Nainital High Altitude Zoo

[Shovelnose]

Paid a short visit to the Nainital High Altitude Zoo last month. I am not much of a bird person but some of the pheasants there were truly magnificent. I am not entirely sure of a couple of ID's.








Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus)









Silver Pheasant (Lophura nycthemera)









Indian Pea Fowl (Pavo cristetus)




Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus gallus)









Lady Amherst Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae)






Yellow Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus)





Goral (Nemorhaedus goral)





Barking Deer (Muntiacus muntjak)






Sambar (Cervus unicolor)







Unable to recall what this was.





Himalayan Black Bear (Selenarctos thibetanus)







Tibetan Wolf (Canis lupus)



Leopard (Panthera pardus)











The Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)






The Nainital Lake. The day was spent at the zoo and the night, in the company of Teachers Highland Cream.


The lake had tons of Tor putitora and another cyprinid (looked non native) that I was unable to ID. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do any kind of fishing on this trip. Since the Ganga River runs here and is home to a lot of obscure Indian fish, I plan to keep going there.

[naturalart]

Those pheasant are stunning. I believe that unknown deer might be Pere Davids Deer (Elaphurus davidianus). An ancient member of the cervid group. Once extinct in the wild. Thanks for sharing the images.

[Richard B]

Supercool! Thanks for sharing....now for some fish?

[Jools]

Super cool! I was in a very similar zoo with HH / Andrew Rao in Easter 2004 (IIRC). I can't remember where it was now, near Darjeeling I think. Can you remember HH?

Jools

[Shovelnose]

I believe that unknown deer might be Pere Davids Deer (Elaphurus davidianus). An ancient member of the cervid group. Once extinct in the wild.

Frankly, I am not sure. I will try to find out soon.

now for some fish?

Ha ha, give me a few more weeks.

Super cool! I was in a very similar zoo with HH / Andrew Rao in Easter 2004 (IIRC). I can't remember where it was now, near Darjeeling I think. Can you remember HH?

Jools

That should have been the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. Colour me green, I have been wanting to catch a glimpse of the Snow Leopard for a long time.



A few videos of the pheasants.





A very worried Yellow Golden Pheasant.





Too much coffee.





Indian Pea Fowl plus a bunch of rambunctious Homo Sapiens.





Lady Amherst Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae)




Bloody PHEASANT!
Oh, what a giveaway! Did'j'hear that, did'j'hear that, eh? Did you see 'im repressing me?

[Richard B]

They have snow leopards near me, fabulous animals! Their enclosure is pretty cool too- with going to see if anyone is near Twycross zoo

[Shovelnose]

Unfortunately, the Snow Leopard in Nainital Zoo passed on sometime ago. None of the zoos in south India will be able to keep these magnificent animals (for the time being atleast).

[drako57]

Ohh that tiger is so beautiful ! wow ! My dream pet