Vientiane Zoo in Laos

[Peter Dickinson]

The Lao Zoo is located some 65 Km outside of the city of Vientiane in Laos. It is a commercial zoo and very short of money but that said it is one of the nicest zoos I have visited in Asia. There are good bits and bad bits but I don't doubt they would put the bad bits right if they had the cash available.
They have one of the best bear enclosures I have seen and the whitest of white elephants. Definitely worth a visit. I have placed this in the general Asia thread as Laos (or Lao) is not under the list of Asian countries containing zoos.
There are others in the country which I will write about at a later date.l

 

[MikeG]

Peter, I noticed one of your photos showed a zoo signpost pointing to 'Douc Langurs'. Which form did the zoo keep, & how many specimens did they have? Were there any other unusual Asian primates on exhibit?

 

[Peter Dickinson]

MikeG,

How did I know somebody was going to ask me that? Sadly they were, I believe, the only species I did not see on my visit. We toured the collection twice but did not see them. Either they were hiding, no longer there or hidden in some corner we missed. The site is quite spread out and confusing in parts. The smaller mud paths suggest a 'no go' area but tend to be okay...but not all of them. I rather wanted to see the Doucs too. I would imagine they were Red Shanked...but who knows?
I have been lucky enough to see all three subspecies of Doucs on my travels, sometimes in unlikely places like the Black Shanked in Dam Sen Theme Park in Vietnam. Really lucky too to see some of the other langurs up in North Vietnam ( Delacour´s, Black, Cat Ba amongst others). Saw the Snub nosed up in China too which were a treat. I am not a lister though....I look on the zoo as a one bodied entity with the biology as a whole being my interest.

The was not much else of great note amongst the primates but seeing the Assamese Macaques was a bit of a treat because so few zoos I visit seem to keep them.

Best Wishes,

Peter

 

[devilfish]

Construction of the Lao Wildlife Sanctuary, a collaboration between Lao (Vientiane) Zoo, the US Embassy and ACRES (a Singapore-based charity), has now begun. Ground was broken earlier this month. Despite references in earlier reports, the sanctuary will be based at the zoo, and should be working by the end of the year:

press release 2012 | Embassy of the United States Vientiane, Laos