Ausflüge und Reisen » Planckendael2018

This report is dedicated to Jens, who learned us to stay strong.

Mini-fantjes, Sassafras and Co.
And finally, I was able to visit the mini-lolifantjes in Planckendael. Na ja, also Sassafras and some other four-leggers were scheduled for a visit.
But first of all, let me introduce you to the baby elephants:
Suki, daughter of May Tagu, was born on Xmas day 2017.
Tun-Kai, daughter of Kai-Mook, was born on January 13, 2018.
Tarzen, son of Phyo Phyo was born on April 11, 2018 (and no, this is not a typo, his name is really Tarzen and not Tarzan).
Baby Tarzen by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
And then, a little introduction to the adults:
Phyo Phyo is an experienced mother and also the mother of May Tagu and Kai-Mook and of sweet Qijo (born in 2015).
Chang is the father of these last 3 babies and has now moved to Copenhagen Zoo. The new male is Kanvar (born in Spain, spending a few years in Zoo Antwerp and now in Planckendael).
For May Tagu, it is her second baby and luckily, everything went well this time. She is a very relaxed mother and her baby girl very self-confident.
the biggest one is Tun-Kai by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
Kai-Mook is a first-time mother and always close to her little girl. Tun-Kai is actually bigger than Suki (already by birth) and she is very “hairy”, but staying still close to mommy.
And then, we have Dumbo, the matriarch (the eldest) and Yu-Yu-Yin, the auntie (having “stars” on her boomsie).
Et voilà, let us start now with the story: on Wednesday, May 9, my neighbour Eddy and I entered his car to our way to Planckendael. Normally, the doors do only open at 10:00 a.m. But since this is Belgium, one can enter when having a decent ticket as from 9:00 a.m. You must know that in Belgium, every rule is made to be broken in one way or another. And just like we all adore good and decent food, we are experts in breaking rules.
And so, we headed off to the stable in the hope to see all elephants enjoying their breakfast. BUT ….. no elephants at all inside. So, rushing to the enclosure and again: no elephants at all outside. Needless to say that I started to panic a little. In an effort to ease our soul, we decided to have a coffee and on our way to the restaurant, we met the little red panda, having breakfast time. I have never ever seen this little animal so close and so “active”.
Untitled by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
So, at least, our coffee had to wait a little longer. After that we went back to the stable, but again, no elephants to be seen. Rushing to the enclosure and finally, there was the entire herd. The first I saw was little Tarzen together with Phyo Phyo. And I was shocked. Even though there was the information in the stable that Phyo Phyo is way too skinny at the moment and under constant supervision of the vet. She cannot produce sufficient milk for Tarzen and as such, he is not gaining weight like he should do (he needs extra milk from the keepers). According to me (but I am not an expert), he looked rather apathetic.

Tarzen and Phyo Phyo by Patricia Roberts, on FlickrHe is constantly following his mother (and again, according to me, in a rather desperate manner). When I compared his behaviour with the two other baby girls, it is just sad. Suki is very lively and self-confident, running on her own from here to there. Tun-Kai is exploring things on her own speed, but as long as mommy and aunties are around, life is good. But Tarzen is soo small and skinny, just like his mother and I hope that for both, all will end well. Although he is trying to drink often, I was wondering how much milk he was getting. Luckily, Phyo Phyo is calm and eating as much as she can. I was watching her while trying to have the hay from the box. And it was amazing to see how smart she was managing it. Even though the hay is pressed in the box, she patiently tried to pull out more and more. The end of their trunks is looking like a little finger and with that, she could take more and more (made a little video of it and hope that you can see it). Meanwhile, Suki was running from one place to the other and teasing Qijo (who gave her in the end a little kick in the ass, just like elephants can do this, but petietje was not impressed). Qijo reminded me of Shaina Pali and her behaviour to KoRaya (keeping an eye on her, correcting where required but loving the little one).
the biggest one is Tun-Kai by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
Ah well, 3 little elephants is a wonderful thing to watch and I am afraid that I made too many pics of them (sorry in advance).
But then, we became pretty hungry and went to the restaurant. On our way, we met little Toon, a Bactrian camel, who was laying lazily next to his mother (quite a big difference with Neela a few years ago. She was active and curious).
After a good meal (of course, frietjes and mayonnaise included), we went to the koala’s. But we found a very special tree: almost hollow and seriously damaged but still having fresh leaves. When seeing this, I was very silent because of the power of nature.
When arriving at the enclosure of the koala’s, we met Cécile and Jos. Finally, after 3 years, and it was a great pleasure. They know so much about koala’s (and not only the ones in Planckendael) that one cannot but just listen to their knowledge.
So, let us meet: Maka, Alinga and Sassafras.
OK, with regard to Maka, I can be very brief: lovely pretty male and lazy potato sleeping in his tree. He did not move a centimetre!!!!
Alinga is a first-time mother and apparently never had an example to learn how to be a mother. She is doing her best but actually she is pretty sloppy.
Untitled by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
Sassafras is always hanging somewhere at the deepest point of her back (and regularly just falls off). Jos told me that normally, a mother koala would immediately come down to pick up her baby, but Alinga is waiting for her keeper to do the job! Luckily for the baby, the bottom of the enclosure is covered with kind of mulch/sand/whatever, but it guarantees a rather soft “landing” and baby is waiting for “a helping hand from whoever”. The same with sitting somewhere in the “trees”. Whereas more experienced koala mothers would make sure that their baby is comfortable, Alinga just doesn’t pay attention to that and Sassafras must make sure that she is having a good place. Or Alinga jumping from one branch to the other.
I also wants some leafs by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
Message to Sassafras: fasten your seating bells or otherwise: PLUMPS!!! on the ground (and I saw it happening, but was too late to take a pic of it). Na ja, it seems that meanwhile, Sassafras has learned the short-comings of her mother. And when she wants to drink, she is insisting just long enough to get what she wants.
And then, I urgently need to go to a special place and we agreed to meet at the Tasmanian devils enclosure. On our way thereto, we passed by the enclosure of the echidna. While trying to spot one of them, a family came with a young child. According to them, there was nothing to see, but at that moment, I found one of the two, half buried in the ground. OK, there was not much of it to see, but they just told their child that there was NOTHING to see and the child just heard me saying: ah look, there is one of them. They left and the child started to cry. It made me soo sad. Why on earth does one take a child to the zoo for then not paying sufficient time to show what there is to see?????? But then another family arrived, young parents, small boy and grandmother and again the same reaction: there is nothing to see. It was stronger than myself and I called them back to say where they had to look. For the little boy, it was difficult in the beginning, but then he too learned how and where to look and apparently, it seemed to have been the first time that they saw these animals. And they were happy and even thanked me for it. Well, it was my pleasure!
And then, it was time for a close encounter with the Tasmanian devils.
But before arriving there, we had to say HELLO to a famous couple: the emus Cécile and Jos. Unfortunately, they were apparently not on “speaking terms” and therefore, I could not make a pic of the couple but only one of each (and do not ask me who is who, I have no clue).
Jos by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
And Cécile (or vice versa) by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
During the feeding time of the Tasmanian devils, there was also a meeting with their keeper giving lots of information about these animals. He told us that they are night-active, looking very spooky in the dark and making scary noises. Their jaws are very strong, they can even hunt and kill prey much bigger than they are (and therefore, are not like by farmers). And of course, they have also their looks against them. Like the keeper said: they look like little devils. And frankly, I was astonished about their size, much smaller than I expected.
Untitled by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
Untitled by Patricia Roberts, on Flickr
According to the keeper, they are also very aggressive toward each other and live like solitary animals. Funny detail, although they are black, each of them is having here and there a little white spot. There are now 3 living in Planckendael: Miena and 2 young brothers (since they are of the same litter, they seem to support each other, but the relation with Miena is difficult). Jos told me that at the occasion of the wedding of Mary with the crown prince of Denmark, Tasmania gave Tasmanian devils to Denmark and Miena is one of them. At this moment, she is 7 years old, in other words, very old for a Tasmanian devil and out of the scope for breeding. But the good news is that since a few years, it seems that some of them have developed a remedy against the famous facial cancer (the curse of these animals). Let us cross our fingers for good news for these animals.
And then, the day came to an end because the undersigned was very tired. I have tried to make some pics and videos and I am also adding the ones of Cecile and Jos.
Here is the link to my album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/97574321@N...157668919624318
And here are the links to the videos of Jos.
First, the koalas
https://youtu.be/OInfafUwqUY
And then, some others: young kasuaris, Roxy the wombat and Jos or Cécile, one of the emus.
https://youtu.be/bHfdiw1YqIk
Hope you all like it.

Liebe Patricia, wie schön dass du gemeinsam mit Eddy nach Planckendael fahren konntest. Die drei kleinen Elefanten sind niedlich. Allerdings gebe ich dir Recht, Tarzen sieht nicht gut aus. Auch Phyo Phyo gibt Anlass zur Sorge. Ich drücke die Daumen , dass sich für Mutter und Sohn alles zum Guten wendet.
Der rote Panda ist klasse, Sassafrass und den tasmanische Teufel konntest du auch sehen.
Das alles alles sieht nach einem perfekten Tag aus. Vielen Dank für die tollen Fotos und Informationen aus Planckendael

Liebe Patricia
Danke für Deinen ausführlichen Bericht.
Man merkt, dass Du mit viel Begeisterung dabei warst.

Liebe Patricia,

danke für den interessanten Bericht und die tollen Bilder

Die kleinen Elefanten sind so süß
Die Koalas kuscheln eng aneinander. man weiß nicht wo Ende und Anfang ist
Der Tasmanisch Teufel schaut verschmitzt.

Toll, dass du gemeinsam mit Eddy in Planckendael so einen wunderschönen Tag verbringen konntest

Mona

Hallo Patricia,

was für ein schöner Zoobericht von dir, vielen Dank

Zunächst habe ich einmal gegoogelt, wo genau Planckendael liegt. Dass dein Nachbar für einen gemeinsam einen Ausflug zu den Elefanten (hoffentlich erholt sich der kleine Tarzan ), etwas trägen Koalas und putzigen Sträußen (Cecile von hinten ) sein Auto zur Verfügung stellte, finde ich absolut nett von ihm! Die tasmanischen Teufel sehen vielleicht nur ein wenig furchterregend aus, wenn die Pfleger sich mit ihren Schützlingen beschäftigen, wird sicher ein ganz anderer Charakterzug zum Vorschein kommen