Rotterdam Zoo Historical notes from Rotterdam Zoo

[vogelcommando]

The "Rotterdamsche Diergaarde"was opened in 1857 and in 1940 is was completly replaced to the current site in the distict Blijdorp, hence the current name Diergaarde Blijdorp.
In the time it exist many events have taken place and about the lesser known I want to write here.
To start with the Manatees kept at Rotterdam Zoo.
I first checked Zootierliste and found there under the former holdings that Rotterdam has had 2 differnt species but further little information is provided :
African manatee : "in the 1970s - no breeding"
Amazonian manatee : "197? - 1 animal recieved, died after a week"
I started to do some digging and althrough I didn't find a lot, I at least found out that the comments for both species are wrong.
African manatee : don't know how many Blijdorp has kept but in 1974 at least one female was in the collection 'Cornelia'. Around mid-Feb. 1974 she gave birth to a full-grown living calf which lived however just a few minutes. The calf measured 1.22 m. Even more tragic was that the mother also died, 6 hours after the birth.
Amazonian manatee : Oct. 1974 Blijdorp exchanged 2 young tigers for a manatee with Brazil. The animal lived at leased 2 weeks at the zoo but died mid-Nov.
I wasn't able to find any other information about Manatees at Rotterdam and if they have had these charismatic animals at other times, I'm quite sure I had found at least some information about them.

 

[vogelcommando]

Blijdorp is only one of 4 historical holders in Europe of the Euphrates jerboa - Scarturus euphraticus, the others being Minsk, London and Sharjah.
1963 the zoo recieved at least 2-3 ( but more prob. 3-3 ) of the species. During 1963 several nests were born but none was raised.
A year later 2 of the 3 females had died and the last female was placed in a last attemp to breed the species by the 2 remaining males and now was succesfull. 4 young were born and raised.
Don't know if they bred after this again but 1967 the last animal died.
ZTL don't mention breeding in any of the European collections so this may be the fist breeding ( at a zoo ) in an European zoo.

 

[Dassie rat]

ZTL lists Rotterdam as one of only 3 zoos to keep the Andean cat (1940). The other 2 zoos are Hannover (1930) and Leipzig (1960).

 

[Chlidonias]

ZTL lists Rotterdam as one of only 3 zoos to keep the Andean cat (1940). The other 2 zoos are Hannover (1930) and Leipzig (1960).

Supposedly all of these have been "re-identified" as Pampas Cats, although I am sceptical without evidence showing how or why.

See this post onwards: Vesty Pakos Zoo News [Vesty Pakos Zoo]

 

[Dassie rat]

ZTL lists Rotterdam as one of only 4 zoos to keep the Allen's galago. The other zoos are Prague, Frankfurt and London. I remember seeing it in London.

 

[vogelcommando]

World-first-breeding of a Pelican
Pelicans have always belonged to the standard animals in almost every zoo. The old Diergaarde also had a number of pelicans in their collection and in 1856 a new female Greater white pelican ( Pelecanus onocrotalus )was obtained and kept first in a small wire-cage. In 1857 she was placed in a large enclosure with a large pool which she shared with other Greater white pelicans ( listed as P. o. onocrotalus, P. o. minor and P. o. mitratus - all now being synoniems of P. onocrotalis ) and Dalmatian pelicans ( P. crispus ).
1860 a new male was obtained and untill 1872 the birds all lived together in the enclosure. Then in June 1872 the 2 birds started to bring large amounts of grass to a small shelter which was placed between some scrub and on June 28 an egg was seen in the nest.
36 - 38 days later ( ( August 2 or August 4 ) a young was seen and both parents were observed to feed the chick. The other pelicans in the enclosure showed some intrest in the chick but a day later the male started to drive away the others and these were then placed in another enclosure.
The parents took good care for the young and by the end of August it had the size of an adult Domestic goose.
The species was bred again in 1878 and 1899 but I don't know if it was the same pair or some new pair(s) with which these succeses were archieved.
Aftter the 1899 succes it would take exactly 100 years before again Pelicans hatched at Rotterdam, this time at Blijdorp and with the Dalmatian pelican.


Great white pelican at Diergaarde Rotterdam - 1929

 

[vogelcommando]

The Black butcherbird ( Melloria quoyi ) is almost unknown in the European zoo-world and ZTL only mention 1 zoo which has kept it in the past : London Zoo from 1930 till 19??.
The species has been however kept also in a second collection not listed on ZTL.
Around 1960 Blijdorp recieved a box from New Guinea and by opening it 2 black birds were found inside. They proofed to be Black butcherbirds but the male died somewhere between 1960 and 1964.
The remaining female was placed in a number of different aviaries and was also released for a period in the free-flight part of the Riviera-hall. Here it was observed that she was very helpfull in catching mice and young sparrows. At the moment that was discovered that she also attact smaller birds in the surrounding aviaries and pulled them through the wire it was dicided to place here again in a smaller aviary butthen... she escaped ! Later she was catched again and placed in an aviary on her own.
In the time she was in the free-flight hall, she build several nests useing all kind of materials for it, one time a nest almost completly build from wire was found !
After she was placed on her own, she continued building nests and 1964 she even laid a clutch of 3 eggs.
Couldn't find any further information how long the bird was kept alive and if she produced more eggs.

 

[DDcorvus]

Interestingly Blijdorp was also one of the 4 Dutch zoos that kept Javanese tigers and one of the 6 zoos that kept Caspian tigers. On extinct taxons they also kept Carolina parakeets, and extinct in the wild spix's macaw

 

[vogelcommando]

Interestingly Blijdorp was also one of the 4 Dutch zoos that kept Javanese tigers and one of the 6 zoos that kept Caspian tigers. On extinct taxons they also kept Carolina parakeets, and extinct in the wild spix's macaw

Don't forget the Passenger pigeon .

 

[vogelcommando]

King penguins at Rotterdam :
At the moment Blijdorp has a large colony of King penguins and the species is breeding well at the zoo.
The old Rotterdam Zoo was the first Dutch zoo which could show this species to the public.
Jan. 23 1914 a ship arrived from South Georgia and on board there was a large shipment of animals, most of them going to the zoo of Edinburgh ( among the Elephant seals and Weddell's seals ). Also on board there were 8 King penguins, 4 adults and 4 young ones.
2 adults and 2 young ones were taken of board and brought to the Rotterdam Zoo. At first they did well but after almost one month ( on Feb. 21 ) the first young died, it was just started to molting into adulthoud. Shortly after also the second young and one of the adults died. All 3 these animals were send to the Natural History Museum in Leiden ( now-a-days known as Naturalis ).
Could'nt find information how long the last animal lived but in 1927 6 new animals were obtained.


The 4 King penguins at Rotterdam Zoo - 1914 ( no copyrights anymore )

 

[Bib Fortuna]

Does anybody know when- and why- the Bat-Grotto, opend in 1991, was closed ? If I remember correctly, a desaster has happend and most of the egyptian friurt bats died-if I'm right. Does anybody here has more information about that ?

 

[vogelcommando]

1997 a small group of bats was send to a zoo in Denmark and here a test was done for rabies. Some animals were tested possitive and therefor the colony at Blijdorp - about 800 animals - had to be killed.
Later it was proofed that the tests in Denmark were wrong and that all animals actualy had been healthy !

 

[KevinB]

Does anybody know when- and why- the Bat-Grotto, opend in 1991, was closed ? If I remember correctly, a desaster has happend and most of the egyptian friurt bats died-if I'm right. Does anybody here has more information about that ?

In 1997 their entire colony was destroyed after some bats were suspected of carrying rabies.

Hondsdolheid geconstateerd in de vleermuizengrot van diergaarde Blijdorp
Hondsdolle vleermuizen moeten worden gedood
Geschiedenis van Blijdorp: Millenniumkrieken

I do believe they later kept bats again in the cave, but in an exhibit with a window rather than a walk-through this time. I remember having seen bats in the cave. However that was years ago, and the cave has now been used solely as an entrance to the Asian wetland aviary for years.

Zootierliste also mentions Blijdorp breeding Egyptian fruit bats in 2002, so way after the disaster. But it does not say until when they kept them.

A couple of years ago some idiot kid fell from a height in the cave and broke some bones, and they further boarded up parts of it.

 

[Choco115]

I remember I’ve still seen bats in that cave (like Kevin said behind a window instead of walkthrough), which was in 2011. When they exactly disappeared I don’t know but it must have been somewhere between 2011 and 2017.

 

[Tiger]

The "Rotterdamsche Diergaarde"was opened in 1857 and in 1940 is was completly replaced to the current site in the distict Blijdorp, hence the current name Diergaarde Blijdorp.
In the time it exist many events have taken place and about the lesser known I want to write here.
To start with the Manatees kept at Rotterdam Zoo.
I first checked Zootierliste and found there under the former holdings that Rotterdam has had 2 differnt species but further little information is provided :
African manatee : "in the 1970s - no breeding"
Amazonian manatee : "197? - 1 animal recieved, died after a week"
I started to do some digging and althrough I didn't find a lot, I at least found out that the comments for both species are wrong.
African manatee : don't know how many Blijdorp has kept but in 1974 at least one female was in the collection 'Cornelia'. Around mid-Feb. 1974 she gave birth to a full-grown living calf which lived however just a few minutes. The calf measured 1.22 m. Even more tragic was that the mother also died, 6 hours after the birth.
Amazonian manatee : Oct. 1974 Blijdorp exchanged 2 young tigers for a manatee with Brazil. The animal lived at leased 2 weeks at the zoo but died mid-Nov.
I wasn't able to find any other information about Manatees at Rotterdam and if they have had these charismatic animals at other times, I'm quite sure I had found at least some information about them.

Were all manatees kept in the water part of the current pygmy hippo indoor enclosure, or were they also kept on another location? I know of the Amazonian manatee almost completely certain that the species was kept in the hippo indoor enclosure, but I don't know if this also was so with the African manatees, if not, where in the zoo was this specie's enclosure?

 

[OST]

Does anyone know how long Elsa's (Born Free lioness) sibling Big One lived? I have seen info on the internet that stated Elsa's siblings Big One and Lustica arrived at the Rotterdam Zoo on 19 July 1956, and that Lustica died on 10 Oct 1975. Other info stated that both Lustica and Big One had cubs that were sent to other zoos. Does the Rotterdam Zoo still keep lions? Would any be descendants of Lustica or Big One? Thanks for any info.

 

[Tiger]

Does the Rotterdam Zoo still keep lions?

The Rotterdam Zoo still keeps lions, but no longer African lions as you mention, they now keep Asiatic lions. They also don't live in the same building anymore as the lions you mention.

 

[vogelcommando]

Southern elephant seals at Rotterdam :
The first Southern elephant seal which arrived at the old Rotterdam Zoo was Achiltes, an ( almost ? ) adult male which arrived on July 28 1932 from Hagenbeck Hamburg on loan. The animal refused however to eat and died 2 or 3 weeks later ( mid-Aug ). On ZTL the death-date of this animal is marked with a questionmark.
In the period 1939 -1940 the new zoo at its current place was build and for the new zoo also elephant seals were planned but because of the troubles caused by the Second World War this plan was cancelled.
In March 1970 a female Southern elephant seal named Nanuska arrived at the zoo but lived less then 2 years, she died Dec. 1971.
Also in 1970 ( in Oct ) a male was obtained to be paired with Nanuska. This 3 year old, 3 meters long animal was catched on the Falkland Islands and was named Leo. Leo must have died somewhere in 1977.

Arrival of Leo - Oct. 1970

Leo, May 1977

To replace Nanuska, Rotterdam obtained a new female Cornelia which arrived March 1972. The 2 Elephant seals did quite good together and in Feb. 1974 Cornelia gave birth to a young - the first ( and only ) Elephant seal born in the Netherlands. The young died however almost immediately after birth and also Cornelia died several hours after the birth because of a heart-dissease .

Arrival Cornelia, March 1972

After the death of Cornelia Rotterdam obtain a new female from Dierenpark Wassenaar. Joke arrived at Wassenaar in May 1967 and was sold to Rotterdam in Feb. or April 1974 ( found different dates about the arrival ). Joke died May 1977.

Joke, 1974

Of these animals I've seen at least Leo and Joke and most. prob. also Cornelia.

 

[vogelcommando]

Video ( in Dutch ) about the history of Okapi-keeping at Rotterdam :

 

[Becky DeWitt]

The Rotterdam Zoo still keeps lions, but no longer African lions as you mention, they now keep Asiatic lions. They also don't live in the same building anymore as the lions you mention.

Is there a way to find which zoo's the cubs were sent to?