Berlin Tierpark Tierpark Berlin news 2021

leone said:
Are there projects PDF on himalaya and asian Rhino ?
Click to expand...

There used to be online access to pictures and descriptions, but they took it down. Even the rough drawings by the architects are no longer there (I once noticed this when I checked the older thread and all pictures were gone). I am not quite sure, why they keep making pretty much everything interesting a secret. But I do hope there will be some more information on all current projects soon.

If the schedule is still correct, they will start tearing down the roof of the old pachydermy building next month(!). It will be much more difficult to hide stuff after that. I'm sure the media will ask for and get details and pictures then.
Not sure about Himalaya, though. They fenced the entire hill off. So I guess it would need a drone to spy on the project...
 
Last edited:
According to information from a German zoo forum, the only male barbary stag died some ten days ago. As their offspring never survived, the species probably won't be there much longer.
 
Sad news, indeed... The only American holder San Diego Zoo Safari Park have only females, as well.

11.2019
full
 
Apparently, San Diego started with 1,2 barbary stag from Tunis in 1982 and decided to stop breeding in 2004. Berlin Tierpark long tried to breed but they were never really successful. By now the females also are quite old. So unless there will be new animals from North Africa, there won't be any future for the subspecies in western zoos.
 
markmeier said:
Apparently, San Diego started with 1,2 barbary stag from Tunis in 1982 and decided to stop breeding in 2004. Berlin Tierpark long tried to breed but they were never really successful. By now the females also are quite old. So unless there will be new animals from North Africa, there won't be any future for the subspecies in western zoos.
Click to expand...
The Barbary deer program is unfortunately doomed and much to do with a disinterest in European zoos to make serious business of endangered and threatened deer taxa. There are some herds in North African zoos I believe. Rabat Zoo may or may not have them. Some zoos in Algeria and the Tunis Zoo? It requires a Mediterranean zoo consortium to get them over the bridge. It could even become an ex situ restocking / reintroduction release project - very promising (viz Cuvier's gazelle - Almeria - Tunisian conservation NGO and release project in north-western Tunisia).

Illustrative: a respected conservation breeding ex situ zoo like Koeln Zoo went out of Bactrian deer for instance which is critically endangered ....
 
Tierpark Berlin now officially announced the closure and knocking down of the crocodile building (everyone expected this anyways but they kind of kept it a secret until today - the feedback after the closure of the snake farm wasn't so nice, I guess). The remaining animals will go to other parts of the park as well as Zoo Berlin and other zoos. I am positively sure the giant turtoise building will be demolished as well, as they are building for these animals near and inside the elephant building.

So what will visitors get to see behind the attractive castle entrance? I guess not much more than castle and castle grounds themselves as well as the famous pelicans. Having said so, there are plans for years to come. The world-renowned institute for zoo and wildlife research IZW will get to extend their campus to the Tierpark grounds. As they have been founded together, they will then renew and extend the relation. They even plan a show case research facility which will be open to visitors of the park. Further in the future there will be other attractions nearby like a large walk-through bird aviary, if they do get funding for all this after Covid-19.
 
markmeier said:
The remaining animals will go to other parts of the park as well as Zoo Berlin and other zoos.
Click to expand...

What species does this include and any idea of which species will be kept and moved to where?
 
Al said:
What species does this include and any idea of which species will be kept and moved to where?
Click to expand...

From what I remember, the house consists of a bunch of different turtle species and a couple crocodile species, along with the following birds :
- Brazilian tanager
- Burnished-buff tanager (only public holder in Europe)
- Green-mantled tanager
- Paradise tanager
- Sunbittern
- Spangled cotinga

It used to have Golden-headed manakins as well as Crested oropendolas and Greater antilean bullfinchs but there are now gone from the collection.
It is sad to see the house close because it was really enjoyable from what I remember and the rare small birds were fairly easy to see.
 
Does the Tierpark have any plans in general to "rectify" (for lack of better words) the lack of ectotherms in the collection or is the plan just for those to be at the Zoo instead...?
 
I believe the crocodiles held in the Tierpark are False Gharial, Chinese Alligator, American Alligator and Dwarf Crocodile.

I’m not sure they have the space to house all of the above across both their sites in existing facilities.

I’m sure the destination of the False Gharial will be of a particular interest to those on the forum. True Gharial are currently held at the Zoo.
 
False Gharials as well as Chinese Alligators have indeed moved to the Brehm building. The rest of the crocodiles most likely will leave the park. As for the other reptiles from snake farm, crocodile building and giant tortoise house, a certain number went to the Brehm building, while others went behind the scenes or left the park. This trend likely will continue. For instance, there will be off display capacities for poisonous snakes, giant tortoises and other reptiles as well as small mammals in the elephant building. But there also will be some public displays in the visitor area of the building.
 
Some updates from my favorite zoo:

- Let's start with some bad news: Sadly, Tierpark Berlin had a sharp drop in visitors like most other zoos in 2020: Rather than 1,7 mio visitors they now had about 1,2 (a drop of 500,000 visitors or 30 per cent).

- The good news: They receive some compensation from the government and donations also rose quite a bit. This may not compensate for all of the losses, but it is still a start.

- Some more good news: Apparently, the current 2 large building projects Himalaya and elephant building/Africa Zone are not impacted by this. According to the latest official schedule, Himalaya is to open by spring 2022(!) and the elephant building some time in 2023. I am not quite sure, if the latter actually already includes the huge savannah exhibit as well. The press release does mention a wide savannah landscape, however, so it might well be the case.

- Some minor but still positive news: Tierpark Berlin received 3,0 white-belted black-and-white ruffed lemurs (V. v. subcincta) in October 2020. They even live in the vari forest along with black and white ruffed lemurs and red ruffed lemurs (they are all male specimen). I never heard about this before now, but this makes me want to visit the park even more now.
There even is a picture of one white-belted black-and-white ruffed lemur in a German zoo forum:
129547.jpg (800×578) (schueling.com)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top