Berlin Tierpark Tierpark Berlin News 2024

I am planning a trip to tierpark berlin next year. Here are a few animals I would like to see but don't know if they are on exhibit or where they might be since this would be my first time.

Here are my questions:

Are Forest red buffalo still on exhibit? if so where are they on zoo ground?

What are all the deer species by the entry close to bison exhibit.

Where are the Australian Pelicans, yellow throated marten, bush hyrax?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.
 
If nothing has changed in a few months, the red buffaloes are with the red river hogs.
On this map, to the right of "Otter-Insel" near the drawing of zebu and eagle.
Tierpark-Plan

Six deer exhibits are occupied by : Atlas deer (Cervus elaphus barbarus), Vietnamese sika deer (Cervus nippon pseudaxis), barashinga (Rucervus duvaucelii), Manitoba elk (Cervus canadensis manitobensis), Sri Lankan sambar (Cervus unicolor unicolor), Javan rusa (Rusa timorensis), Altai wapiti (Cervus canadensis sibiricus) and Bactrian deer (Cervus elaphus bactrianus).


Australian pelicans are with other pelican species near "Dinoworld" on the map.
Martens in the carnivore zone near the hyenas and dholes on the map.
Hyraxes have not been shown since the elephant house closed.
 
@Vimoto Unfortunately, I can't exactly help with that. But well, I have been planning to write a post about some recent developments anyways. May be some of that will be of interest.

Elephant Building
They still make a lot of progress with the roof structure and actually just had the Richtfest ("topping out"?). In this context, they posted some pictures and also mentioned some new information.

Let's start with the pictures (copyright Dan Pearlman / Tierpark Berlin):
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csm_Schnitt_Elefantenhaus_TierparkBerlin_Copyright_dan_pearlman_Quadrat_d629c3d50d.jpg


csm_Eingang_Elefantenhaus_innen_Copyright_Dan_Pearlman_f69734f56d.jpg


The most interesting detail besides the latest update on the scheduled opening (now officially confirmed as 2026) was the planned starting stock of 1,3 elephants which ideally should already know each other. It does sound kind of specific, so they may actually have some elephants in mind. But of course, they won't tell. Starting with this small group, they plan to build up a population over the decades to come. So there won't be 15 elephants for the next years, not even 10 like before they closed down - or anything close to that.

Primate/ Species Conservation Building
As repeatedly happened in the past, they again "randomly" started a small remodelling project in the building formerly known as the monkey house (which by now also hosts some other species and has a different title and focus). This time, they constructed a large frame in front of (at least) one exhibit which shades the glass. There is some speculation, which (semi-)nocturnal species may end up in there which formerly presented some marmosets. The ideas and wishes reach from existing species like Malagasy Giant Rats/ Votsotsas over dwarf/mouse lemurs up to Aye-Ayes. As always, we likely won't find out much until (soon before) they actually put it on display...
146643.jpg and 146679.jpg

Breeding Station for Northern White Rhinos
The only update is that there isn't any update. There haven't been any signs for the start of constructions (or at least preparatory measures such as removing animals from the area) which is scheduled for this autumn/fall. So I guess, the somewhat optimistic schedule already has some delay. If the senate didn't decide to cut funds altogether (Berlin needs to cut a lot of projects).

Minor developments
- The Bear Cuscus have another baby. It's already the second one this year and the third one altogether. If I am not mistaken, they now should have 2,2,2 specimen. But I don't know, if both breeding pairs already procuced offspring.
- As of this November, the Arabian Stryped Hyenas are nowhere to be found and the sign has been removed. 146831.jpg
- As of this year's September, the same is true for the Northern or Chinese Blue Sheep. According to information by usually well-informed sources the entire population died and it is also unclear how many Marco Polo Sheep are still being kept. 146644.jpg
- On the other hand, they did restock on their Chinese Merganser in the seagull aviary/dome. They now have 1,2 rather than just one specimen.
- Also, the biggest fish tank in the main restaurant is running again (allbeit with far less colours and nothing but a starting stock for now). 146642.jpg
In one of the other tanks they now present the rarely kept Twospot Turkeyfish. 146423.jpg
 
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markmeier said:
- As of this year's September, the same is true for the Northern or Chinese Blue Sheep. According to information by usually well-informed sources the entire population died and it is also unclear how many Marco Polo Sheep are still being kept. 146644.jpg
Click to expand...
I was surprised to only see two bharals and two Marco Polo argalis back in my visit, shocking to see that that is the case for why I saw so few individuals...
I was also surprised to see work being done in the monkey house, glad to see what that's for.
 
Yup, everyone was surprised about the new project at the former monkey house. Tierpark keeps doing Tierpark things. I can still recall several times I stood in there thinking something like: "But they only renovated the whole place and after that redesigned a number of exhibits again. What are they up to this time." I kind of think it could turn into a rather awesome Madagascar complex - and so do others as you can tell from ideas/wishes such as dwarf/mouse lemurs or aye-aye. I think this way it would complement the Brehm building with its focus in Indonesia/ South East Asia with some rarely kept species.
 
markmeier said:
Yup, everyone was surprised about the new project at the former monkey house. Tierpark keeps doing Tierpark things. I can still recall several times I stood in there thinking something like: "But they only renovated the whole place and after that redesigned a number of exhibits again. What are they up to this time." I kind of think it could turn into a rather awesome Madagascar complex - and so do others as you can tell from ideas/wishes such as dwarf/mouse lemurs or aye-aye. I think this way it would complement the Brehm building with its focus in Indonesia/ South East Asia with some rarely kept species.
Click to expand...
Absolutely! Even more seeing how the park intends to focus that whole area of the Tierpark into an African zone, a Madagascar-centric house (Maybe keeping the Roloway monkeys and geladas) fits better than a mix of primates from around the world.
 
I would be more than happy if the Tierpark gets aye-ayes. I first saw aye-ayes in my life during my visit to Zoo Berlin. I was slightly miffed when they didn’t return to the renovated nocturnal area at Zoo Berlin.

If the primate building is to be Africa or Madagascar centric, then I hope that the bearded sakis, howler monkeys, and golden-bellied capuchins still have a place in the city.
 
I saw by the end of september 2 Arabian striped hyena, 1 Marco Polo sheep and what I thought was a blue sheep (the animal was far away from me). I thought even then that the enclosure was very empty. It would be a shame losing all three of them.

The Monkey House normally gets a Southeast Asian infill under the 2015 master plan: orangutan, gibbon.
 
Philipine eagle said:
The Monkey House normally gets a Southeast Asian infill under the 2015 master plan: orangutan, gibbon.
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I meant by Tierpark keeps doing Tierpark things.
- Apparently, the building originally was even planned for apes (the Gelada enclosure in particular) but even given the time of construction (and planning), the inside enclosures don't seem suitable for this.
- Anyways, the building opened some 20 years ago as a house for African primates as part of the so-called "Africanum" expansions (just like the giraffe building did).
- Some years later, the Tierpark communicated plans to build a new house for orang utans. Just like other big plans of that time (extension of mountain area with North America/Rocky Mountains theme, a water/ice zone, a Galapagos complex, a special "village" area for children) nothing was ever heard of this again.
- Ironically, after the new administration started 10 years ago in 2014 they soon introduced plans to create geo zones/ continents BUT with the AFRICAN monkey house they then took a part of an existing geo zone and took it APART:
They gave it a new focus as a species conservation exhibition.
Over the next years, the mainly put in new animals (not only primates) from South America. In more recent years, however, the focus strongly shifted towards Madagascar. And they keep remodeling and redecorating parts of the building to better fit the new species.
- As you correctly pointed out, they did suggest they wanted to keep orang utans and gibbons at this location in the big master plan of 2015 - which would mean they'd have to change the entire building again (I think for orangs they would have to massively change or expand the inner structures and I kind of doubt this will happen). However, when they updated the plan with their main priorities for the upcoming years, this project wasn't even mentioned again (just like the big Amazon building they had planned for the camel area).

In short, I haven't got the foggiest idea what they are up to or what the building will like in 5, 10 or even 20 years (as we now see, even just 1 or 2 years in advance can be a tough one, as they do much but don't communicate much). But I kind of doubt we will ever see orangs in there. If the park should get some apes, they likely will have to build a new complex.

Just another example of how difficult it is to know their plans: Soon after they gave away the lions, they communicated there would be new ones. At some point in time, there even were signs that informed about new lions in the next few years. While none of this happened, lions always were part of newly presented plans, including said update of the master plan. But just shortly after they had presented this very update with lions as one of the early priorities in it, they put okapis in an area which was designated for the lion exhibit (i.e. the extended monkey enclosure which presently presents Barbary Macacques). Go figure...
 
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It would be interesting if Tierpark would house Aye-aye, given that the Zoo has a complex of nocturnal animals. Besides, I don't know what the captive population of these animals is like at the moment, so I can bring in new specimens.

But hopefully this will be the case and we will be able to recover such a top species for the city of Berlin.
 
Last week, I had a chance to visit the Tierpark for a couple of hours just before closing time.

"Monkey Building" (Species Conservation Building)
They seem(ed) to be almost done with the redecorated - (semi-nocturnal) enclosure. To be more precise, two large transporters parked at the building and quite a few men were busy moving heavy parts of trunks and branches around inside the new enclosure. I hope there will be an official update as soon as they are done.

Elephant Building
There also were quite a number of people working in different areas there. In the roof area they were quite busy putting on some foil. At first glance, colour and texture/appearance actually looked quite similar to the roof foil of the new rhino pagoda at the Zoo. But on a closer look, it seemed too flat. So either they just didn't inflate it with air yet - or it's just some kind of weather protection.

Fish Tanks
For quite some time, I have wanted to get an update on what species of fish and invertebrates they keep in the 10 tanks inside of the main restaurant. So I took some pictures and looked them up. I don't know, if people are into fish here (in Germany, even zoo nerds and species enthusiasts don't seem to care very much), but I guess I can just share it anyways.
Just two remarks in advance:
- I looked up the English popular names of the fish on Zootierliste, whereas I just had deepl.com translate the names of the invertrebrates. So a lot of these popular names may be incorrect (the Latin names should be fine, though - if I managed to read them correctly from the photos).
- As it is a lot of text and may not be of interest for everyone, I'll split it up a bit...
 
Part 1: Saltwater Tanks

1) Largest saltwater tank (Indo-Pacific):
The corals are slowly developing their intense colors again, while a number of (mostly smaller and partly hidden) inhabitants have also moved back in. Overall, however, it still looks a little empty and bare in comparison to the old setup which sadly had collapsed. Nevertheless, the sight was far less dramatic than I had expected. However, there hoepfully will still be a significant increase in splendor and species.
The stock:
- Fish: Chocolate surgeonfish (Acanthurus pyroferus), white-freckled surgeonfish (Acanthurus maculiceps), canary wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus), bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), sixline wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia), copperband butterflyfish (Chelmon rostratus), flame hawk fish (Neocirrhites armatus), blotched foxface (Siganus unimaculatus), jewelled blenny (Salarias fasciatus), dragon goby (Amblygobius phalaena)
- Others: Blue Halloween hermit crab (Calcinus elegans), dwarf turban snail (Turbo bruneus), black sea cucumber (Holothuria spec. ), Reef top urchin (Echinometra mathaei), Diadem sea urchin (Diadema setosum), Large disc anemone (Rhoactis howesii), Copper anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor), Kenia tree (Capnella spec.), Mushroom leather coral (Sarcophyton spec.), finger leather coral (Sinularia flexibilis)

2) Second large saltwater tank (also Indo-Pacific):
This tank was redesigned quite some time ago. It therefore already looks much more colorful and lively than the larger tank. At least for now, there are also more species.
- Fish: Palette surgeonfish (Paracanthurus hepatus), yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens), flame angel (Centropyge loricula), red-toothed triggerfish (Odonus niger), sunburst butterflyfish (Chaetodon kleinii), orange anemonefish (Amphiprion sandaracinos), canary wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus), bluestreak cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), longnose hawkfish (Oxycirrhites typus), magnificent rabbitfish (Siganus magnificus), blue green damselfish (Chromis viridis), golden-headed sleeper goby (Valenciennea strigata), elegant firefish (Nemateleotris decora)
- Others: rock crab (Percon gibbesi), black sea cucumber (Holothuria spec.), pin coral (Stylophora pistilllata), pickerel coral (Hydnophora spec.), cactus coral (Pavona cactus), brain coral (Lobophyllia spec. ), mushroom coral (Fungia spec.), needle coral (Seriatopora caliendrum), flute coral (Caulastraea furcata), beard coral (Duncanopsammia axifuga), finger leather coral (apparently, a different one from the one above: Lobophytum spec.)

3) the three small saltwater tanks:
Of course, these tanks drop off significantly, but they also sure have interesting and pretty inhabitants

- Tank 1 (Indo-Pacific):
Fish: Yellow-tail tang (Red Sea, Zebrasoma xanthurum), clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris), orchid dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani);
Others: banded scissor shrimp (Stenopus hispidus), copper anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor), hammer coral (Euphyllia ancora), lean coral (Alveopora sp. ), flute coral (Caulastraea furcata)
- Tank 2 (Indo-Pacific):
Fish: twospot turkeyfish (Dendrochirus biocellatus), leaf skorpionfish/ paperfish (Taenianotus triacanthus)
Others: olive brittle star (Ophiarachna incrassata), lance sea urchin (Prinocidaris baculose), reef top boring sea urchin (Echinometra mathaei), Buitendik's sand anemone (Phymanthus buitendijki), crust anemone (Zoanthus spec. ), bearded coral (Duncanopsammia axifuga)
- Tank 3 (Caribbean):
Fish: cherubfish (Centropyge argi), royal gramma (Gramma loreto), Northern neon goby (Elacatinus oceanops);
Others: Arrow ghost crab (Stenorynchus seticornis), Pfaffenhut sea urchin (Indo-Pacific, Tripneustes gratilla), tube worm (Sabellastarte magnifica), Florida disk anemone (Ricordea florida), round-pored sea rod (Pseudoplexaura spec. ), Green monkey hair (Briareum spec.)

The most rarely kept fish species probably would be the twospot turkeyfish: 4 times each in Germany and UK (or 14 in all of Europe including non-EU) as well as 5 times in the US...
 
Part 2: Freshwater Tanks

1) first freshwater cylinder (Papua New Guinea):
Here you find some very colorful and highly endangered rainbowfish
Fish: Boeseman's rainbowfish (Melanotaenia boesemani), (salmon) red rainbowfish (Glossolepis incisus), emperor gudgeon (Hypseleotris compressa)
Others: Papuan crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus)

2) Second freshwater cylinder (South America):
The typical, rather dark South American river tank with lots of small catfish and masses of brightly colored cardinal tetras neons and red shrimp (the latter certainly a breeding form of an Asian species but not labeled):
Fish: cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi), palito (Sturisoma aureum), golden otocinclus (Macrotocinclus affinis), slant-bar corydoras (Corydoras loxozonus)
Others: some (legions of) anonymous shrimp

3) Three small freshwater tanks:
- Tank 1 (Papua New Guinea):
Here we find another endangered rainbowfish: Lake Kuromai rainbowfish (Melanotaenia parva)
- Tank 2 (Central America):
...ad well as two species of fish that are even extinct in the wild: Monterrey platyfish (Xiphophorus couchianus), golden saw-finned goodeid (Skiffia francesae)
- Tank 3 (Madagascar):
And again, two highly endangered species: red-tailed silverside (Bedotia geayi) and red Madagascar panchax (Pachypanchax sakaramyi)

There is also a somewhat larger freshwater tank inside the Flamingo Bar (but only visible through a large window). For quite some time, rays used to dominate here. But as of today the focus apparently moved towards piranhas.

At a first glance, the freshwater collection seems a lot less spectacular. Most people likely won't read the signs about the status in the wild. And I'm pretty sure most visitors will just pass the large cylinder with the cardinal tetras. But they'll miss a hidden gem on the ground: Slant-bar corydoras are considered vulnerable in the wild and only are listed for Berlin Tierpark, Beauval/France and Shedd Aquarium in Chicago/US...
 
There are some minor updates again:
- The Arabian Striped Hyenas are actually still alive and striving, but they didn't get along and went behind the scenes for some time. There will be repeated attempts of reintroducing them to each other. In the meantime, it is possible to see at least one of them again.
- Similarly, the Marco Polo Sheep have/had temporarily been transfered behind the scenes in an attempt to breed with them again. I don't know, if they have also returned on display by now.
 
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