I visited Basel again for the first time in 5 years. The main reason to go back was the opening of the bird house, but there has been plenty going on in the meantime with several smaller changes. The Zoo will turn 150 years old in 2024, but I thought it looked better then ever. There is still enough to do and it isn't on Zurich level yet (and it doesn't aim to look the same), but I liked the recent developments.
2 snippets of news before some pictures of the newer developments:
- A partner to the black-and-rufous sengi in Tembea, the elephant house has arrived and the 2 now live together.
- 2 small terraria in the Vivarium are now home to the critically endangered Rio Pescado stubfoot toad. Zoo Karlsruhe was the first European zoo to keep (and breed) this species in 2023 and Basel is the second zoo with them.
Then on to the bird house, which consists of a renovation of the 1927 house as well as the addition of a new wing for Neotropical birds and a walkthrough for waldrapp ibis.
The waldrapp ibis walkthrough came on the place of the former aviary for scarlet ibis and little egret. The waldrapp have company of marbled teal and European roller:
There are 5 outdoor aviaries on the long end of the original building. These are home to 6 endangered SE-Asian species: Visayan tarictic hornbill, Vietnam pheasant + bali starling, Sumatran laughingthrush, purple-naped lory and common hill mynah:
These aviaries all look stunning and are well-planted but I thought it was somewhat too small for the hornbill.
You can then enter the main building through an entrance that has been preserved, including the bird shaped door handle
The main hall consists of a large walkthrough which can be seen from the ground floor and from 2 stories. On one side are the indoor aviaries of the hornbills etc, the other side (which formerly had small exhibits with tanagers and finches) is now the main pathway.
A side aviary:
The main walkthrough houses 21 different bird species, which hail mostly from SE-Asia, but there are some African and American species in there too.
The species list is the following:
- Bay-headed tanager
- Yellow cardinal
- Turqoise tanager
- Montserrat oriole
- Bartlett's bleeding-heart pigeon
- Blue-crowned laughing-thrush
- Blue-crowned hanging parrot
- Asian fairy bluebird
- Nicobar pigeon
- Emei Shan liochlia
- Orange-bellied leafbird
- Palawan peacock-pheasant
- Red-billed leiothrix
- Red-tailed laughing-thrush
- White-rumped shama
- Black-naped fruit-dove
- Crested wood partridge
- Chestnut-backed thrush
- Fischer turaco
- Kilimanjaro white-eye
- Emerald glossy starling
You then enter the new extension which currently houses 8 bird species.
The following species are currently kept there:
- Blue-necked tanager
- Bay-headed tanager
- Blue-backed grassquit
- Red siskin
- Red-legged honeycreeper
- Violaceous euphonia
- Soccoro pigeon
- Lessons amazilia hummingbird (1 male in the walkthrough, 1.2 behind the scenes)
I absolutely loved the new bird house, it combines the bare visitor areas with the lush bird areas very successfully and the whole building seems very well thought through. It will only become more lush in the coming years, but the atmosphere is already great. If one is looking for how to use concrete and modernist design successfully, this is a prime example. The whole building is stylish, but makes you focus solely on the birds. It is not the reinvention of keeping birds, but it is a very good modern interpretation of it. Vienna's small birdhouse is probably still my favourite, but this one is certainly not far behind. Had I written a 100 must see exhibits this year, it could very well have been included. It is a culmination of what Zoo Basel does very well in general: creating exhibits that let the animals thrive without any noise in the form of theming on the visitors side and giving visitors excellent viewing opportunities.
With the bird house also came a new otter enclosure, which feels a bit oversized for small-clawed otters and is screaming for smooth-coated otters
. It is very good though:
There are a ton of other pictures in the gallery too, highlighting new developments in the Vivarium building (still going strong at the age of 51) and other new additions such as Nephila spiders in the succulent part of the Etosha house, the sengi enclosure and the Boulenger's cape tortoises in Gamgoas.
The zoo is currently renovating the pelican pond and the rhino house (where Asian forest tortoises will be added).
https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/categories/zoo-basel.700/
