so its been a month and a half since the last post on this thread....what's that about, zooboy28?! Where are you and what are you doing?
Yeah, have been a bit slack on the ZooChat front, but I have been pretty busy actually
. So a bit of a recap of what I have done so far:
-
Singapore Night Safari was great, although we did miss the show. Highlights were the Spotted Hyenas and Civets, and it was great how active everything was. Lowlight was definitely missing the Pangolins, I was so gutted when I saw their exhibit was boarded up
. Saw most other things though, lots of firsts, although didn't see any Flying Squirrels or Colugos.
-If I was trying to make my "zoos visited" list look impressive, my next zoo was
Changi Airport Butterfly House, which was very good, although disgustingly hot.
-Next stop was the
London Sealife Aquarium (I wanted to see one Sealife), which wasn't too bad. I really liked the exhibit on the freshwater fish of the Thames. The Gentoo Penguin exhibit was bizarre though, all the lighting was red. Was it a penguin sex club? And ridiculously expensive too, especially for one who is not a huge fish fan.
-
London Zoo was the only other live-animal attraction we visited in the UK (unless the Tower's ravens count), and it was amazingly interesting. The mix of great modern exhibits (Penguin Beach), awful old exhibits (Gibbons) and historical buildings made this the most interesting zoo I have visited thus far. Plus there were a few cool new species (King Vulture, Gentle Lemur, Armadillo, Giant Anteater, Okapi). Overall, London Zoo had a bit of a feeling of decline, a place well past its prime which is facing a long slow death. Clearly the bleak early December weather didn't do it any favours. Much of the zoo appears to need major renovation - new gardens and paths, spruced up or new exhibits, etc. I found it very cluttered, I think better use of available space can be made though, to give it a more open feel. If they keep up the standard of new exhibits though, the zoo should be world-class again eventually.
-We then flew to Stockholm, Sweden where we visited Skansen and Skansen Akvariet.
Skansen was a small collection of Nordic animals: reindeer, moose, bear, wolf, lynx, wisent, etc. The exhibits had a rather 'old' feel to them, again not helped by the weather, although they were all of an excellent size. Most impressive was the Red Fox exhibit, a pair had a huge exhibit that I think was for the bears when they were not hibernating. A walk-through aviary for Great Grey Owls was also impressive. Overall, perfectly suitable exhibits that looked a bit past it.
-
Skansen Akvariet, nearby but separate, was a collection of smaller, tropical species. There were a few outdoor exhibits, including a very cool rocky cliff with crashed jeep for Hamadryas Baboons, but these were empty. Inside was an impressive reptile collection, some big Cuban Crocodiles, several small primates and a few aquariums. This was very good, all the enclosures were adequate - most interesting was a multi-species desert exhibit featuring birds, tortoises, beaded lizards and ground squirrels, with much interaction. Labelling of species was a bit poor for some exhibits though.
-We didn't go to another zoo for a while, although we did go to a "Sami Camp" to feed some reindeer, and on a Moose-spotting safari, which was good. Our next destination was Denmark, where we visited
Copenhagen Zoo. This was very cool, with mostly good exhibits (Elephant house, Savannah) although the all-indoor Chimpanzee exhibit was terrible. One of the most unusual things we saw was a whole dead Llama being fed to the Lion pride. Sadly we somehow missed the nocturnal house...
-Back in Sweden for Christmas, we visited
Skanes Djurpark on Boxing Day. This was another Nordic animal collection, although much larger than Skansen. This was pretty good, highlight were watching a mother bear and three cubs, and patting a Przewalski's Horse and a Moose. Other new and exciting animals included European White Stork, Beaver, Golden Eagle and Wild Cat. Missed the Badger and Raccoon Dogs though. Later that day we went to a local bird park,
Fagel Parken, which was a free-entry, side-of-the-road job, with basic pheasant, pigeon, parrot species, and Rhea.
-We then popped over to Norway for a couple of days, as you do, and visited the
Bergen Akvariet (first zoo of 2012). This included an all-outdoor exhibit for Gentoo Penguins, a tiny pool for a pair of Common Seals, a great snake collection, some big-ass Nile Crocs in a tiny exhibit underground, and a large group of Common Marmosets. Oh, and there were some fish too. And a shark 'tunnel', which was more of a shark 'doorway' really as it was very short. Overall a nice place, which is currently building a new Californian Sea Lion/Gentoo Penguin exhibit complex. Hopefully this will be followed by improved Common Seal and Nile Croc exhibits.
-Back in Sweden, we spent a day in the western city of Goteborg, where we visited a free, public zoo in the centre of a central city park:
Slottsskogen. Here was a huge exhibit for Common Seals, a smaller one for Humboldt Penguins, and a few domestic species, in very spread out exhibits. There was also a large herd of Fallow Deer, and pools for waterfowl (first being Eider Duck and RInged Teal). Good for a free zoo. We then visited the
Universeum, a large and expensive science museum. Inside was a large 'Swedish countryside' exhibit, with free-flying tits
and exhibits for native fish, herps (mostly hibernating) and a Great Crested Grebe! This was followed by an excellent marine aquarium (Sawfish!!!), and a small collection of poisonous reptiles. Then there was an excellent multi-storey tropical rainforest, with small primates, small birds and a few fish and frogs, Dwarf Caiman and Anaconda. Very impressive, if a tad bare animal-wise.
-Leaving Sweden, we took the ferry to Finland, where we avoided Sealife Helsinki, and instead visited a tropical reptile house set in a basement, called
Tropicario. This had a great collection of snakes and monitor lizards, plus a few other lizards, crocodiles, frogs and a lonely looking Silvery-cheeked Hornbill with behavioural issues. And there were no live plants anywhere, just fakes, which was a bit weird. Exhibits were all good to great, except those for large constrictors, which tended to be too small.
-The next day we visited the
Helsinki Zoo. This was done in ridiculously cold temperatures and while it was snowing so we were basically the only people there. Many terrible old exhibits, although many of them empty; many newer exhibits which were acceptable but not impressive; and a bizarre but understandable complete lack of African ungulates (none at all). Highlights were Markhor, Kulan, Takin, Skunk, European Mink, Elephant Shrews and anywhere warm. There was also a very functional big cat breeding complex, with exhibits for 7 feline species, which was most interesting.
-Two days later (today in fact
), we visited the
Tampere Aquarium, a small attraction within the local amusement park (which also includes the world's most northern dolphinarium - closed for renovation). While small (26 tanks), this had an excellently diverse and healthy collection, with easily the best signage I have seen in any aquarium. Well worth a look, the aquarium focuses almost entirely on fish (one iguana, four tortoises, and a few inverts), and has some really magnificent looking tanks. Heavy focus on tropical freshwater, although there were a couple of tropical marine tanks and one one 'Finnish Coast' tank too. The simulated thunderstorm over the South-east Asian mangrove tank every half-hour was a nice touch.
So that sums up the trip so far (from the zoo-perspective). Tomorrow we are going to Tallinn, Estonia, where we plan to visit Tallinn Zoo, and anywhere else we can find, and then on to Poland (Warsaw and Krakow only probably), and then Prague, Czech Republic. Any suggestions for these countries, plus Austria and Slovenia, are very much appreciated. Sadly, it doesn't look like this trip will be for a full year, but hopefully I will still make it to the major collections in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and the UK as well.
Interestingly, I still believe that the highest quality zoo I have visited (in terms of exhibit suitability and animal welfare, not species number) is Auckland Zoo, followed by Taronga Zoo. None of the zoos I've been to in Singapore or Europe have a higher overall exhibit quality.
Thanks for reading!
