I visited Tallinn Zoo about a week ago and this zoo really has two faces, an old Soviet face, which is set to mostly disappear within the next 5-10 years and a newer face with many new developments. The contrast could not be greater and the zoo still has some of the most spectacularly inadequate enclosures that I have seen in recent years, but the new developments mostly look very promising, although even they could be somewhat bigger. Fortunately most new enclosures look well structured and are visually pleasing, so they partly make up for what they lack in space.
Collectionwise the zoo has a strong focus on species that tend to do well in colder climates with extensive Bird of Prey, Owl, Pheasant and most notably Caprine collections. Presentation is very much taxonomically and the zoonerd highlight would be the Alpinarium where there are 10 (often huge) breeding groups of rare goats and sheep. Currently they Keep Nubian, Siberian, East-Caucasian & West-Caucasian ibex, Cretan wild goat, Dall's sheep, Turkmen markhor, Blue sheep, Bukhara and Transcapian urial as well as bachelor groups of East-Caucasian ibex and Blue sheep. In the old part of the zoo are Mishmi takin and Barbary sheep and behind the scenes are Chinese goral, 1 Long-tailed goral and 2 Armenian mouflon. Musk ox are also kept in a spacious lawn next to the Rhinos. The first three of these species should get new enclosures around the Alpinarium as well at some point... If you want to know how many individuals are kept, look at the latest inventory (Loomade Kaive):
Aastaaruanded - Tallinna loomaaed
The zoo also has several species that are somewhat typical of former Eastern bloc countries and despite the Iron Curtain being gone are still much more common in the east than in the west like Kulan and Jungle cat.
This zoo is also good for birdwatching and several less common species from a W European perspective are common on the zoo grounds like Common rosefinch, Common wheatear, Oriole and Fieldfare, there might also be Black-necked grebes present around the on-site Black-headed gull colony.
I am currently uploading a range of pictures from around the zoo:
Tallinn Zoo - ZooChat