Higashiyama koen...

On May 12th, we went to Hiashiyama koen(koen - park). It is situated very near to the Higashiyama station which can be accessed via Higashiyama subway line. We took the entry pass from the main entrance of the park . 

Entrance of Hiashiyama koen

Entry pass for the koen.

While we entered inside e could see a pond extending over both the sides here there are some black swans simming around.  They looks so pretty with their red beaks and glittering black feathers. The Koen spreads across a wide area comprising of a zoo and a botanical garden. 

We walked through the zoo. The zoo is spacious and has a wide collection of animal species including mammals, reptiles and birds. There is a vivarium too. As we had seen the Singapore zoo where all the animals are set free , it didn`t felt good to see most of the animals in small cages here they didn`t seems to be so happy at all. Some animals are set free, but still they are kept as single separated from their friends. Only some animals in cages are kept in groups. We didn`t get any idea about why they had done so.

Black swan.

Black swan.

Tapir.

Ezoshika, a Japanese deers.

The tapirs look like pigs with small trunk of elephant`s looks cute. I read from the board that this is an endangered species of animal.

Lioness.

We saw both the lion and lioness, but the lion as sleeping in between the rocks and we were unable to take good snaps of him.

There are so many species of beers in this zoo. Since most of them ere resting in there dens, and under the rocks, e could not take any photos of them. Only the giant beer who was walking in speed seems to be active in the hot noon.

Beer.

Tiger.

Giraffe.

Ostrich.

honey badger(Ratel)

 I have not even heard about this cute animal earlier. From the board near the cage I read that honey badger is good at digging  and its favourite food is honey. This animal is immune to venom of the Cape Cobra. He has made so many holes in this space and created extra jobs to his zookeepers.

Striped Hyena

Pallas's Cat (Manul)

Bongo.

Serval.

I felt so pity on the elephants found here. They looks ash in color and moreover their habitats doesn't seems good enough .There are three in the zoo all of hich are separated from each other.

The zone of polar animals contains penguins, sea lions, polar bears etc.

Polar bears

Penguins

Sea lions.

King penguin.

He behaved like a king in the group where he is the only big one we found there. He made big sounds after finishing his swimming and walking on to the rock at the middle. Apart from others, he has an yellowish color around its neck.        

Koalas

Koala.

The family of Koalas from Australia are so interesting part in this zoo. There are more than ten numbers of koalas here. Most of them were sitting in between the tree branches and sleeping.

There was a special open zone of birds which I like the most in this zoo. Here birds are kept free to the visitors without any cages at all.

The special open zone of birds.

Red cranes.

Cranes.

There is a small pond and some trees and plants over a platform. Visitors  can move down the platform. The birds include peacocks, pheasants, different varieties of cranes, ducks etc.

Wood ducks.

Crowned crane.

Peahens

Dancing peacocks.

There were about five peacocks and four peahens there. All the peacocks started dancing with all their feathers stretched in air and they were trying to attract the hens running aside them and dancing in front. 

Pheasants

Some pheasants tried to get out of the zone while the visitors open the exit door. But people are so careful and are taking care of while opening the door. We spend about 20 minutes there. As we reached near the door, there came a bird who want to come out with us. We managed ourselves to open the leave leaving that poor fellow inside.

We then reached near the hippopotamus, most of them were taking rest in water. They were five or six in number.

Hippopotamus.

Lemurs.

Blue Macaws.

We could hear the big sound of some birds while walking along the bank of lake. Thought that it ill be some gigantic cruel birds like eagle or so. Once we reached there, we found the zone of parrots of various colors and size. It as the blue Macaws ho made such a great sound. They are trying to quarrel with their beautiful neighbours - the colorful Macaws. The birds are kept in pairs.  The small parrots were cute looking with their small chirping.

There is a flyer in the amusement park within the zoo. Also visitors can ride through the monorails within the zoo.  Also there is a beautiful lake with pedal boats . We heard that the skytower located in the zoo provides a complete vie of the city. But we didn`t enter the tower since e have not yet completed visiting the entire zoo even after 2pm. We have to move towards the garden also before the zoo closing time.

The skytower behind the lake with pedal boats

The flyer inside the zoo.

A carving on a wall in the zoo.

A picture on one of the zoo walls.

Kokabura.

Crane.

Yak.

Toucan.

Armidallo(Ant-eater)

Both of us are seeing the anteater for the first time.There are to armidallos, both of them were walking to and fro inside the zoo. But they are separated using a net wall in between them. In front of their place, we saw some wood ducks swimming around.

We moved towards the medaka tropical fish that had been a part of a space expedition which is another key attraction of the zoo.

Medaka fish.

A wide variety of apes, chimpanzees and monkeys are also here.

We heard the great roaring of some animal and moved to there. Oh ! that were to baboons who roared inside their cages seeing the visitors. They jumped around and made big sounds and the peculiarity is that while they make sound a balloon - like structure beneath their neck is getting pumped. It felt so irritating for me to hear that voice for long time. So e left that place soon.

Ghavial.

Salamander.

Tortoise.

The vivarium has a wide collection of various species of reptiles like salamanders, snakes, ghavials, crocodiles, chameleons etc. , nocturnal animals like hedgehogs, owls, rats, bats etc. and amphibians like different varieties of turtles, frogs etc. Photography is not allowed at the nocturnal animals area.

After visiting the  vivarium, we moved towards the  Kangaroos. On the way, we ate our lunch that we have taken with us from home. 

Kangaroos.

There are about fifteen kangaroos found here - both small and big and even some are of different varieties too. They are set free behind a small fence from the visitors and hence e can watch them very near to us. We saw some people feedin them through the holes between the fence plucking leaves and small plants. To o the kangaroos came without any fear and ate the plants. 

Zebras.

Donkey.

 We saw the zebras, donkeys, white deers etc. while we walked towards the garden. There was a pond where resides some beautiful red cranes .

Red cranes

 We reached the garden area of the koen. Once we walked into, we found an area for kids. There are squirrels, rats and such small animals there. We saw the great arch with a board "Rose Garden".

There were a lot of varieties of roses in the garden.  Also there were statues decorated on all its side with roses.There were other kinds of flowers in the place surrounding the rose garden.

We walked through the garden or some 15 minutes and left there.

 We entered in a very beautiful zone where we saw a greenhouse at one side. There is a beautiful pond infront of it with colorful lotus.

Also there was a slope of land with plants of different colored flowers extending to some meters. The fountains and varieties of flowers in that area tried to hold me there or a long time. But we don't have enough time to spend so. We entered the green house, which has three rooms with desert plants like different types of catci, desert rose etc,tropical plants etc.

The flower bed.

Greenhouse and the park.

Park infront of the green house.

Lotus in the pond inside the park.

Venus' Fly Trap

Pitcher plants.

I have not yet seen any carnivorous plants in real eventhough we learned about such plants and seen their pictures. I thought that they are gigantic plants. But the "Venus' fly trap" was a small plant, but some of the pitcher plant lids were somewhat big. We saw there a photo of a kid holding a pitcher plant lid with her hich is almost 3/4 th long as her.

A photo inside the greenhouse -
Kid holding a pitcher plant

From there we walked towards the Japanese style gardens. We got tired walking a lot to reach there. On the way as the bamboo garden with various varieties of bamboos on both sides. The well-tended Japanese style garden adds to the beauty of the place. We just made a quick walk through the garden as the time turns 4.30pm. The garden was so huge and we were pretty wiped at the end of walking through there.

When we reached back and walked towards the exit gate of the park, we could  see that animals that were set free have already get inside their respective cages and the zookeepers have started cleaning the animal habitats. After a long walk of one complete day, still leaving some parts of the zoo and the garden we left the koen.