As a mammal lover, Poznan always been high on my Bucket list and finally reached the place today. Seems like Poznan's director have different vision for the re-opening, than Wroclaw's and some parts of the zoo were closed. Most notably the Nocturnal house. I knew this in advance, but is still sad to miss few unique mammalian species, like Vampire bat.
Nevertheless, had more time to explore the other parts of the collection , which is enormous, but a big part of its territory is not in use. The train is a good option, if you want to cross the lake, which divading the zoo in two parts.
I have to admit, that I like more the "Old" part, or one close to the entrance.
It's packed with a "Nuremberg" type spacious wood enclosures for very ingeresting Ungulates, like Bawean Deer, Prince Alfred's Deer, Javan Rusa, Sable Antilope, Sichuan Takin, Nubian Ibex with King Colobus, Grevy's Zebra/Black Gnu etc. The Birds of Prey and Pheasant collection is also very extensive.
Since the Nocturnal house was out of the picture, my focus was on the most delicious part of the zoo: The Small Carnivore area.
This place is a reall ZooChater wet dream.
First excibit: Nandina is on show and I spot movement inside for a few seconds. Tried many more times off-course, but no more luck,so need to revisit asap
The rest of the list is also worth count:
Non-specific Leopard Cat
Northern yellow-throated marten
Two very active European Minks
Dwarf Mongooses
At least five "Crasy" Siberian Weasels
Malayan Binturong
Two Jaguarundies
Two South African bat-eared fox
Caracal
Amur Leopard Cat
Meerkats
Two Manuls
Three European Wild Cats
The "new" part of the zoo wants to impress and it does, especially when it comes to the size of the the exhibits, but I felt like been visiting a newly built city quarter in the middle of nowhere. Please take this only as personal opinion and curious to hear what others think.
The Elephant facility, is no doubt very futuristic and modern. It's 3500 sq. meters building and 2 hectares outdoor area deserve respect from any European zoo.
They could put some more creativity when it comes to the Tigers and Lions, which are just fenced in a flat forest area. This approach works fine for Brown Bears (They have a wooden bridge, as well) and Wolfs, but feels bit boring for the Big Cats.
Giraffe/Rhino building is most probably very functional, but I see it more like a office building, than like a zoo house. The Rhinos are yet to come.
The Ring tailed Lemur Island in the lake, on the other side, is a real gem.
The zoo doesn't really have any bad areas and new enclousures are under construction, so I would love to return here and in Poland soon , especially given the fact, that Lodz is going to claim the glory from his Big brothers at the end of the year
There is a quite a lot of reasons to revisit 