindians”. They brought with them the stories of Anansi, which are now very popular in Suriname and even made their way over to the Netherlands.
What’s most interesting about this is that Anansi is a spider, a creature usually feared and who rarely gets to play the hero in modern storytelling (not counting Spider-man). This education on the Surinamese folk hero is paired with, of course, a tarantula enclosure. Inside a large terrarium there’s a miniature landscape with a small gazebo-like hut with a miniature hammock made to look like a spider web. A cute imagining of Anansi’s house, of course. The tarantula species chosen for this habitat is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of the tarantulas; the Venezuelan sun tiger tarantula!
As we walk towards the final building of the town (building F), we come across a nice section of forest. There is a small adventure path going through it, but this is closed off by a simple rope. This actually isn’t an adventure path at all, but instead a path where the staff can more easily access O Rio Dourado from the park’s main path. Although there is no staff using it right now, we can see a small flock of Crested bobwhites, adorable little quails native to Northernmost South America. Also in these bushes, we can see the Red-crested cardinal again! This time we can see a pair of them, the female clearly having a less red head than the male.
We continue on to building F. Above the entrance we can see a large, round logo. Two snakes surrounded by foliage slither toward the letters SPS in the middle. This is the logo for Snake Patrol Suriname, who I mentioned earlier. This building represents the Snake Patrol Suriname headquarters, from where they do educative talks and hold the snakes temporarily for relocation. Note: I haven’t actually been to their headquarters, in fact I don’t even know if they have a real “home base”. Wetlands Park will sponsor SPS with building a headquarters/educational centre if they don’t have one, but also high-quality holding facilities for any snakes they may be relocating, educational pamphlet, books and TV spots, and anything else they need to educate Surinamese people about snakes and other wildlife.
Inside the building there are four terrariums. Two terrariums on our left have a sign on the wall above them, which says “little to no danger”. These terrariums have an interior full of branches and unlike the rest of O Rio Dourado, aren’t specifically designed to look extremely natural. These terrariums hold a single snake each, a Garden tree boa and an Emerald tree boa.
Opposite these terrariums are three terrariums, two of them a lot larger than the other. Above the larger terrariums, a sign says “moderate danger”, above the other it says “high danger”. One of the larger terrariums holds a sizeable Boa constrictor. Although not venomous, they can grow to 4 meters long and are strong enough to overpower a grown man. This enclosure is similarly simple in design.
The second large terrarium is decorated more like a wetland than a forest, with a larger aquatic area and less arboreal space. This terrarium is home to a large False water cobra, a species that is venomous, but is rear-fanged. Due to this, the False water cobra would have to chew on you for quite a bit to properly get its venom in you. The False water cobra’s venom causes swelling and pain, but it hasn’t killed anyone. Just like cobras, this species can turn its neck into a hood, creating the illusion that it is larger than it really is.
The smaller terrarium, labelled high danger, holds O Rio Dourado’s most venomous snake, the Uracoan rattlesnake. This one is decorated a little more elaborately, with some tall grass, loose branches and leaf litter to highlight the species’ camouflage abilities.
After these terrariums the room opens up a bit, this part of the room is actually a little classroom. On busier days there are educational talks here with a few ambassador animals, including the two tree boas held in this building’s terrariums. The educator, supposed to be an SPS volunteer, can also bring out animals like turtles, frogs, tarantulas, Hercules beetles and cockroaches. The educational talk includes information on how to recognise the difference between dangerous snakes like Coral snakes, Bushmasters and Lanceheads, and non-dangerous snakes like Tree boas, Chicken snakes and Coachwhips. There’s also some education on how Suriname’s excessive snake-killing has caused a boom in the rodent population. Hence the rat infestation in the village .
All the information in the educator’s talk can also be read on posters on the wall, which function as scrolls that can be unrolled during non-educator days, and rolled up when the educator is present.
The SPS building actually has two stories, although the second one can’t be accessed by visitors (there is an exterior staircase for staff). The second story of this building functions as an “indoor” enclosure for a group of monkeys, which we will meet as soon as we step outside the building.
Stepping out of the SPS building and onto a boardwalk over the river, we get a good view of the three groups of islands sitting in this broad section of the river of gold. Suriname is a very rocky country, and large granite boulders line the rivers. I’ve now been up and down the Suriname river quite a few times, and every time we come across hundreds of miniature islands formed by boulders sticking up out of the water. Sometimes, dirt, sand and seeds get caught between the rocks and they grow to form tiny, forested islands. In some cases, full trees seemingly grow only in the water between the rocks. The islands in O Rio Dourado are based on such islands.
My own photos (I know they’re oversaturated, but otherwise it’s difficult to tell the trees on the island apart from the trees in the rainforest):
Here’s a professional photo taken during the dry season, showcasing just how many rocks there are in the river, as well as showing one of the larger islands:
Along with multiple small, live trees on the islands, there are also a few large, fallen trees that connect the islands so the inhabitants can more easily reach them. What are the inhabitants, you ask? A trio of Guianan bearded sakis, a dark brown monkey species known for its thick fur and of course, the thing its named after, a thick beard. We can actually see all three of them climbing on the large fallen tree in the middle of the three island groups. These aren’t the only animals on the island though, as we can also see quite a few Black-bellied whistling ducks on a few of the large rocks on the edge of the island group. This is the most numerous of the four duck species free-roaming the greenhouse, as there’s over 20 Black-bellied whistling ducks here. Although not all of them currently on the island, of course.
A little further towards the end of the island’s “tail”, we can see another free-roamer, our third reptile free-roamer! A few Yellow-spotted Amazon river turtles lay lazily on the rocks. These last rocks of the island formation are even closer to the river, and small waves sometimes submerge them just for a second. Just like the Twist-neck turtles that we saw earlier, these turtles do have their favourite spot here, preferring the open water of the deeper river.
With that, I take a deep, DEEP sigh of relief as this was definitely the longest part of O Rio Dourado (at least, I think… I hope). I decided to include some extra education in this one, so I hope you enjoyed that, as well as the whole of part 5 of course. I may have been a little early with releasing the Part 6 teaser, I was expecting part 5 to come out a little earlier than this, but oh well. I’ll probably have part 6 out next week and otherwise, oh well, it’ll be a little longer.
Species of area 5:
(The first O Rio Dourado part that does not have a single mixed species enclosure!)
We step from the boat onto the docks on the other side of the river. To our left, the mountain towers over us. On the other side of the docks there’s a small building built against an odd separated pool in the river. More about this later though, as we walk over the route that leads us away from the river. The main path goes further right, towards the path of part 4, but we take a hidden adventure path that heads between the mountain wall and a large boulder that broke off from the main mountain.
(The O Rio Dourado mountain staircase would look quite a bit rougher than this one)
The adventure path staircase heads up quite steeply. Past the mountain wall we’re completely surrounded by extremely dense foliage, both ground level and tall trees. Some squeaks and rustling of the foliage catch our attention as we look up to see a small family of Silvery marmosets, the third free-roaming monkey species we’ve seen in the O Rio Dourado greenhouse. One by one, they jump between some large hanging roots to get over the gap in the foliage formed by the path. We can see five of them in total.
Continuing up, the path splits in two. The path to our right heads back down the mountain and to the path of part 4, but of course we first go straight ahead and higher up the mountain. The path meanders a bit, to make the steep hill a little more manageable. One the side of a tree, if we’re a bit quiet as to not spook it, we can see a Tree runner, an interesting lizard species that’s adapted to sticking to the sides of tree trunks. The head looks quite similar to that of an agama, but it’s actually more closely related to Lava lizards and such.
As we get closer to the top of the (reachable) mountain, the path start to flatten out a bit. The foliage is even denser up here, creating a strange, seemingly infinite space as we can’t quite see the edge of the mountain, apart from the end of the path straight ahead. Suddenly we all cover our ears as a near-deafening bird call plays right next to us.
FEEET-FEEE, FEE-WEEW
Sitting nonchalantly on a branch in the foliage next to us is a medium-sized, unassuming, grey bird. Staring at us as if we’re the crazy ones for overreacting. It moves its head backward ever-so-slightly as it prepares to call again…
Feee…
Instinctively we cover our ears again and prepare for the impact.
Feee…
Counting down like a ticking timebomb it stares at us again, almost taunting us.
FEEET-FEEE, FEE-WEEW
This bird lives up to its name as the Screaming piha. It definitely has the most iconic bird call of the whole South American region, possibly even the whole zoo. We quickly walk to the end of the path, even if it’s just to put some distance between us and the fire alarm mimic over here. At the end of the adventure path, the mulch path suddenly transitions back into concrete. On the near-top of the mountain there’s a lookout point that gives us an awesome overview of the village. We can see the tops of the houses, the little boats, the islands in the river that we haven’t even gotten to yet, and the top of the aviary that the Bush dogs are located in. We can even see the three vultures, still on their rock, which is located right next to the viewing platform.
After taking in the view for a bit, and hearing the Screaming piha still calling just a little too loud for comfort, we turn around and head back into the jungle. Despite being near the top of the mountain, there’s still some rocks towering a few meters over us. As we slowly head back down we come across a few more Red-rumped caciques, collecting more nesting material for their hanging basket nests. We can actually see one with a grasshopper in its beak, which are occasionally released into the greenhouse from a separate enclosure we’ll come across later
.The Tree runner seems to have found a different lounging place as the spot where we saw it earlier is now empty. We continue further and further down the mountain and this time we take the other route. The steep adventure staircase heads down towards the river, although the hill we’re on still means we’re not exactly close to it. As the path slowly smoothes out from a steep staircase to a gentle slope, we walk parallel with a short rock cliff. On the leaves of a Swiss cheese plant hanging off the side of the cliff, we can see an adorable little Clown tree frog. Depending on your personal opinion, this species could be seen as having beautiful patterns… or maybe you just think it looks like bird poop, which might be what its camouflage is supposed to represent.
Also along this lower section of the mountain path we can once again see the large flock of Ruddy quail-doves, which seems to have migrated from the Kapok grove to the mountain in their foraging. Most of them turn back to the path of Part 4 to let us pass, although a few get separated for a bit and run out ahead of us before turning the corner around another one of the boulders.
Eventually we reach the end of the adventure path. Here, we are greeted with the barren branches of the large, fallen tree that creates the border of the Cane toad enclosure. On one of those branches we can see a beautiful, large bird with pale green feathers, a blue forehead and an especially interesting tail. This is the Blue-crowned motmot, also known as the Amazonian motmot. Three brothers free-roam the greenhouse, Wetlands Park Europe also holds a breeding pair behind the scenes.
Next to the branches of the fake, fallen tree there’s a second viewing point to the large Cane toad enclosure, this time having a simple, low glass barrier to separate the toads from the path… Hmm, that pun works better in Dutch… From here we can actually see the toads a little better, as quite a few of them have squished themselves partially under the large log.
Between the toad habitat and the building along the river we can once again get a glimpse of the islands in the middle of the titular Rio Dourado, and once again I tell you; more on that later
.Lined up on top of the river building is a group of six decently large birds, Blue-throated piping guans seem to really like the roofs of the buildings in O Rio Dourado as places to perch on. Walking into the building we can see multiple large education signs and a lowered area with viewing into the three pools outside. This building is the Amazon fish nursery! The signage is about the issue of a lot of fish from the Amazon river being taken out of the wild to be transported to the western world for the aquarium trade. Something that both O Rio Dourado and me in real life are guilty of as Hatchetfish owners, a fish species that does not breed in captivity.
Many fish species, including many Plecos, Tetra’s and Hatchetfish, don’t breed in captivity and are therefore collected from the wild. Although many fish are collected ethically and sustainably, being collected after the flooded forest recedes and many fish are forced into small ponds and essentially await death there. However, Wetlands Park Europe still wants to help zoos move away from all forms of wild-collected animals. By building fish nurseries in Amazonian towns, and working together with local ecologists in the Amazon and local universities in the Netherlands, WPE hopes to research the breeding habits of Amazonian fish and see how we could replicate it in captivity.
These fish breederies in the Amazon are created by creating separated sections in the Amazon river, especially smaller creeks, where fish species are held in single-species group and allowed to breed without fear of predation. This concept is basically completely based on this pool I saw in Suriname:
By first researching the fish breeding habits in the Amazon, WPE hopes to recreate these breeding habitats in captivity, possibly in a greenhouse environment, so other zoos can get captive-bred Amazonian fish. Since this greenhouse breeding would probably be too expensive for home aquarists, the sustainable fish collecting will still continue to boost the South American economy.
In case you’re wondering why this part of O Rio Dourado is strangely two-sided, that’s because I only found out that collecting wild Amazon fish is surprisingly sustainable mid-write, way after I finished working out the “Amazon fish nursery” concept
.After the Amazon fish nursery we can take one more look at the outside fish pools before stepping back onto the little boats and pulling ourselves back to the titular fishing town. To our left, on the other side of the docks than the boathouse, there’s another small building. On the roof we can see a beautiful, dark red Tanager species with a recogniseable silver beak. Hence the name, Silver-beaked tanager!
It flies off quite quickly after we step out of the little boat and onto the docks. You’ll notice that the town has two little buildings labelled “E”, this is because both buildings hold the same animal. We walk toward the left-most of the two. Inside, we can see some sort of stock room. Fruits, fish, a small fridge filled to the brim with soda (they really love their soda in the tropics), all of it fake, though. This is actually a room-sized enclosure for Brown rats. A strange addition to a South American region, you might think, but education further along our route explains it.
Wetlands Park Europe isn’t the only zoo to display rats in a domestic setting:
(This example is in a European style, the O Rio Dourado one will of course be South America themed)
There is some general information about invasive species such as the Brown rat, the African giant land snail, the Asian house gecko and, most notoriously, the Common hippopotamus finding their way to South America. There’s also some signage on South American species doing the opposite, like Pacus and Green iguanas becoming big nuisances in places like Florida and South-East Asia.
The second building E is a small washhouse, for washing clothes, getting a drink, and any other things you may need water for. Of course, this exhibit too is behind a plexiglass wall to keep the rats in. The two houses are connected through underground tunnels. The outside of this little washhouse also has a bottle refilling station in case you get thirsty, it is hot and humid in here, after all.
We come out on the other side of the washhouse into a little secluded area between buildings E-right and D. On the edge of a small planted area between E-left and D we can see a tiny little black frog, the Marañón poison frog. A beautiful species with very dark skin and little white spots all over it, when we lean in to take a closer look it quickly jumps into the bushes and we lose sight of it.
It's a bit of a squeeze to get between buildings E, but we manage to all get through. From here we can walk around and toward the entrance to building D (opposite C). In here there’s a lot of education on Bush dogs. How they’ve only been discovered relatively recently and not much is known about them due to how rare they are, and how they’re threatened by feral dogs in South America spreading canine-specific diseases. This little house opens to a viewing deck, which gives us a second viewing point into the large Bush dog indoor enclosure.
Close to the viewing deck there’s a small creek, this actually runs throughout the whole Bush dog indoor enclosure. All the way in the back of the exhibit, we can just about see a few of the Bush dogs heading outside. We’ll see these little guys again… Eventually…
As we walk from the porch to the second mini-building of building D, there are once again educational signs. Although this time not about Bush dogs. The signage here is about some Surinamese folklore, the tales of Anansi. Anansi, also being the Surinamese word for spider, is a trickster deity and a sort of “Antagonistic protagonist” (I wouldn’t call him a villain per se, but he’s not exactly the good guy in all his stories). Similar to the Fox in French (and general European) folklore, Anansi lies, cheats and tricks the people and animals around him to get his way. He’s incredibly lazy and will do pretty much anything to get out of doing any work. To put it elegantly, he’s a real Halichoeres bivittatus.
What’s most interesting though, is that this lazy piece of work transformed into an icon of anticolonialism. The tales of Anansi originated in West-Africa where, as we all know, a lot of European countries (the Netherlands being a pretty big one in there) did a whole bunch of truly horrifying stuff. When enslaved people were brought to South American countries like Suriname, the stories of Anansi, who was famed for overcoming opponents much mightier than him through cunning, became a folk hero and an inspiration for standing up against the oppressor. The enslaved people in Suriname who managed to escape into the rainforest, formed new tribes that our guide elegantly called “the Afrindians”. They brought with them the stories of Anansi, which are now very popular in Suriname and even made their way over to the Netherlands.
What’s most interesting about this is that Anansi is a spider, a creature usually feared and who rarely gets to play the hero in modern storytelling (not counting Spider-man). This education on the Surinamese folk hero is paired with, of course, a tarantula enclosure. Inside a large terrarium there’s a miniature landscape with a small gazebo-like hut with a miniature hammock made to look like a spider web. A cute imagining of Anansi’s house, of course. The tarantula species chosen for this habitat is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of the tarantulas; the Venezuelan sun tiger tarantula!
As we walk towards the final building of the town (building F), we come across a nice section of forest. There is a small adventure path going through it, but this is closed off by a simple rope. This actually isn’t an adventure path at all, but instead a path where the staff can more easily access O Rio Dourado from the park’s main path. Although there is no staff using it right now, we can see a small flock of Crested bobwhites, adorable little quails native to Northernmost South America. Also in these bushes, we can see the Red-crested cardinal again! This time we can see a pair of them, the female clearly having a less red head than the male.
We continue on to building F. Above the entrance we can see a large, round logo. Two snakes surrounded by foliage slither toward the letters SPS in the middle. This is the logo for Snake Patrol Suriname, who I mentioned earlier. This building represents the Snake Patrol Suriname headquarters, from where they do educative talks and hold the snakes temporarily for relocation. Note: I haven’t actually been to their headquarters, in fact I don’t even know if they have a real “home base”. Wetlands Park will sponsor SPS with building a headquarters/educational centre if they don’t have one, but also high-quality holding facilities for any snakes they may be relocating, educational pamphlet, books and TV spots, and anything else they need to educate Surinamese people about snakes and other wildlife.
Inside the building there are four terrariums. Two terrariums on our left have a sign on the wall above them, which says “little to no danger”. These terrariums have an interior full of branches and unlike the rest of O Rio Dourado, aren’t specifically designed to look extremely natural. These terrariums hold a single snake each, a Garden tree boa and an Emerald tree boa.
Opposite these terrariums are three terrariums, two of them a lot larger than the other. Above the larger terrariums, a sign says “moderate danger”, above the other it says “high danger”. One of the larger terrariums holds a sizeable Boa constrictor. Although not venomous, they can grow to 4 meters long and are strong enough to overpower a grown man. This enclosure is similarly simple in design.
The second large terrarium is decorated more like a wetland than a forest, with a larger aquatic area and less arboreal space. This terrarium is home to a large False water cobra, a species that is venomous, but is rear-fanged. Due to this, the False water cobra would have to chew on you for quite a bit to properly get its venom in you. The False water cobra’s venom causes swelling and pain, but it hasn’t killed anyone. Just like cobras, this species can turn its neck into a hood, creating the illusion that it is larger than it really is.
The smaller terrarium, labelled high danger, holds O Rio Dourado’s most venomous snake, the Uracoan rattlesnake. This one is decorated a little more elaborately, with some tall grass, loose branches and leaf litter to highlight the species’ camouflage abilities.
After these terrariums the room opens up a bit, this part of the room is actually a little classroom. On busier days there are educational talks here with a few ambassador animals, including the two tree boas held in this building’s terrariums. The educator, supposed to be an SPS volunteer, can also bring out animals like turtles, frogs, tarantulas, Hercules beetles and cockroaches. The educational talk includes information on how to recognise the difference between dangerous snakes like Coral snakes, Bushmasters and Lanceheads, and non-dangerous snakes like Tree boas, Chicken snakes and Coachwhips. There’s also some education on how Suriname’s excessive snake-killing has caused a boom in the rodent population. Hence the rat infestation in the village
.All the information in the educator’s talk can also be read on posters on the wall, which function as scrolls that can be unrolled during non-educator days, and rolled up when the educator is present.
The SPS building actually has two stories, although the second one can’t be accessed by visitors (there is an exterior staircase for staff). The second story of this building functions as an “indoor” enclosure for a group of monkeys, which we will meet as soon as we step outside the building.
Stepping out of the SPS building and onto a boardwalk over the river, we get a good view of the three groups of islands sitting in this broad section of the river of gold. Suriname is a very rocky country, and large granite boulders line the rivers. I’ve now been up and down the Suriname river quite a few times, and every time we come across hundreds of miniature islands formed by boulders sticking up out of the water. Sometimes, dirt, sand and seeds get caught between the rocks and they grow to form tiny, forested islands. In some cases, full trees seemingly grow only in the water between the rocks. The islands in O Rio Dourado are based on such islands.
My own photos (I know they’re oversaturated, but otherwise it’s difficult to tell the trees on the island apart from the trees in the rainforest):
Here’s a professional photo taken during the dry season, showcasing just how many rocks there are in the river, as well as showing one of the larger islands:
Along with multiple small, live trees on the islands, there are also a few large, fallen trees that connect the islands so the inhabitants can more easily reach them. What are the inhabitants, you ask? A trio of Guianan bearded sakis, a dark brown monkey species known for its thick fur and of course, the thing its named after, a thick beard. We can actually see all three of them climbing on the large fallen tree in the middle of the three island groups. These aren’t the only animals on the island though, as we can also see quite a few Black-bellied whistling ducks on a few of the large rocks on the edge of the island group. This is the most numerous of the four duck species free-roaming the greenhouse, as there’s over 20 Black-bellied whistling ducks here. Although not all of them currently on the island, of course.
A little further towards the end of the island’s “tail”, we can see another free-roamer, our third reptile free-roamer! A few Yellow-spotted Amazon river turtles lay lazily on the rocks. These last rocks of the island formation are even closer to the river, and small waves sometimes submerge them just for a second. Just like the Twist-neck turtles that we saw earlier, these turtles do have their favourite spot here, preferring the open water of the deeper river.
With that, I take a deep, DEEP sigh of relief as this was definitely the longest part of O Rio Dourado (at least, I think… I hope). I decided to include some extra education in this one, so I hope you enjoyed that, as well as the whole of part 5 of course. I may have been a little early with releasing the Part 6 teaser, I was expecting part 5 to come out a little earlier than this, but oh well. I’ll probably have part 6 out next week and otherwise, oh well, it’ll be a little longer.
Species of area 5:
(The first O Rio Dourado part that does not have a single mixed species enclosure!)
Attachments
W.O.W!!!
If ZooChat were to ever enable a five-star rating for general posts, I would happily give both parts of Area 5 that rate!
This already was a joy to read, and I really enjoyed the personal segments regarding your personal connections to Suriname and how influential it was to the design of this entire complex.
I was also a fan of the “edu-rant” segment, and I really hope more of these segments can be implemented into future posts. Not only are they a treat to read, but I also appreciate the plight of the indigenous peoples of Suriname and the zoo’s efforts to help them out; even if it’s only a fictional detail.
With this post, it really set the standard for my expectations on the project; and I cannot wait for the second part of this sector, let alone, the remaining areas!
If ZooChat were to ever enable a five-star rating for general posts, I would happily give both parts of Area 5 that rate!
This already was a joy to read, and I really enjoyed the personal segments regarding your personal connections to Suriname and how influential it was to the design of this entire complex.
I was also a fan of the “edu-rant” segment, and I really hope more of these segments can be implemented into future posts. Not only are they a treat to read, but I also appreciate the plight of the indigenous peoples of Suriname and the zoo’s efforts to help them out; even if it’s only a fictional detail.
With this post, it really set the standard for my expectations on the project; and I cannot wait for the second part of this sector, let alone, the remaining areas!
Thank you very much for your kind words!
I will admit beforehand that part 5 is definitely the most elaborate section of the whole South American section, and there likely won't be another edu-rant unfortunately. Just like SPS, the Suriname Sloth Sanctuary will also have their own little place in O Rio Dourado, but that will be much further along the line and won't have education as elaborate as SPS.
No other country or region of nature have a personal connection to me like Suriname, only the Wadden and the Alps come close and they're waaay behind in comparison. As I mentioned, my father grew up there and I grew up on the stories that he shared with me. As well as the culture that my father's side of the family brought with them. Despite our skin being about as white as can be, the family dynamics and traditions perfectly mirror those I see on tv with African-American families. Colourful dresses, accents growing stronger as they talk to each other, everyone brings their own giant pots of food, most of them spicy. Even the typical "auntie" glasses and makeup.
Suriname is also the most... "troubled" country I've visited. And especially this recent trip brought to light just how bad it can be in the tropics. And Suriname isn't even that poor of a country. I'm used to people being afraid of snakes, but not nearly as bad as in Suriname. I'm used to the economy being in the gutter, but not as bad as in Suriname. I'm used to being under threat of Global warming since I live in the Netherlands. Hell, I've seen the gradual disappearance of snow throughout my childhood. But that's not as bad as the gradual disappearance of whole rivers in Suriname. My father's stories, my visit to the house of one of the SPS workers, my visit to the Paramaribo zoo (another thing WPE would sponsor, btw), even just a talk with a taxi driver. All highlight the issues of Suriname. Brought on by post-colonialism, corruption on the inside and outside of the country, and global warming being a huge problem world-wide.
Even if Wetlands Park Europe and O Rio Dourado aren't real, I'm very glad I'm now able to use it as an outlet to educate people about these issues. And even though the donation points in O Rio Dourado aren't real, I myself did make a decent donation to the Green Heritage Fund (which also goes to the Sloth Sanctuary). I'd never ask you guys for money, even my own donation came from a charity cookie sale I did at school, so don't feel any obligation. But if you guys really like O Rio Dourado and would like to support the real organisations I'm basing some of this on, consider donating to the Green heritage fund Suriname or Snake Patrol Suriname. I (and they)'d really appreciate it.
I'll see you guys next week (probably near the end of it) with part 6!
I will admit beforehand that part 5 is definitely the most elaborate section of the whole South American section, and there likely won't be another edu-rant unfortunately. Just like SPS, the Suriname Sloth Sanctuary will also have their own little place in O Rio Dourado, but that will be much further along the line and won't have education as elaborate as SPS.
No other country or region of nature have a personal connection to me like Suriname, only the Wadden and the Alps come close and they're waaay behind in comparison. As I mentioned, my father grew up there and I grew up on the stories that he shared with me. As well as the culture that my father's side of the family brought with them. Despite our skin being about as white as can be, the family dynamics and traditions perfectly mirror those I see on tv with African-American families. Colourful dresses, accents growing stronger as they talk to each other, everyone brings their own giant pots of food, most of them spicy. Even the typical "auntie" glasses and makeup.
Suriname is also the most... "troubled" country I've visited. And especially this recent trip brought to light just how bad it can be in the tropics. And Suriname isn't even that poor of a country. I'm used to people being afraid of snakes, but not nearly as bad as in Suriname. I'm used to the economy being in the gutter, but not as bad as in Suriname. I'm used to being under threat of Global warming since I live in the Netherlands. Hell, I've seen the gradual disappearance of snow throughout my childhood. But that's not as bad as the gradual disappearance of whole rivers in Suriname. My father's stories, my visit to the house of one of the SPS workers, my visit to the Paramaribo zoo (another thing WPE would sponsor, btw), even just a talk with a taxi driver. All highlight the issues of Suriname. Brought on by post-colonialism, corruption on the inside and outside of the country, and global warming being a huge problem world-wide.
Even if Wetlands Park Europe and O Rio Dourado aren't real, I'm very glad I'm now able to use it as an outlet to educate people about these issues. And even though the donation points in O Rio Dourado aren't real, I myself did make a decent donation to the Green Heritage Fund (which also goes to the Sloth Sanctuary). I'd never ask you guys for money, even my own donation came from a charity cookie sale I did at school, so don't feel any obligation. But if you guys really like O Rio Dourado and would like to support the real organisations I'm basing some of this on, consider donating to the Green heritage fund Suriname or Snake Patrol Suriname. I (and they)'d really appreciate it.
I'll see you guys next week (probably near the end of it) with part 6!
I have been feeling a little under the weather this week and wasn't able to progress all that much with the part 6 description. Expect it next week instead of this week
AmazonianHippo
Well-Known Member
Hi I have been following this thread for a while now, but due to restrictions of the website I'm only able to post now and I say... this is spectacular! By 'Wetlands park' you mean wetlands, savannah, cloud forest, coniferous forest, desert and every other habitat known to mankind. Brilliant
Glad you're enjoying the thread! Similar to the Dutch zoo Aquazoo Leeuwarden, all the parts of Wetlands Park Europe are tied to a type of semi-aquatic biome. The rift lakes of East Africa (De Savanne), the fast-flowing rivers and rapids of the Guyanan shield rainforests (O Rio Dourado), the frozen swamps and lakes of northern Siberia (De Toendra), the oxbow lakes of Eastern Australia (The Billabong), etc. So I wouldn't say it's every habitat. It's very unlikely for there to be a desert region at some point... Well, not unless it's oasis-themed
Platypusboy
Well-Known Member
Perhaps an exhibit based on the deserts around the Colorado river? (Oh wait no, that's just Burgers' desert...)
Well, another "requirement" of it is that any given area is that it would need an "main character" animal that has something to do with water. Atlantic puffin for Lundaeyja, Jaguar for O Rio Dourado, North American beaver for Meyer's creek, etc.
Fair, North Lake Outpost and Meredith range don't have this, but they're more extensions on other areas that do have it.
If there was to be a desert-themed part of O Rio Dourado, it would be an oasis/nile themed Saharan area with the nile crocodile or the dromedary camel as main animals, but I don't have anything of the sort on the planning at the moment. However... There are other projects in the planning that do have Desert vibes...
Whelp, we're off to the fourth indoor region of O Rio Dourado. This will be the end of the first route through the greenhouse, not to mention the halfway point of the whole project. After this, I will most likely be taking a break and doing some other projects for a little bit before coming back. I know there was already some trouble with getting part 5 and 6 out there, but that’s part of why I’m planning on taking a break. Hopefully I’ll finish this project entirely, descriptions and all, so I can release the second half of this project gradually but consistently…
I would like to welcome you to Part 6: the Sula Shore, our halfway point:
Before we begin I’m going to go ahead and teleport us back to the SPS building. There’s also a regular path that goes past the boardwalk, that’s where we’ll be starting our route. From here, as we look to our right, the next animal enclosure isn’t all that close to the path. In fact, there’s no proper viewing point to it at all. We have to look through some trees and bushes to see a simple wooden fence, the type you might see on a farm. Behind it we can see a rather strange animal, an animal that, more strangely, could clearly fit between the gaps in the fence! A Giant anteater, with a long nose and a bushy tail, can be seen patrolling the sides of the fence. Is this guy free-roaming? Wouldn’t that be dangerous? It could clearly fit under the fence if it tried a little. Hell, it could probably climb over it if it wanted to. Well, no worries dear guests. This enclosure is perfectly fine for Giant anteaters. Practically invisible to the visitor’s eye is a glass barrier right behind the wooden fence. This enclosure is meant to really capture that feeling of seeing an animal in the jungle, just beyond the bushes.
In the back of the enclosure, although it’s difficult to look through the foliage, we can also see a smaller form, a Red-rumped agouti shares this enclosure with the Anteater. The indoor enclosure is generally difficult to see though. Don’t worry, we’ll see these animals again in the second outdoor area.
There’s a third animal we can see from here, though. Lazily sleeping on the wooden fence is a large Green iguana. This is a large male, there’s also two smaller females that free-roam the greenhouse, but they’re a lot more shy. We continue along the path between the anteater exhibit and the beach, where it quickly merges again with the Boardwalk past the monkey islands. We’ve almost completely walked the length of the short end of the greenhouse since part 5. The path here takes a slow turn, easing us away from the greenhouse wall.
In the dense bushes we can spot another pair of Blue ground doves, the female sitting on a nest. Also visible in this little forest area between the path and the greenhouse wall is a single two-toed sloth. Usually hidden away sleeping high up in the trees, this one can be seen on the low-hanging branch of a large Calabash tree. It’s climbing closer to the trunk of the tree very slowly, but we decide to move on before it reaches there. It is a sloth after all, this could take all day…
We can see a sudden flash of colour among a carpet of sensitive plants, a Yellow-banded poison dart frog is kinda struggling to get through the dense ground cover. We watch it until it disappears into shadows of a denser bit of brush.
As we walk further over the relatively narrow strip of land between the side of the greenhouse and the Rio Dourado river, the path comes closer and closer to a rocky ledge. Hidden underneath an overhang of tree roots, there is an exhibit for the creepiest of creepy crawlies. On the map I’ve labelled the enclosure with an A, since the tree root overhang isn’t actually drawn on the map. Between the fake wooden tendrils are multiple glass viewing windows into a decently sized terrarium, housing a large Goliath tarantula.
Sketch of the tarantula habitat:
(I've put three stripes between some of the tree roots, this is to signify the glass)
After the hidden terrarium we get a large, open view of the river as we walk from the rainforest onto a beach. In front of us we can see a huge group of large islands in the river. In the distance we can also hear a faint rushing noise, the sound no longer dampened by the rainforest…
Just like the previous monkey islands, these islands are formed by large boulders sticking up from out of the river. On top of a few of the islands, we can see old, abandoned watchtowers, similar to the tower we saw earlier on during our trek through O Rio Dourado, in part 4. Wooden bridges lay shattered between a few of them, while others are still intact. They’re much smaller than the watchtower we saw earlier though. These towers and bridges form climbing structures for the troop of Red-faced black spider monkeys that call this large island group home.
On top of some of the smaller boulders that line the islands, we can see a group of Buff-necked ibises looking for food. The various monkey islands throughout the river are used as feeding spots for the wading birds, since this area of the river is shallow and the food won’t sink too deep. Additionally, any leftover shrimp of fish will be eaten by the fish living in the river. The shallow areas around the islands are, of course, also used as breeding grounds for the fish species that inhabit the river. Hopefully, the fish-eating birds will sooner go after the food shrimp rather than the fish fry between the plants and rocks…
Speaking of plants, we can see that there’s a lot less marshy plants than around the other islands. In this part of the river, the water is flowing just a little faster than in other parts of O Rio Dourado. That rushing noise also seems to be getting a little louder… You’ve all already seen it in the picture of course, part 6 of O Rio Dourado isn’t called the Sula shore for nothing. We’ve already encountered a relatively small waterfall based on a sula before, but this is the real deal. Just over 30 meters long from the first waterfall to the last, this huge collection of rapids and small waterfalls is an homage to the Sulas (rapids) of the Surinamese rivers. Unfortunately for us, though. We can’t get a real proper view of the Sula from here, as the rapids only really start further along the river, right after the path moves away from the river.
Here's some sula pictures anyway:
Before we follow the path back up and away from the river though, we take one more look at the Spider monkey islands. On the ropes connecting the islands for the spider monkeys, we can see a small group of Blue-headed parrots, the second parrot species that free-roams the greenhouse. In the background, we can see more looking towers. These ones are meant for visitors, much bigger than the ones meant for the spider monkeys. Interestingly though, we can see that some of them are on the Spider monkey islands. These aren’t accessible to the spider monkeys, of course. They’re made perfectly climb-proof. Although a few of them do have ropes going to them… Two of these looking towers actually double in functionality as the indoor holding for the Spider monkey troop, we can actually see two of the Red-faced black spider monkeys heading indoors all the way on the other side of the Sula.
We walk further along the path, heading back up and away from the river. From here, we can get a good view of a large rock field. These rock fields often appear during the dry season, when the river is lower. Although most of O Rio Dourado is supposed to represent the rainforest in Rainy season, the sula and the rock field that surrounds it are representative of the Surinamese rivers in the Dry seasons. These rock fields appear because the river washes out all the sand and soil during the rainy season, and disappears during the dry season, leaving it exposed. You can see this well in this picture that I also showed before:
This rocky area is absolutely perfect for soaking up the sun. If portable beach chairs existed (and I wasn’t already practically overheating in the greenhouse), I’d probably take a seat here to enjoy the sun. This also makes it a great spot to see lizards, of course. On the large boulders we can see a pair of Rainbow whiptails, a small but gorgeous lizard species. They stare at us for a second, seeing if we’re a threat or not, before darting into the underbrush within the blink of an eye.
The path loops around and slopes upward, bringing us back into a forested section and off the sandy beach. Above our heads we can see a few ropes spun between the trees. Because this area has less foliage than, say, part 4, this region includes a few extra climbing opportunities than the rest of the greenhouse. On the rope above the path we can actually see a pair of Red-bellied tamarins climbing to the other side. No wait… a trio! One of them has a small baby riding on her back. Unfortunately for us they disappear into the forest before we can get a proper photo.
Before the path loops around again we can see a small shortcut staircase between the path near the tarantula terrarium and the path we’re currently on. We could’ve taken it to get up here quicker, but that would’ve meant skipping the spider monkey islands, and there’s no way we would’ve done that.
As we follow along the looping path we can see a small bird flying in from the distance before landing in the bushes on the outside of the path loop. This species is quite recogniseable, with its black-and-blue speckled feathers and a yellow belly, this is the Turquoise tanager! It preens itself under its wing for a moment before quickly flying off again.
At the end of the path loop there’s a small, secret path that heads into a cave. This path is purposely hidden and difficult to notice from the main path, and even if you do see it there’s a little sign signifying that this route is one-way, and this is not the entrance to it.
The main route continues past a cliff, which seems a little taller here to accommodate the underground path hidden on the other side of the rocks. Soon enough, our route leads us to our next exhibit. Another tall aviary separating a section of the cliff. Inside we can see multiple boulders and a very large fallen tree. This enclosure is home to a pair of Tayra, a South American mustelid species that’s closely related to the Wolverine. Living much more arboreally than its Northern cousin, this indoor exhibit also includes a few climbing structures. They’re small frames and not that complex, because they’re occasionally moved around or switched around and placed in another animal’s exhibit for a while. This is to provide some extra enrichment, by providing different smells for the Tayra. The current climbing rig was actually placed here just a few days ago, before that it spent a while in the Meredith range section of the zoo so by now it probably smell like a Brush-tailed possum…
We can’t actually see the Tayras in their indoor habitat, so most likely they’re in their outdoor enclosure right now. As we continue walking we once again reach the rock field we saw earlier. From here, we can get a pretty decent view of the Sula again, with the various monkey islands breaking up the giant rapids. These rapids, just like the waterfall earlier on our route, have a closed pump and jet system, to give the rapids an intense flow rate without draining the river too much. We can also see the multiple large towers… well, towering over the river and reaching all the way to the other side of the shore. The last of these towers is actually accessible from where we’re currently standing. At least, it would be if it didn’t have a little sign hanging in the entrance.
“Our apologies, this section of O Rio Dourado is still being detailed. We will reopen in part 7”
Well, isn’t that a bummer… I suppose we’ll once still have to wait for the treetop route.
We get another viewing point to the Tayra indoor habitat before we enter a relatively long viewing corridor. Similar to the corridor we entered the O Rio Dourado greenhouse through, with thick ropes blocking the way for any birds of primates that might want to find their way out of the greenhouse. On one side, the viewing corridor sits just above the water for a decently-sized wetlands-themed enclosure. On the other, we’re on a cliff overlooking a large lake, the final point of the greenhouse’s river. Water from the wetlands habitat on our right flows under the wooden corridor and into the lake with a few waterfalls, creating a pretty cool effect.
Looking into the wetlands habitat, we can deduce that it is meant for a large, ground-dwelling species. The plants are protected with small barriers, there’s clear “pathways” of where the animals have roamed, and… Well, there’s a giant crocodile sitting on the edge of the water. This swampy enclosure is home to a trio of large Orinoco crocodiles. This species is among the largest of the crocodilians, and one of the most endangered crocodiles in the world. There have been reports of Orinoco crocodiles growing up to nearly 7 meters long, but animals of that size are rare to non-existent these days. The Orinoco crocs at O Rio Dourado are still quite large though, the one currently on the edge of the water is at least 4 meters long.
Looking into the water we can’t see all that much. In comparison to other aquatic areas in O Rio Dourado, the water here is actually surprisingly dark. We can see the movement of a pretty big school of fish though. Now, as your tour guide I can reliable tell you that that’s the school of Sheep-pacu that are held with the Orinocos, but from here we wouldn’t actually be able to tell them apart from any other generic silver-coloured fish. In fact, even from the side these guys look strangely similar to Seabreams from the North Sea. As generic as it comes for fish in general, but actually quite unique for the Amazon.
On the other side of the viewing corridor, which is closed off with mesh to avoid birds flying into the Crocodile enclosure, we can get a view of the lake. Dark shadows move around in the water, we can’t quite tell what they are but judging by the size there’s really only one animal that could be in here… This lake is the Amazon giants tank, which we will get a much better viewing point to in the second route through the O Rio Dourado greenhouse. The large shapes can really only be the Amazon’s largest fish, the monstrous(ly beautiful) Arapaimas gigas!
In the middle of the lake there’s also multiple large islands. Through ropes, these are also connected to the Spider monkey islands. They’re only accessible if the monkeys go through their indoor enclosure, that way this smaller island group can also be used as a separation enclosure if needed. If any of the free-roaming monkey species in the greenhouse don’t work out or turn out to be too aggressive towards the birds or the environment, they can also be moved to these islands.
On the side of the large lake, against a rather tall cliff, we can see a small beach that, at first glance, seems to be decorated with more granite boulders. But these are Arrau river turtles, which call the Amazon giants lake home. These are the largest turtle species of O Rio Dourado, and also have access to the Spider monkey islands in the lake.
We go around the bend of the viewing corridor, where we can see that the Orinoco crocodile enclosure actually continues underneath the corridor and to the other side. Although it’s not showcased on this map, this side of the crocodile enclosure is designed very similarly to this marshy river I came across in Suriname, although the plants will be a lot flatter due to the crocodiles moving over them.
With that, the corridor leads us outside. To the final two parts of O Rio Dourado, and the second outdoor area.
Well, I say that, but we have an alternative route to follow first. That will be the next four parts of O Rio Dourado, starting underneath the Jaguar’s table mountain, and ending at the secret path near the Sula beach. As mentioned, I will be taking a break before continuing so I’m afraid you will all have to be patient. I hope you’ve enjoyed the first half of O Rio Dourado, and I will see you again in… I don’t know, a month or two maybe?
Before the species list, I thought it would be cool to see how the four indoor parts so far fit together. So here’s what we’ve seen so far of the greenhouse:
Species of area 6:
I would like to welcome you to Part 6: the Sula Shore, our halfway point:
Before we begin I’m going to go ahead and teleport us back to the SPS building. There’s also a regular path that goes past the boardwalk, that’s where we’ll be starting our route. From here, as we look to our right, the next animal enclosure isn’t all that close to the path. In fact, there’s no proper viewing point to it at all. We have to look through some trees and bushes to see a simple wooden fence, the type you might see on a farm. Behind it we can see a rather strange animal, an animal that, more strangely, could clearly fit between the gaps in the fence! A Giant anteater, with a long nose and a bushy tail, can be seen patrolling the sides of the fence. Is this guy free-roaming? Wouldn’t that be dangerous? It could clearly fit under the fence if it tried a little. Hell, it could probably climb over it if it wanted to. Well, no worries dear guests. This enclosure is perfectly fine for Giant anteaters. Practically invisible to the visitor’s eye is a glass barrier right behind the wooden fence. This enclosure is meant to really capture that feeling of seeing an animal in the jungle, just beyond the bushes.
In the back of the enclosure, although it’s difficult to look through the foliage, we can also see a smaller form, a Red-rumped agouti shares this enclosure with the Anteater. The indoor enclosure is generally difficult to see though. Don’t worry, we’ll see these animals again in the second outdoor area
.There’s a third animal we can see from here, though. Lazily sleeping on the wooden fence is a large Green iguana. This is a large male, there’s also two smaller females that free-roam the greenhouse, but they’re a lot more shy. We continue along the path between the anteater exhibit and the beach, where it quickly merges again with the Boardwalk past the monkey islands. We’ve almost completely walked the length of the short end of the greenhouse since part 5. The path here takes a slow turn, easing us away from the greenhouse wall.
In the dense bushes we can spot another pair of Blue ground doves, the female sitting on a nest. Also visible in this little forest area between the path and the greenhouse wall is a single two-toed sloth. Usually hidden away sleeping high up in the trees, this one can be seen on the low-hanging branch of a large Calabash tree. It’s climbing closer to the trunk of the tree very slowly, but we decide to move on before it reaches there. It is a sloth after all, this could take all day…
We can see a sudden flash of colour among a carpet of sensitive plants, a Yellow-banded poison dart frog is kinda struggling to get through the dense ground cover. We watch it until it disappears into shadows of a denser bit of brush.
As we walk further over the relatively narrow strip of land between the side of the greenhouse and the Rio Dourado river, the path comes closer and closer to a rocky ledge. Hidden underneath an overhang of tree roots, there is an exhibit for the creepiest of creepy crawlies. On the map I’ve labelled the enclosure with an A, since the tree root overhang isn’t actually drawn on the map. Between the fake wooden tendrils are multiple glass viewing windows into a decently sized terrarium, housing a large Goliath tarantula.
Sketch of the tarantula habitat:
(I've put three stripes between some of the tree roots, this is to signify the glass)
After the hidden terrarium we get a large, open view of the river as we walk from the rainforest onto a beach. In front of us we can see a huge group of large islands in the river. In the distance we can also hear a faint rushing noise, the sound no longer dampened by the rainforest…
Just like the previous monkey islands, these islands are formed by large boulders sticking up from out of the river. On top of a few of the islands, we can see old, abandoned watchtowers, similar to the tower we saw earlier on during our trek through O Rio Dourado, in part 4. Wooden bridges lay shattered between a few of them, while others are still intact. They’re much smaller than the watchtower we saw earlier though. These towers and bridges form climbing structures for the troop of Red-faced black spider monkeys that call this large island group home.
On top of some of the smaller boulders that line the islands, we can see a group of Buff-necked ibises looking for food. The various monkey islands throughout the river are used as feeding spots for the wading birds, since this area of the river is shallow and the food won’t sink too deep. Additionally, any leftover shrimp of fish will be eaten by the fish living in the river. The shallow areas around the islands are, of course, also used as breeding grounds for the fish species that inhabit the river. Hopefully, the fish-eating birds will sooner go after the food shrimp rather than the fish fry between the plants and rocks…
Speaking of plants, we can see that there’s a lot less marshy plants than around the other islands. In this part of the river, the water is flowing just a little faster than in other parts of O Rio Dourado. That rushing noise also seems to be getting a little louder… You’ve all already seen it in the picture of course, part 6 of O Rio Dourado isn’t called the Sula shore for nothing. We’ve already encountered a relatively small waterfall based on a sula before, but this is the real deal. Just over 30 meters long from the first waterfall to the last, this huge collection of rapids and small waterfalls is an homage to the Sulas (rapids) of the Surinamese rivers. Unfortunately for us, though. We can’t get a real proper view of the Sula from here, as the rapids only really start further along the river, right after the path moves away from the river.
Here's some sula pictures anyway:
Before we follow the path back up and away from the river though, we take one more look at the Spider monkey islands. On the ropes connecting the islands for the spider monkeys, we can see a small group of Blue-headed parrots, the second parrot species that free-roams the greenhouse. In the background, we can see more looking towers. These ones are meant for visitors, much bigger than the ones meant for the spider monkeys. Interestingly though, we can see that some of them are on the Spider monkey islands. These aren’t accessible to the spider monkeys, of course. They’re made perfectly climb-proof. Although a few of them do have ropes going to them… Two of these looking towers actually double in functionality as the indoor holding for the Spider monkey troop, we can actually see two of the Red-faced black spider monkeys heading indoors all the way on the other side of the Sula.
We walk further along the path, heading back up and away from the river. From here, we can get a good view of a large rock field. These rock fields often appear during the dry season, when the river is lower. Although most of O Rio Dourado is supposed to represent the rainforest in Rainy season, the sula and the rock field that surrounds it are representative of the Surinamese rivers in the Dry seasons. These rock fields appear because the river washes out all the sand and soil during the rainy season, and disappears during the dry season, leaving it exposed. You can see this well in this picture that I also showed before:
This rocky area is absolutely perfect for soaking up the sun. If portable beach chairs existed (and I wasn’t already practically overheating in the greenhouse), I’d probably take a seat here to enjoy the sun. This also makes it a great spot to see lizards, of course. On the large boulders we can see a pair of Rainbow whiptails, a small but gorgeous lizard species. They stare at us for a second, seeing if we’re a threat or not, before darting into the underbrush within the blink of an eye.
The path loops around and slopes upward, bringing us back into a forested section and off the sandy beach. Above our heads we can see a few ropes spun between the trees. Because this area has less foliage than, say, part 4, this region includes a few extra climbing opportunities than the rest of the greenhouse. On the rope above the path we can actually see a pair of Red-bellied tamarins climbing to the other side. No wait… a trio! One of them has a small baby riding on her back. Unfortunately for us they disappear into the forest before we can get a proper photo.
Before the path loops around again we can see a small shortcut staircase between the path near the tarantula terrarium and the path we’re currently on. We could’ve taken it to get up here quicker, but that would’ve meant skipping the spider monkey islands, and there’s no way we would’ve done that
.As we follow along the looping path we can see a small bird flying in from the distance before landing in the bushes on the outside of the path loop. This species is quite recogniseable, with its black-and-blue speckled feathers and a yellow belly, this is the Turquoise tanager! It preens itself under its wing for a moment before quickly flying off again.
At the end of the path loop there’s a small, secret path that heads into a cave. This path is purposely hidden and difficult to notice from the main path, and even if you do see it there’s a little sign signifying that this route is one-way, and this is not the entrance to it.
The main route continues past a cliff, which seems a little taller here to accommodate the underground path hidden on the other side of the rocks. Soon enough, our route leads us to our next exhibit. Another tall aviary separating a section of the cliff. Inside we can see multiple boulders and a very large fallen tree. This enclosure is home to a pair of Tayra, a South American mustelid species that’s closely related to the Wolverine. Living much more arboreally than its Northern cousin, this indoor exhibit also includes a few climbing structures. They’re small frames and not that complex, because they’re occasionally moved around or switched around and placed in another animal’s exhibit for a while. This is to provide some extra enrichment, by providing different smells for the Tayra. The current climbing rig was actually placed here just a few days ago, before that it spent a while in the Meredith range section of the zoo so by now it probably smell like a Brush-tailed possum…
We can’t actually see the Tayras in their indoor habitat, so most likely they’re in their outdoor enclosure right now. As we continue walking we once again reach the rock field we saw earlier. From here, we can get a pretty decent view of the Sula again, with the various monkey islands breaking up the giant rapids. These rapids, just like the waterfall earlier on our route, have a closed pump and jet system, to give the rapids an intense flow rate without draining the river too much. We can also see the multiple large towers… well, towering over the river and reaching all the way to the other side of the shore. The last of these towers is actually accessible from where we’re currently standing. At least, it would be if it didn’t have a little sign hanging in the entrance.
“Our apologies, this section of O Rio Dourado is still being detailed. We will reopen in part 7”
Well, isn’t that a bummer… I suppose we’ll once still have to wait for the treetop route
.We get another viewing point to the Tayra indoor habitat before we enter a relatively long viewing corridor. Similar to the corridor we entered the O Rio Dourado greenhouse through, with thick ropes blocking the way for any birds of primates that might want to find their way out of the greenhouse. On one side, the viewing corridor sits just above the water for a decently-sized wetlands-themed enclosure. On the other, we’re on a cliff overlooking a large lake, the final point of the greenhouse’s river. Water from the wetlands habitat on our right flows under the wooden corridor and into the lake with a few waterfalls, creating a pretty cool effect.
Looking into the wetlands habitat, we can deduce that it is meant for a large, ground-dwelling species. The plants are protected with small barriers, there’s clear “pathways” of where the animals have roamed, and… Well, there’s a giant crocodile sitting on the edge of the water. This swampy enclosure is home to a trio of large Orinoco crocodiles. This species is among the largest of the crocodilians, and one of the most endangered crocodiles in the world. There have been reports of Orinoco crocodiles growing up to nearly 7 meters long, but animals of that size are rare to non-existent these days. The Orinoco crocs at O Rio Dourado are still quite large though, the one currently on the edge of the water is at least 4 meters long.
Looking into the water we can’t see all that much. In comparison to other aquatic areas in O Rio Dourado, the water here is actually surprisingly dark. We can see the movement of a pretty big school of fish though. Now, as your tour guide I can reliable tell you that that’s the school of Sheep-pacu that are held with the Orinocos, but from here we wouldn’t actually be able to tell them apart from any other generic silver-coloured fish. In fact, even from the side these guys look strangely similar to Seabreams from the North Sea. As generic as it comes for fish in general, but actually quite unique for the Amazon.
On the other side of the viewing corridor, which is closed off with mesh to avoid birds flying into the Crocodile enclosure, we can get a view of the lake. Dark shadows move around in the water, we can’t quite tell what they are but judging by the size there’s really only one animal that could be in here… This lake is the Amazon giants tank, which we will get a much better viewing point to in the second route through the O Rio Dourado greenhouse. The large shapes can really only be the Amazon’s largest fish, the monstrous(ly beautiful) Arapaimas gigas!
In the middle of the lake there’s also multiple large islands. Through ropes, these are also connected to the Spider monkey islands. They’re only accessible if the monkeys go through their indoor enclosure, that way this smaller island group can also be used as a separation enclosure if needed. If any of the free-roaming monkey species in the greenhouse don’t work out or turn out to be too aggressive towards the birds or the environment, they can also be moved to these islands.
On the side of the large lake, against a rather tall cliff, we can see a small beach that, at first glance, seems to be decorated with more granite boulders. But these are Arrau river turtles, which call the Amazon giants lake home. These are the largest turtle species of O Rio Dourado, and also have access to the Spider monkey islands in the lake.
We go around the bend of the viewing corridor, where we can see that the Orinoco crocodile enclosure actually continues underneath the corridor and to the other side. Although it’s not showcased on this map, this side of the crocodile enclosure is designed very similarly to this marshy river I came across in Suriname, although the plants will be a lot flatter due to the crocodiles moving over them.
With that, the corridor leads us outside. To the final two parts of O Rio Dourado, and the second outdoor area.
Well, I say that, but we have an alternative route to follow first. That will be the next four parts of O Rio Dourado, starting underneath the Jaguar’s table mountain, and ending at the secret path near the Sula beach. As mentioned, I will be taking a break before continuing so I’m afraid you will all have to be patient. I hope you’ve enjoyed the first half of O Rio Dourado, and I will see you again in… I don’t know, a month or two maybe?
Before the species list, I thought it would be cool to see how the four indoor parts so far fit together. So here’s what we’ve seen so far of the greenhouse:
Species of area 6:
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AmazonianHippo
Well-Known Member
Mr Gharial: 'I think I'm just going to do a little redesign of The Amazonian section of the zoo, as I'm quite inspired from my visit to Suriname'
*creates an entire zoo in itself*
Brilliant. It represents the Amazon jaw-dropingly well. Well done!
*creates an entire zoo in itself*
Brilliant. It represents the Amazon jaw-dropingly well. Well done!
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AmazonianHippo
Well-Known Member
Omg, I love that. So relatable.