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The Park

To read more about why we went to Tenerife and what we did, please go to Events July - September 2010.

Loro Parque is located in the small town Puerto de La Cruz on the north west coast of the island Tenerife.

The park is located over 13.5 hectares (33 acres) and hosts 700 birds representing 300 species and sub-species. This collection is claimed to be most diverse collection of parrots in the world.

From downtown Puerto de La Cruz you can free of charge travel with a small train to the park.

Many of the buildings in the park have a Thai design as a tribute to one of its sponsors when established in 1972.

Here you can see Europe's largest dolphin show pool. Except for the birds, there are many other creatures on display in the park like chimpanzees, sea lions, gorillas, marmosets, pelicans...

...iguanas, alligators, flamingos, jaguars, giant tortoises, tigers, exotic fish, piranhas, sea horses, and various sharks.

The park is one of two places in Europe to house orcas.

The longest shark tunnel in Europe.

One amazing sight was the world's largest indoor penguin exhibition.

The temperature is some degrees Celsius below zero and it is snowing all the time.

To stand only a few meters from an King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) was amazing.

Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua).

Gentoo Penguin (Pygoscelis papua).

Another penguin habitat. There are Penguins that also live in South America.

For visitors interested in plants, there is a large orchid garden with very rare plants.

Grey Crowned Cranes (Balearica regulorum) were walking in the park.

PARROTS

Pesquet's Parrot (Psittrichas fulgidus).

Red-billed Parrot (Pionus sordidus).

White-headed Parrot (Pionus seniloides).

White-capped Parrot (Pionus senilis).

Plum-crowned Parrot (Pionus tumultuosus).

Short tailed parrot (Graydidascalus brachyurus).

Maroon-fronted Parrot (Rhynchopsitta terrisi)

The Maroon-fronted Parrot is extremely rare in captivity.

Thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha), a relative to the Maroon-fronted, but more common and photogenic.

Yellow-faced Parrot (Alipiopsitta xanthops), formerly known as the Yellow-faced Amazon.

COCKATOO PARROTS

Cockatoos.

Slender-billed Corella (Cacatua tenuirostris).

Palm Cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus).

Red-tailed black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii).

Ducorps' Cockatoo (Cacatua ducorpsii).

Red-vented Cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia).

MACAWS PARROTS

The aisle of Macaws.

Illiger's Macaw or more correct Blue-winged Macaw (Ara maracana).

Red-fronted Macaw (Ara rubrogenys).

Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari).

Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari).

Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus).

KATANDRA TREETOPS

Loro Parque's latest attraction, Katandra Treetops.

This humongous enclosement is 27 meters at its highest points, creating a huge space of 17,000 m³.

More than 100 multicolored birds from Australia inhabit the aviary.

The fun part is that you can go high up into the treetops.

And there are birds to see everywhere, they are easy to miss.

The big difference from other exhibits is that you can really see how the birds behave when free.

The aviary is so big that they have their own space for nesting; roosting and you see many of them close by when foraging among the branches.

Lories, let the pictures speak for themselves.

Even more Lories.

Common Hill Myna (Gracula religiosa).

Eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus).

Galah (Eolophus roseicapillus).

Java Sparrow (Padda oryzivora).

Java Sparrow (Padda oryzivora) searching...

Cockatiel (Nymphicus hollandicus).

Major Mitchell's Cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri).

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis).

Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus).

LORY PARROTS

Also brand new was the exhibition of Lories.

In several beautiful aviaries they kept Lories based on size, from very small to the largest species.

We are really lousy at Lories, so we won't try to name them all.

Black Lory (Chalcopsitta atra).

Yellow-streaked Lory (Chalcopsitta sintillata).

AMAZON PARROTS

This was a typical aviary for Amazon parrots.

Diademed Amazon (Amazona autumnalis diadema).

Bodin's Amazon (Amazona festiva bodini).

Bodin's Amazon (Amazona festiva bodini) on the move.

Red-tailed Amazon (Amazona brasiliensis).

Roatán Yellow-naped Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala caribae).

Yellow-lored Amazon (Amazona xantholora).

Blue-cheeked Amazon (Amazona dufresniana).

Mealy Amazon (Amazona farinosa farinosa).

Guatemala Amazon, Blue-crowned Amazon (Amazona farinosa guatemalae).

In this aviary close to the entrance where the most spectacular Amazon.

St. Vincent Amazon (Amazona guildingii).

St. Vincent Amazon (Amazona guildingii). Yes, we like them...

St. Vincent Amazon (Amazona guildingii).

Scaly-naped Amazon (Amazona mercenaria).

Panama Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala panamanensis).

Red-spectacled Amazon (Amazona pretrei).

Tres Marias Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala tresmariae).

Tucuman Amazon (Amazona tucumana).

Marajó Yellow-crowned Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala xantholaema).

BABY STATION

At the park they hand rear many chicks and that is something you can see at the baby station.

Baby Kea (Nestor notabilis) playing with shoelace.

Blue-headed (Primolius couloni) and Blue-throated (Ara glaucogularis) baby Macaws.

Young Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari).

Blue-throated baby Macaw (Ara glaucogularis).

Orange winged Amazon (Amazona amazonica), Blue-throated (Ara glaucogularis) and Red-fronted Macaws (Ara rubrogenys) all chicks.

FIG PARROTS

Fig parrots, small gems among parrots. Desmarest's Fig Parrot (Psittaculirostris desmarestii).

Double-Eyed Fig Parrot (Cyclopsitta diophthalma).

Edward's Fig Parrot (Psittaculirostris edwardsii).

Salvadori's Fig Parrot (Psittaculirostris salvadorii).

Diamond Dove (Geopelia cuneata).

'LA VERA' - THE BREEDING CENTRE

The majority of Loro Parque's parrots are kept outside the park in a breeding center called La Vera not open for the public.

As a member of the Loro Parque Foundation you can arrange a visit. We were welcomed by Dr. Matthias Reinschmidt senior Curator, Heiner Müller, veterinary and Martin Kloppenburg responsible for the breeding center.

The Loro Parque Foundation was set up in 1994 and is a non-profit organizaton. At the same time, Loro Parque donated its entire parrot collection to the foundation. The agreement declares Loro Parque as responsible for all the parrots and costs. The surplus from the park is sent to Loro Parque Foundation.

Loro Parque Foundation operates on an international basis to promote the conservation of parrots and the environment, and ecologically sustainable development.

The breeding center keeps about 3000 parrots from almost every species there is (about 350 from the world's +370 species) and have got offspring from more than 270 different spices.

We had more or less to run through it all to do it on less than an hour when many other delegates from the congress also wanted a visit.

Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari).

It was not only about cages, there were also several large aviaries for the birds.

The Spix Macaw (Ara spixii), an almost extinct parrot. The last one disappeared in the wild during October 2000 and there are about 150 in captivity, whereof eight at the breeding center. The female chick on the left was hatched in May 2010 and stays with her six year old sister. Loro Parque Foundation run a program together with Brazilian authorities since the early nineties to reinstate Spix macaw in the wild.