Welt der Gifte Greifswald (Closed) How to found a zoo - WdG Greifswald and WdG Salzburg

6. The Concept

This is probably the part that most of you have been waiting for. The concept is as follows:

Called "Welt der Gifte" (World of Toxins), I'm offering an interdisciplinary public presentation on toxins. While the focus is on poisonous and venomous animals, it also includes organic as well as anorganic toxins (such as poisonous plants & seeds, mushrooms, microorganisms, poisonous elements and their various compounds). The facility can only be visited by booking a guided tour, with four different main topics to choose from (Toxins in Nature, Toxins in Daily life, Healing Toxins and Toxins in Art & Fashion). Depending on the individual topic, visitors will be able to observe Clostridium botulinum under the miscroscope and its connection to Botox injections, learn about unexpected delicious means of intoxication, such as quail, pineapple or cinnamon, wonder about weird fashion trends such as arsenic clothes and why hatters are supposed to be mad, touch real blow pipes from Brazilian indigenous tribes and see several real-life ingredients of Harry Potter's potion classes up close. Depending on the weather, you can even try your skills at the blow dart shooting range outside, All that while being represented a vivid variety of live venomous and poisonous animals. Additionally, visitors can book additional tours, photo sessions and handling / husbandry courses.
Furthermore, next to spending money on adopting an animal or buying some "toxic" presents at the "Gift Shop" (which is a little pun in regard to "Gift" meaning poison in German), visitors can donate to three different projects:

- In-situ Conservation of the Atlantic Bushmaster at the Serra Grande Center
- Humanitarian aid by supporting the Global Snakebite Initiative
- Local animal welfare by supporting the Reptile Shelter in Munich, Germany.

The advantages of the guided tours booked in advance are a more individual customer experience, the better moderation of unwanted visitor behaviour, a more individual and concentrated educational effect as well as better organizational control of my time and resources.

I'm aware that this is not a completely novel concept; there used to be a (now defunct) "House of Toxins" in Austria and I know of the Venom exhibit at the Blue Planet Aquarium. The "Gifttierhaus" in Eimsheim as well as the Reptile Zoo in Nockalm with their strong focus on venomous snakes are actually collaboration partners of mine. However, I haven't encountered any project so far that includes the aforementioned variety of different toxins and the presentation of interdisciplinary aspects.

The targeted audience are tourists as well as local school classes, kindergartens, students of the local university, private citizens (families with children, business outings and seniors) and representatives of the local federal security forces such as police, firemen and the local military.
 
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7. Alea iacta est.

Despite all the preparations, prior analyses and considerations, I can't foretell whether this is going to work. If it doesn't work out, I will keep most of the animals as part of my private collection and sell the educational items. If I can just even out my expenses, then that's OK, too. And if it turns out to be a good business, a future expansion is the next step.

[Sigh]
Now for those impatient species list nerds, here's a list of the currently kept species.
Just be aware of one thing: once your network works, obtaining specimens often isn't a problem; housing them adequately is. Most of the specimens (even the venomous ones) are donations from private citizens, chummy breeders or reptile shelters.

Snakes:

Agkistrodon contortix and A. taylori
Aspidelaps lubricus lubricus
Bitis gabonica
Cerastes cerastes
Crotalus basilicus (>2m long)
Crotalus cerberus
Crotalus ornatus
Crotalus pyrrhus
Crotalus vegrandis
Vipera ammodytes
Vipera berus

...as well as several species of Lampropeltis, Pantherophis and Euprepiophis mandarinus

Lizards
Heloderma suspectum

Amphibians
Dendrobates leucomelas
Dendrobates tinctorius "azureus"
Incilius alvarius

Spiders
Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens
Latrodectus hasselti, mactans & obscurior
Lasiodora parahybana
Loxosceles rufescens

Scorpions
Hadrurus arizonensis
Hadogenes bicolor
Leiurus quinquestriatus
Parabuthus villosus

Centipede
Scolopendra subspinipes

A few more (among others Corydoras sterbai, Phyllobates terribilis and Pleurodeles waltl) will be added soon. I was supposed to have Oxyuranus microlepidotus and a Naja species on show, but unfortunately one specimen died and the others are still in quarantine at another owner.

The species are chosen for their adaptability to captivity, representative qualities, conformation to the local husbandry conditions, available space, expenditure of work and individual characters. That's why I refrain from currently exhibiting species such as kraits, king cobra, freshwater stingrays or slower loris. As for maritime poisonous fish and other poisonous aquatic creatures: the closeby large public aquarium is already exhibiting such animals. Therefore, I utilize models, artefacts and biologics instead.
 
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Some nice species in that list - I think almost 50% of the venomous snakes you cite are ones I have never seen :p and one of the ones I *have* seen - Vipera berus - is one of my favourite reptile species of all.
 
Batto said:
As for Facebook
Welt der Gifte

The website will soon be online.
Click to expand...

So you are Kagu from zoofreunde :p. It took quite some time to realize that I read something like this before ;). Congratutions and good luck in that far corner of Germany. I live 30 km from the German border, but this is just about as far from me as you could make it, otherwise I would be very glad to visit soon.
 
This is really awesome and I have been following your posts with lots of interest.

You're probably aware of this place already, but in case you're not, the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, Queensland seems quite similar to your place. They operate with part typical go around by yourself zoo and part a guided tour. I wrote a review of the place in this post if you're interested.
 
Interesting concept and good luck. For those aspiring to do the same read this well, but also read it correctly. This project did not happen overnight and included many small steps. Secondly loving animals is not enough as Batto shows. You need many skills to start a zoo and many of them are on very boring subjects. You still need to develop them though.
 
Vipera ammodytes ammodytes from Lake Scutari.

Reg. DDcorvus: I should also add that I've also spent quite a lot of money and time on gaining the skills (and licenses) to keep said species safely and legally.
 
I've enjoyed reading your explanation of how the process worked, @Batto. With all of the talk that goes on here about zoo-opening aspirations, to hear the step-by-step of a real-life example is fascinating and eye-opening. I wish you and your new institution the best of luck!

I think this concept is really interesting as well; very educational, and about a topic that is more fascinating and important than I think it is credited for. Out of curiosity: what was the process like for acquiring the artifacts? Are they loans from museums and private collections or did you have to spend a lot of money purchasing them?

Another question of interest: how high is the cost of the antivenins that you must be required to keep? Of course, it must not be prohibitive if you have done a budget analysis and determined the project to be financially viable, but I do know that maintaining an antivenin collection can be quite expensive.
 
Batto said:
6. The Concept

This is probably the part that most of you have been waiting for. The concept is as follows:

Called "Welt der Gifte" (World of Toxins), I'm offering an interdisciplinary public presentation on toxins. While the focus is on poisonous and venomous animals, it also includes organic as well as anorganic toxins (such as poisonous plants & seeds, mushrooms, microorganisms, poisonous elements and their various compounds). The facility can only be visited by booking a guided tour, with four different main topics to choose from (Toxins in Nature, Toxins in Daily life, Healing Toxins and Toxins in Art & Fashion). Depending on the individual topic, visitors will be able to observe Clostridium botulinum under the miscroscope and its connection to Botox injections, learn about unexpected delicious means of intoxication, such as quail, pineapple or cinnamon, wonder about weird fashion trends such as arsenic clothes and why hatters are supposed to be mad, touch real blow pipes from Brazilian indigenous tribes and see several real-life ingredients of Harry Potter's potion classes up close. Depending on the weather, you can even try your skills at the blow dart shooting range outside, All that while being represented a vivid variety of live venomous and poisonous animals. Additionally, visitors can book additional tours, photo sessions and handling / husbandry courses.
Furthermore, next to spending money on adopting an animal or buying some "toxic" presents at the "Gift Shop" (which is a little pun in regard to "Gift" meaning poison in German), visitors can donate to three different projects:

- In-situ Conservation of the Atlantic Bushmaster at the Serra Grande Center
- Humanitarian aid by supporting the Global Snakebite Initiative
- Local animal welfare by supporting the Reptile Shelter in Munich, Germany.

The advantages of the guided tours booked in advance are a more individual customer experience, the better moderation of unwanted visitor behaviour, a more individual and concentrated educational effect as well as better organizational control of my time and resources.

I'm aware that this is not a completely novel concept; there used to be a (now defunct) "House of Toxins" in Austria and I know of the Venom exhibit at the Blue Planet Aquarium. The "Gifttierhaus" in Eimsheim as well as the Reptile Zoo in Nockalm with their strong focus on venomous snakes are actually collaboration partners of mine. However, I haven't encountered any project so far that includes the aforementioned variety of different toxins and the presentation of interdisciplinary aspects.

The targeted audience are tourists as well as local school classes, kindergartens, students of the local university, private citizens (families with children, business outings and seniors) and representatives of the local federal security forces such as police, firemen and the local military.
Click to expand...
this is interesting. There were some sentences I was going to pick out to comment on, but just included the whole quote because it was easiest.

I really like the idea of it being about all sorts of toxins and not just, say, snakes and spiders.I know why hatters are mad, and I have a vague recollection of quail and toxins, but now I want to know about pineapple! The blowpipe and Harry Potter ideas in particular are great, not at all something I would have come up with, and I think they would have to be something which would really stick in peoples' minds after their visit. I like the Gift Shop pun too.

Side-question which just came to me while reading (so not actually related I guess to the thread, but related to the concept), in Germany is there that belief that daddy-long-legs spiders are the most venomous spiders in the world except they are too small to bite people? That's something that really annoys me.
 
@Chlidonias: Not sure if this is what Batto was referring to, but unripe pineapples can be poisonous to humans due to the high concentration of bromelain.
 
Thanks @LaughingDove : the review also illustrated why it is important to guide the visitors for a better experience. Hopefully, I'll receive better Tripadvisor reviews.

Regarding the artifacts: some I've obtained as loans from museums. The majority I had to buy / obtain myself; I found a guy creating life-like mushrooms, another selling toxic minerals, a French company selling poisonous plant seeds...My Brazilian colleague got me the blow pipes, a Japanese colleague the fugu sashimi replica, etc. etc.
As for the antivenins: I'm a member of the national Serum Depot and thus have access to the collective antivenin stock.

@Chli: ahh, you will have to attend a tour to have this answered! ^^

No, seriously: the aforementioned Bromelain (and Papain) can lead to collagen damages (loss of teeth), stomatitis and hypersensitivity if you eat too much pineapple.
 
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Batto said:
...the review also illustrated why it is important to guide the visitors for a better experience. Hopefully, I'll receive better Tripadvisor reviews.

........

@Chli: ahh, you will have to attend a tour to have this answered! ^^
Click to expand...
if you fly me over there and give me a tour, I will write a really good Tripadvisor review for you! Short time offer!
 
No, the "Weberknechte" aka daddy-long-legs spiders are not considered dangerous in Germany or Austria.
 
Batto said:
No, the "Weberknechte" aka daddy-long-legs spiders are not considered dangerous in Germany or Austria.
Click to expand...
thanks.

Another question, actually more related. Would you call your facility "a zoo" (I mean, outside Zoochat). I'm guessing in German there are very specific words for different sorts of collections?
 
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