Day 8&9
The plan was to visit the Pergamon Museum on Day 8. However this was scuppered as the museum apparently closer earlier than planned due to renovations which will take over a decade (!!) to complete. Oh well. I went South to the Jewish Museum instead, which was excellent and owed much of its poignancy to the design of the building - some really thought-provoking exhibitions here and I recommend visiting.
I ended up finishing off the day in the Naturhistorisches Museum which was really nice although a revisit. Should be high up on the list for any ZCer visiting Berlin, if only for the very impressive Brachiosaurus specimen and some impressive taxidermy.
The next day was for the zoo. I visited with someone from the hostel I was staying at who happened to be visiting the zoo on the same day as me and had already booked. This made a welcome change from visiting solo and we had a great conversation. Circled the (still great) caprid cliff areas before heading to the new Rhino Pagoda. It's a nice structure for the indoor area, with good outdoor exhibits. I don't really understand the rationale behind the species chosen - Malayan tapir would make far more sense but even then it's not particularly geographically accurate. There's nothing wrong with the exhibit really, I just wasn't especially wowed. The view inside the pagoda looking up is cool though. At the time of my visit, investors were being shown around and the carrot proffered hopefully by a keeper to tempt a rhino closer was contemptuously ignored by said rhino
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The bird of prey cliff areas are great too, with a couple of great walkthroughs, but it would be nice to have a more unusual species list given all the aviaries. As a general point, it's somewhat odd how little bird of prey variety you get in some of Europe's biggest bird collections, especially when a much larger breadth of species are bred across Europe in falconry centres etc. Just an observation, but the same is very much true for venomous snakes. The suid house and environs was one of those areas where you think 'if I strip back all of the history and some of the frills, it really isn't great'. With the last Bearded pig likely not lasting too long more now, I hope something is done with it as while it's ok it really isn't ideal.
The Antelope House in contrast is looking fabulous, just wish they added some birds to the indoors. Gerenuks a pleasure to see and were quite cooperative. Elephant quarters again didn't compare to Koeln's both inside and out. Nice meerkat and brush-tailed porcupine exhibits though. Baboon and macaque rocks looking dated now, as is the entirety of the primate house and outdoor exhibits, which, while I have some great memories from the place, really need the renovation they will soon get. Gibbons in outdoors only tall and large enough for a single Yellow-throated marten maybe.
Empire of Cats contrasts massively with the space for the primates. Was really impressed with everything in this building. The nocturnal area beneath is great too, with a very choice species list and spacious enclosures. It's a fabulous house, with so much indoor space for most of the inhabitants. Jaguar outdoors could be larger though, and Southern tigrina viewing windows suffer pretty badly from glare. I did question why the plans didn't include the Ocelot and Rusty spotted cat already at the zoo but I guess they preferred to give ample space to the species on show, and I'm not complaining as it is a very, very good carnivore/nocturnal House. Still liked Alfred-Brehm Haus better though
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Hoofstock exhibits around that half of the zoo typically range from ok to good. Generally not on the same level as at the Tierpark. Some lovely historical buildings though, with the highlights being the bison buildings. The little annex across the bridge is a nice respite from the fairly intense main area of the zoo and seeing little capybaras fighting and running around in the water was great. It is quite nondescript though. The rhino exhibit is a relic and something needs to be done with it because right now it's worse than Asa's Black rhino exhibit.
Sea lions and penguins enjoy good exhibits, as do Sloth bears in what looks like temporary but still nice enclosures. Condors are spoilt with a brilliant, massive aviary with lots of height. The pheasantry is legendary, but for me some of the aviaries are on the small side and the mixes are a bit weird at times. Signage is also a bit of a mess. Seeing all but one species of flamingo is great and all but the cages for them are pretty small and barren really. The shorebird aviary on the other hand is exceptional and seeing the birds interact with the wash thrown up by the (particularly effective) wave machine was a highlight of the visit for me.
World of Birds was fantastic I thought, with three walkthroughs plus large rooms for indoor aviaries for birds from four different continents, plus chevrotains. Outdoor aviaries are generally good although lack a bit of width for the larger parrots in particular. Walkthroughs are lovely and a good place to spend half an hour or so but signage just doesn't list most of the species within. Overall though, good building but one thing I did pick up on was just how much visitor area there was when some of the larger birds (macaws, cockatoos, hornbills) had pretty thin exhibits which could really do with a cut of the visitor areas. The Hippodom is great as ever, very cool to see the Hippos moving underwater and the design is fabulous. One thing I noticed was that the one of the hippos had a tusk embedded in their cheek and the other was missing a tusk - probably not a coincidence - hopefully it's not too painful for either animal.
The Aquarium was under renovation so the amphib and invert floor was closed on my visit. Still a lovely building and had a great time searching for the more elusive fish. Terrarium is good but nothing really special to be honest.
And that's pretty much everything covered. Now I have to explain my ranking above. Copied for ease of access below:
1. Tierpark Berlin
2. Zoo Koeln (I know, I know)
3. Zoo Berlin (tough call, but I'll explain in the next post)
4. Weltvogelpark Walsrode
5. Zoo Osnabrueck
6. Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover
7. Zoo Wuppertal
8. Aquazoo Duesseldorf.
TP Berlin was for me the superior Berlin collection by a margin, both collection and exhibitry-wise, although admittedly when looking beyond birds and mammals it is slightly lacking due to not having a conventional reptile house or aquarium. But on almost all fronts their exhibits are larger and more interesting from my perspective. The Alfred-Brehm Haus was brilliant and outshone the also fantastic Zoo Carnivore House in my opinion, while the TP Primate House, while less speciose was levels above its Westerly counterpart. Hoofstock exhibits are generally also much better at the TP and the general experience of walking through the Tierpark was much more pleasant. The zoo has nothing like the Himalayan area or on par with it exhibitry-wise in my opinion. The zoo's collection is perhaps more diverse but I think sometimes this can be undermined by the fact that pretty much every reptile, amphibian, fish and invert is packed into one building to the side. Personally I prefer having herp and fish exhibits incorporated into a larger entity along with mammals, birds etc. Again, this is all by personal preference, I'm not saying one is objectively better.
Koeln and Berlin are more similar in style and there's less between them in my opinion. But I enjoyed Koeln more and I guess here's why. For starters, Koeln excels in areas where Berlin really has some problems, most notably with regards to primates. The ape outdoors at Koeln are brilliant and should be talked about more, especially the Bonobo exhibit. They're massive, crammed with foliage and give plenty of height. The Berlin exhibits are currently nowhere near that level. Koeln's elephants have what is probably one of the largest indoors on Earth plus a pretty substantial outdoor area - Berlin's doesn't hold a candle to it. Hippodom vs Hippodom is a tough one I actually preferred Koeln's due to the addition of a dozen free-flying bird species, a lovely Nile croc exhibit, plus a bokyboky exhibit and a handful of herp terraria. It's brilliant and while Berlin's Hippodom is legendary I think Koeln's as an ensemble might be a better building. Berlin's outdoors is probably slightly better though. I loved Koeln's South American house, and Koeln's big cat exhibits don't suffer massively from comparison to those at Berlin either. Koeln's row of aviaries are better than the Fasanerie in my opinion and the rhino exhibit is also looking significantly better than the enclosure for the same species at Berlin. And finally the Aquarium/Terrarium buildings of each are pretty similar quality-wise, but for me Koeln Terrarium is better than Berlin's while the latter is better Aquarium-wise. Obviously I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this all and I haven't mentioned facets of both zoos that might be important from others' perspectives. But from my point of view, the Koeln I saw on that particular day was better than the Zoo Berlin I saw.
Walsrode is just great for anyone who loves birds (as I do) and hence it's next, followed by Osnabrueck. Osnabrueck is largely carried by its Underground Zoo, Takamanda and Manitoba. The rest is pretty lukewarm but the three areas mentioned are just fantastic and pull it up significantly. Seventh is admittedly harsh on Wuppertal but I think my perception suffered from the rain on the day and Hannover was better than I expected, especially the Yukon area.
As that's more or less the end of the reviews (other than a species list for Berlin's Aquarium if I can summon the energy) I'd really love to hear from others who've visited the places reviewed and see if my opinions are at all controversial. In the meantime thanks so much to all those who've read and provided input, much appreciated.
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