The Zoos and Natural History Museums of Paris

On Saturday, me and my parents went to stay at an apartment in Paris. We stayed for 2 days before flying home to Dublin on Monday. During my stay, we visited the two zoos, Parc Zoologique de Paris, and Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes. I also visited the two natural history museums in the Jardin des Plantes.

We went to Paris zoo on the first day after we arrived from the airport and settled in to our flat. I enjoyed the zoo here, especially the manatees (les lamantins) in the glasshouse. We also managed to shoot videos of wolverines (les gloutons) with Dad’s phone. We also saw the great rock and the vultures in the enclosure next to it. The zoo also had Eurasian otters, like the one I saw in the East Coast Nature Reserve, though we didn’t manage to see any here. Anyway, this is a very good zoo.

I previously visited the Zoo in 2006 when I was very little, but it wasn’t as good back then. They closed shortly after for six years and reopened in 2014.

We also enjoyed the two museums on Sunday. Galeries d’Anatomie comparée et de Paléantologie has the skeletons of living animals at the bottom floor, as well as these jars containing specimens of conjoined twins, and on the top floor, there are fossils of prehistoric creatures such as dinosaurs and ancient mammals such as ground sloths. Grande Galerie de l’Évolution has the stuffed specimens of a whole range of different animals, most of which are still alive today. What’s most notable is perhaps the exhibit with all the African animals and I had my picture taken with the African elephant and calf. We also saw Siam, the Asian elephant who once lived in Paris zoo, near the escalator and I found it a bit funny when I saw the giraffe looking down from the balcony.

These two museums are located in the Jardin des Plantes, which is also home of the Menagerie. The Menagerie, which is the world’s second oldest zoo, houses some of my favourites, the cute and cuddly red panda, and the Bornean orangutan. But it also features animals that I have not seen before, like the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) and the kea (Nestor Notabilis). We also caught a glimpse of a quoll, a mouse-like marsupial related to the Tasmanian devil. Oh, I forget that there were takins there, but I did not see them. However, I did see them in the Highland Wildlife Park but those were of the Mishmi subspecies, whereas the takin in Paris were Sichuan takin. Anyway, I loved the Menagerie!

During November 2018, my whole family (all four of us) went back to Paris. This time, we stayed for three nights, visiting the Menagerie on our first full day, and Paris zoo the next day. At the Menagerie, we headed for the takin enclosure, and were very lucky to see one of the takin standing on its hind legs (its hooves propped up on the mesh) as it grazed on the bamboo overhanging the fence. We also saw the quolls, this time they hung around for a decent amount of time without running back indoors where we couldn’t see them. I managed to get several pictures of the quolls with my sister’s camera, and a video on my phone. The following day, my mum and I went to Parc zoologique de Paris, which was still close enough to just walk to, even though we stayed somewhere different this time. I enjoyed observing the manatees as they were resting, rising up to the surface every few minutes to breathe, and the giant anteaters getting their enrichment. Changes since my last visit include six-banded armadillos, which were next door to the anteaters which they are closely related to, and the Chacoan peccary, a pig-like ungulate from South America, known only from fossils until discovered alive in the 1970s.