Aalborg Zoo Aalborg zoo news

As I mentioned, I wholeheartedly supported Copenhagen Zoo when Marius was euthanized, and while there are certain aspects of my country's culture that I dislike, the honesty and straightforwardness displayed by Copenhagen Zoo combined with professional decision-making did impress me. I'm not unwilling to discuss that (though I feel like my English proficiency is still a bit lacking when it comes to deeper, more complex discussions like that), but that should be in another thread so that we don't bring Aalborg's thread completely off the rails.

Again, the reason I'm somewhat an opponent of Aalborg Zoo's decision regarding the brown bear is because it truly puzzles me how they could deem the brown bear exhibit so terrible that they needed to put down some still relatively healthy bears immediately instead of let them live out their final years. I'll link to a picture of the exhibit from the gallery: Aalborg Zoo - Brown bear exhibit | ZooChat
To me, that's just another bear exhibit. There's nothing about it that screams state-of-the-art, and there's nothing about it that screams "demolish that atrocity ASAP!". Maybe it could be a bit more vegetated and have more hiding places, but size-wise it's better than many of the older bear exhibits out there.
I genuinely can't see what's so wrong with it that made it impossible to keep bears in it for 5 more years.

I'm afraid some subjectivity might shine through here, though, as while I used to have a very loving and nostalgic relationship to Aalborg Zoo (visited it every year as a kid with my grandparents), I don't at all like that the zoo has completely ceased building new animal exhibits and instead has shifted their focus to entertaining families with dinosaur/Ice Age animatronics and playgrounds. If they intended to build a new brown bear exhibit and euthanized a pair of older bears because they had trouble finding temporary homes for them during construction, it would have been alright in my book, but I'm pretty sure they aren't intending to build any new animal exhibits until Joe Public grows tired of the animatronics.
 
Hvedekorn said:
As I mentioned, I wholeheartedly supported Copenhagen Zoo when Marius was euthanized, and while there are certain aspects of my country's culture that I dislike, the honesty and straightforwardness displayed by Copenhagen Zoo combined with professional decision-making did impress me. I'm not unwilling to discuss that (though I feel like my English proficiency is still a bit lacking when it comes to deeper, more complex discussions like that), but that should be in another thread so that we don't bring Aalborg's thread completely off the rails.

Again, the reason I'm somewhat an opponent of Aalborg Zoo's decision regarding the brown bear is because it truly puzzles me how they could deem the brown bear exhibit so terrible that they needed to put down some still relatively healthy bears immediately instead of let them live out their final years. I'll link to a picture of the exhibit from the gallery: Aalborg Zoo - Brown bear exhibit | ZooChat
To me, that's just another bear exhibit. There's nothing about it that screams state-of-the-art, and there's nothing about it that screams "demolish that atrocity ASAP!". Maybe it could be a bit more vegetated and have more hiding places, but size-wise it's better than many of the older bear exhibits out there.
I genuinely can't see what's so wrong with it that made it impossible to keep bears in it for 5 more years.

I'm afraid some subjectivity might shine through here, though, as while I used to have a very loving and nostalgic relationship to Aalborg Zoo (visited it every year as a kid with my grandparents), I don't at all like that the zoo has completely ceased building new animal exhibits and instead has shifted their focus to entertaining families with dinosaur/Ice Age animatronics and playgrounds. If they intended to build a new brown bear exhibit and euthanized a pair of older bears because they had trouble finding temporary homes for them during construction, it would have been alright in my book, but I'm pretty sure they aren't intending to build any new animal exhibits until Joe Public grows tired of the animatronics.
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I agree with you the most, if not even everything.

One thing the whole discussion showed was a global movement towards animals rights.

By the way the young danes i met were more global while the older said that their view was an attempt to save traditions.

one question

I remember that they made plans for a new europran forest part of the zoo including a new bear and wolf exhibit.

did they change their minds?
 
LARTIS said:
I agree with you the most, if not even everything.

One thing the whole discussion showed was a global movement towards animals rights.

By the way the young danes i met were more global while the older said that their view was an attempt to save traditions.

one question

I remember that they made plans for a new europran forest part of the zoo including a new bear and wolf exhibit.

did they change their minds?
Click to expand...

Their master plan shows a Nordic/Greenlandic zone with wolves and otters among others, but they were supposed to start the construction work for that a few years ago. I recently sent the zoo a mail asking how the construction work was coming along. The reply I got was rather vague (even I though I felt I phrased my question politely/curiously instead of the critical tone I've used in my posts in this thread), but what I could infer from it is they only want to focus on the family-friendly facilities for the time being and really had no idea when/if they would build new animal exhibits.

They did receive a pair of snowy owls last year, but they are only intended to stay at the zoo for a limited amount of time with a travelling exhibition.
 
After six years of almost complete stagnation in the animal collection/exhibitry, new things are finally happening in Aalborg Zoo:

- Two Eurasian lynxes, Hector and Chester - both from Tallinn Zoo - have moved into the former brown bear exhibit.
- The camel/kangaroo house - which was almost falling apart - is being torn down these days. The camels have left the zoo, and in the general area a new walkthrough enclosure for macropods will be built. The western grey kangaroos will remain, and red-necked wallabies will be added. Apparently, a new aviary will also be built in extension to the enclosure.
- The black caimans' exhibit has been expanded a lot.
- Construction work for a new flamingo exhibit will also start soon.
- The zoo has received some birds from private hands - mandarin ducks and golden pheasants among others - which are now on display in the free-flight aviary near the entrance.

While they seem to have forgotten about the Greenlandic zone they wanted to build, I guess I'll have to eat some of my other words.
 
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Hvedekorn said:
- Construction work for a new flamingo exhibit will also start soon.
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Could you add some info on current and future of flamingo husbandry in Aalborg?

Will they continue to keep both flamingo species?

Will they build aviary?
 
Jana said:
Could you add some info on current and future of flamingo husbandry in Aalborg?

Will they continue to keep both flamingo species?

Will they build aviary?
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I don't know if they'll continue keeping both species.

I'll presume they're building an aviary - that was their plan some years back, and at any rate it's going to be a walkthrough exhibit.

I don't know too much of the husbandry other than what the exhibit looks like. Are there any particular details you're wondering about?
 
@Jana - Update on the flamingos whose new exhibit just opened:

- They are still keeping both species.
- They haven't built an aviary. They have just expanded the exhibit, allowing for a visitor's path.
 
There was a giraffebirth in Aalborg
Any infos about the other giraffes who are in the stock yet?
 
I uploaded 127 photos into the Aalborg Zoo gallery, including a number of images of the new Bornean Orangutan complex. The original Ape House is still relatively intact, but the outdoor area received a major renovation.
 
Aalborg Zoo no longer keeps chimpanzees - the last two individuals moved to Ostrava and Burgers two weeks ago. The exhibit was becoming too old and inadequate. Aalborg still includes chimps in their masterplan, but they have chosen to build a brand new exhibit in time instead of getting into the major project of renovating and expanding the existing exhibit.

The plan is for the old chimpanzee exhibit to be revamped into a walkthrough exhibit for the ring-tailed lemurs they already have. The old ring-tailed lemur exhibit will then be inhabited by a new species of lemur (fingers crossed that it's something else than ruffed lemurs...). They have also received some Malagasy birds that will live in one of the exhibits, but there's no mention of which species.
 
Hvedekorn said:
Aalborg Zoo no longer keeps chimpanzees - the last two individuals moved to Ostrava and Burgers two weeks ago. The exhibit was becoming too old and inadequate. Aalborg still includes chimps in their masterplan, but they have chosen to build a brand new exhibit in time instead of getting into the major project of renovating and expanding the existing exhibit.

The plan is for the old chimpanzee exhibit to be revamped into a walkthrough exhibit for the ring-tailed lemurs they already have. The old ring-tailed lemur exhibit will then be inhabited by a new species of lemur (fingers crossed that it's something else than ruffed lemurs...). They have also received some Malagasy birds that will live in one of the exhibits, but there's no mention of which species.
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This is great news. When I visited Aalborg Zoo a few months ago, the Chimpanzee exhibit was just about the worst thing there (other than the elephants!). It will be interesting to see how the area will be renovated into a lemur complex.

Chimpanzee exhibit on August 16th, 2022:

full
 
It was opened in the 1960s, so I imagine it must have been considered pretty good back then, especially since some of their carnivores lived in tiny concrete grottoes for another few decades. But yeah, by present standards it's nothing impressive.

You visited Aalborg after the rebuild of their orangutan exhibit, by the way - I think you'd definitely preferred this chimpanzee exhibit over the barren orangutan grotto they had just two years ago. :P
 
Good grief! i had eight Chimpanzees listed at Aalborg, where did they all go? I assume the female that went to Burgers is Laura, and that Dorthe & Jutta had long since passed away. But that would still leave 1 female (Lone) and 4 males.
 
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