Has anyone written a mini-review of this zoo? It is about 150 years old and attracts a million visitors per year (and it is rated fairly highly in Anthony Sheridan's book What Zoos Can Do) but is the place really any good? The elephant outdoor exhibit seems puny from photos, but the zoo has what seems like large enclosures for many aquatic creatures such as polar bears, seals, penguins and hippos. Judging from maps and books it seems as if the zoo is not very large and full of more traditional exhibits, but there are not a lot of photos to analyze on ZooChat.
I do not understand that is quite highly rated by Sheridan. The fact that it has such a high attendance is just because of the fact that it is part of the "stadtgarten" (city garden), so it is also a place to relax, entrance fee is also only 2-3 euro...
The collection is quite standard, with especially the ABC zoo animals, they have them all except rhino's., but many enclosures are a bit on the small side and have lot's of concrete. But the zoo has a great snow leopard enclosure and some nice species as allen swamp monkey and magellan penguin. But overall it is quite standard and not worth a large detour...
I'd agree with Lintworm's verdict; this is one of the least interesting larger German zoos, in my opinion, with not an enormous amount to commend it - other than the above-mentioned snow leopard enclosure, which is great, and the polar bear thing, which is pretty good. Carnivore and primate houses are fine, but pretty basic; giraffe house and paddock are like something out of a toy zoo. The place as a whole seems to lack imagination and ambition - it could be very good indeed with a little of both. It's tidy, and absolutely fine, but no more than that. I would give a bigger thumbs-up to the vivarium in the city's natural history museum; this is not enormous, but is nicely done with one or two choice exhibits.
Sooty Mangabey has summed this place up to a tea,and I can only add that if I was ever to visit Karlsruhe again I would skip the zoo and spend longer in the Natural History Museum!
Well, it's anything but big. It's a little problem I think that the zoo and the Stadtgarten have to share the 22 hectares. Basically, the zoo itself uses just 9 hectares at the moment.
Luckily, the zoo has presented a master plan few years ago. This plan includes many alterations, the most important are new stables for zebras, antelopes, bactrian camels etc, the theme world "Bergwelt Himalaya" (snow leopard and red panda exhibits are finished, normally muntjacs should live with the pandas, the exhibit is a year old and no muntjacs at the moment, some sort of himalayan goats or himalayan sheeps were planed but the place is used by persian gazelles which can't be moved for unknown reasons to me..), a big new elephant house, new exhibits for coatis, waldrapps, hippos and the "Exotenhaus". The "Exotenhaus" (like a big tropical hall with many different stuff, like big main hall, new restaurant, bat cave etc) is an ex-indoor swimming pool which was closed. It's situated next-door to the stadtgarten, where the new elepehant house is going to be build too.
