ZOOM - Hippo exhibit

The hippo exhibit in the wetlands-biotope of the Africa theme in ZOOM Erlebniswelt, Germany. A very nice and spacious exhibit of approx. 2700 sqm meters (0.67 acres) where lake makes up 700 sqm (0.17 acres) of that. This exhibit has lots of grass and even mud for the hippos.
The species in the wetland exhibit are common hippopotamus, sitatunga and saddle-billed stork.

ZOOM Erlebniswelt is a brand new zoo built completely from scratch on the site of the old Ruhr Zoo. It is divided into three large themes: Alaska (2005), Africa (2006) and Asia (2010).

July 2009

This appears to be an amazingly modern zoo, lacking the historic buildings and outdated enclosures that dot the zoological landscape throughout Europe. Almost everything at ZOOM looks natural, features real substrate in the exhibits, and there is a very high quality to all of the enclosures featured here on ZooChat. I can't wait until next year and photos arrive from the new Asian zone of the zoo.

ZOOM is a very good place - a great example of what can be achieved if you can afford to build something this scale from scratch. Personally I thought the Alaska section worked slightly better than the Africa - but it was a wet day so I suppose the weather was more in line with Alaska! The old Ruhr Zoo was a rather run-of-the-mill, slightly tired looking place.

It would be very, very dull being a zoo enthusiast if every zoo was like ZOOM, however! Variety is the spice of life - we combined ZOOM in the same day as the more traditional Dortmund Zoo, which was pleasingly diverse; and the days either side were Rotterdam and Cologne.

Rotterdam would be much more my ideal - a zoo with both a sense of history and a great eye for modern exhibit design... and a cracking animal collection.