Zoo Negara Malaysia (Malaysia)

Zoo Negara Malaysia, opened in 1963, is described on its home page as the first local zoo for Malaysians.  Covering an area of 110 acres, it is promoted as an “open concept zoo with over 90% of its animals being kept in spacious exhibits with landscape befitting its nature.”  As advertised, the zoo grounds were expansive and many of the exhibits appeared to be quite spacious.  There were also many green forested areas, a large pond that had two islands in its center, and a river that ran through the property.

There did appear to be some issues in terms of uneven levels of maintenance. Some of the exhibits, especially the panda exhibit, were very clean and modern.  On the other hand, some exhibits seemed to need updating and repair.  Below is an example of a sign that probably should be replaced.

Although I spent about five hours at this zoo, I will only discuss the exhibits and facilities that I spent more time observing.

Ape Centre

This area featured Bornean and Sumatran Orangutans.

There were two orangutans on display in this area.

Giant Panda Conservation Centre

This area was clearly the crown jewel of this zoo.  Information on the internet indicates that the panda facility was opened in 2014.  And, as could be expected, the whole building still has a “new and clean” feel to it.  The best part was that the entire interior was air-conditioned.  I’m sure that the air-conditioning was installed for the comfort of the animals, but even for the human visitors, it was a nice respite from the humid Malaysian summer outside. 

Before going to the zoo, I read comments posted on social media that described long lines for this popular exhibit and that advised visitors to go directly to the panda centre immediately after entering the zoo.  I also noted rules posted in the facility stating that the viewing time for each visitor was limited to 20 minutes, a further hint that this facility gets very crowded.  Luckily, on the Tuesday that I visited, there were very few visitors, and I was able to leisurely take as many photographs as I wanted.  (Even then, I didn’t need to exceed 20 minutes.)

Besides the adult pair, there was also a panda cub born earlier this year.

There was a lot of educational signage explaining the characteristics and living habits of pandas.

Within the same building, there was a souvenir shop with lots of panda goods.

There was also a small snack bar area decorated with panda posters.

Panda cupcakes: 6 ringgits a piece, drinks also 6 ringgits (plus tax).

African Savannah

This area featured an exhibit of 3 rhinoceroses.

Next to the rhinos, there was a very large open grass area that was maybe 110 to 150 meters long and maybe about 30 to 40 meters wide.  In this area there were 4 giraffes, 5 zebras, and 6 ostriches.  The area was quite spacious, and for the first time ever, I saw giraffes in a zoo galloping on grass.

Towards the rear of the zoo, there was an area with pools intended for hippopotamuses.  The pools were unoccupied, and the vegetation surrounding the pools was overgrown.  (There was a hippo in another part of the zoo.)

Big Cats

The areas for the lions and tigers were also relatively spacious compared to other zoos that I have visited.  These areas seemed to be even larger than the big cat exhibits that I saw at the Los Angeles Zoo (July 14, 2017) and the Denver Zoo (July 2, 2016) in the United States. 

The areas had a lot of vegetation, and I imagine that the lions and tigers might be difficult to see if they took a nap towards the rear of the exhibit.

Malayan tiger.

Next to the Malayan tiger, there was a White Bengal tiger.  The inclusion of the white tiger in this collection is notable because there is debate among zoos world-wide about whether the inclusion of a color-morph animal might teach visitors the wrong lessons regarding wildlife conservation.  Because of health risks associated with intentionally inbreeding animals to achieve rare color-morphs like white tigers, many zoos choose to not keep or breed white tigers.

Near the lions and tigers were the cheetahs.  I was surprised to see that the space between the guard rail for visitors and the chain link fencing for the cheetahs was less than one meter.  There were signs posted instructing visitors to not stick their hands into the enclosure.

At the time of my visit, there were two cheetah cubs, and I could understand why some visitors might be tempted to try to pet the new arrivals.

Bee Museum

This facility had a very interesting concept, showing different bees from around the world.  Almost half of the facility was dedicated to sales of various bee honeys and bee honey products.

Unfortunately, the displays were old and in need of clean-up and repair.

Outside the building were hives for stingless bees.  They may be hard to see in the below photo.

Some Malayan animals

Malayan Sun Bear

Malayan Tapir

Bintarong

Close Encounters with Animals

There was a Children’s zoo that had ponies, goats, rabbits and other small animals. 

There was also a Butterfly Garden.  If you stood still for a long time, a butterfly might even land on your shoulder.

And although you couldn’t touch them, there were other animals throughout the zoo that might be encountered at relatively close range.  When I first entered the zoo grounds, I came upon a bridge occupied by storks – it was quite an intimidating sight and I did not know if it was okay to cross.  As I stepped forward, the birds all retreated and gradually flew away.

In front of the tiger exhibit, I spotted this squirrel.  They seemed to be common throughout the zoo grounds.

Some close encounters may be unintentional.  The Tapir in the exhibit shown below is standing on the wrong side of a protective moat.

Please note the electrified wire attached to the cement walls of the moat under the Tapir’s nose.  Ordinarily, electrified wire would be used to discourage the animals from climbing up to the visitors’ side of the protective moat.  For some reason, the Tapir was on the visitor side of the moat, and if visitors wanted to touch the Tapir, it would not have been difficult.  The Tapirs were very docile, so perhaps the zookeepers aren’t afraid of visitor accidents.

Food and Souvenirs

In addition to the souvenir store and snack bar located in the Giant Panda Conservation Centre, the map of the zoo shows six other food stands and four souvenir stands. 

There were many souvenirs for sale such as key chains, stuffed toys, bags, T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, etc.  Interestingly, I could not find any zoo pamphlets to take home as a souvenir.

Getting There

Zoo Negara is located on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.  The zoo home page says it is 5 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur, but my ride from downtown KL seemed like it was a little longer.  I had been told that there were differences in taxi prices depending on taxi companies, and that some taxis’ meters seemed to rack up the fees faster than other companies’ taxis.  I inquired at the taxi desk in front of my hotel, and I was quoted a flat rate of 50 ringgits to the zoo.  Not knowing if this was expensive or cheap, I got in, and the ride took approximately 20 minutes going out.  For my return trip, I asked a worker at the information booth in front of the zoo to call me a taxi.  He called me a ride using a smartphone application called “Grab”, which apparently is the Malaysian version of “Uber”. The ride back into town, traveling over the same route as the trip out, cost only 18 ringgits. 

There were separate entrance fee schedules for Malaysian citizens and for foreigners (foreigner prices were further differentiated with slightly lower prices for foreigners in Malaysia on a working permit and citizens of other ASEAN member countries).  The admission prices in each schedule were scaled by age: adults, children 3 to 12 years old, children below 36 months of age, and senior citizens 60 years old and above.  As a foreigner adult, it cost me 82 ringgits to enter the zoo.  The price for an adult Malaysian was 43 ringgits.

(Note: All photos in this post were taken during a visit made on September 4, 2018.  The comments in this post are based on observations made at that time.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)

Misaki Park’s Shiny Stadium Dolphin Show

I previously visited Misaki Park in 2014.  My contemporary impressions of the park can be read at Misaki Park (July 26, 2014).

On that previous visit, I did not have time to watch the dolphin show, so this time I made viewing the show a priority.  Recently in many western countries, the issue of keeping cetaceans in captivity has grown into a very heated debate.  In April 2015, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) temporarily suspended the membership of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums (JAZA) over a controversy related to the drive fishery method used at Taiji village in Wakayama Prefecture to collect wild dolphins for sale to aquariums.  (WAZA reinstated JAZA’s membership after JAZA’s member zoos and aquariums voted to refrain from buying dolphins caught in drive fisheries.)  At the time of this post, Misaki Park is listed as a member on the JAZA homepage, so I assume that Misaki Park does not acquire dolphins from Taiji.

The below two photographs of the exterior of the dolphin show venue, “Shiny Stadium”, were taken on my previous visit.

Penguin exhibit

This photo of the Humboldt penguins was taken on my more recent visit.

Admission to the dolphin show cost 500 yen.  This is in addition to the 1350 yen it cost to enter Misaki Park. The dolphin show venue included a main performance pool in front and two smaller pools in the rear.

The main performance pool appeared to be somewhere between 20 to 25 meters wide, about 15 meters from front to back, and about 4 meters deep.  The two holding pools appeared to be about 5 to 8 meters wide. There might have been other pools somewhere on the property, but I could not see any.

I counted 7 trainers working with 6 dolphins.  Since it was a very cold winter day, there were few visitors in the park overall, and there were only 32 visitors in attendance at this performance.

The dolphins used were Bottlenosed dolphins and Pacific white-sided dolphins.  They performed tricks such as fetching balls, twirling hoops on their snouts, and jumping.  The performance was not as choreographed and impressive as the dolphin show at Wakayama Adventure World, and unlike at Adventure World, the trainers here did not dive into the pool with the animals. (See Wakayama Advenure World, February 15, 2018).

Whenever I observe these dolphin shows, I marvel at the intelligence of the animals and the dedication of their trainers.  But, at the same time, I think a lot about the debate over keeping dolphins in captivity.  I do not know enough about cetaceans to judge whether a certain pool is large enough for the dolphins to thrive in captivity (and some aquarium critics say that no pool can be large enough), but after having observed wild Bottlenose dolphins swimming in the ocean off of Kumamoto Prefecture, (see Dolphin Watching in Amakusa, March 25, 2016) these pools somehow seem very small.

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during visits on July 21, 2014 and February 13, 2018.  The comments in this post are based on observations made during the latter visit.  Conditions may have since changed. Please check it out for yourself.)

Hedgehog Cafes

In a previous post, I discussed the curious popularity of Owl Cafes in Japan. (Owl Cafes, September 12, 2015)   A few months ago, I discovered another type of animal café, the Hedgehog café.  This café was located in a popular shopping arcade in Kyoto City.  Admission to this establishment was 700 yen for each block of 20 minutes.

The café was full of glass containers (they appeared to be converted fish tanks), each holding a lone hedgehog.  There appeared to be more than twenty glass containers in the café, lined against the walls and placed on the middle of a table.

Customers were guided to a seat located directly in front of a glass tank holding a hedgehog.

Customers were given a short oral explanation from the staff as to the safe handling of the hedgehogs. For customers who couldn’t understand the Japanese language explanation, there were guidelines written in English.

If a customer chose to do so, they could simply watch the hedgehog move around in the glass tank.

But customers don’t pay money to only look at these animals.  They want to take cute photos to post on Facebook or Instagram.

Customers also want to have contact with these animals.  First-timers are given heavy garden gloves to protect themselves from the hedgehog’s needles.

Cat cafes, owl cafes, hedgehog cafes… strangely, I have not yet found a dog café.

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit in September, 2017.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.)