DAY 27: Friday, August 9th (1 zoo)
A day after spending 8 hours at Berlin’s famous zoo in the western side of the city, I drove to the Tierpark on the eastern side.
Zoo/Aquarium # 81: Berlin Tierpark (Berlin, DE)
I had an interesting visit at this famous establishment, as the first half was filled with many highlights and I was in love with the facility. Then the afternoon became a bit of a slog, with the zoo arguably too big, if such a thing can be said about a zoological garden. It was a day of two halves, slightly exasperated by the fact that I now had 4 blisters (two on each heel) from walking perhaps 10 km per day, every single day, for an entire month. After striding around zoos at a fast gait for weeks and being full of energy, I suddenly hit a high level of exhaustion during my afternoon at the Tierpark as the amount of space here is unbelievable.
Berlin Tierpark has 1.5 million annual visitors, which is less than half of Berlin Zoo but still more than 90% of all the zoos in Europe. The sheer scale of this place is astonishing, and at 160 hectares/400 acres it is possibly the second largest walking-only zoo on the planet after the 202 hectares/500 acres at North Carolina Zoo. However, the Tierpark has far more animals and it feels as if there is far more walking at the Tierpark than in Asheboro, North Carolina. That in itself is a ‘problem’, as if an experienced zoo nerd such as myself was struggling late in the afternoon after 8 hours of almost non-stop walking, how on earth will families with young kids see much more than a third of the zoo on each visit? On the flip-side, that isn’t such a bad thing sometimes, as families can set aside blocks of the zoo and see each subsequent section on the next visit. There are well over 800 species on display at the Tierpark, less than the 1,250 at the nearby zoo but still a staggering total compared to other major European zoos. The place is immense.
Immediately inside one of the two main entrances, I came across large paddocks for Wisent and Wood Bison, next to each other in typical Berlin fashion, and I immediately had a preview of what was in store for me. That would be spacious ungulate exhibits set against a woodland backdrop. If one is interested in various antelope, deer, goat and sheep in enclosures that are vast landscapes, then the Berlin Tierpark is the place to be. Moving on from the bison, there paddocks for Barbary Red Deer, Bokharan Red Deer, Sunda Sambar Deer, Malayan Sambar Deer, Indochina Sika Deer, American Elk and Tule Wapiti that are all surrounded by green metal fences. It’s a style of enclosure design that is simplistic and at times a bit derivative of old-fashioned zoos. Deer behind green metal fences is probably not that appealing to many folks, but some zoo nerds will salivate with delight.
Off the beaten path is an exhibit for a couple of Malayan Sun Bears, and the old pair of cages will be demolished once the bears are shifted into the future Rainforest House on the other side of the zoo that is due to open by next year. Here can also be found Red-crowned Cranes, Siberian Cranes, White Storks and several waterfowl ponds with pelicans and other species. This corner of the zoo also has the Aldabra Tortoise House, a trio of tortoise species outside (Leopard, Hermann’s, Central Asian) and the excellent Crocodile House. There have been rumours of impending closure, but I loved seeing Chinese Alligators, American Alligators, Dwarf Crocodiles and False Gavials, not to mention at least a dozen different turtle species, in a steamy, humid environment. It would be a real shame if this building was gone on my next visit to the zoo.
The Tierpark then has a bird-centric area, with a couple of crane yards, some macaw aviaries and the Pheasantry. It is a small part of the zoo’s 400 acres, but there are a lot of birds here and plenty of laughing thrushes and pheasants for everyone to admire. Here is the species list (47 species): White-naped Crane, Black-necked Crane, Black Parrot, Festive Amazon Parrot, Red-fronted Macaw, Blue and Yellow Macaw, Spotted Dove, Azure-winged Magpie, Red-billed Blue Magpie, Wild Turkey, Asian Fairy Bluebird, Himalayan Monal, Chinese Babax, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Black-tailed Hawfinch, Black-headed Greenfinch, Grey-headed Goldfinch, Desert Finch, Arabian Partridge, Mt. Omei Liocichla, Taiwan Liocichla, Red-faced Liocichla, Black-breasted Thrush, Black-throated Laughing Thrush, Hwamei-melodious Laughing Thrush, Blue-crowned Laughing Thrush, Greater Necklaced Laughing Thrush, Lesser Necklaced Laughing Thrush, Chestnut-winged Laughing Thrush, White-crested Laughing Thrush, White-browed Laughing Thrush, Siberian Thrush, Satyr Tragopan, Cabot’s Tragopan, Blue-eared Pheasant, Brown-eared Pheasant, White-eared Pheasant, Koklass Pheasant, Cheer Pheasant, Elliot’s Pheasant, Swinhoe’s Pheasant, Mikado Pheasant, Reeves’ Pheasant, Vietnamese Pheasant, Silver Pheasant, Lady Amherst’s Pheasant and Khivan Pheasant. How many zoos in the world have 13 species of pheasant?
Elsewhere in the zoo is an excellent Bird of Prey area that contains a number of large aviaries. Here is the species list (20 species): White-tailed Sea Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Bald Eagle, Harpy Eagle, Eastern Imperial Eagle, Martial Eagle, Milky Eagle Owl, Mackinder’s Eagle Owl, Eurasian Eagle Owl, Forest Eagle Owl, Turkoman Eagle Owl, Black-chested Eagle Buzzard, Ferruginous Hawk, Forster’s Caracara, Common Bay Owl, Southern White-faced Owl, Brazilian Owl and Philippine Scops Owl. In other sections of the zoo are Barred Eagle Owl and Mountain Caracara.
The Monkey House is one of the highlights of the zoo, with a large Gelada exhibit that doesn’t even make it onto the zoo’s map. There’s nothing quite like surprising a Canadian zoo enthusiast by rounding a corner to see a troop of Geladas with a minimal water barrier separating one crazy monkey species from another! The zoo’s Monkey House is a brand-new development, in terms of an update on an existing building, and for the most part it is very well done. Species list (10 primate species + 6 other species): Gelada, Diana Monkey, Red Howler Monkey, Yellow-breasted Capuchin, White-faced Saki Monkey, Silvery Marmoset, Mongoose Lemur, Collared Brown Lemur, Red-bellied Lemur, Black Lemur, Southern Tamandua, Spotted Paca, Azara’s Agouti, Radiated Tortoise, Amazon Milk Frog and Banded Day Gecko. The Monkey House concentrates on fewer species than many other similar buildings in German zoos, but what it does it does very well indeed. In December 2017 a permanent addition to the Monkey House was added in the form of #discoverConservation, which is a series of signs and multi-media stations that highlight conservation issues undertaken at the Tierpark. Elsewhere in the zoo is a Pig-tailed Macaque (bachelor group) in another new-looking exhibit, Golden-handed Tamarins in the Pachyderm House, Red-naped Mangabeys, plus a Lemur Woods area (Black and White Ruffed/Red Ruffed), a Ring-tailed Lemur exhibit, Barbary Macaques and a White-handed Gibbon island. Berlin Tierpark therefore has 18 primate species, including 7 lemur species, but no great apes whatsoever, although those can all be found 45 minutes across town.
Just as Berlin Zoo had a separated area at the top of the grounds for a range of hoofstock, the same goes with Berlin Tierpark. Here, there is a path north of the Monkey House that leads into an area labeled as Mountain Landscape. The walking trail alone is enough to cause consternation for most visitors, although there are multiple signs warning people of the gradient and advising anyone not willing to traverse the paved yet incredibly steep trails to turn around before tackling the slopes. I headed upwards and in truth I loved this part of the zoo, as I rambled around for probably 45 minutes without seeing a single other person except for a couple of keepers on bikes. In a zoo that receives 1.5 million annual visitors, having an area with no one else around is remarkable. After going past a few aviaries and a number of large, steep, ungulate paddocks, I eventually did nod hello to some visitors making the trek skywards as I headed back down. It’s interesting that there is only the one trail up, then a huge couple of walking loops, then the trail back down the same way, but it’s all worth it for the mouth-watering species list. I’ve taken note of how many animals I saw for certain species, and those numbers are reflected in parentheses. Berlin Tierpark not only has a vast collection, but for some species there are large herds and not just minor numbers of the animals.
Species list for Mountain Landscape (19 species): Moose, Sichuan Takin, Mouflon, Afghanistan Red Sheep, Central Chinese Goral (8), Marco-Polo Argali, Markhor (20), Bharal (12), Chamois, Alpine Ibex, Thorold’s Deer, Eurasian Lynx, European Wild Cat, Dhole, Steller’s Sea Eagle, Bearded Vulture, Ural Owl, Snowy Owl and Common Crane.
At this point in my day I stumbled across a very small building with a man selling old guidebooks and zoo paraphernalia. I was thrilled and enjoyed several minutes of thumbing through old zoo literature and I ended up buying a bunch of Tierpark guidebooks. How wonderful to have such a place in a zoo! I then went to have a nice lunch and I reflected on the zoo as a whole. I had truly enjoyed the Crocodile House, Monkey House, Mountain Landscape area, Pheasantry and many ungulate paddocks. Going through my mind, as tends to be a regular occurrence, is where I’d place Berlin Tierpark amidst the upper echelon of zoos that I’d visited all-time. If I’d stopped then I would have had a brilliant half-day experience, but the zoo’s right-hand side (going by the map) is not as impressive and the closure of the Alfred-Brehm House was keenly felt.
The second half of my day became a bit disappointing. The Giraffe House was a decent area, but the Pachyderm House is desperately outdated and it’s such a mammoth structure that revamping it to meet modern standards appears to be quite the undertaking. The Camel Pasture area is unique, but I couldn’t help feeling that so many better things could be built there instead of my daily dose of Alpacas and Llamas. There are at least 6 small, empty cages in the right-hand side of the zoo, meaning that there are great stretches of walking through the woods with very few animals in sight. Why aren't those small cages permanently removed? As I made lines with my pen on the zoo map, to ensure that I saw everything, the visit became a bit of a slog. There really needed to be a major animal house to break up the monotony of deer paddock…walk 5 full minutes…owl aviary…another 5-minute walk…deer paddock…5 minutes later…owl aviary. Next year’s Rainforest House, which is the repurposed Alfred-Brehm House, will fill that void. Also, all of the domestic animal areas are on the right-hand side, and there really isn’t any stand-out exhibits to be found in that huge chunk of the zoo. It really is a zoo of two halves as things stand at the moment.
Berlin Tierpark has a long list of ungulate exhibits, and here is a fairly comprehensive list of species that I’ve yet to mention in this review. I've again highlighted a few species where there were significant numbers of the animals: Forest Buffalo (8), Cape Buffalo, Asian Water Buffalo, Gayal (12), Golden Takin (6 including three youngsters), Sichuan Takin, Mishmi Takin, Musk Ox (7), Rocky Mountain Goat, Reindeer, Tufted Deer, Siberian Musk Deer, Pere David’s Deer, Burmese Brow-antlered Deer, Bawean Deer, Persian Fallow Deer (10), Hog Deer, Kulan, Southern Gerenuk, Arabian Oryx, Addax, Mhorr Gazelle (8), Nilgai, South African Mountain Reedbuck, Common Waterbuck, Zebu, Caucasian Zebu, Dwarf Zebu and Red River Hog. Chacoan Peccaries have a well-landscaped yard that is spacious and fairly new, as it was formerly two paddocks for different species. Chacoan Mara have a small, randomly-placed enclosure as well. There is one section of the zoo where if you stand in a single spot and swivel your head back and forth it is possible to see Bactrian Camel, Dromedary, Llama (12), Guanaco, Alpaca and Vicuna all from one location. Macropods are represented by Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Eastern Wallaroo and Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies.
There are Rothschild’s Giraffes (8) in a large paddock and with Naked Mole Rats in the Giraffe House. An outdated Pachyderm House has a couple of exhibits for Greater One-horned Rhinos and both Asian Elephants and African Elephants (7) in outdoor yards that are superior to the ones found at Berlin Zoo, but again elephants are a weak point as the exhibits are not as modern as many others around the zoo world. Inside the Pachyderm House there is a Short-beaked Echidna exhibit, a pair of darkened enclosures that are both currently empty, an Antillean Manatee pool in the center, and then small exhibits for species such as Short-eared Elephant Shrew, Chinese Striped Hamster, Neumann’s Grass Rat, Zebra Mouse, Crete Spiny Mouse, Southern Three-banded Armadillo, African Pancake Tortoise, Malagasy Spider Tortoise, Moroccan Spiny-tailed Lizard and a goldfish pool.
Outside the Pachyderm House are to be found species such as Somali Wild Ass (6), Grevy’s Zebra, Hartmann’s Mountain Zoo, Chapman’s Zebra (all 3 zebra paddocks are next to each other), Marabou Stork and African Spurred Tortoise. A Spotted Hyena exhibit, newly renovated in recent years, is found here, along with a Grey Wolf exhibit and a huge pack of Chinese Dhole (12) deep into the forest.
The iconic Alfred-Brehm House is currently closed for construction, and what was a Carnivore House is becoming the Rainforest House and due to be fully open by next year. There will be a focus on South-East Asian species such as Sumatran Tiger, Javan Leopard, Clouded Leopard, Asiatic Golden Cat, Malayan Sun Bear, Binturong, Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo, plus a Tropical Hall with crocodilians (False Gharials?), possibly Bear Cuscus and Sumatran Masked Palm Civets, plus smaller exhibits for bats, birds, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and fish. As things stand right now, a few species are still at the zoo in the enclosures surrounding the Alfred-Brehm House. Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Margay, Maned Wolf, Bush Dog, Bat-eared Fox, Banded Mongoose, Ratel, Binturong and African Penguin are all still at the zoo in exhibits within the general vicinity, with one of the great zoo aviaries untouched and looking rather magnificent. There is a stunning backdrop of mock-rock, and this enormous aviary contains the following 9 species: Bateleur Eagle, White-backed Vulture, White-headed Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Himalayan Griffon Vulture, Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture, Eurasian Griffon Vulture, King Vulture, Bearded Vulture and Turkey Vulture. To have a species of eagle and then 9 vulture species in a single aviary is something to behold, but the sheer size of the structure allows the birds space to easily get away from each other. I loved it.
Other birds found around the zoo include the following species: Demoiselle Crane, Wattled Crane, Sarus Crane, Grey Crowned Crane, Black Crowned Crane, Saddle-billed Stork, Caribbean Flamingo, Chilean Flamingo, Secretary Bird, Great Bustard, Northern Bald Ibis, Southern Boobook Owl, Great Horned Owl, Siberian Eagle Owl, Chaco Owl, Western Screech Owl, Grey-winged Trumpeter, Cattle Egret, Javan Pond-heron, Indian Pond-heron, Rufous Night Heron (the last 4 species in a single aviary that I’ll call ‘Heron House’), Patagonian Conure, Scarlet Macaw, Blue-throated Macaw, Hyacinth Macaw, Buffon’s Macaw and African Grey Parrot. There is also a large domed aviary with the following 9 species inside: African Open-bill Stork, Yellow-billed Stork, Abdim’s Stork, Hadada Ibis, Sacred Ibis, Hamerkop, Goliath Heron, Southern Pochard and Meller’s Duck. A second domed aviary of similar size and scope has many ducks and gulls.
A rocky Polar Bear exhibit with a huge pool was entrancing to hang around due to the fact that a young cub was grabbing the limelight and diving into the water with its mother intently watching close by. There are two exhibits for Spectacled Bears, with one seen from outside the entrance to the zoo. There is a pseudo-Children’s Zoo with a fairly new water splash pad, a playground, many domestic animal exhibits and other visitor amenities. A loop through another domestic animal area reveals several rarely-exhibited species of cattle, pig, goat, sheep, etc. In various sections are smaller mammals such as Serval, Common Genet, Red Panda, Raccoon, Chilean Degu, Wild Cavy and Indian Crested Porcupine.
Berlin Tiepark has a pleasant eating area (Kakadu Terrace Café) with a few aviaries outside, but the main eating facility is known as Restaurant Patagona and it includes a small Aquarium of around a dozen tanks and the whole building was recently remodeled and it is quite splendid. Near the exit and across from the Wisent/Wood Bison yards, is a North American Porcupine/Black-tailed Prairie Dog mixed-species exhibit that is new (as of 2016) as it was a former aviary for Golden Eagles. Now it’s a highly popular area for young kids and there are lavatories half-hidden around the back of the enclosure.
Berlin Tierpark is not content to rest on its laurels, as besides the enormous Rainforest House for South-East Asian animals that opens next year, there are plans for a remodeled African building (the current Pachyderm House) for elephants, a rocky area known as Himalaya, new exhibits for other animals such as cheetahs and penguins, and more than 100 million Euros in new developments is the cost of all of this. Again, it strikes me that both Berlin parks have acknowledged their deficiencies and there has been, and will be, a tremendous amount of modernization ongoing for years to come. There are so many zoos around the world that need to meet modern standards, but the Berlin parks are actually achieving that goal with a massive influx of cash and construction projects. I read somewhere that the projected goal is to have 5.5 million visitors per year between the two Berlin zoos by 2020. With both parks having large-scale Carnivore Houses being completely reinvented and modernized at the exact same time, then suddenly 5.5 million combined visitors is easily attainable once those structures re-open to the public as the zoos are already not too far off from that attendance statistic. The two major San Diego zoos coincidentally also have 5.5 million annual visitors, but that is in sunny California where even in the dead of winter the weather is amazing. The Berlin parks need their big animal houses to attract visitors on chilly days.
Berlin Tierpark is extremely impressive with its hoofstock paddocks (around 65 ungulate species), perhaps more so than just about any zoo on Earth. Primates and birds are also found here in large numbers, but the lack of something like Berlin Zoo’s incredibly diverse Aquarium building, with its 3 levels of the animal kingdom, is something that sets Berlin Tierpark farther back from the pack of great zoos. I truly enjoyed my visit, even with the late afternoon slog when I think that 27 days of walking around zoos reached its apex, but the Tierpark felt a little like a typical German ‘wildpark’ in sections. There are basic, functional enclosures, loads of ungulates, nothing exhibit-wise to set the heart racing, and many paddocks set in dark forests. It’s a huge zoo, with some splendid herds that can be seen in sprawling landscapes, but there is really no thematic element to the zoo and while I loved Berlin Zoo, I just liked Berlin Tierpark.
) because they take up potential animal exhibits.
having kept giant panda from 1980 until 1991, when their male Bao-Bao was sent to London on loan for 18 months, then from 1993 until 2012 when Bao-Bao died, with the new pair arriving in 2017.
