Glad to finally catch up here!
Hellabrunn's indoor chimpanzee exhibit looks super impressive - love the 'greenhouse' sort of look to it. I know that's a more common exhibit design in Europe to some degree than here but it's always so cool to me. The orangutan exhibit looks jarringly lacking in comparison with the sterile floor despite the attractive architecture and sharing some notable design elements above ground. Love the agouti-lemur photo. The pool in the indoor elephant enclosure looks impressive but contrasts with the concrete - although for a century old building, it's super impressive for that standard. Beats out Brookfield's old pachyderm building.
Something I’ve noticed not only at Hellabrunn, but at many of the European collections I’ve covered, is the utilization of modern architecture in favor of cultural thematics. Munich’s wolf enclosure, for example, doesn't have your typical lodge themed viewing building, but instead a sleek wooden shelter with views through harp-wire. It creates the atmosphere of a museum-zoo instead of a theme park-zoo. The most prominent example at Munich would be the excellent giraffe house with its light and airy interior.
The indoor giraffe enclosure looks extremely cool! The wooden viewing shelter for the wolves certainly brought to mind the lodge look for me even though it doesn't fit that bill either. I think it's the shared use of wood.
Not every piece of architecture here is a masterpiece though -- the rhino house is one of the most alien-looking zoo houses I'll ever see and didn't win me over.
I appreciate that you aren't featuring the bad exhibits in the thread, but they always make me want to immediately search for them.
You see, several years ago I started collecting magnets from every new zoo I visit, a way to commemorate each new addition to my life list. My goal is always to grab one that depicts an animal that has significance to the given zoo when available (red panda at Knoxville, olm at Zagreb, etc) and when my eyes gravitated towards the yellow-throated marten magnet it was an easy pick. That’s when I learned none of the gift shops took card and with no cash on me I had to settle for the lower quality offerings in the main restaurant. I still got a magnet so that in itself was easy enough to get over, but that misfortune ended up being dramatic foreshadowing for a much greater disappointment later on…
I can relate to this a lot - I do try to use the standard of getting an item relating to animal with some significance at the zoo or at least that I've seen there personally. I don't do magnets much anymore as we've no longer anywhere to hang them (we had a fridge when I was a child absolutely covered in magnets) but I did buy a few on my Georgia trip.
Not only did I not get my marten magnet; I didn't get the marten. Turns out the zoo literally just sent their lone individual to another facility for breeding purposes, like no later than several weeks prior. This is/was surely the greatest marten enclosure in all of Europe and with a smaller separation enclosure next door, I’m baffled as to why another marten wasn't just moved to Nuremberg instead of it being the other way around. I’ve seen enough zoos to where I’m never too bummed when a certain species or exhibit isn't visible. I’d be lying if I said this one didn't sting considering the notoriety of this particular enclosure.
Admittedly I picked a slightly unfortunate time to visit Nuremberg in general. The giraffe house is being renovated and the dolphin lagoon is undergoing maintenance work, so I had to settle watching the dolphins in the much older, smaller, less interesting stadium building. The famed Mediterranean mixed-species enclosure was out of commission with all of the inhabitants in hibernation. Plus a bulk of the bird collection was off-show due to bird flu concerns. Fair enough, but the policy was applied inconsistently. Emus and pelicans were still out in their open-topped enclosures, while the condors and owls were on-show in their aviaries. The walkthrough ibis aviary was open to visitors, but the gorgeous bearded vulture (and company) aviary was closed with all of the residents off-display… What's the logic there?
A lot of this absolutely stings, and that's a lot to miss at one facility. Any time I visit a zoo in circumstances like this it feels like I've not 'completed' it yet but leaving one exhibit for next time is, at least, a good reason to come back. Missing three exhibits, many birds, and the martens is a lot to take in.
The Desert House was my most anticipated part of the zoo and immediately lived up to the hype. For those unfamiliar, this is an old hippo house that’s been transformed into a Saharan desert themed walkthrough with dung beetles as the stars. Though there were only a handful of beetles out and about so the fat sand rats ended up being the highlight. It’s amazing how well habituated they are to humans. I was crouching down to look into a burrow, then one jumped out and scurried right between my legs.
That sounds really cool. Deserts are some really underrepresented habitats.
(I misread this for a moment and imagined a walkthrough sand cat enclosure.)
This house encourages real exploration and makes it immensely satisfying to find each inhabitant. It’s a reminder of why exhibitry is so much more important in my eyes than collection. If these same species were in traditional small mammal/reptile house glass boxes I probably would have glossed over them entirely. Combining them all together in a “free-roaming” room creates a genuinely fun exhibit where several repeat visits were made. The late great Bill Conway would be proud...
It really sounds like a really great example of this philosophy in action!
I think, combining this with your experience at London, it's easy to see that turning anything into a walkthrough and adding an element of exploration is an easy way to make an exhibit give a stronger impression to people. Food for thought.
With the dolphins stuck indoors, it was the adjacent marine mammal attraction that received all of my attention. The manatee house first felt like a better than usual butterfly house, complete with smaller birds and some springily active bats in an attractive setting. Then you look into the canals and the manatees emerge from overgrowth in spectacular fashion. At first the space looked a bit small -- though nothing compared to the absurdly small former accommodation in the tapir house -- until I found the underwater viewing pavilion which reveals a much better impression. It was somewhat amusing that many visitors ignored the manatees entirely and instead chose to gaze into the empty dolphin enclosure for some reason, more interested in the crystal clear blue water.
That looks like an absolutely beautiful exhibit and I'm always glad to see attempts to include large aquatic animals with recreations of their above-water environment as well. So cool to have bats, birds and butterflies[?] mixed in. Good to have an underwater viewing option as well of course.
Munich's hoofstock yards are lovely, but Nuremberg's are much less uniform and feel individually tailored to their inhabitants' needs.
This is something I think is overlooked with hoofstock exhibits in particular a lot of facilities in the United States that do feature hoofstock in individual enclosures seem to struggle a bit to make the enclosures feel unique from one another. Some have more grass, others more dirt or sand, but it ultimately feels less like attempts at authentic habitat recreation and more luck of the draw. (I do notice zebras tend to end up in dustier enclosures a little more often?) Making exhibits feel individual can be a crucial way to help the individual animals feel special and it's very cool to imagine hoofstock exhibits going that extra mile, and it does show in your photos.
The fact that I enjoyed this zoo so much despite it not being in prime condition speaks volumes to just how good it is. While the fall weather didn't play to my advantage species-wise, it did make for a gorgeous setting, one so vast that for long stretches of time it felt like I had the place to myself. Mammals and large birds are done so very well, but ectotherms were noticeably lacking. I nearly missed the tiny reptile (plus mongoose/hornbill) building near the entrance and only ran through it just as it was closing, but there couldn't have been more than a dozen species in there and a zoo of this stature deserves better. I’m not yet set on where Nuremberg will place when I rank all of the (traditional) zoos at this thread's end, but no matter where it’ll land in my final ranking, it currently ranks at #1 when it comes to places I’m eager to revisit one day. Hopefully it’ll be a day where martens are once again running through their spacious enclosure, dolphins are swimming with sea lions in their outdoor pools, and bearded vultures are flying through their superb walkthrough aviary.
I know they're all very different facilities but I relate to this a lot from some of my recent visits, particularly Kansas City - also light on ectotherms, also missing giraffes right now, also missed a species in their must-see major exhibit, also impatient to revisit. Toledo, similarly, I missed two of the major rarities and it just felt odd to visit without seeing their famous reptile house, which is where one of those rarities is The 'fall' setting and closed exhibits mirrors my visit to Omaha the previous year -- of course, that zoo is famous for their indoor exhibits which is part of why I went so late in the year, but African Grasslands was half-empty and felt compromised, but again the fall setting allowed for some more intimate moments and time spent in a typically crowded place.
Nearly all of the park consists of basic, functional wood-wire aviaries. Approximately 100 species are on-show between them. Shortly before the main entrance is an excellent water bird aviary which features a striking flock of common eiders among others. One of those species that really grabs ones attention by themselves. Throughout the park there were other highlights including my first proper look at a Himalayan monal, a variety of interesting raptors I've never seen before, a lovely aviary for Southeast Asian birds, and even New Zealand zoos don’t have a flock of kea as large as Olching. There are a few large birds as well: emu, white stork, white pelican… your typical lineup. Some cranes or another stork would be nice.
The big flock of kea sounds like it must have been particularly interesting as a contrast.
With the outdoor pools Nuremberg is superior. I didn't touch on it much with it currently being out of commission, but the design of the lagoons is highly appealing even if they aren't the largest. Brookfield has long term ambitions for outdoor dolphin pools alongside an indoor extension and I'd be pleased if they looked to here for inspiration.
Strictly judging indoor spaces however, Brookfield's dolphin building is much nicer, especially after the recent renovation. Its notably larger with more modern welfare features and better aesthetics. Nuremberg's stadium has all the charm of a YMCA swimming pool.
For all the negativity Brookfield's dolphin exhibit attracts - a lot of people here call it a "big fish bowl" which comes off
extremely derisive - it certainly doesn't seem like there's a lot of underwater dolphin exhibits that are vastly superior or couldn't match the same description. I definitely thought of Brookfield's future lagoon project when I saw the manatee exhibit.
But that’s not the zoo I saw. Maybe I just inflated the complaints about it in my head, but I was shocked just how much I loved this place. Although the legacy structures leave some areas feeling underutilized, especially for a facility of this size, nothing felt outdated or even remotely poor for any of the residents.
You didn't tell me you were going to London!!
I can already see you share my feelings and experience towards this facility though. A huge reason my own European thread was delayed and delayed was how much my feelings for London did not match up to how it was characterized here, and trying to sort out how to best balance and navigate that. ZSL attracts an outsized amount of criticism here, and you would expect a US roadside facility from some of the comments.
There are other places that aren't living up to their potential as well. The Casson Pavilion ended up being much smaller than I gathered from photos and the interior was not publicly accessible (is that normally the case?). The idea that elephants and rhinos were once kept here makes me shudder, but for wild pigs it works pretty well. Even so, it feels something more inspired could be done with enough creative will.
The Cassons were closed during my visit but from two years following the zoo's news thread, they seem to reopen and close again at random or based on certain events. I know right now it's being used for an upcoming Christmas event. I thought the Cassons' focus on wild pigs was an interesting choice. It feels a bit like the equivalent of a lion house moving to small cats in a way. I didn't see either pig species on my visit though. I believe the Cassons once held Bornean bearded pig as well.
As a result buildings no longer appropriate for animals like the old gorilla roundhouse and Lubetkin penguin pool stand vacant. Do we really need to keep that old penguin pool around? It’s a neat piece of architecture so I suppose the appeal there, yet such an eye-sore that it doesn't seem worth maintaining. Not sure how hard I’m rattling the British zoo nerd cage by saying that.
I know I've been beaten to this punch, but the Penguin Pool is listed as a historic structure and from what has been said here, ZSL cannot so much alter the 'Penguin Pool' letters or place a sign on the structure without breaking the law. This is a sore point for a lot of British zoo nerds who share your sentiment, and while the zoo has other listed buildings/areas, the Penguin Pool is the most protected of all. For one summer recently they experimented with holding Chinese alligator there, which seems like an inspired choice. I personally think it might not be a bad idea to keep a small turtle or tortoise species there in the summers. The low walls limit options a lot.
For a zoo with such a storied history, its historical elements are not where it can be seen at its best in my opinion. Instead it’s the new stuff that’s been added this century where London shines the brightest. The penguin exhibit is phenomenal and truly world class, without question the best warm weather penguin enclosure I’ve seen by a fair margin. The Komodo dragon house is excellent, as is the neighboring tiger complex. Even the themed to the nines Land of the Lions is a genuinely great lion exhibit that’s excellently structured with ample viewing angles. The supporting cast of hanuman langur, griffon vulture and small Indian mongoose (unseen, sadly) is also nothing to scoff at.
I echo a lot of these thoughts! The penguin exhibit manages to be historic in a funny way - I believe it is built using the basement of the former parrot house as a base, which I thought was really cool. It's my favorite tropical penguin exhibit I've seen so glad to hear you found it world-class. I also had the pleasure to see some wild herons there during my visit. I am not as certain on this but I think one part of the lion complex is the older lion exhibit? I found the supporting species really cool - and the mongoose remains a famous no-show, and I spent quite a while sitting around there. Also loved the Komodo House and the tigers.
I really enjoyed London's focus on Asia (Land of the Lions, Tiger Trail, Komodos, etc.) that distinctly cover both India and Indonesia, and that this covers a decent portion of the zoo, considering that our home zoos in Chicago don't have a real Asian-themed complex between them. (Clouded Leopard Rainforest doesn't meet the 'complex' qualifier in my mind, even before the lemurs.) It made it feel a lot more fresh and different from what I'd experienced before.
The two reptile buildings are both very new and of an immensely high quality. The Secret Life of Reptiles and Amphibians isn’t packed to the gills with herps like the best American reptile houses, maybe about 25-30 species, but features incredibly spacious vivaira for each species with nothing even remotely cramped. Top notch exhibits for Chinese giant salamander and Philippine crocodile flank the main hall, featuring some personal favorite pit vipers and a spacious king cobra exhibit. Even the mountain chickens have this gorgeous floor-to-ceiling terrarium that’s just amazing. It really prioritizes quality over quantity with some terrific educational material to boot. The nearby Galapagos tortoise pavilion is of such a high quality that I don’t see the need for an outdoor exhibit. Once again educational material is top notch and the little sculptures of some Galapagos native birds added some creative flare, making this feel like a proper Galapagos pavilion even with just the tortoises.
As the first American to visit the Secret Life building, I thought it was really well-done - spacious exhibits with, as you say, quality over quantity, and a really well-chosen selection of species with smart choices that reflects the internal diversity of these groups to a pretty decent degree. It does a wonderful job feeling like an old-school herp building while having all the necessary modern flourishes and standards. My visit to the building there were a lot of school children who seemed absolutely taken with it.
Within the rainforest house was a genuine surprise that caught me totally off guard, a boky boky! Completely forgot they had these guys here, spread throughout a variety of spacious enclosures. Such exciting little creatures that left me geeking out.
I relate here a lot, too -- at the time of my visit, I had no clue they held them and had no familiarity with the 'boky boky' name, so it felt like accidentally stumbling upon a completely new species of animal I had no idea existed. It was only later I connected them to the proper species. It was a brief glimpse but very fun.
Did you get to see any of the primates in Rainforest Life move over visitor areas? I was able to see Saki and Golden-headed lion tamarin in visitor areas on my visit.
My excitement dwindled slightly after observing some bad behavior in the nocturnal house, with one bloke shining a light into each exhibit and banging on the class. A keeper told him to cut it out, but when she left his kid cheered for him to start it back up. Disappointing to see, especially from a grown man. Thankfully they left shortly after and my mood perked back up after seeing a potto for the first time in ages; way bigger than I remembered. Aye-ayes were a no-show, but active mouse lemurs across the hall made up for it.
That's terrible behavior. Most people I saw on my visit just seemed bored with the whole thing. Glad you had a good experience with the mouse lemurs and potto - two of my favorites in the house. It's a shame you missed the Aye-aye and visited after the Grey slender loris left, as someone who only caught a moment's glimpse and then waited an hour for nothing.
Did you have any luck with the elusive Lake Alatora lemurs?
Once again my feeble American mind was easily dazzled by the trio of primate walkthroughs, each home to highly active residents. The squirrel monkey walkthrough was quiet at first, until one by one more and more little primates began to reveal themselves emerging from the undergrowth. The lemurs were focused on sunbathing under their heat lamps much to my amusement. I’ve seen far more squirrel monkeys and ring-tailed lemurs than the average person will see in their lifetime, yet here I spent longer than usual admiring them just because they were crashing around the same space as me.
The primate walkthroughs are incredible and many of my favorite memories of the trip were there. I'm particularly glad you got to enjoy the squirrel monkey walkthrough as it was my travel companion's favorite part. The educators there do a great job. The lemur feeding is great to see them closer and active in the walkthrough area.
The colobus walkthrough in the famed Snowden Aviary was not only my favorite of the three walkthroughs, but my favorite enclosure in the whole zoo. This is one example of architecture that I feel has aged spectacularly. This modernistic aviary has adapted superbly for monkeys, complete with a spacious indoor housing and separation enclosures when necessary. My only complaint is visitor circulation, as the path is so narrow that foot traffic builds up easily and makes viewing the monkeys somewhat awkward when they're nearby. I should be thankful that they even were nearby, with multiple individuals hopping above and around the guest path. Thrilling experience!
Another thing about this exhibit that left me vindicated as an armchair zoo designer was a specific piece of educational material. When visiting Vienna’s Jewish Museum several weeks back, a thought occurred to me when I came across the audio displays where you hold the device to your ear to listen to a speech. What if a zoo integrated a similar listening device into their educational material? Well London does exactly what I envisioned. There’s an audio station where one holds the audio device to their ear and presses a button to hear one of three Colobus vocalizations, with explanations of what each sound means. It made me a very happy man.
Glad you appreciated this one too. Colobus Valley catches a lot of flack as an inferior successor to the well-loved Snowden Aviary, but without the memory of comparison to Snowden, I was enchanted with it enough, especially as they are far more robust than lemurs or squirrel monkeys, which made it all the more impressive you could share space. I was able to cross paths with a colobus during my visit on the walkway which made it especially memorable. There is periodic discussion of birds being introduced to the mix as well, but bird flu concerns have nixed those plans for now.
Glad you appreciated the audio station, I thought that was a neat bit of educational material, too!
How was Vienna's Jewish Museum? If it's not something you plan to share in the thread, I'd love to hear about it sometime otherwise.
Speaking of small educational details, another area that stood out to me was the bathrooms by the terrace restaurant. Yep, after this many zoos visited it really is the little things that stand out the most. Above the urinals there are signs about unique properties of different animal poop and outside the doors there’s a dung display showing waste from different species. Turning basic amenities like toilets into educational opportunities will leave a stronger impression on people than one may think. It may not be on the same level as the Nashville python/tamarin bathroom exhibits, but I appreciate this immensely
I loved this display. I remember stopping for a photo of it in particular, especially as it relates to an in-joke with a friend of mine. It reminds me also of the large elephant dung display at Milwaukee -- I think it's great that zoos are embracing this kind of "crap", as it certainly grabs attention and therefore is a great chance for some education.
I’ll never fully understand the London Zoo of yesteryear in all of its glory. I’m sure if I had seen it during its prime maybe my feelings wouldn't be as high, as I get what it’s like to want your local zoo to be the best it can. Earlier I compared Zagreb to Lincoln Park, but clearly that honor should be reserved for this one. A historically significant city zoo in a famous park that’s filled with historical delights. Only now do I realize that perhaps the resentment towards London from certain zoo nerds isn’t actually about what it once was, but what it could be. Maybe English law wouldn't allow it, but how incredible would it be if London was able to transform buildings like the Cassons and former aquarium in the same vein as Lincoln Park’s lion house? But I won’t ponder too much on what the London Zoo of the future could look like, because the London Zoo of today has a first-class penguin exhibit, remarkably high quality reptile buildings, a brilliant insectarium, narrow-striped mongoose, and a colobus walkthrough of epic proportions – all set within the sublime location of Regent's Park.
I used to feel the same way towards Brookfield, yearning for the zoo from my childhood. Non-locals won't remember certain former exhibits or species that are no longer kept, but when you visit a place consistently your whole life, those seemingly small reductions add up to something that becomes hard to overlook. I'm sure if I had seen London when the Mappins Terraces were in their prime, the aquarium was still around, and various larger mammals were kept, I probably wouldn't have left with as high of an impression.
Bingo. That's exactly it.
I agree with the Lincoln Park comparison completely and thought of it myself during the visit, but I think your comparison to Brookfield is also apt. It's Lincoln Park in character but with Brookfield in history and drawbacks - having areas that feel unused, 'another picnic' area, the excellent parts of the present zoo being too often overshadowed by a well-known history of a larger collection, particularly the losses of large megafauna. I can tell you see this too, in the other parts of your post. I think Lincoln Park is the more fitting comparison though, especially with both having some strong focuses on birds, less emphasis on megafauna, and a fairly similar choice of African megafauna species to focus on (giraffes mixed with ostriches and zebra at times, pygmy hippos, painted dogs, warthogs... well, we have RRH now at Lincoln Park, but it's a former warthog enclosure!) and even orb weaver spiders! Lincoln Park gets to keep rhinos at least though!
Two more quick rarities of note -- did you see the woolly-necked stork or the red forest duiker? I almost overlooked the latter confusing them with the red-flanked duiker we have at Brookfield, but they are different. (I was not lucky to see that one though!)
As a final question for now, did you see the inside of the historic giraffe house?
What are some areas that are no longer visible to the public? I know the old gorilla house is empty, but everything seemed fully accessible from what I saw.
Parts of Rainforest life are off-show which could have been used for small mammals (think small rodents or tenrecs etc). There used to be a row with aviaries across the canal where the colobus are. And there used to be aviaries between the entrance and the restaurant. For me these are little things that could have elevated the zoo without too much investment.
I didn't even know about some of these. I suspected Rainforest Life had been downsized since it's days as the Clore but hadn't known for certain. The canal owl aviaries is a perfect example as well.
The current capybara enclosure, which was the original outdoor tortoise enclosure, was closed off for some time. The former anteater habitat near Tiny Giants is closed off I think, or I saw it without realizing it was a former exhibit space at the time. The Mappins once had paths up to view the mountain exhibits closer and there used to be some kind of lower-level viewing for the warthog and painted dog enclosures by the canal; I think this area was briefly reopened at some point but is usually closed off. The former aquarium and reptile buildings were closed off at the time of my visit; the reptile building is reopening without animals in the future.
In addition, similar to the capybara exhibit, a lot of areas have closed temporarily in recent years. Gorilla Kingdom has had parts closed off at times to prepare for construction. (I hope you were able to see the 'Meet the Neighbors' aviary, as it's rumored to be on the chopping block.) The dik-dik enclosure is sometimes closed off I believe, as is sometimes the children's zoo. The interior of the Cassons you know about. There used to be an exit to the squirrel monkey walkthrough that lead to Blackburn Pavilion. Much of last year part of the lion exhibit was closed off. All of this, plus you've seen the empty old gorilla exhibit, penguin pool, and the mountains behind the Mappins. The former muntjac enclosure is also now empty, although I did see the elderly muntjac on my visit.
