Surabaya Zoo

The itch finally caught up with me.... Weeks after my arrival in Surabaya, I am feeling a little restless not volunteering at the Singapore Zoo.... I miss our two lovely King Cobras, Ranger and Xena. Wonder if they still engage in fights for food (albeit rather one-sided) and some lovey-dovey during bouts of sanity?

Anyway, I've always wanted to visit zoos in other countries, so disregarding the well-meaning advice of my Indonesian students, I bravely ventured into the so-called dirty and smelly place. Just as well they 'prepped' me with some negative reviews, for I was more than pleasantly surprised by the animals there. Sure, the pavement is uneven and animals do smell (whichever zoo they are in) but it is big and houses some interesting animals. The collection of ungulates is impressive, and one can only feel happy looking at Bambi... Obviously , the animals are quite well fed too, like the orang utan below:

One great disappointment is the presence of a fair number of cages (which doubles the difficulty of focusing my cam for a bad photographer like me), some of which strangely showcase only 1 animal per cage. So if the fellow doesn't feel like working, visitors may not get a glimpse at all. Thus I ended up with quite a few information boards instead...

Once you get past this section, the zoo takes on a more naturalistic feel like that of the Singapore Zoo. Although it has less greenery than ours, the comparatively larger area makes up for it. Crab-eating macaques have their run of the place, surrounded by some pretty landscaping, and the cheetahs have more space to prevent atrophy of their strong hind muscles.

The other disappointment is the rather pitiful collection of snakes. The king cobras looked less than majestic and the variety is disappointing considering Indonesia is sooo large...

Back to the other animals.... If you are in Surabaya, do go there for a visit. Sans the 2 gripes, the place is worth visiting for the animals, which generally look bigger than what we have, the deers, the endemic collection of raptors, and the bison! It's definitely an under-rated zoo... at least in the minds of some Indonesian kids...