Zoo Veldhoven Zoo Veldhoven

Again birds stolen from the Zoo :( ! 1 Hyacinthine macaw and 2 Blue and yellow macaws have been stolen !
 
After my last visit around 10 years ago when it was NOP, I visited Zoo Veldhoven today. I could see there have been some updates, but also a some is gone compare to NOP. Almost all the cranes and tropical birds are gone. The tropical greenhouse is also gone. The collection of parrot is still decent, but most are the more common species. No black cockatoo, hyacint macaws, very few parakeet species, but many different amazon and white cocaktoo species. I couldn't understand why the golden conure were kept in the smallest aviary of the park. There are many nice and big aviary for birds of prey. Some mammals are added, but also not very much special: Burchell's zebra, ring-tailed lemurs, black-and-white ruffed lemur, ibex, muntjac, sheep, donkey, bactrian camel.

Positive things:
- I liked the atmosphere of the zoo (big, green and spacious)
- The enclosures were mostly clean and spacious for the species kept.
- People (and especially the kids) seems to enjoy their visit.

But there are some downsides in my mind.
- Many times the same species is kept in several enclosures (3 enclosures with ring-tailed lemurs, 8 with Verreaux eagle and 14 ! with Steller's sea eagle).
- I don't like it when the animals can be fed (you can buy food in the zoo).
- Almost every meter you walk there is a sign to ask for a contribution or sponsorship.
- A lot of parrots still are plucked, but that could still be shelter animals who have behavioural problems from earlier life.
- The zoo map states animals that aren't there anymore (serval, porcupine, hyacinth macaw, black cockatoo).
- There is an iguana enclosure, where you could hardly look thru the glass because most was green and the mushrooms and mold was growing very well. I couldn't find iguana, but there was still some feed in the enclosure, so probably there should still be something in it.
 
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So the tropical hall (Bamboe Jungle or something like that)? I visited Veldhoven some years ago and it wasn't very special. The only really interesting part was the tropical hall with bare-necked fruitcrow as the big star species.
 
After studying the zoo map I now realise that I missed the tropical hall. Indeed it is called Bamboe Jungle. I have seen only a sign with restaurant and playyard, so I didn't realize there could maybe also animals in it. Stupid misstake
 
The bare-necked fruitcrows have been gone a while now.
There are still some pretty cool species in the Tropical hall, not nothing extremely special anymore. I remember the days there were umbrellabirds, calfbirds, cock-of-the-rocks, manakins, quetzals, bare-throated bellbirds, many toucan, aracari and hornbill species....
In 2017 there were only 2 species of hornbill left (grey-cheeked and silvery-cheeked), as well as serpent-eagles, painted quail, crested dove, Red-tailed black cockatoo, white-cheeked turaco, blue-bellied roller, blue-winged kookaburra and a few others.
 
I just saw a photo of a Black-shouldered kite - a species that would make me consider to revisit the zoo - in the gallery, but according to Zootierliste is was just kept for a short period in 2017. Any information on this species?
 
Just discovered that this Zoo still doesn't have an own thread, only some older ones when it was still known as NOP - Nederlandse Opvang Papegaaien. See :
Zoo Veldhoven - Does anybody have any news about Papegaaienpark NOP?
Zoo Veldhoven - Papegaaienpark NOP
I visited yesterday after being not there for 2 years. I had hoped I would find a lot of new improvements but found only very little :(.
Lets start with new species which I didn't see 2 years ago :
- Golden oriole - one specimen in an aviary upstairs in the Bamboo Hall, not signed ( see Golden oriole | ZooChat )
- Slender-billed gull - small group in the Bamboo Hall together with a small group of Grey gulls - both Lifers for me :). ( see Slender-billed gull | ZooChat )
- Grey gull - see above - both species without signage ( photo : Grey gull | ZooChat )
- Alpine and Siberian ibex - 3 specimens of these species together in a new created enclosure and both signed. ( see Ibex-enclosure | ZooChat )
- Black storks - 3 specimens seen in a new created enclosure ( see Black stork | ZooChat )
- Black grouse - one male free-ranging in the Bamboo Hall. Sign of it was on the Gull-enclosure ( see Black grouse | ZooChat )

Also a new enclosure was created for a small group of Military macaws in the Bamboo Hall.

The list of species seen 2 years ago and not on display anymore is unfortunately much longer :( :
- Giant ypacaha wood-rail
- Serval - in their enclosure now Keas are housed
- Andean condor
- Secretary bird
- Hyacinthine macaw
- Buffon macaw
- Red-tailed black cockatoo
- a good number of wading-birds ( herons, ibisses, spoonbills )
- Silvery-cheeked hornbill ( aviary now home to some Eagle owls )
- Abyssinian ground hornbill
- Trumpeter hornbill
- Meerkat ( maybe mean but :) ! )
- Bearded vulture
- Milky eagle-owl
- Peregrine falcon
- Red-footed falcon ( aviary now home to 2 Blue-throated macaws )
- Kookaburra
- Blue-winged kookaburra
- Snowy owl
- Eurasian jay
- Striated caracara
- Little pied cormorant
- Alpaca
- Guanaco
- Black-shouldered kite
- Patagonian mara
and prop. even more which I didn't noted.....
Also the signage is bad, wrong or even completely missing.
Many of the enclosure looked rather dirty and it was also quite remarkeble that a great number of enclosures were complete empty esp. upstrairs in the Bamboo Hall. Also the number of species free-flying in the Bamboo Hall and the overall number of birds in this Hall was much lower as 2 years ago.
On the possitive side : if you are a fan of Steller's sea-eagles and Verreaux eagles, Veldhoven is the place to be ! About 20 pairs of Steller's sea-eagle and around 10 pairs of Verreaux eagles ( maybe even more ! ) are living in the different aviaries within the park.
On the negative side : feeding with food bought in the zoo is allowed and on a sunny weekend-day - like yesterday - the parrots are fed with enormous amounts of food.
Evenso I had a nice day at the zoo, saw a lot of intresting species ( even 2 lifers ) and still have the hope the zoo will improve over the next few years !
 
I visited Zoo Veldhoven myself in the summer of 2016 and I remember it being a mixed experience. While I had a nice day there and while they certainly did have some nice species, it was also a pretty shabby place with some questionable and in some cases plain substandard exhibits.

From what you are saying it seems the place didn't improve all that much in the last couple of years - and I would have hoped to hear of more improvement rather than mostly changes in the species they keep. Also dissapointing to here that cleaning and maintenance of the exhibits seems to be pretty poor, I can't really remember that being so, apart from a small number of exhibits.

I really hope this place isn't going down the road of a place like Olmen, which slowed down with improvements and eventually animal welfare authorities had to step in and impose a temporary closure and a final warning. I'm not sure what or how strict the rules are in the Netherlands, but what you are saying doesn't sound very good.

While they certainly have some interesting species I'd like to see, this isn't motivating me much for a repeat visit.
 
Zoo Veldhoven is the first Dutch zoo to have reopened for regular visitors: it opened today!
 
Thank you @vogelcommando for this interesting info. I never heard about this programm. Do you know more about the facility where the sea-eagles are sent ?
 
For sale again (the zoo was sold in 2013 but the new owners didn't have the finances to keep the zoo running so the sale was reversed) and unfortunately the zoo lost a lot of its former glory. Especially the tropical hall is a poor reflection of it's past. What is also not helping is that there are two other zoos within 20 km. And that is not counting Olmense Zoo and Beekse Bergen at 50 and 35 km distance. Netherlands is a zoo dense country and without a specific niche it will be difficult to make it work. I think for the mention price it might be more interesting to start a zoo from scratch. The advantage of buying a running zoo might in this case countered by the existing lay-out and infrastructure (which limits your options in where to take the zoo) and the location.

A shame as it is a zoo with an interesting history, but this might be the end.
 
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