Rotterdam Zoo What Blijdorps Rivierahal embodied for me

L

LARTIS

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Since I am one the younger side of the spectrum among zoo enthusiasts I was sadly not quite able to see as much as many others on here, but when I got to visit Blijdorps Rivierahal about a decade ago I was allowed at least a slightly faded yet still present impression of the icon the building used to be. I was young and much less aware of what I was enabled to witness. It took several years and other people accounts for me to grasp the impressive emotional state the composition awakened.

For me the rivierahal then embodied what classic animal books used to be,an attempt to present an entire overview. Several different habitats, plant and animal genera were shown.

From insects to all big five vertebrate classes.
Especialy the echidnas fascinated me.

The lay out of the enclosures made it feel as if one would travel along the evolutional history, from only plants over insects at the two southern entrances, into the actual building. A brigde over a pond with if I remember correctl mangroves different aligator gar and sturgeons species along freshwater rays and pangasius catfish.

Archerfish, matamata and anacondas were kept right behind the pond in paludariums.

The next part on the eastern part was a gallery with amphibia. I can not remember all the species but I think I have seen fire salamander, tree frogs, dart frogs and one tank with a giant salamander and another tank with mud puppies.

I am gonna continue the thread but split the description in severals parts.
As an conclusion I would like to state what I hoped the hall to become. In honour of the heritage.
 
Sorry it took so long for an update, as this is the second time i wrote this, but my connection crashed and everytjing was lost.

Part two the west wing and sort of blijdorps bird house

General overview
the structure is devided into three main areas with each free flying birds and aviaries.
The only entrance and exit, devided by a row of toucan aviaries (housing severals couples of toco and keel billed toucans) with glass fronts, start behind the amphibia exhibition, and lead to the central part.
All three sections have elevated plant beds, each one on the side of the house and one that divides the path into two creating a route that allows different perspectives on the way into the other parts and out.

A small extra information
I have seen documentary over the jubilee of blijdorp some time ago and they mentioned that with olant imports they accidentaly established an isopod population of at least one borneosean species in the plant beds.

Another aviary this tome woth a mesh front across the toucan row was housing hyazinth macaws, tawny frogmouths and two echnidnas.
The first two were allways easily wisible, but one visit I was fortunate enough to see one of the echnidnas.
It took a lot of time and several attempts, but I had company, in form of several pigeons or pheasants, searching for bugs I must have startled out of the bark mulch.

Since I am not quite sure if I remember the species correctly, bear in mind that this account might be incorrect, especialy in relation to completeness.

A third aviary right in front of the separation mesh, if I remember correctly, was home to bali mynas and palawan peacock pheasants.

On each side of this aviary were gateways to the southern amazonica hall, which got its name from the gigantic amazonica water lillies, kept in a round bassin, with a hand full of elevated plant beds housing palms and mangroves.

A path lead around the bassin, with elevated plant beds. Three aviaries were stationed on top of these beds placed apart about the same distance the aviaries length.
Since these were smaller in size only petite species were kept in here, like tanagers. I think I remember paradise and brazilian tanager as well as a honey creeper species.

A fourth aviary was stationed like an isle between the transition of the patj system from straight row to a circle around the bassin, separates from the rest of the linear plant bed by a connection path .
The mesh had an intentionaly cut out hole and allowed the bigger birds to roam freely.
Two species I remember for certain are the orange bellied and the black napped fruir dove.

Once again I excuse the inconsistence of the species list. I hope other zoochat member mights be able and willing to help out.

I do know that the following species were kept but not if they lived inside the central part of the complex or the amazonica hall, maybe even the northern hall
pink, pheasant and crown pigeon
turaco ( think shieled)
montserat trupial
and different starling
(think glossy and wattled)

After the round about of the amazonica hall one had to go back thru the central part to get to the northern hall, that had free flying java sparrows and dulawesi thick billed starlings as well as a couple of wreathed hornbills in an aviary at the very end of the hall.

I am gonna describe the other parts in separate posts.
 
Sorry for the delay, I had a food poisening that got in the way.

I have to correct a previous statements, that is that there were mangrove trees in the amazonica hall amd the pond mear the entrance, when I watched videos on youtube that i link below I saw that none of the tress seemed to be actual mangrove trees, eithrr the leaves look similar combined with the air roots of other plants caused this false memory.

I have also found that it seems like the crested oropendoal Psarocolius decumanus were formaly kept in the amazonica hall as well.

Further updates and corrections are planned to gollow soon.




 
I also wanted to link the video series that should include the isopods of the bird wing at the rivierahal



 
The next part was a parallel path to the main hall and bird wing, and started at the amphibia exhibition with a turtle tank on the left, which had windows from both sides. Can not remember the species right now, but wither somebody else helps out or I d manage to reconstruct it from zootierliste, as none of the picture and videos online seemed to have capture either the animals or the sign.

The only other enclosures of this tunnel like path were set on the oposite speak right side, divided into two seperate parts for each a specimen of both genders, and held komodo dragons who had produced a clatch of fertilzed eggs that had hatched around the time of my visit. But the babies were shown on the oposite side of the riviera hall near the feeding kitchen and hatchery.

The island theme enclosure had life plants in sand soil, and timor sparrows and zebra finch.

Behind the exit of the side path laid the interconnection hall way that guided either towards a shop and restaurant, an exit or the main hall.

A terrarium with cave crickets or whiptail spiders was right next to the exit of the komodo dragon path.

Old zoo signs hang along the back wall of the isle like structure that held toilettes underground and some enclosure above only visiblw from the main hall one cpuld attend thru the doors that framed the wall on each side. Sorry this is difficult for me to describe.

Eventho I have found a plan online I am neither sure I would bw allowed to use it nor how one embedded an image in a thread.
But here is the link

https://kasseninnederland.nl/wp-content/uploads/101.jpg
 
After more than half a year I am back and would like to continue this thread, but there was a reason why I have constantly postponed posting, that is that I sadly could neither remember the entire species list for the rest of the hall nor find both in my own footage and online.

So please bear with me if the following descriptions are incomplete.

The next part consisted of mainly aquariums but also some terraria.
Looking at the plan from the link I had posted at the end of in the previous post, you can detect an more or less oval shaped structure above that held restrooms on the lower level accesible over a staircase on each side and one larger pool housing one adult aba aba fish (Gymnarchus niloticus), that is sadly no longer part of the collection and currently according to zootierliste kept in only three western european parks. If I remember correctly the other tank held different malawi cichlids (at least two or three species think I abstractly remember entirely yellow, yellow and metalic blue with fewer but thicker black horizontal stripes and one with vertical black stripes)

Oposite each side of the oval were further galleries with aquariums.
Facing the malawi tank were australian lungfish cohabited with rainbowfish and oposite the aba aba tank was a tanganyika tank. Sadly once again I do not remember the exact species and took no pictures of that part of the hal, but I do remember the sign talking about the introduction of the nile perch (of which a lifesize painted woo board cut out was installed on the pillow between the glass fronts of the tank, guess they have combined several of the originaly smaller tanks) that has lead to the decline of the endemic cichlids species.

The trapezoid shape structure with its two mirrored wings held if I remember correctly either three or fife terraria, of which I do remember three dioramas, two smaller one larger.

The bigger of the enclosures was at the center facing south of the hal or down if you are looking at the plan, and houses juvenile comodo dragons. The two smaller dioramas were stationed on each side facing towards the galleries that go along the halls entire length. One outback themed and house spiny tailed skinks (probably egernia stokesii that were after the closure of the terrariums within the rivierahal transfered to the crocodile house) kept together with bearded dragons (tho I have to adress that they might have been kept separetlj, but also that there might have been more species) The other smaller diorama was souther pacific islands theme and home to fijii iguanas.

Oposite the the later were several other out back themed terraria, home to at least two reptiles species, one python, if i remember correctly with a white belly but black upper side, that was fairly large, and several enclosure for lace monitors that a decade ago were way less common than now due to the recent imports.

The next part is the baby station, an amazonas diorama the crocodile enclosure, as well as the stables for the giraffes warthogs pygmy hippos gorillas mangabeys lac alaotra lemurs and cotton top tamarins.
 
I have to pull the ripcord and want to apologize, that I failed to deliver, what I more or less hinted at, hoping I could recall the last reminiscences of this iconic structures heydays. I went through the gallery here on zoochat, watched videos and realized that the collection and composition a decade ago was even more impressive than I had remembered.
Especialy the google streetview images, that would sadly cover only a smaller part of the entire lay out showed me that there had not been just a few terrariums and species present, but actualy entirely galleries. Back then I did not expected that these memories would not be allowed a refreshing experiences.

So I wanted to politely ask you, if you could help me create an appropriate honouring reflection of what the riviera hal realy was like just a few years ago. What species were kept, where and how.

I also have sadly no idea if it would be legal to post pictures from different adresses.
 
I first visited the Riviera Hall in 1981. It was one of the nicest zoo buildings I have ever been to with a variety of animals I hadn't seen before.
I remember seeing a long-wattled umbrella bird, a cock-of-the rock, a white-necked picathartes and a chambered nautilus.
 
Wanted to post what I had already anounced in the original post, the vision I had and still have for the rivierahal.

Like mentioned in the previous description, did the house always represented a sort of classical lexica like exhibition for me that would show relations between different species and genera beyond the parks iconic geographic lay out and worked that well in my opinion because of that complimentary aspect.

Short note as an autistic a lot is a contractinc mix between perfectionism and routine, applying a different standard to things that have been there for a while than newly designed concepts.

My hopes would be that evolution would be the main topic of the exhibition, otherwise would I also like to pick up an impression I had that a part of the world that was not realy represented a decade ago at the park could be more, and that is the indian ocean, with madagascar and australia (indonesia more or less), reminents of relatively basal mammalian groups (lemurs and marsupials lungfish).

Bear in mind that this concept is heavily built on the state of the park from a decade ago, and somethings have changed that would fit this concept others would mean redoing recent developments.
The biggest would be the coming back of the gorillas and the departure of the black rhinos that I found more fitting for Artis zoo. This way every of the three major zoos would have a species the others would not have. Indian one horned rhino became synonymous for Blijdorp in my perception and white rhinos for Burgers leaving black rhinos to Artis, that reminded me of Frankfurt and would feel fitting for me, but its self speaking that I could see how others would disagree.

Am not familiar with the condition what of the rivierahal would need to stay the exact same, but otherwise would I propose to create an indoor hall for the gorilla that would cover the current in and outdoor cages area of the gorillas as well that of the pygmy hippos, that would move to the vijver, that had previously also housed the ring tailed lemur, and is suited in between the africa and asia just like madagascar. That new indoor area could round about be up to twothousand square meters according to streetviews measuring tool. The outdoor area could be expanded into the current restaurant and playground area (that could be reerected somewhere else, I mean their current plans are not minimalistic either and seem even less suited for general concept long term thinking) and the Okapi aviary is now since the up dated bird flu prevention concept seemed to ditch all walk thru aviaries either way.

Personaly would I have prefered to see the okapis move into the previous giraffe wing, but either way could the area in front of the current indoor enclosure get combined with the black rhino rondell and the forest buffalo and red river hog enclosure. According to that aza hoofstock cohousing catalouge can okapis be succesfuly kept together with bongos and red river hogs, and also monkeys like mangabeys, guenos, guerezas and man(drills).

Would love to see a specific exhibition on human evolution in reference to the gorillas that share their native range at least partialy with our closest ancestors the chimpanzees, along some of the most primitive living members of the primates, the galagos and pottos. Also a model of some of the extinct giant lemurs in reference to the madagascar exhibition near by. If the okapis would be kept here the gallery could also show case the evolution of giraffe necks.

The area between west wing and the central hall would be dedicated to madagascar. Including some nocturnal enclosures where the riverbank and some of the terrariums used to be for mouse makis, tenrecs and maybe even one malagasy carnivore, once again their evolution.
One of these enclosure could include a skelleton of an elephant bird that are also believed to have been nocturnal, reference kiwi. Reference to the elephants and crocodile hall, the relatives of the tenrec, elephant shrew, hyrax and elephant. The previous crocodile bassins could be converted into an aviary for some malagasy bird species and turtles or tortoises along a plated lizard, skink or iguana species could be possible. One or two terraria could show mantellas together with a smaller day gecko species and a larger for a chamaleon and tomato frogs. Also an exhibition on madagascars extinct terrestrial crocodiles. Potentialy some of the elephant shrews could be displayed here in reference to the malagasy advark and convergent evolution.

The central hall would be inspired by australia. Would also love an exhibition on mid west australias jack hills and the central deserts uluru rock and earth itself in reference to the evolution of life. Was not the plan to demolish the current wallaby walk thru enclosure, I am not sure if possible but it d be interesting to design the central hall to house at least some smaller species of kangaroos. If the space would be too small for diurnal species maybe a nocturnal species that could be seen sleeping in their den incooperated in some of the rock work and having the entire hall to themself at night. Would love to get the small pond with the mangrove and the bridge back, along with the australian monitors and archer and lungfish. Tasmania along new zealand and new caledonia are also home to one of the most ancient floras in the world and also offer an impression to what green antartica used to look like. Would love to see even a diorama for the cape flora and general evolution of plants.

The galery to the right would also get restored bring back the exhibition on amphibians,that previouslj included native species, the classic poison dart frog dioramas all zoos have these days, and the mudpuppy and giant salamander enclosure.

The right wing would be centered around Oceanian Island. Once again a decade ago the most recent official plan was amazonica. Do not think the hall was the best thing that could have been done but I still believe that the Americas around the Oceanarium are the place for these american aquatic plants. Therefor the amazonica bassin would get freed and make space for an indoor area for cassowaries and papua new guinean birds (such as palm cockatoos, electus and other parrots, lorikeets, crested and pheasant pigeon, fruit doves, starlings, maybe eventualy available again catbirds and pittas). The intermediate section could either be accesible to the cassowary greenhouse or be converted into a nocturnal area(cuscus, rakali, gliders, echidnas quoll). If I remember correctly the official plan decade ago was that the francois langurs move to the himalayan mountain, making space foor an outdoor aviary for the cassowaries and other bird species, a bit like loro parque's katandra aviary. The former hornbill hall could be home to tree kangaroos and one of the two new guinean ground dwelling kangaroo species currently kept in europe, together with either birds of paradise or hornbills.

Not sure if the space would allow that much, I mean I would love an nocturnal area for marsupials and echidnas very much fitting the concept. The only other area that could fit this would be the old australian terraria aquaria galery or komodo dragon, if they would additionaly be presented at the asian area, because I am no friend of the island hopping concept, that does not fit the oceanium, and I would be thankfull to see the lemurs return to the old world area where they also occur naturaly.

Last but not least the komodo dragon wing, that would still fit perfectly being believed to origin australia. Equaly fitting would be the previous african cichlid aquaria (tho if space needed could also be moved to the crocodile hall) and the australian terrariums with the bearded dragons and frilled lizards. The fiji iguanas could also be presented in reference to the near by madagascar iguanas, along a reference to the oceaniariums antillean green and rhinoceros iguana. Rats and mice along skinks together with mourning geckos could also be displayed in reference to their their global expansion as more or less intentional companions of human.

The malagasy cichlids could be moved into one of the many tanks near the crocodile hall, or even live partialy in one of the old crocodile bassins. The lungfish and rainbow fish, would also realy love to see a breeding programme for cherax crayfish that are also partialy endangered.
A tank the tawuti lake would also be very fitting both with the area and concept of evolution, being sorts of the indonesian version of lake malawi.

Invertebrates should of course also be represented. The african rainforest would have tanks for an endangered achatina snails if possible or how the african giant snail became a the source of a chain that caused the extinction of many other snail species, endangered cave cockroaches, giant millipedes along jewel beetle that could be put in reference to the concept of collecting and art aesthetics within the animal kingdom, I mean the papua new guinea aviary could have a bower bird nest. Madagascars hissing cockroaches and phasmids. Not sure if these malasy snails could be succesfuly bred in captivity. Indonesia and australia would also have phasmids, spiders, scorpions, millipedes, cockroaches are also suitable options. Would love to see breeding stations for polynesian partual snails and the fregatte island beetle.

Another concept I hope to see in a public zoo is for freshwater or terrestrial species whose eggs only hatch and grow in saltwater like neretina snails and hermit crabs. With increasing pressure due to climate change and pollution do the later desperately need more support both ex and in situ and such an exhibition could raise some awareness.
 
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