Melaka Zoo return to Melaka Zoo, April 2014

[Chlidonias]

What a depressing zoo visit I have had today. I have been to zoos which are depressing because they are just plain bad, but even worse is a zoo which you have seen at its peak now reduced to a shabby mess. I last visited Melaka Zoo just under three years ago in 2011 and it really was one of the best zoos in Asia. Now it is a shambles of empty and abandoned cages. Half the zoo is bereft of inhabitants and there are almost no mammals left smaller than a serow. I spent only an hour and 45 minutes there and I was done.

The reason is a bit of a scandal of a directorship changeover when most of the animals “mysteriously” disappeared. See here: http://www.zoochat.com/249/melaka-zoo-privatised-299786/

Devilfish visited not too long after this and the following is what he wrote in May 2013 on his thread http://www.zoochat.com/19/devilfishs-asian-adventure-308174/index4.html

A bit of a disappointment, but still a great zoo. The zoo's management changed at the start of the year, and with the messy change came a great loss of animals. Some died, some were transfered and some disappeared. As a result there are no longer flat-headed cats (there were formerly 6), birds of paradise, giant squirrels, Styan's red panda, [sadly the list continues,] in the collection, and many groups of animals are now left with only one or two survivors. Fortunately hoofstock seem to be doing ok, as are the primates on the islands. There have also been a number of recent births and many suspected pregnancies. Apart from the disappointing collection, I was pleased with the zoo. Some of the enclosures for hoofstock are enormous and brilliant. As others have observed, the gibbon islands are fantastic, and there are a number of great enclosures.

Once I found a number of empty enclosures, I asked to speak to someone from the zoo who spoke English. I was kindly met by the vet, who was very nice and explained the situation and their recovery plans. It turns out most of the staff left too, and the zoo is now left with new keepers with only weeks' worth of experience.

This zoo doesn't seem to need a great deal (on paper) to put it back on track, though logistically and financially it's a lot more difficult. I believe (and hope) that I just caught it at its worst time, and that it will improve quickly

I had been hoping that a year later it might have picked up again, but if anything I think it has sunk even lower. There was cage after cage sitting empty, neglected, with signs saying “under renovation”, “animals not on show today”, “work in progress”...... Following I shall quote some sections from my original review http://www.zoochat.com/249/visit-september-2011-a-246355/ to provide updates on what the situation is now for those animals and enclosures. At the end I shall re-post my original species lists from 2011 with modifications to show what is left.....

The first [walk-through aviary] is not far from the zoo entrance and is divided in three parts, two on either side and one in the middle. The middle section doesn't have much in it -- just some mandarin ducks, common iguanas, a yellow-streaked lory and two black lories -- but the other two parts are more interesting. The right half has painted storks, green peafowl and two lemurs labelled as white-fronted lemurs (they were both asleep in their box so hard to see, but they didn't look like that species to me); there was also supposed to be a binturong in here but I didn't see any sign of it. There is a glass-fronted enclosure attached which is for red panda; the sign on the front said "sorry, animal off exhibit" but judging by the filthy state of the glass I'd say its been a very long time indeed since the animal was on exhibit. The other half of this aviary had island flying foxes (P. hypomelanus), at least one lesser mouse deer and two buffy fish owls, which seemed a rather risky mix. The ring-tailed lemurs were supposed to be in here too, but on my visit were confined inside a glass-fronted cage that was the duplicate of the red panda one.

This aviary was closed to visitors. Looking through the mesh it was in a real state of disrepair. The only animals I could see were three buffy fish owls. The glass-fronted cages were mostly empty, although there was a single white-fronted lemur in one and at least one ring-tailed lemur in the one behind.

Nearby is the Mouse Deer Park which is another walk-through aviary, rather sparsely planted but attractive nevertheless, and very large. Apart for the several greater mouse deer in here, there were also demoiselle cranes, great argus, blue peafowl and various pigeons etc.

Still open to visitors but again in a sorry state. The only animals visible were two greater mouse deer, four common muntjacs, a demoiselle crane, a male red junglefowl, a female great argus, a blue crowned pigeon, a pied imperial pigeon, a green imperial pigeon, and some spot-necked doves.

The main bird section has two walk-throughs (with large bird of prey aviaries stretching between the two). One is for water birds, including a lot of painted and yellow-billed storks amongst others; the other has a hefty list of Asian passerines and pigeons (see species lists in following posts) although I will admit I didn't stay in here long because the top of the aviary was covered in vines which made the heat inside extremely oppressive and I'd also seen most of the species in the wild already.

Pretty sad these ones. The waterbird side had just a few painted and yellow-billed storks, two grey herons, two purple herons, a black-crowned night heron and a blue peacock. The formerly bird-heavy passerine side had literally not a single passerine left! There were a lot of wild plantain squirrels in there though! The birds which were in there were green and blue peafowl, a female crestless fireback, a pair of crested firebacks, a female koel, some pied imperial pigeons, some Nicobar pigeons, an emerald dove, a blue crowned pigeon, some spot-necked doves and a mouse deer. The former bird of prey aviaries held a lone sarus crane, three white pelicans, and a lesser adjutant (the fourth aviary was empty).

The best by far of the walk-throughs wasn't even depicted on the zoo map and had no signs pointing to it -- the bird of paradise aviary! Right by the giraffes and lechwe, rather out of place both taxonomically and zoogeographically, this was a startling gem to stumble across unexpected. As well as a few other choice birds such as Bali mynah, Malaysian peacock-pheasant and crested wood partridge, this extremely attractive and well-planted aviary held at least four male red birds of paradise; about three male lesser birds of paradise and three or four of what I assumed to be young males but I saw one being courted by a full-plumaged male so they may have been females; two male twelve-wired birds of paradise; and a single male king bird of paradise. A truly spectacular mix and I spent quite some time in here trying to get photographs. There were no birds of paradise elsewhere in the zoo so I don't know if they have off-display breeding aviaries or if these were all surplus males from somewhere else.

This one was an absolute tragedy. Locked up, almost bare of vegetation (formerly heavily-planted), and with only a pair of white-crowned hornbills and an Oriental pied hornbill inside (and, again, several wild plantain squirrels). So sad.

Most of the individual aviaries, arranged in clusters, are small and wedge-shaped so that they fit together in circles like orange segments. They are ugly and nowhere near big enough to be housing the hornbills and pheasants that they do. The parrot cages are somewhat better but unfortunately rather crowded. The palm cockatoo aviary held seven individuals, and another was an interesting mix of citron-crested, Goffin's, blue-eyed and Ducorp's cockatoos.

Almost all these birds are gone. The two sets of “orange section” aviaries, where most of the birds were kept, are completely empty and roped off. The few other aviaries contain rhinoceros hornbill and a few parrots. No palm cockatoos, almost none of the formerly large hornbill and pheasant collections left.

The worst cages by far are those in the Small Mammal and Small Carnivore houses ....... and Reptile House

All three of these houses (grouped together in one spot) were empty and closed off. I snuck a look through the trees and in the Small Mammal House workers were busy demolishing all the inside partitions. I'm not sure if this is because they are opening up the house to make larger cages (definitely a good thing!) or if it is the first stage of demolishing them altogether (which would be even better really because they really sucked as animal housing!).

Really the only thing you need to make a major detour for is the Taman Mini Safari in the centre of the zoo which is a reasonably large area of land traversed by a raised walkway. There's no signage in here apart for one warning that the giraffes may bite, so I'm not sure of exactly what's in here. I saw two giraffes, about five zebras, three female nyala, and a few sambar resting in the shade under the walkway. The photoshopped poster outside the entrance depicts giraffe, zebra, gemsbok and Malayan tapir but I think that is just generic advertising. Because the MIni Safari is off the main route I did it last after roaming around the rest of the zoo, and I'm glad I returned for it because right by the entrance is a big dirt-filled terrarium housing three bamboo rats (Rhizomys sumatrensis) which are absolutely fantastic creatures, the sort of rodent George Lucas would have come up with.

The Taman Mini Safari was closed off, presumably due to lack of animals! The bamboo rat enclosure here has gone, but one individual was still on display in the glassed enclosure right at the zoo entrance (I think it held a small crocodile in 2011).

The zoo is heavy on African hoofstock and Asian animals, and apart for the randoms scattered around is arranged roughly in taxonomic categories, going clockwise from the entrance African and Asian ungulates, then ratites, then big cats, birds, primates, more hoofstock, dogs (grey wolf and dhole), then the Small Mammal, Small Carnivore and Reptile Houses. Among the more interesting animals in the paddocks are (huge!) Malaysian gaur, Bawean hog deer and southern serow. Otherwise there are a lot of very standard zoo ungulates like nilgai, Ankole cattle, barasingha, etc.

Most of the hooved stock are still present in their original enclosures, but often in reduced numbers. Still lots of Ankole cattle, lechwe, barasingha and nilgai. The five ratite pens now housed an emu in the ostrich pen, another emu in the emu pen, the rhea pen was empty, and the two common cassowary pens still had one in each. The wolves were gone, but there were still two dholes. Most of the primates on the islands and nearby cages are still there, but mostly in fewer numbers; however the glass-fronted enclosures near the zoo entrance where the smaller species were held are all empty and roped off. The spider monkey island now had dusky langurs on it – and there was no sign of the wild dusky langurs which formerly lived in the zoo grounds (and the feeding stations for that wild troop appeared not to have been in use for quite a while).....

There is also a Tortoise Garden by the primates, housing a variety of chelonians in large pens.

Very reduced, now mostly red-eared sliders and Amboina box turtles.

 

[Chlidonias]

FULL SPECIES LIST FOR MELAKA ZOO FROM 2011 WITH ANNOTATIONS FOR 2014 (I HAVE ADDED THE WORD “GONE” TO ANY NO LONGER PRESENT AND EMBOLDED THE ONES STILL PRESENT FOR EASE OF COMPARISON)

The list of what is or is not present is of course referring only to what is on show. Some of these species may still be held off-display (but that is irrelevant from the perspective of the visitor experience).

There were a few species on display which I did not see on the 2011 visit, namely dusky langur (I suspect they simply caught the ones which used to live wild in the zoo), one lesser adjutant, black-crowned night heron, a couple of Moluccan cockatoos, a couple of African grey parrots, and a female Asian koel.


Scientific names have only been included if there could be confusion.


MAMMALS:

Black giant squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) – GONE
Prevost's squirrel – GONE
Malayan porcupine (Hystrix brachyura) (I SAW FIVE)
Asiatic brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus macrourus) – GONE
Bamboo rat (Rhizomys sumatrensis) (ONE LEFT)
Capybara (TWO LEFT)

Slow loris – GONE
Ring-tailed lemur (AT LEAST ONE LEFT)
White-fronted lemur (ONE LEFT)
Brown lemur – GONE
Black and white ruffed lemur (ONE LEFT)
Pigmy marmoset – GONE
Common marmoset – GONE
Squirrel monkey – GONE
Black-capped capuchin
Black spider monkey – GONE
Banded leaf monkey (a single baby one) – GONE
Pig-tailed macaque – GONE
Crab-eating macaque (a single albino baby one) – GONE
Stump-tailed macaque (TWO LEFT)
Mandrill (THREE LEFT)
Bornean gibbon (ONE LEFT)
Agile gibbon – GONE
White-handed gibbon (ONE LEFT)
Siamang (ONE LEFT)
Orangutan (which species not labelled) (TWO?)
Common chimpanzee (ONLY ONE LEFT I THINK)

[Dusky langur was new to the captive animals on this 2014 visit, but were formerly wild in the zoo]

Island flying fox (Pteropus hypomelanus) – GONE (I THINK)

Red panda – GONE
Common raccoon – GONE
Binturong – GONE
Masked palm civet – GONE
Common palm civet – GONE
Malayan civet (Viverra tangalunga) – GONE
Domestic ferret – GONE
Small-clawed otter (I SAW FIVE)
Grey wolf – GONE
Dhole (TWO LEFT)
Sun bear (TWO LEFT)
Bobcat – GONE
Leopard cat – GONE
Flat-headed cat – GONE
Clouded leopard – GONE
Leopard (I SAW ONE SPOTTED AND THREE BLACK)
Malayan tiger (THREE ENCLOSURES, FOUR ANIMALS)
African lion (ONE PAIR)

Miniature horse
regular-sized horse – GONE
Przewalski's horse – GONE
Common zebra – GONE
White rhino (TWO)
Malayan tapir (TWO)

Giraffe (TWO PLUS A BABY, WHICH WAS GOOD TO SEE!)
Southern serow (ABOUT FOUR OR FIVE)
Malayan gaur (JUST ONE MALE LEFT)
Banteng
Ankole cattle
Nilgai
Nyala
Red lechwe (on the zoo map labelled as Kafue Flats lechwe, on the enclosure as Red lechwe)
Blue wildebeest (JUST TWO LEFT)
Sambar
Rusa
Barasingha
Axis deer
Bawean hog deer
Common muntjac
Lesser mouse deer – GONE?
Greater mouse deer

[on the zoo leaflet map Camel was labelled, and on the signboard maps in the zoo grounds there were labels for Fallow deer and Scimitar-horned oryx, but none of these were apparent on my visit] – AND STILL NOT APPARENT ON THIS VISIT!!

Asian elephant (THREE)


BIRDS:

Ostrich – GONE
Common rhea – GONE
Emu (TWO)
Common cassowary (TWO)

White pelican (THREE)

Milky stork (I SAW ONE)
Painted stork
Yellow-billed stork

[Lesser adjutant (ONE) was new for the 2014 visit]

Demoiselle crane (I SAW ONE)
Sarus crane (I SAW ONE)

Grey heron
Purple heron
Cattle egret – GONE

[Black-crowned night heron was new for the 2014 visit]

African spoonbill – GONE

Greater flamingo – GONE

Purple gallinule – GONE
White-breasted waterhen – GONE

Green peafowl
Blue peafowl
Red junglefowl (ONE MALE)
Great argus (ONE FEMALE)
Malaysian peacock-pheasant – GONE
Lady Amherst's pheasant – GONE
Silver pheasant – GONE
Crested fireback (ONE PAIR)
Crestless fireback (ONE FEMALE)
Crested wood partridge (Roulroul) – GONE

Mute swan – GONE
Chinese goose – GONE
Mandarin duck – GONE
Lesser whistling duck – GONE

White-bellied sea eagle – GONE
Changeable hawk-eagle – GONE
Black eagle – GONE
Crested serpent-eagle – GONE
Brahminy kite – GONE
Black-shouldered kite – GONE

Green-winged macaw
Scarlet macaw
Blue and gold macaw
Indian ringneck – GONE
Lovebirds – GONE
Cockatiel – GONE
Palm cockatoo – GONE
Greater sulphur-crested cockatoo
Citron-crested cockatoo – GONE
Goffin's cockatoo – GONE
Blue-eyed cockatoo – GONE
Ducorp's cockatoo
Eclectus
Yellow-streaked lory – GONE
Black lory – GONE
Red lory – GONE

[Moluccan cockatoo
African grey parrot -- both new to the zoo for the 2014 visit]

Pied imperial pigeon
Green imperial pigeon
Mountain imperial pigeon – GONE
Nicobar pigeon
Jambu fruit dove – GONE
Little green pigeon – GONE
Large green pigeon – GONE
Thick-billed green pigeon – GONE
Pink-necked green pigeon – GONE
Victoria crowned pigeon – GONE
Blue crowned pigeon
Spot-necked dove
Emerald dove
Zebra dove

[Asian koel was new the zoo for the 2014 visit]

Buffy fish owl
Spotted wood owl – GONE
Barred eagle owl – GONE

Rhinoceros hornbill
Great hornbill – GONE
White-crowned hornbill
Oriental pied hornbill
Malayan black hornbill – GONE

White-rumped shama – GONE
Silver-eared mesia – GONE
Stripe-throated bulbul – GONE
Straw-headed bulbul – GONE
Red-whiskered bulbul – GONE

Black-naped oriole – GONE

Brahminy starling – GONE
Asian glossy starling – GONE
Common mynah – GONE
Jungle mynah – GONE
Hill mynah
Bali mynah – GONE

Red bird of paradise – GONE
Lesser bird of paradise – GONE
Twelve-wired bird of paradise – GONE
King bird of paradise – GONE



REPTILES:

Elephant-trunk snake (Acrochordus javanicus) – GONE
Blood python – GONE
albino Burmese python – GONE
Reticulated python – GONE
Anaconda – GONE

Common iguana – GONE

Burmese brown tortoise (Manouria emys)
Painted turtle (Callagur borneoensis)
Giant river turtle (Batagur baska)
Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata)
Malayan box turtle (Cuora amboinensis)
Red-eared terrapin (Trachemys scripta)
[I'm not sure if all the turtle species were still present, but almost all the individuals were red-eared sliders and Amboina box turtles. I saw one brown tortoise and some Batagur (or Callagur, not sure which they were)]

Spectacled caiman – GONE
Estuarine crocodile
False gharial

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I have the feeling that had one walked through the zoo with a shotgun picking off random animals in 2011, the overall loss to the collection would have possibly been *less* than the loss it has undergone since that date!

 

[Zooish]

That is really unfortunate... Melaka had a good collection and was actually in decent shape a few years back.

 

[Chlidonias]

I've put some recent photos (mostly of animals) in the gallery Melaka Zoo Gallery (including the giraffe sign for David Brown as always).

 

[baboon]

I find the tragedy of Melaka Zoo is so similar to many Chinese zoos: the more powerful department forced the zoo-related department to handle their directorship of the zoo, then privatized the zoo and stop all the state financial supply to the zoo, then large-scale animal death occurred in the zoo due to the poor management and short of finance, finally leave an empty zoo and a rich department officer. Fortunately the zoo-privatization trend is stopped in China now due to the large-scale protest and public angry from the whole country.

 

[devilfish]

Oh dear. I was really hoping it was going to improve. I'm surprised that the inhabitants of the small mammal houses have all disappeared though.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

I find the tragedy of Melaka Zoo is so similar to many Chinese zoos: the more powerful department forced the zoo-related department to handle their directorship of the zoo, then privatized the zoo and stop all the state financial supply to the zoo, then large-scale animal death occurred in the zoo due to the poor management and short of finance, finally leave an empty zoo and a rich department officer. Fortunately the zoo-privatization trend is stopped in China now due to the large-scale protest and public angry from the whole country.

Mmmm, I really want to know what the story has been with Melaka Zoo and where/who/what/why/wherefore and where to ... the directorship was changed and why no public officials, both new directorship, "others" and new overseeing animal husbandry and management as well as Municipality and State officials involved in this charade of a zoo implosion program...!!!

For what reasons ..., anyone local can provide more insights?

 

[Toki]

Hi!

I listed out the changes of management of the zoo to make things clear.

1963
Zoo Melaka Opened
- Zoo is managed by Kerajaan Negeri Melaka (State Government if Melaka)
- Management of Zoo is changed to Jabatan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara / PERHILITAN (Wildlife and National Parks Department)

2013
Zoo Melaka Privatized
- Zoo is managed by Konsortium KKW Sdn Bhd.
- The zoo was privatized to develop the zoo into a major tourist attraction
- Soon after privatization, 230 animals went missing, and some anumals, including a Sun Bear, was poisoned to death

2018
Zoo Melaka is Municipalized
- Zoo management is taken over by Majlis Perbandaran Hang Tuah Jaya / MPHTJ (Hang Tuah Jaya Municipal Council)
- This decision was made due to multiple major violations of management by Konsortium KKW Sdn Bhd.

Information Sources
Zoo Melaka
MPHTJ ambil alih Zoo Melaka, Taman Burung
Report: Malacca Zoo and Bird Park closed for two weeks
Privatisation Plan For Melaka Zoo - Popular tourist destination. | theAsianparent Malaysia

The zoo is currently managed by the local goernment, and I hear from locals that the environment of the zoo significantly improved from the private days. The interesting thing is that, locals say that the zoo has also significantly improved when it was privatized in 2013, since the government zoo was more dirty and stinky.

It think that the zoo needed an advice from a private company to improve the environment, rather than privatizing the zoo. This lead to the closure of Melake Bird Park too.