With
the start of the New Year, I decided to see what was new at Kobe Oji Zoo in KobeCity.
First of all, the Waterfowl
exhibit had a new walk-in area for visitors – it was quite an improvement. In
the past, visitors had to view the animals through the netting used to keep the
captive birds in and the local birds out.
The netting was an obstacle to visibility, and visitors would often walk
by without stopping to take a look at the birds. With the new walk-in terrace, visitors can get
a closer, unobstructed view.
View
inside the Waterfowl exhibit.
Indian
Peafowl (Pavo cristatus)
Mandarin
Duck (Aix galericulata)
I also
visited the Koala House.
Umi, a
female Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)
born in June 2014 was awake and eating. And
while she doesn’t really qualify as something “new”, the Koalas are usually
sleeping when I visit, so I am including a photo.
Next
to the Koala House was the enclosure for the Red Pandas (Ailurus fulgens styani), usually referred to as “Lesser Pandas” in Japan.
The
young female Tiara, born July 6, 2015, was roaming the exhibit with her mother
Minfa. She was extremely cute and a
great crowd pleaser. I took quite a
number of photographs and am including a small album here.
Finally,
I also made sure to stop in on an old friend - “Yama”, the female Amur Tiger (Panthera tigris altaica). Yama was born May 21, 2000 at the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima, and is now 15
years old – which is older than most tigers in the wild manage to survive. Despite her advanced age, she still has a very
regal presence. Long live the Queen!
(Note:
All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on January 4, 2016. The comments in this post are based on
observations made on that day.
Conditions may have since changed.
Please check it out for yourself!)
In
2011, when Ueno Zoo in Tokyo received two new
pandas from China,
“Ri-ri” and “Shin-shin”, the predominantly Tokyo-based news media made a great fuss. It had been 3 years since the previous resident
panda Rin-rin had died at the age of 22 years, and the Tokyo media decided to
go into hype-up overdrive. On the day that Ri-ri and Shin-shin were first
publicly displayed, it was even reported that some enthusiastic panda fans had been
standing in line from the previous day.
Watching the young television news announcers become giddy and excited
about seeing a panda for the first time, I thought that the circus in Tokyo was ridiculously comic because there were already
pandas living at Adventure World in Wakayama
and at Kobe Oji Zoo in Hyogo. If anyone
had really wanted to see a panda that desperately, all they had to do was buy a
Shinkansen train ticket and come west.
Since
January 12 (Monday) was the “Coming of Age Day” holiday in Japan, I took
advantage of the day off to visit “Tan Tan” (female), the resident panda at
Kobe Oji Zoo. Tan Tan was born at a
panda research facility in China
on September 16, 1995, and will turn twenty years old this year. Although Japanese young people are deemed to “come
of age” and become adults when they reach the age of 20, pandas of that age are
considered to be senior citizens. Pandas
in the wild are thought to have an average life span of 15 years. And while pandas in captivity frequently live
into their 20’s, they rarely reach 30.
Below is a photo of the
outdoor portion of Tan Tan’s enclosure.
She also has an indoor area that is almost the same size.
Tan
Tan lunching on bamboo leaves:
Here
is a video version:
Food and Souvenirs
For
Panda lovers, a vendor in Kobe Oji Zoo offers panda-shaped Chinese pork buns
for 250 yen each.
As
for a gift or souvenir, the cute plush panda below was 1300 yen.
And
last of all, a photo of the Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens styani). Not related to the Giant Panda, but since it’s
such a cutie, I thought I’d include a photo.
Very
cute.
(Note:
All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on January 12, 2015. The comments in this post are based on
observations made on that day.
Conditions may have since changed.
Please check it out for yourself!)
Without question, the star of Kobe
Oji Zoo in KobeCity,
HyogoPrefecture is Tan Tan the panda. Kobe Oji is one of only three places in Japan (the other two are Ueno Zoo in Tokyo and Adventure World
in Shirahama) where you can see a panda, and the Japanese public loves pandas. A visitor’s entry into panda world starts at
the closest train station, the Hankyu Railways Oji Kouen Station, where cute
panda characters skip along the walls and down the stairs.
(Photo:
January 2013)
Immediately
after exiting the station, giant pandas on the railway track pillars point the
way to the zoo.
(Photo:
August 2014)
While
walking the 100 meters or so to the zoo entrance, one will even find a panda manhole
cover.
(Photo:
January 2013)
The
entrance of the zoo is decorated with a giant panda. Admission for adults is 600 yen. Students up until intermediate school, HyogoPrefecture
residents over the age of 65, and persons who hold a disability certificate,
get in free.
(Photo:
August 2014)
Inside
the zoo, one meets even more pandas.
(Photo:
January 2010)
At
Kobe Oji, Tan Tan the panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is literally the center of
the collection. The panda exhibit is
located almost at the exact center of the zoo grounds. Indicative of how the zoo anticipated large
crowds, the area in front of the panda exhibit has fixed poles and ropes
installed to guide and control long snaking lines of visitors. (Even after seven visits to Kobe Oji, I have yet
to see the waiting lines extend into the second row.)
(Photo:
January 2013)
The
outside portion of the panda exhibit.
(Photo:
August 2014)
On
days of nice weather, Tan Tan may be seen here catching some sun …
(Photo:
January 2014)
…or
eating a bamboo lunch.
(Photo:
January 2014)
The
indoor panda enclosure.
(Photo:
August 2014)
Tan
Tan eating bamboo indoors.
(Photo:
August 2010)
The “Lesser” Panda
In
Japan,
Red Pandas (Ailurus fulgens styani) are called “Lesser Pandas”, and they are so
popular that it seems almost every Japanese zoo has them. Here at Kobe Oji, if the Giant Panda is the
star of the show, the Red Pandas are a strong second. They are small and extremely cute.
(Photo:
January 2010)
Red
Panda exhibit: nicely decorated with plants, but quite small in terms of area –
perhaps too small.
(Photo:
March 2010)
The Koala House
The
third charismatic cutie at Kobe Oji is the koala. KobeCity received its koalas as a gift from Brisbane, its sister-city in Australia.
The koala house.
(Photo:
August 2014)
The
interior of the koala house features a number of “trees” in a room that has a
floor of what looks to be sand or coarse soil.
The koalas spend most of their time in these “trees” sitting (or
sleeping) amid clusters of fresh cut eucalyptus branches and leaves.
(Photo:
August 2014)
A rare
occasion when a koala was spotted sitting on the ground.
(Photo:
January 2010)
Squirrel and SmallBirdForest
One
of the more interesting installations at Kobe Oji is the squirrel and small
bird forest building. To enter the structure, visitors must first pass through
a door into a holding entry area and then again pass through a curtain made of
plastic chains. This double barrier
system is designed to keep the freely roaming birds and chipmunks from escaping.
(Some animals are in enclosures, some roam freely within the enclosure.)
(Photo:
August 2014)
Interior
of squirrel and small bird forest: enclosed displays of squirrels and birds are
on the left.
(Photo:
August 2014)
Squirrel
exhibit with glass walls.
(Photo:
August 2014)
Interior
of squirrel and small bird forest: lots of plants.
(Photo:
August 2014)
A
small house meant for use by either squirrels or birds.
(Photo:
August 2014)
A
freely roaming chipmunk.
(Photo:
January 2013)
The
installation also includes a fishpond stocked with decorative koi.
(Photo:
August 2014)
Big Cat House
The
installation for the big cats is home to five types of Panthera: Amur tigers
(Panthera tigris altaica), Lions (Panthera leo), Jaguars (Panthera onca), Snow
Leopards (Panthera uncial), and Amur leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis). The exhibits seem to be designed more with
zoo visitors in mind than the resident animals.
They have large glass windows that provide visitors a good view of a
sparsely decorated interior, and the overall area of each cat’s area is quite
small. As a result, the cats don’t have
much roaming space, and they also don’t really have anywhere to take a break
and hide from the stares of the constant stream of visitors.
(Photo:
January 2013)
“Yama”,
born May 21, 2000 at the Asa Zoo in Hiroshima.
(Photo:
January 2013)
Because
of the large glass windows used in these exhibits, visitors can get a very up-close
look at the big cats.
(Photo:
January 2014)
The
below video of the tiger exhibit was recorded in 2013.
Lion
(Photo:
January 2014)
Snow
Leopard
(Photo:
January 2013)
Other Animals and
Exhibits
If the big cats’ enclosures
seem to be designed more for the humans than for the animals, the recently
renovated bear exhibits don’t appear to have been successfully designed for
either human or animal.
(Photo:
August 2014)
The
windows for each bear’s enclosure is not particularly wide (for that matter,
each enclosure in general is not particularly wide), and only four or five
visitors at a time can comfortably view the exhibit at one time. If you happen to be the type of bear fan that
likes to park yourself in front of the exhibit and leisurely observe the
animals, you will most certainly get some disapproving looks from other zoo
visitors. There are also some windows
that have been constructed close to the ground, too low for an adult to
comfortably use. Perhaps these were
intended to give small children a unique vantage point, but the children I
observed tended to gravitate to the large windows to stand next to their
parents.
(Photo: January 2014)
(Photo:
January 2013)
The
space allotted to each bear features a simulated rock and river
environment. There is a lot of running
water, but the space is not very large and there are no plants. I couldn’t help thinking that the interiors
of these exhibits somewhat resembled outdoor “onsen”, those meticulously constructed
hot spring baths that are so popular throughout Japan.
(Photo:
January 2013)
The
giraffe exhibit features a raised platform and a window located at the giraffes’
head level. The zoo keepers hang
branches with leaves in front of the window, and if your timing is good, you
can get an up-close view of how the giraffes use their long tongues to eat.
(Photo:
January 2013)
The
polar bear exhibit.
(Photo:
August 2014)
Penguins
at feeding time.
(Photo:
August 2014)
The
chimpanzee exhibit.
(Photo:
August 2014)
The
Asian elephant exhibit.
(Photo:
August 2014)
(Photo:
January 2014)
Educational Efforts
Kobe
Oji has an impressive zoological science center with a large document section.
(Photo:
August 2014)
There
is a museum-class exhibit section with explanations of various animals’ natural
living environments, their usual diets, and unique characteristics.
(Photo:
August 2014)
Part
of the zoological science center is used for temporary exhibits. The below photo is of stuffed specimens; tigers
that previously lived at Kobe Oji. This particular
exhibit was displayed during the year of the tiger.
(Photo:
March 2010)
Opportunities for
Animal Encounters
The
“Children’s World” area of the zoo features domestic farm animals such as
goats, ducks, chickens, and rabbits.
(Photo:
January 2013)
The
below photo shows visitors waiting in line to spend a few minutes with a rabbit
or guinea pig. The animals are placed in
shoe box-sized containers and placed on the visitors’ laps. As far as I could tell, there were no fees to
participate in this particular activity.
(I did not, so I can’t say for sure.)
(Photo:
January 2013)
Food and Souvenirs
Kobe
Oji has two restaurants and a number of outside food stands.
(Photo:
August 2014)
There
are two gift shops with a good selection of items such as animal figures, plush
toys, keyholders, postcards, sweets and cookies...
