Warsaw Zoo News from Warsaw

I've been away from Warsaw travelling for the last two months so I haven't visited the zoo for about 9 weeks but I thought was worth posting the changes since my last visit which will have been new sometime in the last two months.

The aquarium is still closed! It has looked like it is nearly finished for a while with tropical plants visible when peeking through the windows but there is no date for opening on the sign on the door.

Bird House

Quite a few new things in the Bird House.

There is a new enclosure for a male Western Capercaillie outside the bid house. The Capercaillie used to be held in an off-show area behind the bird house (visible through a hedge) and there is still a female Capercaillie in that area along with two birds that I think are Capercaillie chicks.

There is a pair of new Silvery-cheeked Hornbills replacing a Helmeted Curassow which I think has died

There are new Vulturine Guineafowl living with Hyacinth Macaws (not new).

There are new Eurasian Turtle Doves and Grey Partridges (the doves were previously held off-show in the same area as the Capercaillie was).

Other Stuff

Signage has been changed all over the zoo (this had just started on my last visit) replacing faded, dirty and worn signs but best of all, the sign with an incorrect distribution map for Purple Swamphens has been fixed.

A row of aviaries for birds of prey is being refurbished. Birds temporarily off-show.

The Grey Seals which had moved to a small duck pond while their main pool was being refurbished are now back in their usual enclosure. There is a re-done decking area now in the pool.

Blue Sheep were not in their enclosure (which they share with Takin) but the sign for them was still there so I hope they have just been temporarily taken out for some reason.

There was a young King Vulture in an aviary previously occupied by White-tailed Sea-eagles

And finally, a Vicuna being quarantined to be sent to 'a zoo in the USA' is still in the quarantine area and it has been for at least 5 months. Does anyone know where it is going and when?
 
Some news from Warsaw Zoo's Facebook page of things that happened in December:

The Aquarium was reopened after renovations,
A Somali Wild Ass has been born,
And a Rothschild's Giraffe has been born.

I haven't seen any of these things in person yet due to being in the UK for the last few weeks, but I will be visiting the zoo either next weekend or the weekend after.
 
LaughingDove said:
Some news from Warsaw Zoo's Facebook page of things that happened in December:

The Aquarium was reopened after renovations,
A Somali Wild Ass has been born,
And a Rothschild's Giraffe has been born.

I haven't seen any of these things in person yet due to being in the UK for the last few weeks, but I will be visiting the zoo either next weekend or the weekend after.
Click to expand...

Well I ended up going today after all, so here is some additional news:

- In addition to the Somali Wild Ass and Rothschild's Giraffe births in December, there was also a Red-cheeked Gibbon born in November.

- There has been a temporary display of butterflies free-flying in the insect house over Christmas and New Year. Most of the butterflies have died now but there were a few left of the following species:
Colobura dirce,
Morpho peleides,
Morpho achilles,
Caligo memnon,
Caligo eurilochus.
I think the insect house does suit free-flying butterflies so it's a shame that this was only temporary.

- The Blue Crabs in the Reptile House have been replaced by a Common Snapping Turtle.

- There are two new bird species: Stock Dove and Eurasian Bullfinch.

- I think the zoo is now down to only one Allen's Swamp Monkey unfortunately.

- And finally some news on the renovated aquarium; it looks very nice though there has been a reduction in the number of tanks I think.
There are currently six tanks, one large saltwater reef tank as well as two smaller saltwater ones, a pond-type tank with a bridge over it with freshwater stingrays, a tank with Arapaimas, as well as a very large tropical freshwater tank with hundreds of tetras of about a dozen species. There is also some nice tropical planting.
I will upload pictures into the gallery a bit later, but the one thing I didn't like about the aquarium was the signage, because it is a touch screen that you click on to look at what is there which of course means it takes ages to look through. However, today the things weren't working at all, hence the lack of a species list.

- I think that's everything, aside from all of the animals and everything switching over to the winter arrangement of enclosures since my last visit, which is a surprising amount of moving around.
 
Two things from my visit today:
-The tanks in the aquarium seemed to have a lot more fish in them (they were a bit empty previously)
- There were some new Partridges. They were unsigned and I thought they were Red-legged but they don't look quite right to me so may be one of the similar species. I will upload a picture to confirm shortly.
 
It's a bit late for me to post this now, but anyone who visited the Zoo today (Sat 19th) 'in the guise of a bird' would have got in for free to celebrate the first day of spring. (from Facebook)
 
Visited the zoo today and saw a couple of new things.

- Seahorses have arrived in the aquarium. I don't know what species because the signage is on touchscreens which don't seem to work.
- An enclosure that previously was empty but before that had a King Vulture now has a Steppe Eagle
 
I finally managed to visit the zoo today after several months of not getting the chance to visit, so obviously there were lots of new things and changes since my last visit. As these would have happened over several months, some aren't exactly news, but I thought they were worth posting here anyway.

New species for the zoo:
- Two Whistling-ducks, I think they're Plumed but they were unsigned (picture to be uploaded probably tomorrow)
- A Black-necked Swan with the flamingos
- BIG NEWS: They now have a single Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. According to zootierliste there are no other collections with the species in Europe.
- Pair of Sri-lankan Junglefowl (another fairly unusual species in European zoos)
- Two Asian Azure-winged Magpies
- Pied Imperial-pigeons in the walkthrough aviary
- Golden Tegu

Other News:
- The Common Scops-owl are gone
- There seems to be only one Greenland Musk Ox left (down from two)
- A waterfall has been added to the Brown Bear enclosure (the one outside the zoo on the street)
- Three baby Rock Hyraxes born at some point in the last few months
- BIG NEWS: A new Snow Leopard exhibit is being built and looking at the construction site, it looks like it will be huge. It is taking the area of the old snow leopard exhibit as well as all of the surrounding area that wasn't used for much, and by standing on a bench to look over the fence there seems to be a large area of foundations and big supports that look like the kind in a large aviary type thing. It seems like it will be excellent just judging from the footprint and the basic supports.

I will be uploading pictures of all of these new developments and species when I have time, hopefully tomorrow.
 
The news about the new snow leopard exhibit under construction is excellent (and long-overdue) LD! Any idea on the number of enclosures that will be built?
 
zooboy28 said:
The news about the new snow leopard exhibit under construction is excellent (and long-overdue) LD! Any idea on the number of enclosures that will be built?
Click to expand...

I don't really know, but looking at the construction site, it seemed like it would be one large netted-over enclosure. The zoo has/had (the new construction includes the area of their former enclosure so they must have been moved off show or left the zoo) a pair of Snow Leopards so I would think it will be those two sharing a much larger enclosure.
I plan to upload some pictures of the construction site later today so you should get a better idea from those. There doesn't seem to be any information published by the zoo, no plans or anything like that. There is just a sign on the fence that surrounds the construction site that says something along the lines of "We are building a new residence for the snow leopards".

Also, two things I forgot to add yesterday:
- A Red-cheeked Gibbon was born at some point in the past few months
- A Southern Cassowary chick hatched at the beginning of September (I know the date because it was announced on the zoo's facebook)
 
And yet another bit of news that I missed off that is fairly significant is that the Sitatunga have left the zoo and have been replaced with a group of Nile Lechwe.

Also, I will be uploading pictures of all of these new developments shortly.
 
A few things worthy of note from a visit to the zoo today:
  • New species for the zoo - Northern Cardinal
  • The interactive signage in the aquarium (renovated last year) is now working, so I can confirm that the new seahorses are Hippocampus reidi
  • The Ring-tailed Lemurs now have a much nicer and much larger winter holding building next to their island rather than having to move to a small enclosure in the old monkey house over winter.
  • It was posted on the zoo's facebook some time ago, but it hasn't been posted in this thread - the zoo's Sand Tiger Shark (from the aquarium in the hippo house) was moved to Sosto Zoo in Hungary, instead that aquarium now holds Cow-nosed Rays.
  • Progress on the new Snow Leopard enclosure is continuing and it looks like it may be done by the summer, I will upload pictures at some point.
 
A couple of important pieces of news from Warsaw Zoo over the last couple of months:

New species for the zoo are White-crowned Robin-chats and Bare-faced Go-away Birds in the Bird House, both of which are fairly unusual species in Europe, and Cane Toads in the Reptile House. Also new is a Pallas' Cat in an enclosure that was formerly empty for about a year but prior to that held White-tailed Sea-eagles and before that a King Vulture.

In other news, progress is continuing on the Snow Leopard enclosure, last month Bys the young Indian Rhino was moved to Zoo de la Fleche in France, and one of the zoo's Rothschild's Giraffes died, apparently it was the oldest one in Europe.
 
I went to Warsaw Zoo today. It's been about three months since my last visit (the date of my previous post in this thread) because I was away in the UK for a month and busy with end-of-academic-year stuff before that so there's lots of new stuff to post since it's summer so a good time to get construction done in the good weather and summer holidays so a good time to bring new stuff in.

A big piece of news is that the Snow Leopard enclosure is finished. The whole enclosure is done and ready for the animals which haven't moved in yet but should do soon. The enclosure looks really good in my opinion both aesthetically for the visitors and it seems good for the animals especially compared to many other enclosures in the zoo and the former enclosure. It seems that whenever Warsaw Zoo builds a new enclosure it is to a really high standard but a lot of animals are still in old enclosures that the zoo can't afford to update. Pictures to come in the gallery, hopefully this evening or if not will be tomorrow.

Now that the Snow Leopard construction is done, construction is now happening on a 'modernisation of the central road' with the first section of the central road near the entrance currently closed and the construction due to slowly move up. Judging by the plans, it's just relaying old cracked concrete and putting in some new benches and planting.

Construction is happening on a new indoor area for the baboons, possibly with indoor viewing.

There is an interesting new display in the elephant house mainly with taxidermy animals and confiscating endangered animal products with the theme "they will only be a memory soon". The display includes things like endangered-species fur coats, ivory, rhino horn, pangolins, etc. as well as a large display with various taxidermy birds including some really unusual things like 4 species of bird of paradise, helmeted hornbill, kakapo, kiwi, etc.

- Hyrax babies (again)

Various bits and pieces from the bird department:

New species: - Spur-winged Goose in the flamingo enclosure (only holding in Poland I believe)
All of the following new in the bird house or attached outdoor aviaries:
- Avocets
- Black-winged stilt
- Widowbird species (not sure on ID, I think they are immature males of some species - will upload pictures for IDing)
- Cape Teal
- Emerald Dove
- Newly on show (formerly off show) Cuban Grassquit

-Capercaillie moved back off show
- Lesser Spotted Woodpecker no longer there (not sure if off show, died, or released since it was a rescue)
- New much larger aviary in the pheasantry now holds Azure-winged Magpie and White Eared-pheasant (not new species but formerly held in a small aviary in the bird house)
- More Stone-curlew Eggs. Chicks from earlier in the year are now adults and there are around a dozen Stone-curlews on show in the bird house.

Also one other thing of interest is that there is a temporary tent in the zoo selling carnivorous plants which is unusual.
 
I have uploaded pictures related to the post above. Warsaw Zoo - Photo Galleries | ZooChat

Could anyone identify the widowbird?
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I was thinking that it could be a juvenile male Red-collared Widowbird? The images on zootierliste for this species in particular look like the birds at Warsaw.
 
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