Musee Vivant
Musee Vivant
2.7
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
2.7
64 reviews
Excellent
7
Very good
10
Average
16
Poor
17
Terrible
14
Gerrit B
19 contributions
Jul 2023 • Friends
An African zoo. Foreigners (Mzungos) pay USD10, locals a much lower fee.
Take also some money with you to feed the jaguar, crocodiles and snakes with live Guinee pigs and some fruit for the gorillas and chimps or bring a bottle of water for them.
Don’t forget to watch the crocodile “show” where a man goes into the fence and teases the animal with a pole so it wil jump out of the water and bites to him. Very “interactive”!
Afterward you can visit the little shops where they sell nice woodcarving and other souvenirs. Haggle is possible/ mandatory. The shops can also be visited without visiting the zoo.
Take also some money with you to feed the jaguar, crocodiles and snakes with live Guinee pigs and some fruit for the gorillas and chimps or bring a bottle of water for them.
Don’t forget to watch the crocodile “show” where a man goes into the fence and teases the animal with a pole so it wil jump out of the water and bites to him. Very “interactive”!
Afterward you can visit the little shops where they sell nice woodcarving and other souvenirs. Haggle is possible/ mandatory. The shops can also be visited without visiting the zoo.
Written July 23, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mikhail G
St. Petersburg, Russia39 contributions
Feb 2011
The Musee vivant is in fact a zoo with various kinds of crocodiles, snakes, tortoises, a leopard, a chimpanzee and a few other mammals. Guides can enter some crocodile cages and touch their tails. They, or you can play with a chimpanzee. Some of the snakes are being taken from their cages for display and teased. Guides can tease crocs with sticks or even live Guinea pigs.
Written May 29, 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Martha M
Nairobi, Kenya12 contributions
Apr 2019 • Solo
I had read that the Living Museum was more of a zoo. I didn't like the state of the animals in the museum,they didn't look too happy in the tiny enclosures and they're not well taken care of. Personally, I'd rather pay the National Park fees and see wildlife in its natural habitat.
Written May 9, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Steeve
Casablanca, Morocco4,788 contributions
Mar 2023 • Couples
This small zoo is pretty interesting, although it struggles to survive. If you pay 5,000, they can feed this or that animal in front of you. For the monkeys, they give bananas, carrots and the like. But beware! for the leopard, the snakes and the crocodiles, they give live preys! The show is gruesome, and it might be too much for the faint-hearted or for children. I think the female leopard is really beautiful. One of the crocodiles is so used to people that he won't try to eat them! It's stunning! It's a pet crocodile!
Written March 4, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
J. Schneider
2 contributions
May 2021 • Friends
I visited this horrible place during my stay in Bujumbura and I was honestly shocked!
The animals have to live under precarious circumstances, the crocodiles only have tiny pools, most of the animals live in solitude and the cages are way too small for the animals‘ needs.
How can someone hold a baby chimpanzee, a highly social animal, in solitude and laugh about it? When we approached the cage, the baby chimpanzee desperately reached out for our waterbottle and literally tore it from our hands. How can someone not provide enough water when it’s 30 degrees outside?
I cannot express how I felt during my visit.. if anyone is informed regarding animals‘ rights: please help those animals!!
The animals have to live under precarious circumstances, the crocodiles only have tiny pools, most of the animals live in solitude and the cages are way too small for the animals‘ needs.
How can someone hold a baby chimpanzee, a highly social animal, in solitude and laugh about it? When we approached the cage, the baby chimpanzee desperately reached out for our waterbottle and literally tore it from our hands. How can someone not provide enough water when it’s 30 degrees outside?
I cannot express how I felt during my visit.. if anyone is informed regarding animals‘ rights: please help those animals!!
Written May 31, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Marc N
Bethesda, MD50 contributions
Jan 2011 • Friends
I was thinking that the Musee Vivant (living museum) is, in fact, informative as museums should be but for all the wrong reasons. This place epitomizes all that is wrong with this part of the world. Upon entering, you see a wasted and under-nourished chimpanzee in a sad, exposed cage that is constantly taunted by locals. It was enough for me to contact a conservationist friend who rescues chimps in danger.
Upon further exploration, you enter a reptile house with remarkably deadly snakes housed in flimsy cages that can easily be opened by children. The "main" attraction is watching a crocodile being fed a live guinea pig. Again, not something you would take your kids to see yet, plenty of families had their kids with them, all laughing with glee. The crocs are in terribly exposed cages and are at the mercy of taunts similar to the chimps. During the weekends, they hold loud, live concerts on the grounds which must surely disturb the animals.
There are some monkeys in cages and a poor young leopard pacing about plus, an oddly out of place cultural village on the grounds. The entire place is run-down and horrific. Of course, you must pay for the priviledge. When you buy your ticket, there is not even a thank you. Just a creepy guy collecting your money and other creepy guys waiting outside to beg for more.
I was disturbed for days after visiting this place. Children will have nightmares. It's a horror.
Upon further exploration, you enter a reptile house with remarkably deadly snakes housed in flimsy cages that can easily be opened by children. The "main" attraction is watching a crocodile being fed a live guinea pig. Again, not something you would take your kids to see yet, plenty of families had their kids with them, all laughing with glee. The crocs are in terribly exposed cages and are at the mercy of taunts similar to the chimps. During the weekends, they hold loud, live concerts on the grounds which must surely disturb the animals.
There are some monkeys in cages and a poor young leopard pacing about plus, an oddly out of place cultural village on the grounds. The entire place is run-down and horrific. Of course, you must pay for the priviledge. When you buy your ticket, there is not even a thank you. Just a creepy guy collecting your money and other creepy guys waiting outside to beg for more.
I was disturbed for days after visiting this place. Children will have nightmares. It's a horror.
Written July 25, 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
NGENDA S
Kigali, Rwanda1 contribution
Oct 2011 • Solo
It was in the afternoon, on Sunday 16 October 2011, at 2pm , I was with my classmate who lives in Bujumbura. she made me reach the museum as I read the article about it through your website. In my arrival , I saw a jaguar, chimpanze, differents snakes, different crocodiles and a beautiful monkey. But what has surprised me so much was the way chimpanze ( TINA) shared a cigarette with the visitors.
Execellent, as i visited this museum at the first time, i have appreciate the contents.
It is amazing to find such wild animals not so far.
GOOD
Execellent, as i visited this museum at the first time, i have appreciate the contents.
It is amazing to find such wild animals not so far.
GOOD
Written October 26, 2011
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
odyek fred
Kigali, Rwanda204 contributions
Sep 2019 • Business
Was with my clients from Japan, fot city tour, after doing gorilla trekking in Rwanda, and we proceeded here.
Had alot to see, from crocofiles, leopard, chimps, waterbuck, domr snakes.
You can visit when your around Bujumbura.. Some much had to be done.
Had alot to see, from crocofiles, leopard, chimps, waterbuck, domr snakes.
You can visit when your around Bujumbura.. Some much had to be done.
Written September 12, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Havesomelovelykob
Islamabad, Pakistan50 contributions
May 2014 • Couples
What is perhaps most depressing about the Musee Vivant isn't the zoo part of it but the general sense of depressed disappointment and of an-opportunity-missed. The place was clearly established to be a general cultural center, with a heritage museum and an African craft market etc, in addition to the much-discussed zoo and clearly some good deal of investment went into the infrastructure. Unfortunately, most of the market-stalls are empty and the museum was mainly just a collection of photos attached to the walls, with no real exhibits or curation. Perhaps in the future this really could be a vibrant Burundian cultural hub, though it would need a lot more investment and TLC first.
This zoo itself certainly is quite a depressing place as the conditions of the animals' environments isn't the best. The chimp has a tree and some room to swing around in but just seemed really lonely and to want company (chimps do live in troops after all); she seemed to be playing with one of the vervet monkeys that has escaped its own enclosure. The reptile house is also a bit depressing due to the amount of broken glass tanks etc. However, the intact tanks didn't look very dissimilar to reptile tanks in Western zoos, if you looked properly. Felt most sorry for the crocodiles, as the animal size/enclosure size ratio was most out of proportion for them; great hulks squeezed into concrete basins not much larger than themselves, filled with stagnant water.
We ummed and ahhed over whether to feed one of the guinea pigs to an animal and then decided we would after we saw the leopard. The thing looked and sounded hungry, so we thought it would be interesting to see it feed ("The leopard is better", according to the zoo-keeper). Plus we figured it would at least be quick for the guinea pig (one guinea pig was sat in a snake tank awaiting its fate; could've been there for days). However, we didn't anticipate quite how quick. The leopard was clearly still fit enough to be athletic, springing on to the roof of its cage to pull the guinea pig through the bars; glad we didn't buy one of the rabbits on offer as that may have been a slightly messier spectacle. Obviously, if you're precious about the thought of carnivorous animals eating live prey, don't indulge in this particular experience. However, if you're curious, it's an interesting sight and probably not what you would expect (certainly wasn't what we expected).
This zoo itself certainly is quite a depressing place as the conditions of the animals' environments isn't the best. The chimp has a tree and some room to swing around in but just seemed really lonely and to want company (chimps do live in troops after all); she seemed to be playing with one of the vervet monkeys that has escaped its own enclosure. The reptile house is also a bit depressing due to the amount of broken glass tanks etc. However, the intact tanks didn't look very dissimilar to reptile tanks in Western zoos, if you looked properly. Felt most sorry for the crocodiles, as the animal size/enclosure size ratio was most out of proportion for them; great hulks squeezed into concrete basins not much larger than themselves, filled with stagnant water.
We ummed and ahhed over whether to feed one of the guinea pigs to an animal and then decided we would after we saw the leopard. The thing looked and sounded hungry, so we thought it would be interesting to see it feed ("The leopard is better", according to the zoo-keeper). Plus we figured it would at least be quick for the guinea pig (one guinea pig was sat in a snake tank awaiting its fate; could've been there for days). However, we didn't anticipate quite how quick. The leopard was clearly still fit enough to be athletic, springing on to the roof of its cage to pull the guinea pig through the bars; glad we didn't buy one of the rabbits on offer as that may have been a slightly messier spectacle. Obviously, if you're precious about the thought of carnivorous animals eating live prey, don't indulge in this particular experience. However, if you're curious, it's an interesting sight and probably not what you would expect (certainly wasn't what we expected).
Written November 23, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PSinternational
Fort Portal, Uganda197 contributions
This was not what I was expecting of a zoo. There is some bad reviews on this place, especially in relation to how the animals living conditions. I think I would be more upset if this place was like an American zoo. There is so many people in need of help in this country. Why would you spends thousands of dollars for an over the top zoo? The animals are cared for, which is more than they would get in the wild. The chimpanzee and the zoo keeper have a great relationship. I like how you can actually go in and pet the large crocodile too. I loved the experience! I think the place has room for improvement, and hopefully they do. If more people go there, than they would have the money to do that. I will definitely go there again.
Written August 21, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Alan F
Letchworth Garden City, United Kingdom
Do the zoo guides speak english as my French is terrible.
Written August 26, 2018
I doubt, maybe a little bit, I’m not sure
Written August 26, 2018
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