Welt der Gifte (Salzburg) Welt der Gifte Salzburg - News and Discussion

Speaking of Wolfgang Wüster: I contacted him today on behalf of our new cobra aka the BBC, nickname "Waldemar/Waldi"(or Woody, for our International visitors). He was kind enough to reply immediately and confirmed my suspicion: "Waldi" is actually not a Naja melanoleuca, but a Black Forest cobra (Naja guineensis). According to ZTL, WdG is thus the only European zoo currently keeping this species.:cool:
 
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Having returned at the weekend from a very successful week of zooing in Bavaria and western Austria with some fellow nerds, I just wanted to thank @Batto for an excellent tour and general nerd-out session on Wednesday evening. :D

Strongly recommend any ZooChatters who are going to be even vaguely nearby get themselves booked in - some really spectacular animals and specimens to be seen and a very warm welcome.

Well, pretty much everything was warm in central Europe this week by default, but you know what I mean. :D
 
Maguari said:
Having returned at the weekend from a very successful week of zooing in Bavaria and western Austria with some fellow nerds, I just wanted to thank @Batto for an excellent tour and general nerd-out session on Wednesday evening. :D

Strongly recommend any ZooChatters who are going to be even vaguely nearby get themselves booked in - some really spectacular animals and specimens to be seen and a very warm welcome.

Well, pretty much everything was warm in central Europe this week by default, but you know what I mean. :D
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Much obliged; glad that you enjoyed your visit. And yes - I'm very happy that I installed the A/C in WdG last year!
 
Maguari said:
Having returned at the weekend from a very successful week of zooing in Bavaria and western Austria with some fellow nerds, I just wanted to thank @Batto for an excellent tour and general nerd-out session on Wednesday evening. :D

Strongly recommend any ZooChatters who are going to be even vaguely nearby get themselves booked in - some really spectacular animals and specimens to be seen and a very warm welcome.

Well, pretty much everything was warm in central Europe this week by default, but you know what I mean. :D
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I would very much second this - thank you @Batto for a wonderful couple of hours!
 
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Batto, I want to thank you very much for sharing your journey in running and opening a zoo of some sort.

I've followed your journey from Greifswald (Germany) all the way to Salzburg (Austria), and I want to say that your journey was incredible!

You have strongly inspired me to open some kind of zoological facility in the future, and I strongly encourage you to keep posting and updating this thread with how your facility is going, although I understand that you may be pretty busy, but I just want to tell you that this series of posts that you started back in ~2017 and came all the way to 2025 has been a huge inspiration for me. I believe that I am definitely not the only one who has been inspired by this thread, and I want to encourage you to continue posting on this thread with updates, so that people that come in the future may be inspired.

Anyways, I just wanted to say I had a blast reading your progression and that reaching all the way to this last post made me feel pretty 'nostalgic' (like when you finish a great movie and there's no continuation), though I am very happy that your zoo is still active all the way till today. I find it incredible that your zoo has survived so many trials and events such as the pandemic and that it is still operational! I look forward to visiting the facility within the next few years.

But after reading this thread, I wanted to find more individuals that have started and documented their journey in running and managing some kind of zoological facility, but I was not able to find any unfortunately, wonder if anyone knows of any.

Batto, also, do you have any tips that you have learnt from your mistakes from all these years running a zoological facility that you may want to share to anyone wanting to start something similar?
 
Thanks for the acknowledgement. As for updates:
- Today WdG successfully passed its fifth annual zoo inspection in a row without claim.
- In three weeks, we're getting a beautiful newcomer from a German zoo. Hint: it looks like how an Italian fashion designer would design military camouflage.
- This year's bad rainy summer was a financial stroke of luck; best summer season so far.
- New in our gift shop: WdG merch, including various beautiful bottles.
Timofey said:
do you have any tips that you have learnt from your mistakes from all these years running a zoological facility that you may want to share to anyone wanting to start something similar?
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- Don't expect customer behaviour to make sense.
- Try to secure different reliable sources of income.
- Get the right people on board that do not shy away from offering constructive critique.
- Networking is key.
- Have a little time out and rest with your loved ones before you start losing your passion and burn out.
 
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Batto said:
In three weeks, we're getting a beautiful newcomer from a German zoo. Hint: it looks like how an Italian fashion designer would design military camouflage.
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Bitis nasicornis perchance?
 
Myself and Linda were very happy to make our 2nd visit to Welt Der Gifte a month or so ago and saw the poison cabinets..very interesting. Also a couple of new species and some interesting discussions.Many thanks Nils. BTW...Salzburg is a good zoological destination as well as being one of the nicest cities around, with a very neat zoo and a fabulous Natural History Museum as well as WDG - well worth a visit.
 
Tim Brown said:
Myself and Linda were very happy to make our 2nd visit to Welt Der Gifte a month or so ago and saw the poison cabinets..very interesting. Also a couple of new species and some interesting discussions.Many thanks Nils. BTW...Salzburg is a good zoological destination as well as being one of the nicest cities around, with a very neat zoo and a fabulous Natural History Museum as well as WDG - well worth a visit.
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Thanks Tim. Indeed, the international touristic appeal of Salzburg is quite the advantage for WdG in comparison to the previous venue.

Updates:
- Zoo inspection on Tuesday, two ZooChatters, the annual crocodilian / snapping turtle handling course in cooperation with the reptile shelter in Munich on Friday, managing a table at Terraristika Hamm on Saturday and doing guided tours again today after a grueling trip home - it's been quite the exhausting week.
- Zoological newcomers: obtained two species of centipedes, a new assassin bug species, a juvenile Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi) and an absolute unit of a dyeing poison dart frog (Dendrobates tinctorius) at Hamm. Given that the latter was bred in the Netherlands, I'm thinking about calling her "De Groote Meid". Or, for WdG insiders: Olja / Little Olga. ;)
On a sidenote: I got myself a non-toxic new species for the office, not the zoo: A group of Blue Death - feigning beetles (Asbolus verrucosus). After seeing them in the USA many years ago, I always wanted to keep this very peculiar beetle. Let's see how the staff is going to react to their new co-workers tomorrow.:D
 
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