Yucatan information request

vogelcommando

vogelcommando

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
At the end of December '13 and the beginning of January '14 I'm making a 16-days trip to Yucatan.
Of course I want to visit some zoos but found sofar only 3 animal-related places in this part of Mexico :
Xcaret theme park
Acuario interactivo Cancun
Dolphin discovery Isla Mujeres
I would like to know if there are more zoos, aquariums, herp-collections, birdparks, butterfly-gardens and so on in Yucatan -any information is very welcome !
Next to Isla Mujeres I also want to visit the island Cozumel. Any tips where to see best wildlife and zoos ?
Any further usefull information about traveling in Yucatan is always welcome !
 
We - my wife and I - have a rent-car and can also stay as long as we want at the places we want. The Rio Lagartos biosphere reserve sounds pretty good and I try to fit it in our programm althrough I have a colony of wild Flamingos less then 30 kilometers from my home in the Netherlands - see http://www.zoochat.com/706/wild-flamingos-307266/ :)
Thanks for this info Zooplantman !
 
estimado vogel,
the oldest zoo in mexico is in merida,yucatan. it is at parque centenario in that city. rather outdated,but part of the collection was moving to a park called animaya. i do know how much has progressed. merida is also a very nice city by the way. isla mujeres dolphin discovery is depressing. 2 nice ratural reserves on cozumel.one has wild crocs and the other has pymgy cozumel raccoons. i like cozumel. there is a crocodile attraction outside of cancun, i have not visited, but it is on the gallery. also chetumal has a nice zoo, also on the gallery,but the city itself is ugly. xcaret of course is delightfull and expensive. yes the flamingos at rio lagartos are great.
 
Thank you for this usefull information carlos77 !
Is the Animaya park also located in Merida ?
The Pygmy cozumal raccoons are high on my wish-list, can you tell me the reserve on Cozumel where I make a chance to see them and do you know if it is kept in one of the zoos so far mentioned in this thread ?
You say Xcaret is expensive but what is expensive ( $5, $ 10, $20.......) ?
Are there no birdparks or butterfly parks in Yucatan because both groups are well-represented in the wild as far as I'm informed.
 
Estimado vogel,
answers,answers,
Yes,animaya is outside of merida and still brand new. i have never been there.
Xcaret costs about 90 dollars but it is worth it and part of the fees go to great conservation programs. No zoos have the cozumel pygmy raccoons. AT PUNTA sur national park there are some raccoons near the lighthouse,but the guide there told me that the natural reserve on the northern part of the island has raccoons so close that they eat cookies from visitors on sunday. i do not remember the name of the park. my sons and i laughed thinking of a critically endangered subspecies hooked on junk food.
 
Again thanks for your suport Carlos77 !
BTW the Cozumel pygmy raccoon is not a subspecies, it is a species on its own !
 
Xcaret is highly recommended, (although quite expensive, around $80-100) I visited in july and I really enjoyed and liked the zoological park, specially the breeding area and the yucatan brocket deer.
I remeber that when we were going to Tulum we passed by a zoo, but we didn´t visit because I was with my whole family and they didn´t want to go. It is called Bulair or Belair zoo or safari, I really dont remember but it didnt seem terrible. There is also the croc farm Carlos77 talked about, it´s called Crococun.
Finally there is a biosphere reserve just south of Tulum called Sian ka´an, which apparently is very nice, but because of my family we didn´t get to visit.

On the non-animal places, I hogly recomen Chichen Itza and Tulum, both of them are incredibly nice, but take sunblock and mosquito repelent (or you are going to go crazy) and there are some nice common animals you would probably see in the wild, I saw lots of:
Ctenosaura sp.
Eumomota superciliosa
Icterus sp.
colubrids I wasnt able to identify
and sea turtle nests
Basilisks
 
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