Zoo Wuppertal Zoo Wuppertal News

kiang

kiang

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Wuppertal this week has received a group of gentoo penguins from Edinburgh zoo.

Again a major player in the zoo world within Europe and next to no information on here about it.
highlights of the zoo include.

A breeding herd of African elephant.
Excellent new lion and tiger exhibits.
An outstanding collection in the bird house.
Excellent ungulate collection which includes Baird's tapir, kiang, yellow backed duiker, white lipped deer, as well as the huge population of Chilean pudu.

Perhaps zebraduiker can put some more meat on the bones here.
 
Yes, i can. You forgot to name the okapis, but the zoo has a lot of bad luck with them. The exhibit isn't that good for okapis, they have plans to build a new one, but I don't know, when they will start with it.

They also keep Bongos, but also in an exhibit, which is not suitable for antelopes, especially for Bongos.Until 1990, the Bongos have to share it with white bearded gnus in change...

They also keep Barirusa next to the last yellwo back duiker, I've heared, the zoo will stop keeping yellwo backed duikers, but the question is, how long the present zoodirector will be there, he is very sick. So i hope, the zoo will keep the duikers, because it was Wuppertal, who has imported them in 1999.

Much things has happend at the zoos in the last years, but my last visit there is 7 years ago, so i've seen the new orang exhibit only during its construction. I think, its a very nice exhibit. The primate colelction is excellent, so they have a sucessful breeding group of Dusky Leaf Langurs, one of only two euroepan zoos with that species, but Armhem will get them also.maybe they got them in the meantime.The Zoos is keeping also Drills, they got a new outdoor cage last year, and all four species of Apes.

The collection of small cats is amazing ,too. They have sand cats, black footed cats, oman cats, amur cats,geoffrey cats and asian golden cats with a regular breeding.

I don't know if the last clouded leopard is still alive.He's still in the last guidebook, published in 2006.

The bird collection is full of highlights, so the only german breeding of andean cock-of-the rocks, they have kagus and hummingbirds, a shoebill, a breeding colony of King penguins ( soon in a new exhibit with underwater tunnel) and they are plan to keep puffins, after the penguins have moved from their present exhibit to their new home.

And of course they are breeding african elephants, but this isn't nothing special anymore, too many zoos in germany are breeding now elephants, so its not worth anymore to name every birth of an elephant in germany. so I know many pregnat elephants in geramn zoos,w hich will give birth in 2009 and 2010. I can't understand, why all this zoos tell everybody about their pregant elephnatzs, I mean, nobody should now know that, after the animals gave birth to a live and healthy young.

I can't tell how are the new big cats exhibits are, but a lot of people say, the lion exhibit is too BIG....Too big for lions....Is 2,5 acres large, probably one hectar, so I would say, its not to big for lions. But some people, so called Zoo-Fans, are more interested to see as many diffrent(rare)species as possible, than just one(common)species in a large, natural exhibit....

Nevertheless, Wuppertal Zoo is really a nice Zoo with a beautyful Landscape, and some really good exhibits, so I can recommend a visit of that zoo.
 
I didn't know that, very good. I hope, they will build a new exhibit for them, after the lions and tigers moved out of the old carnivore house. When Leipzig got his clouded leopards for Gondwana, there will be four holders of clouded leopards in germany.
 
The lions and tigers got very amazing new exhibits, unfortunately the houses of small cats, great cats and monkeys are pretty bad in spite of their great collections.
 
You have to give the Zoo time ( and money), but I hope, the small cats will be be the next project after the king penguin exhibit.
 
The next project will be the construction of an outdoor exhibit for the bonobos, thats absolutely necessary. The Wuppertal bonobo group is living at this house since 1982 without an outdoor exhibit....
 
So it seems the little ctas have to be wait a little bit longer, but I would say, the small cat hous emight be old and not looking very good, but the indoor and outdoor cages are very good for such an old house.

I can't remember how the situation is in the former lion house and how many animals are still live in it(leopards, black panther, clouded leopards, golden cats ? ), but I think, the situation is now better for the cats than at the times the lions and tigers has lived also in that building.

Yeah, I don't like it either if bigger mammals are be kept only in indoor exhibits, so the apes at Krefeld Zoo are live since 1975 only in indoor exhibits. Fortunately, the gorillas will get soon an outdoor exhibit, but what is with the chimps and orangs ?
 
Wuppertal Lion House:
1,1 clouded leopards
1,1 indian leopards
1,2 black panthers
1,2,3 asiatic golden cats....

Unfortunately the indoor cages are very very small, two clouded leopard cages 6 square meters each, 3m ceiling height.....
 
I visited Wuppertal Zoo in July 2007 and might possibly go back there in 2009. I was very positively surprised during my first visit.

The exhibits for amur tigers are brilliant and the lion savannah is oen of the absolute best animal exhibits I have ever seen:cool: The gorillas and orangs had decent and lush new outdoor exhibits with only the bonobos lacking behind.

Unfortunately, the free-flight hall for tropical birds was closed for renovations during my visits, but I would love to see it. Seeing hummingbirds and a king bird of paradis was also spectacular. This was also the first, and so far only place, where I have seen baird's tapirs.

Hopefully the new exhibit for king penguins will be ready when I visit next. They were building the temporary holding facility for the penguins during my last visit.

All in all, a good zoo:)
 
Zebraduiker said:
but a lot of people say, the lion exhibit is too BIG....Too big for lions....Is 2,5 acres large, probably one hectar, so I would say, its not to big for lions. But some people, so called Zoo-Fans, are more interested to see as many diffrent(rare)species as possible, than just one(common)species in a large, natural exhibit....
Click to expand...

Wuppertal really is an excellent zoo, with many great exhibits, and some wonderful species. I would say that the lion enclosure is too big, though - or rather, that is bigger, far bigger, than it needs to be. Certainly the lions don't need that amount of space, and they don't utilise it - when I was there in the summer the keepers told me that they had never seen the lions in the further reaches of the enclosure, and thus it is a bit of a waste. It also, from a visitors' perpective, means that you spend a lot of time looking at an empty field, only to find the lions sitting by their house. Snoozing, as lions do - in the zoo or in the wild, unless they are looking for food.

The monkey house is old, but the husbandry is first class there. the outdoor orang enclosure looks superb, as does the re-done gorilla enclosure. It's not enormous (!) but very attarctively done, and the gorillas look well.

The bird house - quite old, quite simple - is a real jewel in the crown here, with a stunning collection.

The small cat house is small, but it functions well enough. Those Indian leopards are possibly the only pure ones in Europe; they came from Khatmandu, i think, and the director was hoping they would be nepalese leopards - if such a thing exists.

The restaurant is one of the worst in any zoo in Germany - but this is but a minor gripe.

It's interesting how many visitors the place gets - about 700,000 a year, despite there being so many other great zoos so close.
 
It is really a beautiful zoo, and with very good collection, too.

Lion exhibit, African elephant breeding group, baird's tapirs and many rare birds are perhaps the highlights. I hope the new penguin house will be just as outstanding, and next thing they do something with polar bears and apes!
 
The gentoo penguins from Edinburgh zoo in their temporary new home

 
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sooty mangabey said:
the outdoor orang enclosure looks superb, as does the re-done gorilla enclosure. It's not enormous (!) but very attarctively done, and the gorillas look well.
Click to expand...

But its strange they remain a small nonbreeding group. The male 'Tamtam(Goma x Jambo; therefore product of brother x sister mating) was mother raised at Basel so he should have been a reliable male as a breeder. There seem to be plans to swap a female or two but that has been talked about a long time but nothing happens.:(
 
A female Baird's Tapir has been born at Wuppertaler Zoo. Somewhere during 2009 a male offspring was moved to Cottbus Zoo, so there are now;

2.3 at Wuppertal
1.0 at Berlin Zoo
1.0 at Cottbus

All coming from an original 2.1 imported by Wuppertal. I'm keeping my fingers crossed some zoo's will try and get some more animals over from one of the Americas...
 
The last two female fairy penguins died... Left are two males and one male in the UK.
 
Wuppertal is a great zoo, I was positively surprised by it during my first visit this summer. Lots of rare species: Baird's tapir, shoebill, Andean cock-of-the rock, black-footed cat, golden-bellied mangabey, spectacled langur, clouded leopard, king cheetah. The lion and tiger exhibits, the penguin house and the bird house was also very cool to see. I will surely come back next time I'm going to this part of Germany
 
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