Best White Rhino enclosure in Germany

[felis silvestris]

This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for White Rhinos 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.

Augsburg



Dortmund



Unfortunately the outdoor enclosure has no photos of it in the gallery. If anyone can describe or provide a photo of it if you have seen it that would be great.

Erfurt

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.

Zoom Erlebniswelt



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.

Munster





Osnabruck



Schwerin



Waltersdorf

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.

Photo credits to @RonBurrgundy @lintworm @snowleopard @Philipine eagle @FunkyGibbon

 

[Pongo]

Hodenhagen is a safari park, there is a huge territory for them. It's not comparable to the "normal" zoos. The breeding successes in Hodenhagen speak for themselves, it's of course a top facility for them.

I really like Augsburg. Erfurt has a nice indoor facility but a bridge over the outdoor facility, certainly not nice for the shortsighted and sensitive rhinos. Gelsenkirchen has a good outdoor facility. I don't know Waltersdorf but none of the other enclosures is bad.

 

[Gibbonsagainstgravity]

I really don’t know what hodenhagen looks like, so I’m going with Augsburg.

 

[lintworm]

Hodenhagen is a safari park, there is a huge territory for them. It's not comparable to the "normal" zoos. The breeding successes in Hodenhagen speak for themselves, it's of course a top facility for them.

I really like Augsburg. Erfurt has a nice indoor facility but a bridge over the outdoor facility, certainly not nice for the shortsighted and sensitive rhinos. Gelsenkirchen has a good outdoor facility. I don't know Waltersdorf but none of the other enclosures is bad.

Top breeding results don't necessarily mean a top facility, such a statement is decades outdated.

l am going with Schwerin who have some very spacious paddocks in a nice setting.

 

[Batto]

Top breeding results don't necessarily mean a top facility, such a statement is decades outdated.

Well, that depends on the purpose of the facility. If it manages to produce healthy(sic) offspring of an endangered species in a regularity that exceeds other, more prestigious institutions and which benefits the ex situ population as a whole, they can't be doing everything incorrectly, can they?
Yeah, Yeah, Tower of London's lions, hypersexualisation etc. - these arguments have been exchanged on ZC many times. Once again, it all goes down to the parameters one individually chooses as signs of quality. Hence my hesitation to engage in any of these "Best xxx enclosure in Y" polls.

 

[RonBurrgundy]

I went with Hodenhagen since i's a massive enclosure (over 60.000 m² measured with maps) with nice feeding options a small lake and there is enough space so they don't have to stand next to the cars all the time. That said the biggest downside is that there are constantly cars in the ecnlosure. I don't remember if the indoor areas are open to the visitors but I don't think so. Anyways they seem to use standart boxes and nothing fancy.
Some pictures I found online.
Picture one Picture two Picture three Pictur four

I really don't like the enclosure at the Allwetterzoo since it's just to small but at least they have more than just boxes in the indoor area.
The enclosure in Erfurt is just weird with the huge house where the animals have quite a lot of space but it seems like there was more potential.
Augsburg seems really nice as well.

 

[lintworm]

Well, that depends on the purpose of the facility. If it manages to produce healthy(sic) offspring of an endangered species in a regularity that exceeds other, more prestigious institutions and which benefits the ex situ population as a whole, they can't be doing everything incorrectly, can they?
Yeah, Yeah, Tower of London's lions, hypersexualisation etc. - these arguments have been exchanged on ZC many times. Once again, it all goes down to the parameters one individually chooses as signs of quality. Hence my hesitation to engage in any of these "Best xxx enclosure in Y" polls.

For sure they must be doing something right and this was not a critic on Hodenhagen per se, but more the general observation that good breeding results imply a good enclosure. Getting animals to breed means you have to get quite a number of parameters right from nutrition to social structure, but animal welfare is (these days at least) also about mental health, stimulation of natural behaviour and giving the animal choices. A classical example would be breeding cages for parrots, which often yield excellent results in breeding species and keeps the animals healthy (at least their body), but it offers hardly any choice or room for natural behaviour such as flying, nor does it house animals in the appropriate social group settings in many cases. If breeding is the sole goal, then it works, but it comes at a cost for the animals welfare.

Hodenhagen seems to have the safari park advantage with a lot of space to house a large group, which all over Europe used to be the only way to breed successfully on a regular basis until this century.

 

[Batto]

For sure they must be doing something right and this was not a critic on Hodenhagen per se, but more the general observation that good breeding results imply a good enclosure. Getting animals to breed means you have to get quite a number of parameters right from nutrition to social structure, but animal welfare is (these days at least) also about mental health, stimulation of natural behaviour and giving the animal choices. A classical example would be breeding cages for parrots, which often yield excellent results in breeding species and keeps the animals healthy (at least their body), but it offers hardly any choice or room for natural behaviour such as flying, nor does it house animals in the appropriate social group settings in many cases. If breeding is the sole goal, then it works, but it comes at a cost for the animals welfare.

You just wasted your time preaching to the choir. Just pay a bit more attention to what I wrote, especially in regard to the word healthy (which, at least in my profession and daily work, includes both mental and physical aspects).

 

[Pongo]

Of course Lintworm is right, my statement seen in general without specific relation to this thread is not right. This topic always reminds me of a former German late night show when a guest asked the host if he knows the number one reason for (human beings) getting offspring - it didn't take the host a second to answer "Boredom". However, this does not apply for Hodenhagen, the enclosure is very good. You can discuss whether the breeding success there (or in San Diego) is related to the enclosure or to the number of females in this institution, but the number of females also has its reason in the enclosure. If it's smart to breed that much particularly with one or a few bulls for future generations to come is a different question though...

Like I said, the safari parks have a big advantage over zoos, so I don't really think it's a fair comparison. There is a very high standard for white rhino enclosures in Germany - the walks on higher level particularly in Erfurt as it leads over the enclosure, but also in Osnabrück are the biggest issue in my opinion.

 

[felis silvestris]

Poll closed. Congratulations to Augsburg for having the Best White Rhino enclosure in Germany. The large savanna gave it the win over safari contender Hodenhagen who finished second. This is Augsburg's first win and Hodenhagen's best performance so far.

Augsburg: 47.8%
Hodenhagen: 30.4%
Schwerin: 13.0%
Waltersdorf: 4.3%
Zoom Erlebniswelt: 4.3%