Berlin Tierpark Tierpark Berlin news

[markmeier]

Thanks Al, I must have been informed incorrectly as to that.

By the way, the TP also put Chacoan maras on display recently, but I cannot quite explain where (it's close to the huge enclosures for camels). I also forgot to mention they exchanged their adult tomistoma for 2 juveniles from Leipzig so the lucky croc now lives in Gondwana...

 

[Al]

No probs! Would love to see the mara! Are they in the small cages that previously housed marbled polecats and later striped skunks?

 

[TeaLovingDave]

The species seems to be having something of a boom lately

 

[markmeier]

@Dave: In Germany the TP actually is the only zoo keeping them so far... Like aardwolfes they may be more frequent in the UK than in Germany.

@Al: Unfortunately I can't really describe the location. So far I haven't seen them myself and was just translating the rough description from a German post. But it isn't the cage you mentioned. Apparently cranes used to be kept there, but I also cannot remember them. It's close to the Lenné temple anyways...

 

[TeaLovingDave]

@Dave: In Germany the TP actually is the only zoo keeping them so far... Like aardwolfes they may be more frequent in the UK than in Germany.

There's actually none in the UK! But when you consider only a year or so ago, there was only the one collection in Europe with them, there has been a definite improvement.

 

[markmeier]

Get you. I hope other zoos will join in. It can't be too much trouble to keep these rather small animals although they need some space. The ones in the TP are already producing offspring by the way In a German forum I found a picture of their enclosure by the way. It should have an outside area as well:

http://www.tiergarten.com/grossansicht.php?bild=fotos/gross/92214.jpg

Here is another picture showing the exact location (left arrow):

http://www.tiergarten.com/grossansicht.php?bild=fotos/gross/92299.jpg

 

[markmeier]

I found another picture - this time even with the youngest offspring:

http://tiergarten.com/grossansicht.php?bild=fotos/gross/92343.jpg

They do look rather cute but nothing out of the ordinary - many visitors won't even notice how seldom such animals are shown in Europe. I'm afraid this won't help the TP very much to get additional visitors. I still enjoy the fact they got them and hope they won't be passed on to the zoo before long.

 

[petthebird]

I just came back from sweden after paying a visit to berlin, the city was awesome but I can't really decide which of the zoos was the worst - sure though none of them where good. The park itself was very nice, not so much tingle-tangle there, great old woods, very big and a genuine nice atmosphere. The tierepark have ALOT of interesting and, at least for me, rarely seen species - like their ruffed lemurs, cuban hutia, blue headed macaw, amazona collaria, ratels and tons more.

The ungulates had often very spacious enclosures, frustratingly nothing seemed to be done to make the enclosures a bit interesting for the animals. Even if really short of cash, they could really do alot to make foraging for food and eating a lot more challenging for the animals when they got fed at my visit they just had alot of hay dumped on the ground. In Berlin it seems trendy to keep primates and carnivores in bathroom-style cages indoors, colourful tile and two or three shelves on the walls to sit on. Some monkeys had one or two branches to climb, most didnt. The outdoor cages where rather spacious and had natural low vegetation, but they could with small effort be made alot more interesting for the animals with possibility to more behaviours. The carnivores was a real pity to see, pretty much all of them showed schoolbook-examples of stereotypic behaviours, pacing, head-shaking or just extremely still looking apathetic. The cats had indoor cages (where they seemed to be locked in from early noon until early morning) measuring about 3*2 meters, cagefront out of mesh, and the visitors can(and did) stand half a metre from the animals and shout at them, bang on the cages etc. The outdoor pens where probably some 15-30sq.m and lacked all kinds of enrichment. After being to disgusted to see any more (and I have worked with lab.animals) I went to the small carnivores, story pretty much the same. One hysterically pacing/running ratel who kept the pace for >45 minutes, some civets who where tame and gentle, but had a very dull cage.

They had a lot of cool raptors, most who sat in cages some 2*4m with one or two trunks in the center of aviary so I guess they actually dont want them to be able to use the space they have (or maybe they want to learn them to fly in circles?) few had even a theoretical possibility to breed since there where no where to lay eggs nor rear the chicks. They had few but rare parrots, hyacinth macaws, amazona dufresniana, amazona collaria, caninde macaw, buffins macaw, scarlet acaws, blue headed macaws etc - didnt see any nestboxes and nowhere in the park where there ANY information at all about the intention behind the species - if they had a succesfull breeding program or if the animals didn't breed yet, if they were intending to breed them etc. I could go on - but I wont.
To sum it up - the zoo had alot of cool animals, alot of really ****** enclosures and some modern good and bad new exhibits - that is probably what disturbed me the most - the fact that they kept so many animals under so bad conditions and still instead of re-building them apparantly built entirely new houses and cages for new animals.

I don't think more then a few percent of the facilities would even be legal in a swedish zoo - and the "education value" of a visit to the park were none. Hopefully they will scale down on their stock and try to modernize alot - because it has a lot of potential!

 

[markmeier]

@petthebird:

I don't know what to make of your comment. Besides some details, it pretty much sums up the first experience of many (not all, possibly not even most) visitors which I have heard repeated many times. It is a totally genuine experience of course, but it is rather futile for me to discuss it again and again. I will just give some of the main points which may hold some positive aspects to mention. At the same time, I do not entirely disagree with what you say.

Taken the history and the funding of the Tierpark, A LOT has already been improved in the last two decades. The Brehm-building which houses the carnivores is one of the upcoming projects. The outside enclosures have already been enlarged and because of legal reasons (mainly due to cultural heritage management) the boxes so far could not be changed or combined in the fashion the direction wanted them to. Now they try to have them combined again, but we will have to wait if it works out this time. Also the staff is doing a very good job with what they have (so I am told by people who presumably know better than I). I have watched a lot of natural behaviour beside the pacing and resting (pacing by itself is also entirely natural behaviour for big cats by the way and even the amount of it is virtually constant regardless whether the cat lives in a good or bad enclosure or even the wild - it just looks rather sad if it's happening in a smallish box-like exhibit). And it usually does get better if they have offspring. Besides, throughout numerous visits I never saw any one knock against the fence in front of the big cats and I also doubt it would be a good idea to do so. The cats normally also can get out if they are annoyed by the people, but they usually don't seem to bother (0,5m distance simply isn't true by the way even if I havn't mesured it).

The monkeys mostly do have branches, ropes and stuff like that inside their "boxes". Only the dscheladas don't but they are rather energetic animals which use the fences and boards a lot and they also have a great outside enclosure. The tiles may not look nice, but I don't know if this matters too much to the monkeys.

I haven't ever seen any strikingly apathetic or stereotypical behaviour at any group of monkeys or ungulates at the Tierpark (saying that I'm not an expert although I do take some interest in the topic). I always enjoy watching the social interaction and the upbringing of the offspring. Many groups do breed by the way (also the birds of prey which you probably mean by "raptors" ), even rare species and such that are not often bred at other zoos. The Tierpark participates in some 120 European and International Breeding Programs across all groups of species and along this breed many not so rare species, but the information about this definitely is rather sparce. I agree they should make a better job here. In fact, much of the breeding even takes place behind the scenes so most visitors will never know (small cats, rare birds, lemures etc.).

"I don't think more then a few percent of the facilities would even be legal in a swedish zoo - and the "education value" of a visit to the park were none. Hopefully they will scale down on their stock and try to modernize alot - because it has a lot of potential!"​

Well I would love to see some Swedish zoos then! I know about some huge enclosures for brown bears over in Sweden, but I didn't know all enclosures in the zoos were like this over there. In my opinion many enclosures in the Tierpark are very large, though and can easily compete with any other zoo I visited so far:
-Ungulate enclosures (they alone easily make up more than some percent) generally are very large or huge. I don't know many a zoo that can easily keep (and breed with) such herds. In fact a decent group size and the amount of space is an integral part of keeping certain species of ungulates and more so than for most carnivores. In my opinion most of these enclosures are decently structured and well-received by the animals.
-Some carnivores have very large - yet possibly not huge - enclosures, others have decent and some rather small ones. I agree there is still potential and need for progress here.
-Some birds roam in the Tierpark freely, some have very large aviaries or beautiful tropic halls. Others have comparitively smaller aviaries, but I can't tell if they are indeed too small.
-I too could go on with pros and some cons, but I also won't because you don't mention other groups of animals.
-The educational efforts could and should be expanded/ improved, but it's rather sad if you didn't notice any educational value. To be harsh, I would claim it's partly your own fault if the whole visit was pointless and sad - this does not do justice to the potential which already is fulfilled at the place. Perhaps you are used to modern zoos that are better at selling what they have, but personally I don't believe they are that far ahead in many ways.

Last but not least, I do want to say that I also hope for further modernization and still better conditions for animals and visitors. I also see a lot of positive potential. It will take some money however and the funding is rather sparce. I genuinely hope the Tierpark will survive, though and that at least some of the visitors will enjoy it as much as I do. In my opinion, the Tierpark is a great place for people who want to enjoy rare as well as more common species and who also are interested in a decent husbandry (as long as they have a certain tolerance level for good will despite delay). And I also don't think Berlin zoo is such an awful place, but this is a different discussion.

 

[sooty mangabey]

@ markmeier:

Thank you for this excellent post. As someone who loves the Tierpark, can see its flaws, but feels very defensive when it is attacked, I very much appreciate your response. In other threads, both the zoo and the Tierpark have been criticised by contributors whose sole reason for joining Zoochat appears to have been to criticise Berlin's zoos. In this instance this is not the case, and @petthebird appears to be criticising the place from a 'fair' standpoint, but nonetheless I enjoy and concur with this rebuttal.

 

[petthebird]

Well, first of all, I am the first to admit to some exaggerations in my post - i.e most or all of the ungulate exhibits would probably be legal in Sweden, I did not claim that all animals showed stereotypic or seemingly unnatural iterative behaviours, mainly the carnivores and I know that this is a some what common problem with carnivores but NOT this frequently, i still believe that the carnivors had an overall dull and miserable or close to miserable life. And I do not want to be seen as a know-nothin-just-emotions activist, I have worked at two different swedish zoo's (skansen and the skansen aquaria) as a lab. animal technician and currently I manage a rather big private parrot breeding facility, I read alot of high quality conservation biology and behaviour/environmental enrichment books etc - so I feel rather comfortable with how I interpret what I see. I am surprised to hear bout the <100 breeding species at the park - I didn't see a word about any of them - why do this bad and good park have so low ambitions to communicate this and other information about their work and the situation of animals they keep in the wild? It is not very costly to print some medium-quality posters regarding this. I just don't think you can keep animals under down right bad conditions (again - I don't believe all anials had it bad) for years just because your ambition is to make things better in the future, not all, but many animals can and will suffer from bad conditions and I think that is simply wrong.

I still feel that theres a lot of animals living under extremely poor conditions(most of the large rodents i.e, porcupines, cuban hutias etc, most or all of the carnivores and some of the primates) some under sub-optimal conditions, almost all monkeys and most of the birds excluding those in the pheasantry and seabirds for example. I saw many nice enclosures to, but what good are they for those in bad ones? And I will try to contact the staff in a some what nice way and ask if they are at all interested in tips on cheap, fast and effective ways to make foraging and other natural behaviours possible - perhaps they will feel it's a bit colonial but it's worth a try.

 

[chizlit]

I'm sorry to say that I have to agree with petthebird on this one.
I'm not an expert in that I've not worked in a zoo (but was bought up on a small farm), but with my limited know how I can see that things are not right especially for the big cats, my reaction was the same, it was and still is as far as I know a crying shame.
I'm returning to Berlin at the end of November, but have no wish to revisit either zoo until improvements are made, so I will go to 3 new zoos for me, Eberswalde, Cottbus and Leipzig.

it should be so easy (asuming the director allows it) to make life a big better for the big and small cats by adding at least a little enrichment and cover in there cages (and that is what they are, something like prison cells).

I can give a good example at my local zoo, Dudley, now I dont like anyone bashing it and will defend it from most attacks, but sometimes people are just right in what they say and things have to be improved.
Dudley like Tierpark is not awash with spare money, but they build new or improved enclosures inhouse and that way keep costs down but still end up with better places for the animals to live.
Surely with Tierparks massive space and no lack of natural materials it should be possible to do something to improve life for the animals.
It's a shame that I cant bring myself to visit again because as the OP says it does have some very good parts, but the overall feel is one of sadness because of the substandard housing.

 

[zoomaniac]

I think, @Markmeier gave a very good and constructive reply.

And I think that @petthebird did not only exaggerate by the negative things at Berlin Zoo and Tierpark, but also with the praised conditions at swedish zoos.
For example, I deeply doubt that space and "furniture" at Skansen Animal Park AND Aquarium are better, specially when I think at species like Moose, Wisent or the Baboons and other monkeys.

 

[Taisha]

And I will try to contact the staff in a some what nice way and ask if they are at all interested in tips on cheap, fast and effective ways to make foraging and other natural behaviours possible - perhaps they will feel it's a bit colonial but it's worth a try.

@ petthebird

The problem is the director and not the staff.
You would be surprised how many people in Berlin share your opinion and how many attempts for improvement have already been made in vain.

If you understand German and would like to have some more information about the background of this sad state of affairs, I have posted some links on 07.08.2012 in the "Are Zoos only for the People" thread.

 

[markmeier]

@Petthebird: Thank you for clarifying some of your statements, but I'm still a bit unsure what exactly you observed and why you criticise it. Which other carnivores are we talking about? Hyena, wolf, bear, smaller cats...? I think by comparison some of the big cats indeed have significantly fewer space than other carnivores at the Tierpark and fortunately things seem to improve here in the not-so-far future (what would you do with the individual animals in between?). And as I said I'm not an expert, but I do know some basics about behaviour and behavioural enrichment as well and I actually havn't observed stereotypical behaviour to the extend you describe it. As I mentioned pacing by itself is completely natural behaviour for many carnivores even though it may look rather sad if they have to change directions that frequently. And while I certainly regret the present condition for some animals (though relatively few among the many species) - don't get me wrong here - I'm not at all sure they have a totally miserable life. Does an animal necessarily suffer severely if it shakes its head somewhat more frequent than in the wild (as most polar bears do for example) or if it faces "boredom" sooner than prey or foe? Then PETA is completely right and such animals shouldn't be kept in zoos at all and this basically may hold true for most large carnivores or any type of animal (and I do know their style of video "evidence" which indeed looks horrific but is mostly taken out of context). I also won't agree the primates are kept poorly. They may cheer for a somewhat better structuring/ some more equipment, but you certainly exaggerate it. The staff do know what they are doing, They introduce new equipment as well as rearranging existing one to the extend they can (as with the carnivores, birds of prey etc.). I have watched all of the primate groups rather frequently and they show perfectly normal behaviour/ interaction for as much as I can tell. I havn't seen expressions of undue aggression or even depression. I rather have observed playful behaviour (they always find something novel to do and virtually all monkeys at the Tierpark evidently do enjoy and plentyfully make use of the fences even if some people won't be convinced), restful episodes and some normal argueing. They bring up their young ones as they should and everything seems to be just fine. Please be more precise as to your critical views if you would. For the moment I cannot see what you mean (as with ALL carnivores being poor, miserable things equipped with a rather marginal equipment of behavioural variety). I have a different view on most things we are talking about, but I may just not get you right.

Besides, I certainly doubt the animals at the labs or breeding centres you worked or work at were far less miserable than any animal on public display at Tierpark Berlin including the carnivores. Even many (if not most) of the fency modern zoos have crappy inside boxes for some of their large animals (not to speak of rodents etc.) but unlike with the Tierpark most visitors will never know, because the cats/ monkeys etc. often can't be watched inside their box. Ironically, some years back a group of zoo experts ranked Berlin Zoo and Berlin Tierpark first and second among Germany's large zoos in an extenisve enquiry mainly based on animal husbandry and less so on variety of species etc. Of course there was some controversy about it and Leipzig and Co weren't pleased at all after spending dozens of millions on their attractions (which zoos were you going to visit again?). In fact they cried foul and claimed it was a biased/ invalid judgement. Perhaps these zoos were even right about this point or - as so often - the truth lies somewhere in between. In my eyes, however, Berlin Zoo and particularly Tierpark offer a lot and actually do a great job with the animals (how on earth can they breed all these rare and sensitive species that other zoos struggle with) but they make a rather bad job at selling it. With some other zoos it's a bit the other way around without saying they are all bad, I just mean the overall priorities. Believe me, if the Tierpark was as a bad as you suggest, it would in fact be closed down. We actually do have certain criteria for animal husbandry in Germany as well and they only get more restrictive - rightly so of course.

And sorry, I didn't mean more than 120 species breed regularly, it's just the number of European and international breeding programs many of which are indeed successul but of course not without fail (in fact I don't know the exact numbers, but virtually all new arrivals are recorded and published). I should have put this more clearly. But as I said I agree they should do a better job at presenting the results, particularly with species behind the scenes where the youngsters cannot be watched. You should have noticed numerous young animals, though, as they have loads of them at present. But to me it seems like with many other visitors the first impression (old style, run down zoo) blurred your observation so you only saw the negative aspects - apparently even through magnifying glasses. This actually is only natural (it's called cognitive resonance), but in my opinion you should have been a bit more open to the upsides. Perhaps you do give it a second chance one beautiful spring or summer day when the sun is shining (you may even want to use more than one day then - the place is huge) and you can provide us with an update of your views then

P.S.: Don't wonder if I won't respond to Taisha (even though this thread luckily was opened by some one else). If you do wonder, however, just have a look at his private thread on bashing Berlin zoos - officially it's labeled "Are Zoos only for the People". You just want to make sure you always agree in every aspect and never bring up any arguments on your own.

 

[Pertinax]

. Some monkeys had one or two branches to climb, most didnt. The outdoor cages where rather spacious and had natural low vegetation, but they could with small effort be made alot more interesting for the animals with possibility to more behaviours.

There is a photo in the Gallery for this Zoo somewhere, which shows the outdoor enclosure for the breeding group of Cherry-crowned Mangabeys. It is a large grassy area with a small pile of very worn-looking logs and branches in the centre. Remember that in the wild this large species of Monkey is an active dweller in the upper levels of rainforest. To keep them with next-to-no climbing facilities, particularly higher up so they can leap, climb and rest high up, is IMO totally wrong.

The explanation I have heard is that the Director here likes enclosures not to be 'cluttered' so the animals are readily visible. Therefore putting viewing considerations before welfare considerations perhaps?

 

[markmeier]

@Pertinax:
I'm glad you raise a specific issue. As far as I am aware of many mangabeys live/ move both in the trees and on the ground level so their enclosures should allow for both. If this is not the case for said species then I defintiely agree that more climbing structures should be added. However, this generally would be a good idea for the large outside exhibits at the monkey house (perhaps except the dscheladas) and it can be done without hindering a decent sight. This actually is one of the examples where I fully agree that the enclosures aren't state-of-the-art despite the size. Bye the way, with said species I'm not even totally sure how much they use the fences for climbing. I believe, I have mainly seen them climb on the branches which lead from the inside exhibit to the ground level of the outside enclosure. If they don't even use the fences, however, it is even worse. Having said that, the group seems alright nonetheless. At least I haven't noticed any indication of severe behavioral disorders.

 

[petthebird]

I can't argue for everything I didn't like, I'm not entirely comfortable with the english language and havent reallt time for leisure-surfing (studiy biology at uni and handrear >40 parrot chicks so always busy) but I will try to be succint and point out some of the things I really disliked. I won't talk about the cats more though - I really think they had an awful situation - especially with all the noise from the re-buildings etc. I do question the way you state that pacing is an utterly normal behaviour - do wild animals stroll about without any driving forces or goals? I kind of get the impression that wild animals try to do as little as possible in relation to the "gain" of their behaviours, and if that's the case a few hours of meaninglessly pacing back and forth seems quite costly and with no apparent gain.

Now to some of my problems:

1. I saw hardly any enrichment in any of the cages (this does not mean that there were none, but it can't be plentiful) of course, a natural grass floor in outdoor exhibits offers a lot of fun activity, but there were no tactile enrichment like different fabrics, "broom-heads" for foraging, no cheap boxes filled with extra tasty food, no more natural integrated termite mounds, fake rocks with cavitys to search for food in etc - thera are loads of things that one can do to enrich animals with a really really low cost - this will most often not look as nice as other enrichment devices, but it will make the animals life a bit more meaningful. None of the ungulates nor rhinos, elephants etc seemed to have any "toys" or moveable treetrunks, branches which allowed the food to hang high above the ground etc. This sends out the message "we do not care enough to spend 2 extra hours a week and some 50€ on extra enrichment that probably would make a big change for our animals" even a zoo with bad economy should be able to do this - or maybe insstead relocate some of their stock.

2. Most of the carnivores had small enclosures, the polar bears had a small land-part of their enclosure, the spectacled bears had a better enclosure then the malaysian bear at berlin zoo, but a rather boring one with few or no climbing structures (all of them paced extensively at my visit, adults and cubs) the ratel had a flat cage with few or no dens under ground, few or no possibilities to climb(not like a monkey, but to deal with topological differences like big rocks, slopes etc) No area where they could dig and forage for food - the ratel paced like crazy for >40 minutes, just kept on running along the sides in the cage. The civets had a dull cage, I don't think they suffer tremendously there - I just thing it's strange to have them- and other animals in such a minimalistic way where 3/4 of all the cheap ways to keep them occupied and use their natural behaviours are impossible or meaningless. The indoor stable for rhinos and elephants seemed to be extremely small - and I assume they may prefer to be indoors some days during winter(or no?) if so - then I think its absurd to have such large public space and so very small pens for the animals. The walk-trough aviary with lemurs was a fun idea, but the cage was very boring, small and with some rather tame, small trees. The nutrias had a rather fun, though small enclosure with a very small pond wich they liked, but the hystrix-porcupines next to them had an extremely boring and small pen, this is a very active rodent indeed. The birds of prey had often very boring, an d small cages (approx 2*4m???) with one, two or some times three tree trunks to sit on - one thought that a couple of horizontal branches, placed so that a maximal flight distance where allowed between them would be a desired way to furnish these cages. The racoon(s)? had a small and boring cage, very few good trees to climb and to use for "night quarter" The hygiene seemed to be at least some what poor, monkeys with no substrate on their cage floors ate vegetebles that were drenched in pee and poo (no not all of them, not always, but since the faeces just laid on the floor the food got quite contaminated and yes - I saw them eatig of that) I saw mice in at least >5 indoor cages, both big cats and primate. I dont think that is very good being that the small rodents can carry pests, patogens or maybe be poisoned(?)

3. NO INFO!!!! I didn't read ANYTHING about any breeding program, any "park philosophy" about what the public could do for wild animals, for the animals at the zoo - nothing! Do their parrots breed or not? Do they intend to breed them? Are they aware of the difficulties to breed A. collaria and how rare they are, do they cooperate with the stud book keeper? Maybe yes, maybe no - I didn't read ANYTHING about things like that, and i don't think zoos are to be just menageries (with animals under good or bad conditions) I think a good zoo must try to learn the visitors about what they are doing, what the public can do, what kind of animals and habitats in the specific country (here Germany) that are threatened and so on - I saw nothing here!

4. Some of the animals had new rather spectacular looking houses/enclosures and I think it would be better to raise the bottom cages first, and then create ultra cool expensive habitats to some few species.

I hope that I kind of got it a bit clear. The baboons at the aquaria have not the largest of enclosures - though better then those at berlin zoo (but not than the geladas at tierepark who had a really nice enclosure) but a very very cheap, low maintenance but effective enrichment in that the ground is covred with a thick layer of hay - they spend hours foraging there! They have a rather big mountain-slope and some climbing structures, although I'm pretty sure hamdryas baboons dont climb to much. I dont think the elks at skansen have that bad an enclosure? Not world leading, but they get food at a lot of different places, they get fresh branches every day and get scent-enriched. I did not say that all swedish zoos have 100% perfect enclosures, I am sure there are some bad and a lot of mediocre ones, but they are by law required to be rather large, larger often than those in tierpark.

I will visit again, and I will try to look more carefully at what I like and what I dislike, try to contact the director and write an update here. I still believe it is utterly immoral to keep animals under bad conditions (and whats bad or not is of course not an arena of consensus) just because you can't give them anything better. And I saw more examples of that in both berlin zoos than I've done in any other zoo (that being said, I havent visited a lot of european zoos outside sweden)

 

[markmeier]

@petthebird:
Thank you. I do get you better now and I actually agree with some of your points while I still disagree with others. Let me try some responses:

There definitely are studies about pacing of carnivores that show the daily distances virtually don't differ no matter what (at least for some species). There also are studies/ experiences that show some species of carnivores require far less space than others. If you are into this stuff you may easily find out about this - I cannot remember any sources where I read it. Of course this should be no excuse for bad enclosures that don't allow for a broad reportoire of natural behaviour. I just wanted to relativize the pacing issue.

The Tierpark staff do employ food enrichment and rearrange the "furniture" as well as intoduce new stuff (I don't know the exact frequence of these procedures though). I also don't know if they employ any scent enrichment unless you count the dogs that are allowed in the park, the freely roaming species or the native ones I was told the director does not enjoy any "artificial" enrichment though, particularly if it is visible (like colourful items, tires, large boxes etc.). So apparently it's a matter of policy/ philosophy rather than money or staff motivation (again I have no source for this condition). Instead the director apparently believes the composition of the groups and the upbringing of youngsters is the best enrichment. In a way he even seems to be right, for most groups seem very harmonious. Of course this radical position is still debatable, but it probably won't change until a new director takes office.

-The polar bear enclosure isn't that small in my opinion, even though the water part is far larger than the rest. Unfortunately they don't have different substrates. The bears do pace quite a bit and they even move their head in the typical way (PETA once arranged a video of it where they don't show any other behaviour). But in fact the bears also swim and rest a lot and especially the young female plays quite frequently as well and the bears also interact of course. In combination it may still be less than in the wild (e.g. no hunting), but I don't think they seem overly miserable or more so than in most other zoos. Enrichment is employed in the way mentioned above.
-The same goes for the spectacled bears. I have watched them sleep, pace, climb, play. They even interact with the visitors at time - rather curious animals indeed... And I can't see how their enclosure is overly boring (very spacious, different substrates, plants, pool many retreats, climbing structures, and I believe they even have a swing)
-The ratel diggs quite a bit by the way.The enclosure isn't that large, though. I wouldn't exactly call it smashing but it also isn't an empty box as make it sound. I don't know of any other ratels, so I cannot compare the behaviour. The civets always seemed normal to me and they do use the structures in their exhibit for climbing, hiding etc.
-The pachydermy building cannot easily be rearranged. At the time it even was quite state-of-the-art particularly for a GDR-zoo (be glad you don't know how the lived before). And while I agree they don't have large amounts of space inside they don't seem to suffer. They also do get out most of the year. And if you watched them outside (or when they bath inside) you will notice they are very active, peaceful and playful. As with other ugulates the large groups with several little ones and all the interaction are quite a joyful picture.
-The vari forest simply is an amazing(!) enclosure in my eyes. It is more than large enough which also holds for the trees by the way (check some youtube videos if you can't remember them which is difficult for me to believe). If you ever observed the lemures you also won't state again it's a bad or boring enclosure. They use the bushes, trees, fences, benches, visitors, you name it... Your criticism seems ridiculous to me, they aren't orangs after all!
-I'm not an expert on rodents or their behavious so I won't comment too much on these exhibits. They aren't huge (nor tiny) but seem well structured and quite sufficient to me.
-I never before heard that lack of substrate causes bad hygiene (the opposite used to be the case). I believe you that you saw what you tell (though I didn't as far as I can remember). But please believe me that I also didn't learn of many infected animals in the tierpark and I can't see how mice etc. can be kept from entering the boxes as long as far larger animals such as said primates etc. can get in.
-Offspring is published on lists at the entrance and press releases that can be accessed via the webside. There are some information on breeding programs on the regular signs and at the firefoxes (little pandas) you even find a decent display on their diminished habitat. There are larger boards for many zoologic-sytematic issues and other stuff. So it's again an exaggeration there is NO educational value.
-I won't comment on Swedish zoos as I don't know any. I only saw some huge exhibits with wooden bridges for the visitors that looked great. If this is more than an exception I certainly commend you guys over there, but the Tierpark still isn't as bad as your first impression may suggest. If you do actually return, please take some additional time and you will find groups that interact and even carnivores that don't pace but climb, play, swim...

 

[Pertinax]

Because they have a reasonable sized enclosure and a decent group size, you are unlikely to see any behavioral disorders. But it still doesn't mean they are living under optimum conditions for a forest-dwelling monkey, in fact they are far from it.

If you observe the same or a similar Mangabey species in a zoo where they have good climbing structures e.g. Colchester UK, you will see them bounding around at high speed from low to high level branch and then branch to branch etc. 'Climbing the fences'(if they can in fact do that) is hardly a substitute for proper locomotary facilities. The zoo must surely understand that- though in my experience sometimes even in this day and age, they don't seem to.