Planckendael Planckendael News 2021

The first storks have returned to Planckendael from their wintering grounds in southern Europe.

Thirteen have arrived so far and have started to build their nests.

The park has fortified existing nests and placed new nesting platforms to provide sufficient nesting facilities. The park is hoping for another record-breaking year (in 2020 they had 77 nests and 113 chicks).

HLN.be Planckendael verwelkomt eerste ooievaars: “Op naar nieuw record?”
 
After yesterday's decision of the Consultative Committee of the Belgian federal and regional governments, Zoo Planckendael will finally reopen on Saturday February 13th. The closure begun on November 2nd 2020.

All indoor spaces and restaurants will remain closed, wearing a mask will be mandatory in the entire park, the same safety measures that were in place in the summer and fall of 2020 will again be in place and there will be a limited visitor capacity that will be strictly monitored. Member card holders will not have to reserve a time slot as a number of slots is kept reserved for them, but people who buy a day ticket will have to reserve a time slot.

Personally I would have liked to see reservation for member card holders as well as an extra safety measure. But I'm happy to see Planckendael reopen and plan to be there again as soon as possible.

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Maatregelen coronavirus - ZOO Planckendael
 
Today I decided to make use of the reopening of Belgian zoos and of the cold but sunny weather (-7° Celcius when we arrived, 2° Celcius by the time we left), and I visited Planckendael for the first time since October 19th, 2020. It felt good and was pleasant to finally visit a zoo again after the last few dark months.

Although I really don't like winter or snow much at all, the visit in cold but very sunny winter weather was surprisingly pleasant. Perhaps because of that same sun a surprisingly large number of animals were outside and on-show.

In some places the walkways in the park were still fairly icy and slippery, but park staff had clearly put quite a lot of effort into making the park and its roads as easily and safely accessible and passable as possible.

It was fairly busy in the park - seemingly quite a few people wanted to enjoy the sunny winter weather and a zoo visit. But it was not so busy it would be concerning, and the rules were respected fairly well. Everyone over 12 wore a mask, but social distancing is still sometimes problematic unfortunately. I also noticed quite a few people wanted to buy something from the gift shop (including myself).

As far as new developments go, I noticed the following.

I saw one of the above-mentioned baby porcupines, but almost certainly did not get a successful photo of it due to glare and direct sunlight on the window.

The European aviary was not accessible. The doors did not open and may have frozen shut in the past week, or have another type of defect.

In the Australian section the pontoon with a crocodile expedition boat themed playground (which never reopened in 2020 after the first Covid-19 wave) has been removed from the pond entirely. Personally I like it better this way, and if there is ever another structure in this area again, I hope it will not be another playground.

In the South American aviary none of the flying birds were on show. The only species on show were the Humboldt penguins, the Magellanic flightless steamer ducks and the Black-necked swans. I noticed that (at least some of) the scarlet and black-faced ibises were in the former scarlet macaw aviary, which in 2020 for a while also housed a Bald eagle and two Cinereous vultures. It is not entirely clear to me why there were no flying birds in the South American aviary. At first I thought it might have something to with avian influenza control measures, but in the African waterfront aviary all birds could theoretically go outside, including the ducks, so that isn't a likely cause. I can't immediatelly think of another reasonable cause.

I will eventually be posting some of my Planckendael in winter shots in the gallery, but as I am still working on the pictures from my two final 2020 visits it might still be a while before I get to that.

I really enjoyed my first zoo visit and zoo photography session of 2021. Hopefully there will be quite a few more to come.

And on a final note, today I remembered the meme linked below I saw a while ago. I'm glad that day came for me today.
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Both Zoo Antwerp as Zoo Planckendael experience busy days due to the ongoing holiday this week. This has also been covered into the media, and causes several complaints from the public.

Pre-paying visitors that are claiming that the waiting-cue is to long, and return home...

That isn't good for the reviews. Zoo Planckendael allows 6000 paying visitors a day (Zoo Antwerp 3000). The biggest issue is that both parks allow people with a membercard to visit the park without a mandatory reservation. At this moment both zoos (they have a combined membercardship) have 220.000 members.
 
Gorilla Gust said:
Both Zoo Antwerp as Zoo Planckendael experience busy days due to the ongoing holiday this week. This has also been covered into the media, and causes several complaints from the public.

Pre-paying visitors that are claiming that the waiting-cue is to long, and return home...

That isn't good for the reviews. Zoo Planckendael allows 6000 paying visitors a day (Zoo Antwerp 3000). The biggest issue is that both parks allow people with a membercard to visit the park without a mandatory reservation. At this moment both zoos (they have a combined membercardship) have 220.000 members.
Click to expand...

This is bad news and personally I am more than a little worried about Zoo Antwerp and Planckendael now. I really hope this will not have more severe consequences than just bad reviews - but if, say, someone made an official complaint it could, even up to another temporary or even a definitive closure if they were found to have made severe errors against Covid-19 control regulations. This having gotten into the media is not good publicity for them and could easily work against them.

I am more than willing to believe that they are doing everything to keep the number of people in the zoos within limits, but the last couple of days things seem to have gotten a little out of hand, possibly due to a combination of weather, a school holiday week and the recent reopening, and they probably could have managed things better. Some of the reactions I saw were very negative, some people actually questioned whether the zoos are actually doing any kind of Covid-19 regulation at all. Something needs to be done about this, now. They need to go over things and improve where necessary.

I agree that membership holders not having to make a reservation is an issue, and it would definitely help if that were put in place again, at least during weekends and school holidays. I have personally always found they should have kept the mandatory reservation for members. They should also consider even better monitoring the total number of visitors (on Sunday I for example saw no-one counting the number of leaving visitors) and placing stewards in certain busy areas (I saw none on Sunday).

On Sunday morning it was busy in Planckendael - in fact the busiest I have know it since Covid started - but it was not in my opinion too busy, and social distancing was still easily doable in almost all areas. Part of the problem however is also the behavior of people with regards to social distancing, something over which they do not have that much control. I did notice on Sunday that is sometimes a problem - not everyone is as disciplined with that and some people just blatantly ignore it.

Personally I just hope that the worst crowding will be over by next week when the school holiday ends and a lot of people have already visited.

But I do think that they need to put more effort into crowd control, and I hope they won't get into serious trouble for this. Let us hope the worst crowding soon abates, and that the reopening will be once and for all...
 
You will always have people that ignore certain safety-regulations, this shouldn't be your biggest issue as a Zoo when you have an adequate crowd control. The smaller Zoo's are using stewards near their entrace at this moment (seen at Zonnegloed or Forestia), why are'n the two biggest zoos of Flanders using any stewards?

Mandatory reservations for (pre)paying visistors and parking-lots that are full with people that did't need to book a reservation? How does the Zoo explain this to their paying visitors? Strange choices... Especially in view of the increasing criticism from the themeparks.
 
I just read on Facebook that Zoo Antwerpen and Zoo Planckendael have sent an e-mail to membership holders that they will now also have to make reservations on weekend days, public holidays and school holidays, starting this weekend. Membership holders will not have to make reservations on week day, unlike one-day paying visitors. This has now also been published on their websites.

I think this is a very good and very welcome answer to the problems that arose in the last couple of days, and will hopefully prevent further issues and negative comments that could influence the reopening.
 
I had an afternoon off work and visited Planckendael again today.

Wow, what a difference just nine days made weather-wise - 9 days ago it was really cold, the park was covered in ice and snow and I visited bundled up in thick winter clothes. Today it was unseasonably warm, at nearly 20° Celcius almost 30° hotter than 9 days ago, and I could walk around in just jeans and a T-shirt, not even needing to wear the sweater I took with me.

It was a very pleasant walk and visit, not in the least because it was way less busy in the park than 9 days ago.

Some developments I noticed:
  • Some of the old beach trees next to the lawn across the rhinoceros exhibit were recently cut down. The storks from the nest on those trees were sitting in nearby trees. Some technical staff were four moving metal poles with stork nesting platforms to this area with a truck with a crane arm. Given the presence of some steel driving plates in the area they will presumably be installing these platforms soon.
  • In the Australian area the exhibit that until recently housed a dusky pademelon now had a sign for a short-beaked echidna on it. Whether the echidnas will be moving to this exhibit from their current adjacent exhibit or getting access to the entire area I don't know. I did not get the chance to see whether there were any echidnas in the former pademelon exhibit, but I did see one in the current exhibit.
  • The scarlet and black-faced ibis were still in the former scarlet macaw aviary. The Inca terns and black-bellied whistling ducks in the South American aviary were again off-show.
  • In 9 days quite a few more storks seem to have returned, there are now again dozens in the park. Their beak-clattering can be heard a lot again and I also saw some flying carrying nesting materials.
 
KevinB said:
For the first time two Cape porcupines (Hystrix africeaustralis) have been born at Planckendael. This is the first porcupine birth at Planckendael in 25 years of keeping African porcupines.The father only arrived a little longer than a porcupine gestation period ago, so he must have done his job quickly.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=428891768558475
Planckendael Facebook Post
Laafsekikkers Facebook Post
Click to expand...

The two porcupines are males, they were given the names Wafa and Winga!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=513961103337713

Source:
Facebook of Zoo Planckendael (11/03/2021) https://twitter.com/zooplanckendael?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
 
Has anybody an idea what happend with the male giraffes Sabah and Senwe. Senwe was missed by me since 2018 and Sabah 2019. Is Twiga the other male giraffe still there - there had been plans to move him to Hilvarenbeek.
 
masonstar said:
Has anybody an idea what happend with the male giraffes Sabah and Senwe. Senwe was missed by me since 2018 and Sabah 2019. Is Twiga the other male giraffe still there - there had been plans to move him to Hilvarenbeek.
Click to expand...

Twiga has been moved to a bachelorgroup in Beekse Bergen last year. Laafsekikkers.be - Aanmelden
 
I took half a day off today and as I needed it and the weather was pretty nice, I spent a few hours at Zoo Planckendael today.
  • There were still demure Easter/spring decorations in a couple of places.
  • Castor the old Elbe European beaver seems to have actually passed away now. The signage was removed and I believe I also saw no beaver food. For the first time ever I also saw the waldrapp housed in the European aviary (which contains the beaver exhibits) foraging in the beaver area, and they seemed to like it there.
  • Another important change in the European area is that the old raccoons were also gone (also dead?). The remaining European badger has moved to the raccoon exhibits. The badger/former fox exhibit had no signage and seemed empty. So maybe there is now some room in the European area for a different, more fitting species than the raccoons?
  • The great white pelicans still seemed to be in their holding aviary at the back edge of their pond. I believe I also saw a kind of nesting platform in that area.
  • There were a lot of storks, both flying and on nests. Near the aviary housing the Eurasian spoonbills unfortunately one egg had fallen from a stork nest
  • The straw-necked ibis in the Australian waterfront aviary had several nests, I saw at least one chick.
  • A short-beaked echidna now inhabits the former wombat/pademelon exhibit. There is still at least one echidna in the existing adjacent exhibit. It seems they separated their echidnas.
  • The male Congo peafowl has moved out of the weaver bird aviary. The vulturine guineafowl have been moved back to this aviary. While I regret there not being a Congo peafowl on display at Planckendael, it is maybe better this way as the weaver bird aviary isn't very suitable for Congo peafowl.
  • One of the Kordofan giraffes was in the separation paddock, which was closed off from the main exhibit. The Mhorr gazelles and Helmeted guineafowl were not outside in the main exhibit.
  • The black-faced and scarlet ibis were still in the former macaw aviary. It is unclear to me why. In the South American aviary the signs for both ibis species, the stilts and the Inca terns (last two species I believe are still housed behind the scenes?) had also been removed. I still hope these species will one day return to the big aviary. I especially hope the Inca terns will be on show again and will not leave Planckendael.
  • I saw the bush dogs and the black-rumped agouti well. Both giant anteaters were or came outside also. That doesn't happen every time.
  • The black-necked swans in the South American aviary had three recently hatched chicks.
  • I saw a Reeves' muntjac in the red panda exhibit for the first time. The sign had been present since October of 2020.
  • The Eurasian spoonbills and glossy ibis in the Asian aviaries had several nests.
 
JurassicMax said:
Would this be the first time that this species has bred successfully at Planckendael or did they have breeding success in the previous years as well?

The zoo also released some nice images of the three swanlings on their instagram.
Link: Login • Instagram
Click to expand...

According to Zootierliste they had a solitary male until 2019, first living with the capybaras then in the South American aviary. There were no chicks in 2019 or 2020, so this is almost certainly a first.

I do remember Planckendael breeding swans in the old waterfowl breeding area (demolished for the South American aviary), but not this species.
 
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