Tallinn – Tallinn Zoo

After Polarbeargate, I was ready to explore the rest of Tallinn Zoo which is the only zoo in Estonia.

The zoo map which has been in operation since the 1930s (the zoo, not the map). Although for anyone interested in old maps of the zoo, here’s one from fifteen years ago.

First of all, I was not impressed to see this. I don’t get my glasses until later this week and I had just been reading about a tiger which had escaped from San Francisco Zoo so I planned how to attack what I thought was an escaped tiger at Tallinn Zoo. I thought I’d hit it with my battery pack, but I wasn’t entirely sure that this was a viable strategy. It turned out that it wasn’t a real tiger, so I’m left wondering whether a tiger would run off after being hit by a battery pack or just be even more annoyed. I rather suspect the latter.

The zoo’s leopard was just pacing up and down, which I’m really not sure is a healthy situation for a big cat.

An emerald tree skink.

I thought that this looked very realistic. I then realised it looked realistic as it was real. I’m looking forward to my glasses.

A reticulated python eyeing me up for lunch.

It didn’t take its eyes off me.

The camouflage really is impressive.

This is a pitcher plant which is a carnivorous plant which traps insects.

Cute, this is a dhole.

My new favourite animal since I’ve gone off polar bears, the meerkat.

Sleepy.

Tortoises.

All was well and I didn’t need to alert the zookeepers.

A rhino.

A cuddly seal! I’d add, it’s recommended not to cuddle them as otherwise they’ll want to be domesticated and taken on trips to the shopping centre.

Two yellow tree monitors.

A green tree python.

I don’t want one as a pet, although apparently people do keep these to love and hold them.

A white faced muskox. If I had to choose between a green tree python and this as a pet, I’d have this. I suspect that this would cause issues on Wizz Air flights as I’d struggle to call this a support animal and I’d have to pay for a separate seat. I never pay to select my seat, so the same would happen here and my pet muskox would be someone else’s problem to sit next to for the flight.

It’s a generally decent zoo, although there are signs where there are some outdated enclosures and there’s obviously work to do. I know some people would like zoos to close, but I still think that they have a valuable educational, breeding, conservation and protection role to play. There were nearly no other visitors when I was there, other than hoards of kids on school trips although they were young and easy to avoid as they were quite noisy which meant I could bypass them without any issues.

Incidentally, I can’t get very good photos with my phone at the moment of any animal that’s actually moving. It takes around five seconds to get the camera on now and another extra second to take a photo. This is fine for snakes and lazy animals that don’t much move about, but it makes taking photographs of cats much harder.