Tama Zoo (Tokyo, Japan): (9 March 2025)
Photos in the gallery here: Tama Zoo - ZooChat
Tama Zoo is one of the "main" Japanese zoos which everyone recommends to be seen, but it is a bit of an odd one for me. I didn't have a very good impression of the zoo when I was there - I remember thinking that it wasn't very interesting, and a lesser zoo than Ueno, but looking through my photos I'm not sure exactly why. The enclosures are, for the most part, very much better than Ueno's although there are still some poor ones.
There is no single route around the zoo, with a whole tangle of paths in the middle part of the zoo in particular, so seeing everything requires quite a bit of back-tracking, which means a lot of walking and it's not a flat site! The ibis aviaries for example (on the left side of the map) are in the middle of a long steep path. That could have had something to do with it.
There also aren't that many "special" animals - insects aside it is a fairly ordinary line-up, especially if you've been to a few Asian zoos already. The two highlights of "specialness" are the Mole House, a nondescript little shed that would be so very easy to miss, and the Insectarium - Insectopia buildings which are superb insect houses.
The Mole House: the flat "tables" are glass-topped cases of dirt and leaves which the moles burrow through, and the tubes lead up and over to feeding tanks. Smaller "aquarium"-style tanks on the side walls house shrews. Unfortunately for me, all those green labels on the displays are saying that the animals are not on show at the moment! There were only two species on display when I was there - the Japanese Mole Mogera wogura and the Ezo Least Shrew Sorex minutissimus hawkeri. Other species normally on show include Small Japanese Mole Mogera imaizumii, Japanese Water Shrew Chimarrogale platycephalus, and Long-clawed Shrew Sorex unguiculatus.
Butterfly House
Tanks in the Insectarium
Tanks in Insectopia
Photos in the gallery here: Tama Zoo - ZooChat
Tama Zoo is one of the "main" Japanese zoos which everyone recommends to be seen, but it is a bit of an odd one for me. I didn't have a very good impression of the zoo when I was there - I remember thinking that it wasn't very interesting, and a lesser zoo than Ueno, but looking through my photos I'm not sure exactly why. The enclosures are, for the most part, very much better than Ueno's although there are still some poor ones.
There is no single route around the zoo, with a whole tangle of paths in the middle part of the zoo in particular, so seeing everything requires quite a bit of back-tracking, which means a lot of walking and it's not a flat site! The ibis aviaries for example (on the left side of the map) are in the middle of a long steep path. That could have had something to do with it.
There also aren't that many "special" animals - insects aside it is a fairly ordinary line-up, especially if you've been to a few Asian zoos already. The two highlights of "specialness" are the Mole House, a nondescript little shed that would be so very easy to miss, and the Insectarium - Insectopia buildings which are superb insect houses.
The Mole House: the flat "tables" are glass-topped cases of dirt and leaves which the moles burrow through, and the tubes lead up and over to feeding tanks. Smaller "aquarium"-style tanks on the side walls house shrews. Unfortunately for me, all those green labels on the displays are saying that the animals are not on show at the moment! There were only two species on display when I was there - the Japanese Mole Mogera wogura and the Ezo Least Shrew Sorex minutissimus hawkeri. Other species normally on show include Small Japanese Mole Mogera imaizumii, Japanese Water Shrew Chimarrogale platycephalus, and Long-clawed Shrew Sorex unguiculatus.
Butterfly House
Tanks in the Insectarium
Tanks in Insectopia