Burgers' Zoo Burgers' Zoo news 2023

Some notes from today's visit:
-The beisa are still in separation, but as a young was recently born and a new female arrived, there is good reason for it. Last year one of the two males moved to Tierpark Berlin.
- The pipefish are finally on show in the Ocean. In the aquarium opposite a radial firefish (Pterois radiata) has joined the single lionfish already present.
- The male zebra shark moved back from the little ocean to the main ocean tank. In the little ocean there was a large container in the water which could potentially hold the Alectis indica and golden trevally that are currently behind the scenes.
- The single Alectis in the tunnel tank is an Alectis ciliaris, which came from Karlsruhe. It's common name is confusingly African pompano, while there is also a singe Trachinotus africanus, which has southern pompano as common name....
- The introduction of the new West African chimpanzee is ongoing now for many months and quite successful, but such a process takes many months. Currently the group is split in two to three groups, so there are always animals on show indoors too.
- The golden-bellied mangabeys are still in the separation near the leopards. The former jackal exhibit is still empty without any work having been done in the 15 months it has stood empty.... How hard is it to get a (temporary) replacement, as it is currently an eyesore. A fishing cat or yellow-throated marten would be so much better than nothing...
- The works on the original peccary enclosure are finished and extra barriers have been smartly installed, so the three females can use the entire exhibit again.
- The two aardvark are kept together in the main enclosure now.

Some official news communication is that the cinereous vulture pair is currently acting as foster parents for a chick from another European zoo that otherwise had to be handreared.
 
News from my visit yesterday:

Northern red cardinal signage was removed from the Mangrove

According to a guide, the Blue tang surgeonfish (surgeonfishes?) were also taken out of the Mangrove because they weren't doing too well

The Pantano cichlids in the Pheasantry were removed from their tank, the other cichlids were still present

There was construction going on in the Gibbon enclosure
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In the Bush, the Curassows have lost their escorts. They were now completely on their own
 

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Northern red cardinal signage was removed from the Mangrove

To be fair, that has been the case for months ;)

Some small notes from todays visit:
-The female manatee is pregnant again with a big belly and clearly swollen genital area. It will take some months though before the calf is probably due.
- The Queensland grouper is now set free in the open ocean tank, it is still a small individual though.
-The crested wood partridges, snowy-crowned robin chats, blue-backed grassquits, scissor-billed starlings and Gould's amadines have bred, though that is pretty much business as usual...

The newsletter confirmed the beisa oryx born last month is female.
 
Some small new snippets from the ZieZoo:
- 3 female Eld's deer joined the group in Rimba from Zurich.
- 5 zebra were born this spring, all male.
- In the Desert the montezuma quail and painted bunting have bred again.
- In the Mangrove the crested bobwhites and violaceous euphonia are already raising their second clutch of the year. The euphonia offspring from last year went to Basel and has already bred there too. There have also been multiple blue ground dove chicks already this year.
- The new female beisa oryx came from La Palmyre, but is still to young to breed.
- The swamp wallaby group has grown to 17 individuals, including a joey still in the pouch.
 
Some small snippets from a visit yesterday:

- Some work has finally begun on the former jackal exhibit. A wooden pallisade has been constructed at the northern side of the exhibit and before the second window there is now a new fence (and some rocks and sand), so visitors can't get to the glass anymore. Both moves to give the coming inhabitants more privacy. I still expect another leopard in there as once announced, even though the exhibit is far too small for a leopard...

- Golden-bellied mangabeys are still behind the scenes.

- Signage in the Ocean has been updated:
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Even though more species are now listed, signage is still incomplete for multiple tanks. The good news is that new additions like the moray eels and giant grouper are now signed. The large Alectis ciliaris in the tunnel tank has been reidentified as Alectis indica.
 
- Some work has finally begun on the former jackal exhibit. A wooden pallisade has been constructed at the northern side of the exhibit and before the second window there is now a new fence (and some rocks and sand), so visitors can't get to the glass anymore. Both moves to give the coming inhabitants more privacy. I still expect another leopard in there as once announced, even though the exhibit is far too small for a leopard...
From today, one of the leopards can be seen in this enclosure.

Source: Facebook Burgers' Zoo
 
Visited Burgers' Zoo again today but there isn't much going on. The most noteworthy thing is that most things are still the same. The park looks fine, but apart from creating extra enclosures for mammals already in the collection (at the cost of other species) basically nothing has happened the past year and it is 6 years since the final real investment in the zoo. Looking at the competition it looks worrying as an outsider that they could soon lag behind. That even with doing nothing the zoo is still world class is a testament to the quality of the stuff that has been built between 1988 and 2017, but something significant will need to happen soon. The same goes for the animal collection, apart from fish and inverts only blue-winged teal were added to the collection (and only a single male) as far as I am aware.

The notes from today:
- The giraffe calf didn't survive, it had serious leg injuries.
- Beisa oryx are finally allowed on the savanna itself.
- Golden-bellied mangabey are still behind the scenes near the leopards.
- White-rumped shama were removed from the bird house (still on show in the Bush).
- Manatee is really heavily pregnant, that can't be long...
- The quails in the Desert are having an excellent breeding season with 3 clutches of Gambell's quail and 2 clutches of Montezuma quail.

Already noted in the Belfast thread, but 2 Asian elephant females will join the 2 females already present in the near future.
 
This just reminded me I've forgotten to give my own update from my visit three weeks ago... whoops.

The Eastern Superb fruit-dove can again be seen in the Bush. I saw one in the caiman region.
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One of the viewing areas to the "new" Leopard enclosure has been decorated
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The Pipefish aquarium in Ocean has gained signage, which is easily missed by visitors...
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Both the Hog deer and the Prairiedogs are finally getting more comfortable in their enclosures. The Hog deer are no longer glued to the back fence, and some of the Prairiedogs can be found on some of the highest ledges of their enclosure.

Other than that, I sadly agree with Lintworm. BZ is currently one of the furthest-behind zoos when it comes to new developments. I believe only Artis and Blijdorp have done less in recent years.

I'd say Artis' lagging behind is forgivable, as they've been busy refurbishing their aquarium since forever. Wildlands has their new Monkey island Beekse Bergen has the new elephant valley and the refurbished rhinoceros plains. Amersfoort is about to start their new Chimp enclosure, and are probably instantly going to build something to replace the old one. GaiaZOO has redesigned and reconstructed their vulture aviary, and both Zie-Zoo and Avifauna are currently busy doing the same thing. And finally, both Aquazoo and Ouwehands are currently building a whole new themed region.

Since the new Desert upgrade, which I see as Burgers' most recent big addition, there hasn't really been anything new except for the ant poles. Also no announcements, no building sites, nothing in sight that could give us any indication of something new.

Of course, we're used to this from Burgers' Zoo. They're pretty good secret-keepers when it comes to new developments, which is why we had to essentially act like spies when it came to the new Desert enclosure... But it'd still be nice to at least know they're planning something...
 

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Since the new Desert upgrade, which I see as Burgers' most recent big addition, there hasn't really been anything new except for the ant poles. Also no announcements, no building sites, nothing in sight that could give us any indication of something new.

Of course, we're used to this from Burgers' Zoo. They're pretty good secret-keepers when it comes to new developments, which is why we had to essentially act like spies when it came to the new Desert enclosure... But it'd still be nice to at least know they're planning something...
Early this year, the director of Burgers' Zoo, Alex van Hooff, said in a Dutch podcast (Looopings Podcast) that a major new project such as a Mangrove, Bush or Desert is definitely not coming in the next 2 to 3 years. This is because after such a big project (Mangrove, 2017), the zoo always has to get its finances back on track and the preparation time for a big project also takes several years. However, he does say that behind the scenes they are working on a smaller project for next year.
 
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