Limburgse Zoo (Closed) What do you know about Limburgse Zoo, Genk.

Nanook

Nanook

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Can anyone tell me anything they know about Limburgse Zoo, Genk.
Now obviously closed down but I would like to know about which animals/species were kept there and any other details, where the animals went etc.. etc..
You could always PM me if its easier or sensitive information.
Can anyone confirm if they ever kept Bonobos please?
Many thanks.
 
I guess this is pretty vague, but I remember reading somewhere that it was a very bad zoo and that the animals were in terrible enclosures. That's all I remember. I may be thinking of a different zoo though.
 
Nanook said:
Can anyone confirm if they ever kept Bonobos please?
Many thanks.
Click to expand...

I have a very vague memory of this zoo being mentioned in connection with Bonobos. Did the original breeding male 'Kakowet' at San Diego come from here?
 
siamang27 said:
I guess this is pretty vague, but I remember reading somewhere that it was a very bad zoo and that the animals were in terrible enclosures. That's all I remember. I may be thinking of a different zoo though.
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Thanks Siamang, yes it was indeed the same place, it was actually the second largest zoo in Belgium at one time, but also the worst!
 
Pertinax said:
I have a very vague memory of this zoo being mentioned in connection with Bonobos. Did the original breeding male 'Kakowet' at San Diego come from here?
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Thanks Pertinax. That is interesting, it was said that they had 4 Bonobos at Limburgse, hard to believe really , but they all apparently went to the USA but where I don`t know , so this would probably make sense.
 
I visited this place in 1995. It was, without doubt, the worst zoo I have ever seen. I have seen 'poor' zoos in Africa and Asia, but there the excuse existed of a lack of resources, a lack, possibly, of knowledge. No such excuse could be found in Belgium.

It was one of the oddest zoo visits of my life. A bloke who looked like a down-and-out - I think he was the owner, or his son - followed us around, got grumpy when we took pictures of some exhibits, and wound up the animals on occasion for our 'benefit'.

The collection was pretty large: lots of bears, lots of cats, elephants, a fair number of ungulates. No bonobos at this stage, but chimps and baboons. The accommodation was awful - think of the infamous primate house at Chessington as the role model - and many of the animals were in shocking condition.

The zoo featured heavily in a BBC documentary series - State of the Ark, I think - featuring zoo vet David Taylor shaking his head a lot, and muttering "Oh dear, oh dear". I'm not sure that any other reaction was possible.

The zoo closed shortly after, I think - late 90s, at a guess. The brown bears ended up at Emmen. God knows what happened to the rest of the unfortunate stock that lived there. There was talk, for a while, of the Emmen management taking on the zoo as a whole, but this came to naught.
 
sooty mangabey said:
I visited this place in 1995. It was, without doubt, the worst zoo I have ever seen. I have seen 'poor' zoos in Africa and Asia, but there the excuse existed of a lack of resources, a lack, possibly, of knowledge. No such excuse could be found in Belgium.

It was one of the oddest zoo visits of my life. A bloke who looked like a down-and-out - I think he was the owner, or his son - followed us around, got grumpy when we took pictures of some exhibits, and wound up the animals on occasion for our 'benefit'.

The collection was pretty large: lots of bears, lots of cats, elephants, a fair number of ungulates. No bonobos at this stage, but chimps and baboons. The accommodation was awful - think of the infamous primate house at Chessington as the role model - and many of the animals were in shocking condition.

The zoo featured heavily in a BBC documentary series - State of the Ark, I think - featuring zoo vet David Taylor shaking his head a lot, and muttering "Oh dear, oh dear". I'm not sure that any other reaction was possible.

The zoo closed shortly after, I think - late 90s, at a guess. The brown bears ended up at Emmen. God knows what happened to the rest of the unfortunate stock that lived there. There was talk, for a while, of the Emmen management taking on the zoo as a whole, but this came to naught.
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Thanks Sooty Mangabey, do you recall how many Elephants there were and which Ungulate species there were?
(The wauters family started the zoo privately in 1967 , opening officially to the public in 1970, Marcel and his wife ran it ,then later handed the riens to son Guido. )
 
Nanook said:
Thanks Pertinax. That is interesting, it was said that they had 4 Bonobos at Limburgse, hard to believe really , but they all apparently went to the USA but where I don`t know , so this would probably make sense.
Click to expand...

Pertinax , I have just discovered the following; "Kakowet came from Zaire Zoo in June 1960,( a wild caught animal I believe) , he went on to San Diego Zoo in 1962 when he was joined by female "Linda" from Antwerp Zoo , a six year old. The pair produced 3.7 infants over 18 years at San Diego.
 
I've attached some pictures in the "belgium - other" gallery...

http://www.zoochat.com/683/limburgse-zoo-genk-asian-elephant-213820/
http://www.zoochat.com/683/limburgse-zoo-genk-polar-bear-enclosure-213819/
http://www.zoochat.com/683/limburgse-zoo-genk-baboons-213818/
http://www.zoochat.com/683/limburgse-zoo-genk-zoo-view-213817/

...they're from scans, and thus not brilliant quality, but they give some impression of what it was like. Not very nice at all...

In answer to the questions above:
  • At the time of my visit there were two Asian elephants.
  • I didn't keep a detailed list of the species there, unfortunately, but there were zebras, guanacos, possibly wildebeest, I think eland...

    I did have notes that there were about a dozen chimpanzees there, as well as a pair of spot-nosed monkeys, and a single de Brazza's monkey. And chickens everywhere!
 
The four bonobos of Genk went to the USA, Columbus Zoo. For money.
They could have stayed in Europe if no money has been involved. They could have been taken by Apenheul, but Apenheul refused to pay.
 
I went to the Limburgse Zoo a few times before it had to close. It was by far the worst and most depressing zoo I have ever been to. I once visited with a friend and we spent a lot of time throwing fresh branches/leafs to the bears for at least some enrichment. Probably the first they ever had. Here is a list of species that I can remember from the top of my head:

- Hartmanns Mountain Zebra (hugely overgrown hoofs)
- De Brazza Guenon (minute cage)
- Leopard
- Jaguar (tail missing)
- Baboon (take a look at Sooty Mangabeys pics!)
- Chimp (most of them single in what can only be called dungeons)
- Sloth Bear
- Kodiak Bear
- Polar Bear
- a number of reptiles and fish in a very dark place
- lion (deep down in fomer coal storages)
- tiger
- american black bear (same as lion)
- a grey seal in a tiny, extremely dirty and very shallow pool
- two elephants
- southern white rhino
- onager
- przewalski horse
- water buffalo
- onager (only skin and bones)
- ostrich
- blue buck

I am not sure about some others, there might have been sun bear, cape buffalo, eland and other ungulates as well.

According to their guide book, the zoo had a lot more species at times, i.e. cheetahs, bonobos, wolfs, pygmy hippo and giraffes. You expect a filthy, rundown place like this in Armenia or Usbekistan but not in central Europe. Its good its gone ! I heard rumours that a lot of the animals were supplied by dealer Bode and originated from Berlin Zoo, but except for the pygmy hippo, I have no further information on this.
 
In 1984 they had the following inventory:

Cercopithecus diana (1)
Papio sphinx (1): 1.0
Pan troglodytes troglod. (13): 6.8
Pan troglodytes paniscus (6) : 2.4
Canis lupus (30)
Helarctos malayanus (4): 1.3
Selenarctos Thibetanus (5): 0.5?
Acinonyx jubatus (2): 1.1
Felis bengalensis (1)
Panthera onca (12): 5 black, 7 spotted
Felis concolor (1): 1.0
Panthera pardus (6): spotted and black
Panthera tigris tigris (12)
Elephas maximus (3): 0.3
Eqsuus grevyi (4): 1.3
Equus prezwalskii (5): 3.2
Ceratotherium simum (6): 3.3
Addax nasomaculatus (1): 1.1
Bos gaurus (3): 1.2
Chincilla Laniger (10)
Struthio camelus camelus (2): 1.1
Spheniscus humboldti (2): 1.1
Platealea leucorodia (1)
Crossoptilon mantchuricum (1)
Crossoptilon aurithum (1)
Psitaccus erithacus princeps (2)
Cercopithecus lhoesti lhoesti (2)
Macaca mulatta (39)
Cebus capucinus (4)
Macaca irus (29)
Cercocebus galeritus (2)
Cercocebus aterrulys (3)
Cercopithecus neglectus (2)
Cercopithecus nictitans (5)
unkown monkey (1)
unkown monkey (1)
Macaca sylvana (3)
cercopithecus aethiops (10)
Papio hamadryas (49)
Macaca maura (3)
Papio anubis (14)
Ursus arcos middendorfi (6)
Ursus arctos (11)
Ursus arctos horribilis (1)
Thalarcos maritimus (3)
Felis pardalis (4)
Equus hemionus onager (2): 2.0
Equus hemionus kulan (8)
Equus zebra hartmannae (2): 1.1
Hippopotame nain (3): 1.2
Lama guanacoe (10)
Ammotragus lervia (4)
Hippotragus equinus (2): 1.1
Phoenicopterus ruber chilensis (12)
Anthropoides virgo (2)
Testudo graeca iberia (15)


At the end there where only 4 bonobo's left, and on 16/11/1990 the went to Colombus Zoo. The males Jimmy and Toby, together with the females Susie and Lady. The four of them are wild born... and are a purchase from Genk Zoo

A few pictures?
https://picasaweb.google.com/GorillaGust/GeslotenDierentuinen
 
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Pan troglodytes paniscus (13): 6.8
Pan troglodytes paniscus (6) : 2.4

What is the meaning of double listening in different counts of this species?
 
john said:
Pan troglodytes paniscus (13): 6.8
Pan troglodytes paniscus (6) : 2.4

What is the meaning of double listening in different counts of this species?
Click to expand...

sorry...
There where more doubles in the list. It should be correct by now

Pan troglodytes troglod. (13): 6.8
Pan troglodytes paniscus (6) : 2.4
 
Harry S is always a good source of info on Limburgse Zoo as he was involved in the BBC documentary "State of the Ark" and in the operation to close and disperse the collection.
 
sooty mangabey said:
It was, without doubt, the worst zoo I have ever seen.
Click to expand...

Saro said:
It was by far the worst and most depressing zoo I have ever been to.
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I haven’t really got much to add to the remarks that others have already made about this atrocious zoo.

I wholeheartedly agree with above comments; I have no hesitation in saying that it was the worst zoo that I have ever had the misfortune to visit.
 
Well, quite a list, many thanks indeed guys - your help is very much appreciated.
 
Gorilla Gust said:
In 1984 they had the following inventory:

Cercopithecus diana (1)
Papio sphinx (1): 1.0
Pan troglodytes troglod. (13): 6.8
Pan troglodytes paniscus (6) : 2.4
Canis lupus (30)
Helarctos malayanus (4): 1.3
Selenarctos Thibetanus (5): 0.5?
Acinonyx jubatus (2): 1.1
Felis bengalensis (1)
Panthera onca (12): 5 black, 7 spotted
Felis concolor (1): 1.0
Panthera pardus (6): spotted and black
Panthera tigris tigris (12)
Elephas maximus (3): 0.3
Eqsuus grevyi (4): 1.3
Equus prezwalskii (5): 3.2
Ceratotherium simum (6): 3.3
Addax nasomaculatus (1): 1.1
Bos gaurus (3): 1.2
Chincilla Laniger (10)
Struthio camelus camelus (2): 1.1
Spheniscus humboldti (2): 1.1
Platealea leucorodia (1)
Crossoptilon mantchuricum (1)
Crossoptilon aurithum (1)
Psitaccus erithacus princeps (2)
Cercopithecus lhoesti lhoesti (2)
Macaca mulatta (39)
Cebus capucinus (4)
Macaca irus (29)
Cercocebus galeritus (2)
Cercocebus aterrulys (3)
Cercopithecus neglectus (2)
Cercopithecus nictitans (5)
unkown monkey (1)
unkown monkey (1)
Macaca sylvana (3)
cercopithecus aethiops (10)
Papio hamadryas (49)
Macaca maura (3)
Papio anubis (14)
Ursus arcos middendorfi (6)
Ursus arctos (11)
Ursus arctos horribilis (1)
Thalarcos maritimus (3)
Felis pardalis (4)
Equus hemionus onager (2): 2.0
Equus hemionus kulan (8)
Equus zebra hartmannae (2): 1.1
Hippopotame nain (3): 1.2
Lama guanacoe (10)
Ammotragus lervia (4)
Hippotragus equinus (2): 1.1
Phoenicopterus ruber chilensis (12)
Anthropoides virgo (2)
Testudo graeca iberia (15)


At the end there where only 4 bonobo's left, and on 16/11/1990 the went to Colombus Zoo. The males Jimmy and Toby, together with the females Susie and Lady. The four of them are wild born... and are a purchase from Genk Zoo

A few pictures?
https://picasaweb.google.com/GorillaGust/GeslotenDierentuinen
Click to expand...

It is unbelieveable that such an infamously awful zoo had an incredible inventory of species, and actually quite sad at the same time.
I am intrigued by the two primates of unknown species!
Thanks especially to Gorilla Gust and Saro for those lists.
 
Regarding the question what happened to the hoofstock after the zoo closed, rumours went around that a lot of them had TBC and were most likely put down - again no source or proof for that, but I would not be surprised...
 
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