13 August 2007

Aquaria @ Stockholm

Also managed to seek in Aquaria while in Stockholm. Though this Aquarium is very small and occupies a very cramped location next to the harbour while on your way back to the city centre from Skansen I have to say that it's the best small Aquarium I have seen yet.
I have seen quite a few Aquariums of similar size (especially in India) and none have such an interesting design layout or ambition.
Check out the above design layout courtesy their website - http://www.aquaria.se/

As one walks thru this tiny Aquarium you see many different habitats.
Starting it a small Rainforest section (with down pours every 15 minutes) all with an nice pond full of tropical fish, tree frogs and also a couple of species of waterbirds.
Next up, a section on the importance of Mangroves, followed by a Marine tank with an artificial coral reef (not pictured). The last indoor section is called the Nordic Waters and is dedicated to local fish life.
And just when you think you're done with it all and you step outside on a nice deck facing the bay you see (what according to me is the best part of the Aquaria) the Fish Ladder.

Over the past years the Aquarium has incubated, raised and successfully released large nos. of Sea Trout. A fish that is know to fight all odds and climb back upstream along small channels of water to go back to it's birth place to lay eggs.And amazingly some of the fish raised here have returned years later to do exactly that.

I think that is a great achievement - to release these fish into the open bay and seas beyond and to see them come back. Here a view of the bay and the city across it (the fish ladder is to the left of the snap connecting the Nordic waters section to the open bay thru a series of small but steep steps of waterfall)

Photos from Stockholm

Moscow, Russia

Moscow Zoo

While in Moscow I magaed to make a trip to the Zoo, here's some snaps from the Moscow Zoo - the largest and oldest zoo in Russia.It was founded in 1864.
I have to say that I am quiet fond of how old zoo's like this one house animals from different parts of the world in enclosures which generally tend to use different vernacular styles of architecture to emphasize the animals exoticism.

This is the main duck pond in the centre of the zoo.


This is a small enclosure for a species of monkey.

The Orangutan enclosure with one the city famous Seven Sister buildings in the background.
This photo was taken from the bridge that connects the two parts of the zoo.

One more snap of the Seven Sister building as seen from inside the zoo. The view reminded me of walking inside New York's Central Park and looking at the city's sky-scrapers towering above the park's beautiful trees.



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The above Google map shows the Moscow Zoo. You can zoom in to see the park better.

Photos from Moscow

A Google map tracing my travels across the globe


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  • In Red cities where I have lived (more than one month);
  • In Blue cities that I have visited