Zlin Zoo Short Review

---

The next zoo that I visited was Zlin Zoo. Zlin is located a little over an hour by car from Brno and the zoo is located a little out of town and in the countryside. I had been forewarned that the zoo was quite large so would need as much time as possible with the short winter openings (luckily the zoo had extended opening until 5PM on New Year’s Day when I visited) and I had also been warned that the zoo would not be at its best during winter.

Zlin does very well in both the unusual species and the excellent exhibit department and being winter and -8 degrees outside, I enjoyed the Yucatan tropical hall very much where there was a reasonably large free-flying colony of Caciques building nests, three free-flying Capuchinbirds with my first time hearing the call of the latter species – fantastic experience - and a fenced off area marked with 'bird breeding area' which had sufficiently large gaps in the fence for me to peer through to see, and photograph, two fantastic Ramphastidae species that I had wanted to see for a long time, both Curl-crested Aracaris and Guiana Toucanets.

In addition to the tropical hall, the other excellent indoor building was that with the Cow-nosed Rays where food for the rays can be purchased allowing the public to feed them. Additionally, there was a nice little exhibit with another fantastic species in the building that I was very keen to see - African Pygmy Kingfishers. Though I did see three species that I was very keen to see, I unfortunately missed a further two that I was also keen to see due to the cold, frosty weather. These were the Gambian Mongoose and the Black-legged Seriema and although I saw the exhibits for both species, they were locked inside their indoor areas with no indoor viewing (I'm sure they were not let out at any point during the day because the frost was still undisturbed at the end of the day). The lack of indoor viewing was quite prevalent in many of the enclosures at Zlin, and there was substantially less indoor viewing than most European zoos, it seemed. Additionally, there were a few rows of aviaries that stood completely empty during the winter months, though I was pleased that the signs had been removed because it would have been more frustrating to see the empty exhibits with the signs still on. Speaking of frustrating, when I decided to return to the Seriema enclosure just before leaving the zoo (just in case), I actually saw the metal door leading into the outdoor enclosure being knocked at by one of the birds inside and I could very clearly hear the Green Oropendola - which shares the Seriema's exhibit - calling from inside the building. So close, yet so far.

As I have alluded to, most of the zoo's enclosures are outside, and although many were devoid of animals and all were covered in frost, I still feel I got a good idea of what the enclosures would be like in summer. There were lots of really nice open outdoor enclosures themed to fit their geographical areas, and although there may have been too much theming for some people, I feel that a very good balance was met with the right amount of decorations so that they remained as theming, and didn't cross the fine line to become superfluous rubbish rather than appropriate decorations. The enclosures themselves were mostly very good, though a few were more mediocre, and they were quite spread out, taking advantage of the zoo’s rural location, to give plenty of breathing space between exhibits.

Though of course the zoo is much better in the summer, and some areas had a sad, neglected, forlorn air during my visit, I feel that it goes from a very good zoo in winter to an excellent zoo in summer, and I don't want it to come across that I didn't enjoy my visit, because I most certainly enjoyed it very much.

---