Malayan Sun Bear Exhibit at Tierpark Berlin, 30/08/11

Indoor exhibits. This exhibit was formerly an ape house with three species of great ape - and that was before the outdoor exhibits were added!

For all that it is tiny and ugly, the bears always look in very good health and seem to have cubs every time I go (nothing else to do?).

Is there no great apes at the Tierpark now? If so then that's a major gap in the collection in my eyes.

And yes, I'm aware the zoo holds all 4 species so they possibly don't feel the need to exhibit them at the 2 institutions.

No, no great apes at all (they do have gibbons). It is perhaps a measure of my interest in these species that it didn't even occur to me until a week after my first Tierpark visit that they were absent!

But yes, I think the feeling is there's a large multi-species Ape House at Berlin and little money about for construction. There's really nowhere currently at Tierpark that could be used, so any putative ape accommodation would have to be new build and potentially very expensive.

Well if this was their accomodation then it's definitely a good thing that they got rid, from what I've seen in photo's the zoos ape house is more than adequate.
I guess 1 of the reasons you didn't really notice is the fact Berlin zoo and Leipzig both hold four species apiece, if you aren't that interested then seeing them at 2 institutions is probably enough!

Brum said:

Well if this was their accomodation then it's definitely a good thing that they got rid, from what I've seen in photo's the zoos ape house is more than adequate.
I guess 1 of the reasons you didn't really notice is the fact Berlin zoo and Leipzig both hold four species apiece, if you aren't that interested then seeing them at 2 institutions is probably enough!

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Well, the first time I went I just did Berlin (not Leipzig) but as I'd done the Zoo the day before the point still stands!


(Actually I did do other zoos on that trip but they were Copenhagen, Malmohus Terrarium, Alpenzoo Innsbruck, Vienna, Haus de Meeres (Vienna) and Rome. Was a long trip!)

Maguari said:

Well, the first time I went I just did Berlin (not Leipzig) but as I'd done the Zoo the day before the point still stands!


(Actually I did do other zoos on that trip but they were Copenhagen, Malmohus Terrarium, Alpenzoo Innsbruck, Vienna, Haus de Meeres (Vienna) and Rome. Was a long trip!)

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Now that is an epic journey, snowleopard eat your heart out... How did you travel around Europe?

Brum said:

Now that is an epic journey, snowleopard eat your heart out... How did you travel around Europe?

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On a good ol' Interrail ticket.

That was actually the second trip - the first was Barcelona-Lyon-Paris-Antwerp-Amsterdam-Luxembourg-week with friends in Brittany. Second trip (about 6 months later) was Copenhagen-Malmo-Berlin-Innsbruck-Vienna-Milan-Venice-Florence-Naples (for Pompeii)-Rome.

Good times!

You don't half know how to make a man jealous, I can't even persuade my nearest & dearest to come to Prague for a weekend. I didn't even mention the zoo... Much!