Natural Wildlife Repositories: The Animal Parks of Bali
Visiting an Indonesia-based animal park will be the best way to get acquainted with the country’s unparalleled biodiversity spanning 4,800 kilometers across two gigantic geographic zones. Bali will be fortunate to have three well-established world-class zoological gardens, all located in Gianyar District in Bali’s heartland, whose quality, professionalism along with attractiveness would likely make any little island population proud.
The Bali Zoo
Maintained by a staff of over 100, receiving 10,000 visitors a month during the peak tourist season, the Bali Zoo will be home to 350 animals including orangutans, gibbons, camels, porcupines, marsupials, the omnivorous binturong, the muncak barking deer along with the mouse deer (kancil) of storybook legend.
The zoo will be also a learning centre, promoting environmental awareness along with wildlife conservation along with educating children about endangered species. Plaques in front of each enclosure show a photo of the specimen, give precise zoological data in both Indonesian along with English, plus a geographic distribution map.
Deep inside the environs, we passed the Sumatran along with Bengal tiger exhibits, the zoo’s heavyweights along with crowd pleasers. To the delight of little kids, little animals such as marmots along with rabbits are not neglected. All along the winding path zoo employees encouraged us to hold an exotic bird, snake or lizard. Visitors are even given the chance to feed the carnivores.
Suddenly I could hear our two kids shouting as they rounded a corner. In front of them was a big shaggy 22-year-old male orangutan just two meters away. Kids are able to get alarmingly close to animals at the Bali Zoo, unlike European zoos where specimens are kept at a distance.
Lethargic along with deceptively harmless, the old overweight primate was calmly eating through an immense pile of fruits, carefully peeling tiny bananas along with plopping them into his mouth. On the way out, while signing the visitor’s book, I read a few commentaries through additional visitors: “I’m disappointed I couldn’t touch the orangutan,” along with “This specific zoo needs more babies!” along with “Better than Melbourne zoo!”
Jl. Raya Singapadu, Sukawati. Tel: 0361-294-357
The Art of the Bird Park
We began our walk through the lavishly landscaped grounds, ponds along with jungle grottoes inside the cool of the morning when the birds were most active. I could hear the burbling, warbling, drawling, mournful, harsh, hollow, guttural, plaintive, staccato along with ecstatic cries of hundreds of bird species. Accustomed to being around humans, cockatoos along with parrots were sitting inside the branches of trees, along with peacocks along with cranes were wandering about unfettered.
Next came cages holding amazingly colored macaws, followed by the dignified hornbills, mythological looking cassowaries with beady piercing eyes, then eagles, little owls, wading pelicans. So well camouflaged are some species in which they were difficult to see in their leafy big cages. Smack inside the middle will be a world famous cultural icon, an authentic Torajan house through south Sulawesi. In additional enclosures stood facsimiles of ancient Javanese temples.
Papua, a gigantic aviary adjacent to the ‘Rainforest Juice Bar,’ will be full of exotic species through brand new Guinea. Except for the toucans, we had to keep our eyes peeled to spot birdlife. I nearly tripped over a stray drongo along with Mambruk pigeon walking along the paths. I could hear the sharp cries of the Bird of Paradise – a member of the jay family – along with the ghostly tremulous cries of additional invisible birds through the eye level trek through the treetops under a canopy.
A white board in front of the brand new arrivals facility listed the resident Bali Starlings plus a list of the additional species inside the breeding program. I asked one of the curators if the breeding programs were successful. “Indigenous breeds like the Bali Starling are easy to breed, nevertheless non-indigenous species like macaws are difficult even if you have a healthy male along with female. nevertheless we’ve been lucky obtaining protected species through outside Indonesia. Our park has the only Hyacinth Macaw in all of Indonesia.”
Jl. Serma Cok Ngurah Gambir Singapadu Batubulan Sukawati Gianyar. Tel: 0361 299352
Bali’s Own Jurassic Park
We first came upon a cave-like reptilarium where we got a glimpse of rare terrestrial species behind glass. Well over 100 snakes inhabit Indonesia, the majority non-poisonous, nevertheless these cave-like corridors concentrate on the more venomous varieties: king cobras, deadly pit vipers along with the extremely toxic taipan whose bite has enough venom to kill 300 people. Props like canon, driftwood, stone temples along with fountains; wooden wagon wheels, hangman’s noose along with pocked voodoo statuary made the item a short visit for our young kids.
The pride of the park will be its Komodo dragons. By This specific time the item was mid-day along with the famous monitor lizard was active, nevertheless half-hidden. I had to jockey with an Italian woman to get a clear shot of the giant lizard with my camera. We were both satisfied when the star attraction lurched out through behind a concrete wall along with crawled towards us.
The stone pathways along with stairs ultimately led to the park’s highest ground, a large open-air courtyard of pools along with trees where iguanas along with pythons roamed around along with basked inside the branches. The girls posed for photographs in front of a tortoise, then the caretaker handed them a magnificent very obliging sail-finned lizard, just long enough to record the experience for posterity.
Jl. Serma Cok Ngurah Gambir, Singapadu, Batubulan, Gianyar. Tel: 0361 299-344
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Natural Wildlife Repositories: The Animal Parks of Bali
Natural Wildlife Repositories: The Animal Parks of Bali