Zoo sights in Dubai
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Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo
Dubai Mall’s most mesmerising sight is this gargantuan aquarium where 33,000 submarine beasties flit and dart amid artificial coral and behind the ‘world’s largest acrylic viewing panel’, as recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Sharks and rays are top attractions, but other crowd-pleasers include a Sumo-sized giant grouper and massive schools of pelagic fish. You can view quite a lot for free from the outside or pay for access to the walk-through tunnel. A highlight here is a darkened cave where you can go nose-to-nose with dozens of toothy sharks. If that’s not close enough, don a wetsuit and join a dive instructor on a shark dive (Dh625 if PADI-certified, D…
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B
Lost Chambers
This fantastical labyrinth of underwater halls, passageways and fish tanks recreates the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. Some 65,000 exotic marine creatures inhabit 20 aquariums, where rays flutter and jelly fish dance, moray eels lurk, and pretty but poisonous lion fish float. The centrepiece is the 11 million-litre Ambassador Lagoon. For 18 months its ‘star attraction’ was Sammy, an endangered whale shark captured off the coast of Dubai in 2008. Bowing to international pressure from animal rights activists, the magnificent creature was finally released back into the open sea in March 2009.
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C
Ras al-Khor Wildlife Sanctuary
Right in the heart of the city, Ras al-Khor Wildlife Sanctuary is an amazing nature preserve. Pretty pink flamingos steal the show in winter, but in fact avid birdwatchers can spot more than 250 species in this pastiche of salt flats, intertidal mudflats, mangroves and lagoons. At the mouth of Dubai Creek, the sanctuary is also an important stopover on the East African–West Asian Flyway. There are three hides (platforms) with fantastically sharp binoculars for close-ups of the birds without disturbing them. The flamingo roost is off the junction of Al-Wasl and Oud Metha Rds.
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Zoo
Al-Ain is also home of the region’s largest and arguably best zoo, with spacious enclosures inhabited by grazing Arabian oryx, prancing gazelles, lazy crocodiles and hundreds of other species. The zoo runs a successful conservation and breeding program and is being transformed into the Al-Ain Wildlife Park & Resort; this will have a heavy emphasis on sustainability.
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