Best Pygmy Hippopotamus enclosure in Germany

[felis silvestris]

This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Pygmy Hippopotamuses in Germany. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to list the enclosures in order of what they think is best.

Berlin

Chemnitz

Duisburg

Halle

Hodenhagen

Unfortunately there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. If someone could describe or provide a photo of the exhibit, that would be great.

Hoyerswerda

Krefeld

Leipzig

Rostock

Photo credits to @vogelcommando @Toddy @Maguari @lintworm @Karol @gulogulogulo @Zebraduiker

 

[Nile Hippo Expert]

This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Pygmy Hippopotamuses in Germany. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to list the enclosures in order of what they think is best.

Berlin

Chemnitz

Duisburg

Halle

Hodenhagen

Unfortunately there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. If someone could describe or provide a photo of the exhibit, that would be great.

Hoyerswerda

Krefeld

Leipzig

Rostock

Photo credits to @vogelcommando @Toddy @Maguari @lintworm @Karol @gulogulogulo @Zebraduiker

Berlin 100%! Has underwater viewing, a big pool for the hippos and everything!

 

[AthleticBinturong]

Do the hippos have access to that island in the back In Duisburg?

 

[snowleopard]

I was tempted to vote for Berlin and it would be a worthy winner, but I'm going to go for Duisburg in this poll. The island at the back has been home to gibbons in the past, but the overall feel of the foreground hippo exhibit is very tropical. It's much more shaded and jungle-like than the Berlin enclosure.

@Maguari

The indoor area isn't as spectacular as the one in Berlin, and the pool is too small, but it's got character. The dirt floor for visitors, the shockingly close proximity to the hippos behind glass, and the feeling of being undercover all the time is kind of special.

@Maguari

 

[lintworm]

Rostock for me by a margin. As a former elephant enclosure it is easily the largest outdoors (2 enclosures) and probably also indoors. Outdoors has an especially big abd shades land part, but also a sizeable pool. Indoors is more standard with 2 enclosures with both water and land.

Berlin looks nice, but indoors is basically only underwater viewing and a tiny land part. The outdoors is nicely shaded, but mostly just land. If the hippos one hippo is confined to the house. Duisburg looks nice, but also lacks good separation options imo.

 

[lintworm]

It seems people prefer to vote on exhibits they have seen in person... To put stuff into perspective

Rostock: 2 outdoor exhibits: 1200 square metres combined + 2 indoor enclosures
Zoo Berlin: 1 outdoor exhibit: 500 square metre + 2 indoor enclosures
Zoo Duisburg: 1? outdoor exhibit: 800 square metres + 1 indoor enclosure

So Rostock has the largest accomodation and is the only one to have multiple indoor and outdoor enclosures (apart from boxes). Zoo Berlin may look the nicest, but the indoors is really unsuitable for pygmy hippo with hardly any land area, though their single outdoor exhibit is nice enough (it has more water than I remembered...)

 

[Choco115]

Haven’t seen Rostock yet but because of what Lintworm says + the ones I have seen I’m going for them. Duisburg has a superb outdoor enclosure but indoor despite being a beautiful enclosure doesn’t have enough water at all. Opposite for Berlin: plenty of water indoors but not enough land.
The others are all pretty small and most have very ugly indoor enclosures. Krefeld probably the best from the rest, it’s very old and basic but good enough for (I think) the 1 pygmy hippo they still have.

 

[Pongo]

Totally with Lindworm here, for me Rostock has the best enclosure by far. Duisburg as many enclosures is too small. In the white rhino thread I said that Germany has a pretty high standard for this species - for pygmy hippos I'd say the opposite, the standard is pretty low.

 

[Nile Hippo Expert]

It seems people prefer to vote on exhibits they have seen in person... To put stuff into perspective

Rostock: 2 outdoor exhibits: 1200 square metres combined + 2 indoor enclosures
Zoo Berlin: 1 outdoor exhibit: 500 square metre + 2 indoor enclosures
Zoo Duisburg: 1? outdoor exhibit: 800 square metres + 1 indoor enclosure

So Rostock has the largest accomodation and is the only one to have multiple indoor and outdoor enclosures (apart from boxes). Zoo Berlin may look the nicest, but the indoors is really unsuitable for pygmy hippo with hardly any land area, though their single outdoor exhibit is nice enough (it has more water than I remembered...)

That's why I voted for Berlin. I didn't see the indoor exhibit when I visited about a decade ago so I didn't know it was that bad; I was too focused on watching the Nile Hippos because they're better lol.

 

[Batto]

The pygmy exhibit at Rostock is the youngest of the ones mentioned and used to be the old elephant exhibit - hence, more space for the animals and the vegetation needs more time to grow.
@Pongo Pygmy hippos in general seem to get the short end of the stick in zoos in regard to nice, large enclosures (*cough* Pairi Daiza *cough*).

 

[Batto]

Nile Hippos because they're better lol.

Blasphemy!!!

 

[felis silvestris]

Poll closed. Congratulations to Rostock for having the Best Pygmy Hippopotamus enclosure in Germany. The big former elephant enclosure gave the new inhabitants lots of space and also a tight win over runners up Berlin and Duisburg, which are great exhibits but have flaws which let them down. Rostock have performed well in these polls so far, but this is their first all out win, having also done well in second in the Bornean orang thread.

Rostock: 43.3%
Duisburg: 26.7%
Berlin: 23.3%
Halle: 3.3%
Leipzig: 3.3%