ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Residence Inn Mini Zoo at Tagaytay

Updated on June 29, 2011

Depending on your mode of transport the Residence Inn Mini Zoo is a little over an hours drive from central Manila in the Philippines. Situated on the outskirts of Tagaytay overlooking the Taal volcano the Residence Inn Mini Zoo has some truly spectacular views.

It would appear that the zoo started as a sort of 'add on' activity for the small hotel complex here. I greatly suspect that the owner of this zoo also owns or part owns the Zoobic Safari located at Subic Bay.

This is one of a series of zoo reports that was actually included within my travel journal ‘The Itinerant ZooKeeper’. Initially I started to extract the zoo data but found the reading was diminished by it. So look on it as a zoo travelogue. The only major edits I have done is a little censoring and to remove the Casanova exploits.

Photo by: www.flickr.com/  photos/bredgur/
Photo by: www.flickr.com/ photos/bredgur/

Thursday 26th April 2007
It rained this morning. Hardly unexpected at altitude. We waited it out before starting out on our 'zoo' trip.

More by accident than design we ended up at the second place I intended to visit, first. This was the 'Residence Inn' mini-zoo. 

Now before I start I should mention the signs, two in particular both with that famous quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi.

"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated".

Now if you stick up a sign like that it suggests, to me at least, that the people here are under the impression that what they are doing is good...that they are treating their animals correctly!
Now I saw no cases of deliberate cruelty, no, here all the cruelty was based on ignorance. One really has to look at places like this through someone else’s eyes. Here I used Gloria's and she thought it was a wonderful place "It's nice, no ?". It wasn't at all, it was bloody awful! The
poor little Palm Civets, as per usual the neglected little brown creatures. Confined to dark little concrete boxes. No sign of a perch or climbing apparatus. It sets the scene. One point in their favour is that they actually had water though.


 

Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74447073@N00/
Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74447073@N00/

Back to the beginning. Four young tigers confined individually in tiny wire bottom holding cages, available for photographs 'pose with a tiger'. Shades of Zoobic Safari (for which there seems to be a remote connection i.e. joint advertising).

The gardens are neat, the cages are clean and the views to die for. Most cages have basic signage, some of which is hopelessly incorrect. Okay it says mini-zoo. I don't know who came up with that bloody ridiculous description because there is quite a lot here. Thirteen tigers in eight or so cages does not say mini anything to me. Nor does the large Orangutans or the big Brown Bear in their little cells. So there follows a partial list of species seen:

Blue and gold Macaws
Eclectus
Umbrella cockatoos
Victoria Crowned Pigeon
Crab eating Macaques
Rhesus Monkeys
Sulawesi Macaques
Ostrich
Cassowary
Philippines crocodile
Cayman
Squirrel monkey
Binturong
Palawan porcupines
Lion
Philippines serpent eagle
Brahminy Kite
White-bellied sea eagle
Philippines hawk eagle
Rufous night heron
Grass owl
Numerous snakes and fish, goats, pigs, rats, mice, rabbits, minature
horses, alpaca and more. Don't forget the 13 Tigers and the Orangutans!

Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74447073@N00/
Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74447073@N00/

So nothing too special or different apart from the Hawk Eagle and the Palawan Porcupine. At the end of it all though there was not a single cage or enclosure which would have passed an even basic UK Zoo Inspection.

It seems the guy who owns this place also has a 'Tiger Safari' over at Calatagan which maybe I will visit sometime in the future.

Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74447073@N00/
Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74447073@N00/

You can read more about Zoos by reading my Zoo Hubs where you will find other information and zoo reports listed. Please also check out my blog Zoo News Digest.

 

WHY NOT WRITE YOUR OWN HUB PAGE? It is free to join and sign up. Write about what you know and start earning money. Free money, for you, forever. Learn how by visiting THE QUICK GUIDE TO HUB CONSTRUCTION

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)