I'd never previously had much desire to go to the UAE - in fact, a few years ago, I would probably have said it wouldn't even have featured on my list of potential travel plans. However, it is gradually turning into something of a zoo destination (and is pretty good for extremely safe Middle Eastern birding by public transport). I'd recommend it to anyone living in Europe (or indeed, with a long layover in Dubai or Abu Dhabi). It is relatively cheap to get to, cheap to get around, easy to navigate etc. The "influencer" element of Dubai is easily avoided! I should note that I was unable to get behind the scenes at Sharjah Desert Centre or into Al Bustan, so they form a lacuna here.
Day 1.
Abu Dhabi National Aquarium
I arrived in Abu Dhabi at 20 past 8 in the morning. The airport was easy to transit through and I was quickly into a taxi (using Careem, the UAE version of Uber). I went straight to the National Aquarium, which has possibly been slightly overshadowed by the new Sea World to the north.
Waiting for it to open, I picked up slender-billed gull and little tern on the creek, along with multiple white-eared bulbul and house sparrow (these along with common mynah, collared and laughing doves would become HIGHLY familiar throughout the trip).
The aquarium itself is marred (in my opinion) by the dreadful mock rock and theming. Initially charming, with a bridge and glass walkway over a beautiful tank of native UAE species (incl. numerous juvenile hawksbill and green sea turtles), each subsequent area has a strong thematic bent - an arctic zone, a Pacific Rim zone (with an awful soundtrack of Maori chanting...), an Atlantic zone etc, culminating in a car converted into an aquarium and other similar oddities.
I'm not a big fish person, but was interested to see an Arctic tern (along with common guillemot and harlequin duck) in a polar exhibit. The aquarium galleries then open out into a walk-through "jungle" zone. Far too small, glass-fronted and fully concrete mock rock exhibits for small clawed otter and capybara were disappointing. On the other hand, the main and most interesting targets for the aquarium, the pair of African manatees (both male, I think) had an impressive deep tank (albeit still with some hideous mock rock). Free flight birds in the jungle included two species of Lamprotornis starling, toco toucan, western plantain eater and (excitingly) Indian pied mynah.
There is then a rather impressive shark tunnel leading to the exit, featuring bull sharks amongst other species. All in all, worth seeing for the manatees, myna, bull sharks and the turtles.
SeaWorld Abu Dhabi
I then took another Careem taxi to Sea World Abu Dhabi. What an incredible place. Like Dubai Safari Park (thoughts forthcoming), it is a bit like someone had too much time on their hands in Planet Zoo. There are areas of real serious world class quality and then some niggles. Like Sea World San Diego, the theme-park element intrudes, but I actually thought more focus was on the animals here than in the US. I had booked the dugong experience but was a few hours early so did a quick sweep of the whole facility first.
Visitors arrive in a UAE themed area, complete with a trading dhow, a "pantomime camel", someone in a dugong costume and touch pools for rays and bamboo sharks. Sadly, there were no sea snakes in the sea snake tanks, but this was just my bad luck. The aquarium does not keep them permanently, though specimens are often held on a rescue/release basis. The dugong tank is the main focus of this area and is beautiful. Malquot, a young rescued and unreleasable animal, is accompanied by a hawksbill turtle and lots of fish, including a black-tip reef shark and some impressive rays. It is a good size for a relatively small juvenile dugong, but I did wonder how it would feel once Malquot was fully-grown. He was far more active than either of the manatee species I have seen.
A small tunnel leads through the tank to the central hub, "One Ocean", from which the various zones can be accessed, as well as the animal care centre (in which nothing was on display, albeit fascinating to have backstage areas on public view). I started with "Tropical Ocean", which is essentially the dolphin area. An enclosure for American flamingoes leads towards the huge dolphin pool, split into several smaller holding pools. My key targets here were the Indian humpback dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin. The former was very obvious, porpoising and playing with a ball, and a keeper kindly pointed out the latter, which was, to me at least, essentially indistinguishable from the Atlantic bottlenoses that she shares with. I drew a blank on finding any underwater viewing for the dolphins, though I have seen pictures of it. I suspect it may be inside a restaurant area that I did not enter. I wouldn't have been able to see the humpback dolphin underwater anyway, so wasn't hugely bothered.
In this area is also a large walkthrough aviary, with a pool usable by the dolphins. Watching inca terns above dolphins in the water below was rather special - something of a sneak preview of how the Brookfield dolphin redevelopment might look? The key species in the aviary for species hunters is a putative Knysa turaco. I'm not birder enough to be able to call it as such definitely, but will post a picture in the gallery for discussion. Much like the National Aquarium earlier in the day, the aviary includes birds that would almost certainly predate eggs and chicks (kookaburra, three species of toucan, yellow-billed stork, etc), so I can't imagine much breeding takes place here. None of the birds are signed, annoyingly, so it is hard to tell what is actually here. Even with binoculars, there were some unidentifiable starling high in the rafters. There is a mixed macaw aviary to one side and then a row of aviaries for hyacinth macaw and blue throated macaw by a large touch pool for rays. Architecturally, it's quite an amazing space, with lots of natural daylight and a very high roof.
The second zone I visited was the "Endless Ocean" zone - which is essentially one enormous and utterly spectacular tank. A truly majestic giant manta was the highlight here, but the aquarium is extremely well-stocked with large sharks and rays with a huge array of fish. The theming (an underwater research base) is a little tacky, but perhaps it works. There are several viewing points but with the tank being so large, cross-views are essentially eliminated. An escalator leads down to a viewing dome within the tank but perhaps the most spectacular view is a c. 40 foot tall window between two cliffs of mock rock.
The polar zones are split into two. First an Antarctic enclosure for king, Adélie, gentoo, rockhopper, macaroni and chinstrap penguins. A very deep pool with some great underwater viewing (in which there were no swimming penguins) leads up to a very good walkthrough penguin exhibit. If SeaWorld San Diego is really going to move their emperors on, it would be a brilliant place to see them. The exhibit is properly, unexpectedly cold and as such pretty atmospheric. Remarkably, it does not smell of fishy seabird guano at all. I wonder how they manage it?
I felt elements of the Arctic zone were not as good as the preceding zones. A pool for guillemots, puffins and eiders is perfectly sound and the birds looked sprightly and entertaining diving in the water. However, an exhibit for arctic fox was really quite poor in my opinion. Despite looking great on the surface, it really is essentially a concrete box, with no substrate and a mysteriously large pool. I wonder whether it had previously been intended for seals. The fox was curled up in a corner and did not move for the entirety of my visit. I had the same issue of beautiful looking concrete boxes with the sea otter and common seal pools here too. Some gravel or mulch would really help. I did think the two walrus enclosures were far better, with unexpectedly active animals and rather deep pools with interesting layouts.
"Rocky Point" for California sea-lions (and supposedly common seals, though I didn't see any) was rather brilliant, with a wave machine making the water of the pool properly choppy and lots of activity from the pinnipeds. It felt very much like the breakwater in San Diego, where I saw the species in the wild last year, so I was pretty satisfied with it as an exhibit. There's a slightly tacky lighthouse but the surrounding mock rock cliffs look very good.
The aquarium explored, it was time for the "dugong encounter". This cost about £10.50 and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone visiting SeaWorld. We went backstage, saw the tank from above and fed Malquot lettuce, before making an enrichment feeder. To have a dugong, one of my most wanted lifers, exhaling close enough to smell his breath was wonderful.
I then went round the aquarium again, ticking off things I missed and just generally enjoying it. It seems strange to keep some of the species that they have here permanently inside but I suppose this is the trade-off with being in such a hot country. The concrete boxes, lovely as they looked for the visitors, were also a down note. I should also say that I thought it was pretty obvious that at some stage, orcas were on their plans - the sign-posts in the aquarium are capped with orca silhouettes and there is a long video projection in 'One Ocean' using the same presentation as SeaWorld San Diego's orca show. Anyway, very much worth the cost of admission for the dugong alone.
Birding
I had made tentative plans to hire a boat to Lulu Island to see hypocolius there, but decided against it. I've seen the species in captivity and £50 for boat hire (plus £40 of taxi there and back) seemed a lot. I therefore birded Yas Gateway Park, the park surrounding SeaWorld and the other entertainment parks, picking up lifers of Arabian green bee-eater, grey francolin, red-wattled lapwing, delicate prinia, and isabelline wheatear. Gull-billed terns and a Eurasian wryneck were nice bonuses too. I then made my way to Marina Mall (via a sand gazelle seen from the taxi window), where supposedly Socotra cormorant can be seen on the buoys out to sea. No luck on the buoys but a flyover Pallas's gull was a brilliant lifer. I managed to (perhaps slightly illegally) squeeze my way past a fence onto the sea wall and loafed around for a bit, eventually picking up a fly-past Socotra cormorant as it got dark. With that, it was back to my hotel for a shower and an all-you-can-eat iftar meal.
Next post: Al Ain Zoo and Mushrif Park
Day 1.
Abu Dhabi National Aquarium
I arrived in Abu Dhabi at 20 past 8 in the morning. The airport was easy to transit through and I was quickly into a taxi (using Careem, the UAE version of Uber). I went straight to the National Aquarium, which has possibly been slightly overshadowed by the new Sea World to the north.
Waiting for it to open, I picked up slender-billed gull and little tern on the creek, along with multiple white-eared bulbul and house sparrow (these along with common mynah, collared and laughing doves would become HIGHLY familiar throughout the trip).
The aquarium itself is marred (in my opinion) by the dreadful mock rock and theming. Initially charming, with a bridge and glass walkway over a beautiful tank of native UAE species (incl. numerous juvenile hawksbill and green sea turtles), each subsequent area has a strong thematic bent - an arctic zone, a Pacific Rim zone (with an awful soundtrack of Maori chanting...), an Atlantic zone etc, culminating in a car converted into an aquarium and other similar oddities.
I'm not a big fish person, but was interested to see an Arctic tern (along with common guillemot and harlequin duck) in a polar exhibit. The aquarium galleries then open out into a walk-through "jungle" zone. Far too small, glass-fronted and fully concrete mock rock exhibits for small clawed otter and capybara were disappointing. On the other hand, the main and most interesting targets for the aquarium, the pair of African manatees (both male, I think) had an impressive deep tank (albeit still with some hideous mock rock). Free flight birds in the jungle included two species of Lamprotornis starling, toco toucan, western plantain eater and (excitingly) Indian pied mynah.
There is then a rather impressive shark tunnel leading to the exit, featuring bull sharks amongst other species. All in all, worth seeing for the manatees, myna, bull sharks and the turtles.
SeaWorld Abu Dhabi
I then took another Careem taxi to Sea World Abu Dhabi. What an incredible place. Like Dubai Safari Park (thoughts forthcoming), it is a bit like someone had too much time on their hands in Planet Zoo. There are areas of real serious world class quality and then some niggles. Like Sea World San Diego, the theme-park element intrudes, but I actually thought more focus was on the animals here than in the US. I had booked the dugong experience but was a few hours early so did a quick sweep of the whole facility first.
Visitors arrive in a UAE themed area, complete with a trading dhow, a "pantomime camel", someone in a dugong costume and touch pools for rays and bamboo sharks. Sadly, there were no sea snakes in the sea snake tanks, but this was just my bad luck. The aquarium does not keep them permanently, though specimens are often held on a rescue/release basis. The dugong tank is the main focus of this area and is beautiful. Malquot, a young rescued and unreleasable animal, is accompanied by a hawksbill turtle and lots of fish, including a black-tip reef shark and some impressive rays. It is a good size for a relatively small juvenile dugong, but I did wonder how it would feel once Malquot was fully-grown. He was far more active than either of the manatee species I have seen.
A small tunnel leads through the tank to the central hub, "One Ocean", from which the various zones can be accessed, as well as the animal care centre (in which nothing was on display, albeit fascinating to have backstage areas on public view). I started with "Tropical Ocean", which is essentially the dolphin area. An enclosure for American flamingoes leads towards the huge dolphin pool, split into several smaller holding pools. My key targets here were the Indian humpback dolphin and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin. The former was very obvious, porpoising and playing with a ball, and a keeper kindly pointed out the latter, which was, to me at least, essentially indistinguishable from the Atlantic bottlenoses that she shares with. I drew a blank on finding any underwater viewing for the dolphins, though I have seen pictures of it. I suspect it may be inside a restaurant area that I did not enter. I wouldn't have been able to see the humpback dolphin underwater anyway, so wasn't hugely bothered.
In this area is also a large walkthrough aviary, with a pool usable by the dolphins. Watching inca terns above dolphins in the water below was rather special - something of a sneak preview of how the Brookfield dolphin redevelopment might look? The key species in the aviary for species hunters is a putative Knysa turaco. I'm not birder enough to be able to call it as such definitely, but will post a picture in the gallery for discussion. Much like the National Aquarium earlier in the day, the aviary includes birds that would almost certainly predate eggs and chicks (kookaburra, three species of toucan, yellow-billed stork, etc), so I can't imagine much breeding takes place here. None of the birds are signed, annoyingly, so it is hard to tell what is actually here. Even with binoculars, there were some unidentifiable starling high in the rafters. There is a mixed macaw aviary to one side and then a row of aviaries for hyacinth macaw and blue throated macaw by a large touch pool for rays. Architecturally, it's quite an amazing space, with lots of natural daylight and a very high roof.
The second zone I visited was the "Endless Ocean" zone - which is essentially one enormous and utterly spectacular tank. A truly majestic giant manta was the highlight here, but the aquarium is extremely well-stocked with large sharks and rays with a huge array of fish. The theming (an underwater research base) is a little tacky, but perhaps it works. There are several viewing points but with the tank being so large, cross-views are essentially eliminated. An escalator leads down to a viewing dome within the tank but perhaps the most spectacular view is a c. 40 foot tall window between two cliffs of mock rock.
The polar zones are split into two. First an Antarctic enclosure for king, Adélie, gentoo, rockhopper, macaroni and chinstrap penguins. A very deep pool with some great underwater viewing (in which there were no swimming penguins) leads up to a very good walkthrough penguin exhibit. If SeaWorld San Diego is really going to move their emperors on, it would be a brilliant place to see them. The exhibit is properly, unexpectedly cold and as such pretty atmospheric. Remarkably, it does not smell of fishy seabird guano at all. I wonder how they manage it?
I felt elements of the Arctic zone were not as good as the preceding zones. A pool for guillemots, puffins and eiders is perfectly sound and the birds looked sprightly and entertaining diving in the water. However, an exhibit for arctic fox was really quite poor in my opinion. Despite looking great on the surface, it really is essentially a concrete box, with no substrate and a mysteriously large pool. I wonder whether it had previously been intended for seals. The fox was curled up in a corner and did not move for the entirety of my visit. I had the same issue of beautiful looking concrete boxes with the sea otter and common seal pools here too. Some gravel or mulch would really help. I did think the two walrus enclosures were far better, with unexpectedly active animals and rather deep pools with interesting layouts.
"Rocky Point" for California sea-lions (and supposedly common seals, though I didn't see any) was rather brilliant, with a wave machine making the water of the pool properly choppy and lots of activity from the pinnipeds. It felt very much like the breakwater in San Diego, where I saw the species in the wild last year, so I was pretty satisfied with it as an exhibit. There's a slightly tacky lighthouse but the surrounding mock rock cliffs look very good.
The aquarium explored, it was time for the "dugong encounter". This cost about £10.50 and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone visiting SeaWorld. We went backstage, saw the tank from above and fed Malquot lettuce, before making an enrichment feeder. To have a dugong, one of my most wanted lifers, exhaling close enough to smell his breath was wonderful.
I then went round the aquarium again, ticking off things I missed and just generally enjoying it. It seems strange to keep some of the species that they have here permanently inside but I suppose this is the trade-off with being in such a hot country. The concrete boxes, lovely as they looked for the visitors, were also a down note. I should also say that I thought it was pretty obvious that at some stage, orcas were on their plans - the sign-posts in the aquarium are capped with orca silhouettes and there is a long video projection in 'One Ocean' using the same presentation as SeaWorld San Diego's orca show. Anyway, very much worth the cost of admission for the dugong alone.
Birding
I had made tentative plans to hire a boat to Lulu Island to see hypocolius there, but decided against it. I've seen the species in captivity and £50 for boat hire (plus £40 of taxi there and back) seemed a lot. I therefore birded Yas Gateway Park, the park surrounding SeaWorld and the other entertainment parks, picking up lifers of Arabian green bee-eater, grey francolin, red-wattled lapwing, delicate prinia, and isabelline wheatear. Gull-billed terns and a Eurasian wryneck were nice bonuses too. I then made my way to Marina Mall (via a sand gazelle seen from the taxi window), where supposedly Socotra cormorant can be seen on the buoys out to sea. No luck on the buoys but a flyover Pallas's gull was a brilliant lifer. I managed to (perhaps slightly illegally) squeeze my way past a fence onto the sea wall and loafed around for a bit, eventually picking up a fly-past Socotra cormorant as it got dark. With that, it was back to my hotel for a shower and an all-you-can-eat iftar meal.
Next post: Al Ain Zoo and Mushrif Park
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Is the United Arab Emirates expensive in terms of food, motels and transportation? 
