Part VIII: Battle-Khaki Personality (With Red Underwear)
After our now-standard hearty breakfast - and a quick look at the weather forecast in order to guage just how thickly-clothed it would be advisable to be for the coming day - we made our way to our train the next morning. We had paid a small supplement in order to be able to catch the faster express service between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and hence ensure we reached the zoo for opening time given the fact we had been given to understand that it would be likely to fill an entire day.
On arrival into Rotterdam Centraal, it was merely a short 15 minute walk in order to reach Diergaarde Blijdorp; a pleasant-enough walk, although inferior to those of the preceding days in Amsterdam and Arnhem in terms of how scenic the surroundings were. However, we did find ourselves slightly regretting how quickly we had reached the zoo on arrival, as we still had 10 minutes or so to wait before the ticket kiosks would open and it became rapidly apparent that there was a certain damp, windy chill in the air which presaged rain.
Diergaarde Blijdorp
Approximate time taken at collection: 420 minutes.
Zoochatters met: N/A
Target species: Swift Fox, Hawksbill Turtle, Black-and-Rufous Sengi
The first, and most important thing that must be said before I start this review is to note one caveat which applies to all that follows; Diergaarde Blijdorp was by far the collection most affected by the fact we visited the Netherlands in winter of all those we were to see, with large portions of the animal collection confined indoors and the outdoor exhibits correspondingly empty. Worse still, the bird flu precautions in place across European collections at the time were being enforced particularly strongly here, with many species off-show entirely. As such, we were unable to appreciate the collection at its best, and hence my views and conclusions should be taken in that light.
The first thing we saw on entering the zoo was the former Rivièrahal, which as has been widely-discussed elsewhere is now very much a shade of what it once was, containing as it does an indoor soft play area with an adjacent row of tropical greenhouses, with very few of the treasures which were once present within. However, looking for the various bird species - both free-flying and within aviaries - located within the thickly-vegetated greenhouses made as good a place as any to start with, and more importantly also provided a chance for us to warm up a little! This area was pleasant enough, with oddities such as
Western Plantain-eater (
Crinifer piscator) and
Wreathed Hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus) within, but seemed a little neglected and forgotten; certainly it was a little tucked-away and would be easy to miss if one were unaware of its existence and hence dismissed the building as purely a soft play area. Only a handful of old signs from historic exhibits located in the corridor leading to the greenhouses hinted at the prior heights of the Rivièrahal.
On leaving this area we decided to investigate the neighbouring interior housing for Western Lowland Gorilla and White-naped Mangabey, thinking that we would cut through here into the connected Rhinoceros House; however here we reached the first major point at which the cold weather would interfere with our visit, as the automatic doors into the aforementioned house were locked. Signage on these doors indicated that when the inhabitants of the house were confined indoors due to the weather, visitor access was prevented in the name of animal welfare. As such, we were only able to obtain the briefest glimpses through the doors into the interior stalls for Pygmy Hippopotamus and - a little further on - Eastern Black Rhinoceros. However, our detour was not entirely wasted - within the Gorilla House we found a handful of peepholes which we had been alerted about in advance, allowing a view into a semi-offshow enclosure for
Black-and-Rufous Sengi (
Rhynchocyon petersi). This represented the first lifetick species of the day, and although we knew the species was exhibited rather more openly elsewhere in the collection we were glad to have seen it here nonetheless. Unfortunately, the gorilla and mangabey housing itself was quite sparse and poor - resembling a cross between a hospital ward and the old ape house at Wilhelma in Stuttgart - and we hence spent little further time in this building.
The bulk of Diergaarde Blijdorp can be roughly divided into four segments for the purposes of discussion; an Asian themed area, an African themed area, the Oceanium and the surrounding New World area - this being more or less the order in which we made our way around the collection. As such, from this point on I will discuss my thoughts on each area before summarising my feelings about Diergaarde Blijdorp as a whole.
One of the first areas of the Asian zone which we reached was the Aziehuis; for all intents and purposes a pretty solid reptile house - holding species such as
Komodo Dragon (
Varanus komodoensis) and
Indian Cobra (Naja naja) in spacious and well-designed exhibits - which also contained a handful of nocturnal exhibits for small mammals such as
Balabac Chevrotain (Tragulus nigricans) and
Northern Dryzone Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus nordicus), along with indoor housing for
Lion-tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus). The latter of these wasn't terribly great, although perfectly adequate for the purpose at hand, but otherwise I rather liked the exhibits within the Aziehuis both in terms of the enclosure design, signage quality and the selection of species displayed.
On the whole I quite liked the exhibit standard within the Asian zone; many of the enclosures we came across comprised paddocks which were spacious but relatively simple in design, and rather resembled a cross between those found at Chester Zoo and Tierpark Berlin to my eyes. Dotted between these were exhibits which followed one of three general designs; rocky little interior grottos surrounded by small exterior enclosures as illustrated by the exhibits for Fishing Cat and Pallas Cat, larger and more thickly-vegetated exhibits for species such as Amur Leopard, and more open island exhibits providing a high level of climbing opportunities for species such as the aforementioned Lion-tailed Macaque, Sulawesi Crested Macaque and Red Panda. Given the fact that the cold temperature meant that the moats and pools surrounding these island exhibits were near-uniformly frozen over, it was perhaps unsurprising that the inhabitants of these appeared to have been prevented from having outside access. As such we were unable to judge the quality of these enclosures in action, as we could for the other exhibits in this area, but nonetheless I think they were quite well-suited to the needs of the species they housed. Here would possibly be a good opportunity to observe that Blijdorp represented yet another collection which provides high-quality physical artwork and statues as additional decoration for many of the exhibits - and as such hits on one of my personal soft spots - given the fact that both Helly and myself were rather amused by a particularly worried-looking statue positioned next to the Red Panda exhibit
Beyond here were a handful of more stand-alone exhibits; unfortunately a large walkthrough exhibit for South-East Asian bird species - which contains, as I understand, quite a good selection of avian oddities - was closed due to the aforementioned bird flu precautions, and as such I cannot comment further on this area. Similarly, my views on the exterior exhibits for a mixed group of non-subspecific Asian Elephant and pure
Indian Elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) on one side of the Taman Indah house, and
Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) on the other side, are necessarily limited by the fact that the inhabitants of these enclosures were confined indoors due to the temperature and hence - much like the aforementioned island exhibits - we did not see them in their full context. However, they seemed pretty good all things considered, if a little muddy and on the smaller side of acceptable. We were able to view the inhabitants of these exhibits within the Taman Indah house itself, which was themed to look akin to the overgrown and thickly-vegetated ruins of an abandoned Asian temple; the interior exhibit for the elephant herd struck me as rather better quality than did the nearby rhinoceros exhibit, both in terms of size and general design. I rather liked this house on the whole, however, and the theming within seemed to work where many other exhibits themed around the concept of Asian temples fall short, either through seeming tacky and overblown or distractingly artificial; the only downside to the house was that given how spacious and well-vegetated the visitor spaces were, it was disappointing for the opportunity to stock it with free-flying birds in a similar fashion to Tropical Realm at Chester Zoo to be entirely missed, particularly given the fact that in some ways I felt aspects of Taman Indah resembled the aforementioned exhibit writ small.
After viewing the Siberian Tiger exhibit briefly - large and spacious, and well-designed for the needs of the inhabitants as far as we could tell given the fact that (once again) they were invisible - we made our way towards the African zone; this was by far the area which suffered worst for being viewed during the winter months, given the fact that as far as we could tell almost every single outdoor species within this area was confined indoors and, barring a handful of exceptions where the interior housing was accessible- therefore invisible
this was particularly unfortunate given the fact that judging by appearances, this portion of Diergaarde Blijdorp is also the one with the best outdoor exhibits of all, barring one highlight exhibit elsewhere which will be highlighted in due course. As such, if anything will draw me back to the collection in the coming years at a more clement time of year, it will be the opportunity to see this area of the zoo as it should be seen. This said, I will endeavour to address the particular highlights of the African zone as far as is possible.
The first major highlight we reached was the house for
Okapi (
Okapia johnstoni) - this comprised a spacious interior exhibit for several individuals, along with several free-flying bird species, alongside a very large and well-vegetated exterior paddock which was netted-over to permit access for not only the Okapi themselves, but also the various bird taxa which shared their indoor housing. This latter exhibit had, I believe, been converted from an existing enclosure for waterfowl and wading birds native to the Netherlands - as such I think this represented a very good example of adapting and modifying an exhibit whilst keeping something of the character of what had come before. Unfortunately, neither the Okapi nor the birds were using this portion of their exhibit at the time of our visit - a pity, as I think in the summer months this could well rank among the very best exhibits for Okapi I have seen, given how impressed I was with an empty exhibit in winter! I was also very pleased with the standard of informational signage within this exhibit complex, with detailed information given about each individual Okapi living within - including, in a touch I wish more exhibits for this species would consider, photographs of their unique rear stripe patterns; this naturally allows the visiting public to identify a given individual when viewing them.
The path leading around the perimeter of this exterior exhibit made its way up a ramp into the crocodile house which is positioned behind and above the off-display interior housing for the Okapi group; this was yet another highlight of the Africa zone, along with one of the only aspects which I was able to judge fully given the fact that it was entirely indoors and hence unaffected by the winter months. An initial antechamber containing a number of solid reptile and invertebrate exhibits - along with a pair of exhibits for Black-and-Rufous Sengi - was immediately followed by a wooden boardwalk leading through the bulk of the house; to the left were large exhibits for both non-subspecific and pure
Western Nile Crocodile (
Crocodylus niloticus chamses) and
Slender-snouted Crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus), whilst on the right-hand side a number of exhibits designed along the general theme of African scrub and semi-desert contained species such as Rock Hyrax, Meerkat and Cape Porcupine. Given the amount of mock-rock crags and outcrops within these exhibits I strongly suspected that this was the enclosure that had held Klipspringer until relatively recently - a suspicion which was confirmed in conversation with
@ShonenJake13 some days later, as it happens.
We exited the crocodile house onto a boardwalk leading towards the Savannehuis; a gigantic construction fashioned - as far as I could tell - to resemble the stump of a baobab tree, and which served as the indoor housing for the various species which inhabited the surrounding African savannah exhibits, including Reticulated Giraffe, Greater Kudu and Chapman’s Zebra. Looking down into the interior of the house, it seemed spacious and well-designed, although only the interior housing for the giraffes was visible as far as I could tell. All inhabitants of the exhibit seemed to be locked indoors, with the large and rather attractive savannah paddock therefore standing empty. As I have noted already, this was quite a pity as I think this exhibit would stand as one of the highlights of the zoo as a whole when viewed in-use and during more clement weather. Smaller exhibits for species such as Spotted Hyena, Serval and Mantled Guereza were located beyond here; the hyena exhibit looked reasonably good, if a little small, and appeared to be undergoing renovation work at the time of our visit, whilst the serval enclosure comprised a solid if plain paddock similar to those present in the Asian zone. The Guereza exhibit was the best of the three in my opinion, with large quantities of climbing frames, ropes and other such items throughout both the indoor and exterior enclosures; perhaps unsurprisingly the inhabitants of the enclosure were remaining indoors and huddling together for warmth!
We next reached the third major highlight of the African zone – a massive walkthrough exhibit for a variety of vultures, raptors and other large African birds, containing the following species:
African White-backed Vulture (
Gyps africanus)
Black Kite (Milvus migrans migrans)
Hooded Vulture (
Necrosyrtes monachus)
Rueppel’s Griffon Vulture (
Gyps rueppelli rueppelli)
White-headed Vulture (
Trigonoceps occipitalis)
Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumenifer)
Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta)
Blue Crane (Anthropoides paradise)
Unfortunately, although access was not blocked to the aviary itself, it was entirely devoid of inhabitants minus one or two wild birds – which leads me to suspect that much like the walkthrough aviary within the Asian zone the inhabitants had been moved off-display due to the bird flu quarantine precautions. However, I could nonetheless see that this was a very impressive exhibit indeed, possibly of a size with the gigantic vulture aviary present at Tierpark Berlin but much more open, comprising as it did an aviary backing onto fence and mesh rather than the mock-rock cliffs clinging to the walls of the Alfred-Brehm Haus as the Berlin exhibit does.
Our route through the zoo shortly-thereafter took us underneath a set of railway bridges into the newer half of the collection, within which could be found the New World zone and the Oceanium; although strictly speaking were we to view things in a logical order, it would make more sense for us to view the various portions of the New World zone before visiting the Oceanium, given the fact that the chilly air was started to be scattered with sleet we decided that retreating somewhere warm and allowing time for the skies to clear somewhat would be preferable. As such we started walking briskly towards the entrance of the Oceanium, which frustratingly entailed walking around much of the perimeter of the structure – including a one-way exit – before reaching our destination. However, we did make a single detour; this was in order to hopefully pick up the next major lifetick species of the day,
Swift Fox (Vulpes velox) - the outdoor exhibit for which was located outside the Oceanium roughly halfway to the entrance.
Given the fact that we had been given to understand that this species would be leaving the collection imminently, there was some level of trepidation as I approached the area where I had been informed the exterior exhibit for the species was located. However, not only was I gratified to note that the enclosure we discovered was still signposted for the taxon, but moreover despite the chilly weather - and the fact that it was gently snowing by this point in time - both individuals were highly active and visible. As such, we were able to obtain very good views of this species and stood observing and photographing them for some time before continuing towards the Oceanium. I was struck by the fact that in both appearance and behaviour, it seemed that Swift Fox resembled nothing so much as a slightly smaller and more gracile Corsac Fox!
On approaching the Oceanium, we first saw a relatively good – if bare – outdoor pool for the California Sealion group present at the collection; as no feeding displays nor talks were taking place anytime soon, the inhabitants were only sporadically visible and we quickly moved on to the first major exhibit of the Oceanium itself. Next to the entrance of the building, a covered viewing area looked onto a collection of mock-rock cliffs and stone platforms which overlooked a deep pool; this exhibit was intended to provide a representation of Bass Rock in Scotland, and the seabird colonies which nest there, containing as it did
Common Guillemot (
Uria aalge),
Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) and, in an odd break in biogeography,
Pacific Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla pollicaris). I rather liked this exhibit, perhaps because of my fondness for auks and other seabirds developed through years of living near the Northumberland coastline and hence easy access to the Farne Islands, but it should be noted that the viewing windows were somewhat difficult to see through, due to a combination of salt-staining, condensation and scratches on the glass.
I’m not the best at writing about aquarium exhibits – I enjoy them, certainly, but for whatever reason I tend to find it difficult to recall specific details about them subsequently and even more difficult to put my thoughts into words; as such this portion of my review will be a little more sparse than what has come beforehand. It must be said that I was rather taken with the Oceanium as a whole, feeling that it compared very strongly to the Ocean complex at Burgers which I had viewed some days prior, and that the reptile, amphibian and mammal exhibits within were by-and-large consistently good if a little bland.
However, other than the aforementioned Bass Rock exhibit there were three other particular aspects which I specifically liked:
- The massive main tank in the Atlantic zone of the Oceanium, which contained dozens of sub-tropical sharks, rays and other fish, along with two species of sea turtle; Green Turtle and – yet another target lifetick for the day – Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata). The tank was viewed via a large and spacious acrylic glass tunnel passing underneath, which was far the superior of anything found at a SeaLife or Bluereef Aquarium.
- I was rather taken with the viewing area for the Galapagos Tortoises held at the collection, themed as it was to resemble Charles Darwin’s study within the Beagle.
- A Caribbean beach tank, which contained a large quantity of Cownose Ray, a species which I am rather fond of.
On leaving the Oceanium, we made our way through the various New World exhibits which comprised the remainder of the “new” half of Diergaarde Blijdorp. These can be roughly split into two categories; the North American exhibits, which were largely rather good, and the South American exhibits which – barring one example which I shall discuss anon – seemed a little worn and neglected compared to much of the collection we had viewed earlier, strangely enough when one considers the fact that these included some of the newer exhibits within the zoo.
By far the best outdoor exhibit within the New World zone was the large, sprawling complex of enclosures for Polar Bear – certainly in the top five exhibits for the species which I had been fortunate enough to see at the time of my visit, and with only those at Yorkshire Wildlife Park and Highland Wildlife Park indisputably superior. Nearby exhibits for Arctic Fox and Plains Bison were also pretty good, as was the near-mandatory enclosure for Black-tailed Prairie Dog; the latter of these is worthy of particular mention, given the fact that it comprised a walkthrough exhibit and – despite the presence of high walls and mesh grates aiming to keep the inhabitants confined – I noted with wry amusement that there were just as many individuals present beyond the exhibit as there were within!
The centrepiece of the South American portion of this area was the Amazonica house; more or less a large walkthrough butterfly house dotted with terrariums for amphibians and reptiles, with a central pond containing several species of Amazonian freshwater fish and Arrau River Turtle. I really liked this exhibit, which in many ways reminded me somewhat of the Mangrove house at Burgers – although for obvious reasons the vegetation within was much thicker and more mature than it had been in the latter exhibit, and as such it perhaps serves as a glimpse towards what form it may take in another decade or so. As a general rule I am not a massive fan of butterfly houses – I have perhaps visited the one at Chester Zoo once or twice in the last five years, despite having been to the collection in question well over a dozen times in this time period – but I am nonetheless able to appreciate one done on this scale, with a high standard of signage throughout and with massive areas devoted to the purpose at hand. However, as already noted the remaining portions of the South American zone were somewhat shabbier and less-impressive, perhaps representing some of the poorest portions of the collection – this said, I am given to understand that this is the area of Blijdorp which is slated to next undergo refurbishment and renovations, with at least some of the species in this area (Maned Wolf, for instance) departing the collection in the imminent future. Moroever , it must also be noted that this was yet another area of the collection which suffered badly for the time of year, with empty, muddy exhibits and a pair of large walkthrough aviaries yet again barred from access due to the bird flu precautions.
After making our way to the restaurant located at one end of the old Rivierahal to get a quick bite to eat and a hot drink – quite pleasant and affordably-priced as such places go, and located in what would certainly be a scenic point in the zoo, overlooking as it did a massive waterfowl lake – all that remained to us was to revisit those portions of the collection which we wanted to view anew; the aforementioned waterfowl lake was devoid of all but seagulls, thanks to the bird flu regulations confining the inhabitants off-display, so at this stage we had seen everything at least once. Revisits focused on the Asiehuis and the Crocodile House, representing as they did the main two locations where interior exhibits would hopefully reward repeat viewing of species we wanted better views of, but we more or less wandered throughout the entire site at least once, in the hope that a few more species may have been permitted outdoor access by this point in the day.
Here would be a good point to give some brief overall thoughts on Diergaarde Blijdorp in conclusion; despite the cold weather and quarantine regulations rather hampering our visit, we nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed the collection. In many ways it reminded me of Chester Zoo; certainly it was the continental collection which I feel is closest in style and atmosphere to said collection, although by and large there were few areas which excelled in the way that Chester does. As already noted, we liked the way in which the regional theming and historical information signage at the collection was achieved, with the latter particularly meriting mention. Similar to my penchant for animal statues at a collection, I think it is very important for an old historical collection to retain some of the old “feel” it historically held – or at the very least to acknowledge what has come before – and this is something that was paid attention to throughout Blijdorp.
To get ahead a little in terms of my discussion of Dutch collections, it is giving little away to note that at the end of the trip which I am discussing, this held a strong second place behind Burgers in my personal ranking of the collections which we had visited – which rather answers the question of where I fall on that thorny question asked of all zoo enthusiasts after they first visit these two collections
and whilst I am eager to revisit Burgers on the basis of just how excellent it is, and my desire to see how it develops over the coming years, I am almost as enthusiastic to revisit Diergaarde Blijdorp..... in more warmer weather, so that I can truly judge the quality of the collections and view more than a mere fraction of the exhibits and enclosures in-use!
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After leaving the zoo - slightly prior to closing time, as the wind and sleet was picking up somewhat - we hurried back to Rotterdam Centraal in order to catch a train back to Amsterdam as soon as possible. As we had a
very early train booked for the next morning, we decided to find somewhere to eat a little earlier than usual and then relax in the hotel room for a time before retiring to bed early. Ultimately, we felt a shade too tired - and loathe to venture out into the cold once again - to stray far, so we decided to take advantage of the fact that our hotel contained a small restaurant and eat on-site. This was quite a good decision, as the food was good and, all things considered, reasonably-priced.
Before retiring to bed, we made final arrangements for our intended meeting of
@Vision and
@KevinVar at Zoo Antwerp the following morning - the first time we would meet either Zoochatter - and packed our bags as fully as possible to allow for a prompt departure.
(Coming up: Amour Pour Amahoro)
