Kakapo
Well-Known Member
Hi', just returned from my travel! Very satisfactory and I enjoyed a lot. Overall, photographing infinite number of new species at the incredible Natural History Museum - and old-style dipslay of endless cabinets ordered taxonomically with countless rarities of the almost every animal group, from cestodes to priapulids and of course also infinite vertebrates and insects and fossils.
Haus des Meeres was very pleasing to visit, I never has been in an aquarium that consist of a tall, 11 floor building instead a wide and low one as usual. Sadly, the two most extremely superexciting animals in the whole of Austria, the bowfin and the bearded leatherjacket, passed away both in Haus des Meeres after I asked the staff about them. And as expected, the countless rarities of small toothcarps and livebearers are BTS. But what remains is very enjoyable and it includes what I would rate as the best zoo exhibit I visited ever, only rivalled by Burger's Mangrove maybe. A two-floow tropical jungle where marmosets, sakis, bats, all sort of birds (guans, turacos, hornbills and various passerines), turtles and every kind of freshwater tropical medium-sized fishes, roam freely around you, and with every animal being extremely tame as for let you approach by millimeters, but also not interacting with visitors as they know visitors are not a source of food. So just the perfect grade of tameness for seeing every bird and monkey and bat and fish at zero distance without afraid them and seeing also them interact with themselves.
Tiergarten Schönbrunn was nice, nothing extremely spectacular but definitely worth a visit. I would say it's comparable to Madrid zoo-aquarium or Wüppertal zoo. All the rare chameleons and small freshwater fishes that ZTL announces for here are BTS.
As Jakub said, the broadbill is signed but one must have many luck to find a green bird that don't move in the foliage of an endless treetop jungle. I didn't found it, but I saw most of the other bird species announced for this exhibit, despite floor level being closed to public.
Rats House was open, but I only saw the domestic fancy Brown Rats and the Northern Luzon rats, not the Gambian Pouched ones that was the interesting ones for me. They was signed, but no-show.
If red-billed starling is on show, then it must be in the False Gharial walkthrough "dry forest" enclosure with marmosets, turtles, big fishes and many birds. The problem is that many normal Red-winged starlings live here and I don't know how to distinguish both species.
The Blue-backed manniking that Jurek7 asked about are in the tropical aviaries in the right border of the zoo near the gibbons. First aviary is African-themed and the other American-themed, obviously the mannakins are in the latter. There are various individuals and they're very conspicuous and easy to spot both visually and acustically. They're very restless tough, so difficult to take a good photo as they are alwasy hoping from branch to branch or taking short flights.
Visited also Desert House and Palm House - near the zoo, but not part of it - I expected more animal species at Desert House, and more labelling in the succulent plants.
I also visited nearby Slovakia, passing a night in the High Tatras where I was lucky to find one of my most dreamed animals ever, the Blue Slug (Bielzia coerulans) endemic of the mountain chains of this zone.
Haus des Meeres was very pleasing to visit, I never has been in an aquarium that consist of a tall, 11 floor building instead a wide and low one as usual. Sadly, the two most extremely superexciting animals in the whole of Austria, the bowfin and the bearded leatherjacket, passed away both in Haus des Meeres after I asked the staff about them. And as expected, the countless rarities of small toothcarps and livebearers are BTS. But what remains is very enjoyable and it includes what I would rate as the best zoo exhibit I visited ever, only rivalled by Burger's Mangrove maybe. A two-floow tropical jungle where marmosets, sakis, bats, all sort of birds (guans, turacos, hornbills and various passerines), turtles and every kind of freshwater tropical medium-sized fishes, roam freely around you, and with every animal being extremely tame as for let you approach by millimeters, but also not interacting with visitors as they know visitors are not a source of food. So just the perfect grade of tameness for seeing every bird and monkey and bat and fish at zero distance without afraid them and seeing also them interact with themselves.
Tiergarten Schönbrunn was nice, nothing extremely spectacular but definitely worth a visit. I would say it's comparable to Madrid zoo-aquarium or Wüppertal zoo. All the rare chameleons and small freshwater fishes that ZTL announces for here are BTS.
As Jakub said, the broadbill is signed but one must have many luck to find a green bird that don't move in the foliage of an endless treetop jungle. I didn't found it, but I saw most of the other bird species announced for this exhibit, despite floor level being closed to public.
Rats House was open, but I only saw the domestic fancy Brown Rats and the Northern Luzon rats, not the Gambian Pouched ones that was the interesting ones for me. They was signed, but no-show.
If red-billed starling is on show, then it must be in the False Gharial walkthrough "dry forest" enclosure with marmosets, turtles, big fishes and many birds. The problem is that many normal Red-winged starlings live here and I don't know how to distinguish both species.
The Blue-backed manniking that Jurek7 asked about are in the tropical aviaries in the right border of the zoo near the gibbons. First aviary is African-themed and the other American-themed, obviously the mannakins are in the latter. There are various individuals and they're very conspicuous and easy to spot both visually and acustically. They're very restless tough, so difficult to take a good photo as they are alwasy hoping from branch to branch or taking short flights.
Visited also Desert House and Palm House - near the zoo, but not part of it - I expected more animal species at Desert House, and more labelling in the succulent plants.
I also visited nearby Slovakia, passing a night in the High Tatras where I was lucky to find one of my most dreamed animals ever, the Blue Slug (Bielzia coerulans) endemic of the mountain chains of this zone.
