Lovely post about the Taipei Zoo. We are tossed up about zoos in general. Some are great and some are awful. The photo of the penguins reminded us of our trip to Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, where the penguins were camped up in a small glass display unit - all 20 of them. It was also unfortunate that one of the penguins had a baby that day and the other penguins (probably jealous, hungry or thought it would be just another mouth to feed) pecked it to death in front of a few viewers. The mother was frantically trying to save the baby by running away with it and shielding it, but there was no safe place to save it when the rest of the pack is against you.

Where were the zoo keepers or staff? No where to be seen.

The purpose of a zoo is to be educational and serve as a research centre. However, we seen too many that serve it's purpose as a for-profit and an entertainment centre.

Sorry, we didn't want our comment to be a downer, however that picture did remind us a lot of that day and the sorrow/angry we felt. To end on a positive note, your description of the Taipei Zoo's information is amazing. :)