Zoo Leipzig Can somebody describe the Gondwanaland boat tour? (video of ride in post)

[DavidBrown]

The Gondwanaland exhibit at the Leipzig Zoo looks intriguing and someone has posted a video of it. It looks like the boat tour starts off as a "Pirates of the Caribbean" type dark ride through some dark tunnels. I can see some dinosaurs and hear some chain saws, but cannot figure out what this is about as the narration is in German and the video doesn't pick up the show elements. Can somebody explain what is going on here? Are there live animals in here or is it all animatronic? It looks like there are some dioramas.

The tour then goes out into the main building and looks like the "Jungle Cruise" at Disneyland except as far as I can tell the people in the boat don't see any of the animals except for a group of ducks at the end (don't know the species). Hopefully this boat tour is atypical in terms of not seeing the animals. Has anybody here taken the tour and gotten a good view of the animals?

 

[Maguari]

The first section of a boat ride is a journey through Earth's (pre)history, explaining the concept of Gondwanaland (the ancient continent comprising the land masses that would become Africa, Australia, South America, southern Asia and Antarctica). There is a counter in 'years before present' that ticks down as you move forward in time. This section is illustrated with CGI animals and environments, some on standard video screens set into dioramas and some back-projected onto screens for a reasonably effective faux-3D effect. As the timeline moves into the present day the theme switches to the destruction of the rainforest (hence the fires and chainsaws).

After the countdown reaches zero you emerge into the tropical house again.

The animals it is currently possible to see fairly closely on the boat trip are:

Komodo Dragon
Malayan Tapir
Common Squirrel Monkey
Ocelot

And the free-roaming Fulvous Whistling Ducks and Brazilian Teals. But obviously you need luck! The first time I rode it we only saw the dragon (the only one in Germany!) and the ducks. The second time (at a much quieter time of day) we also saw the monkeys and ocelot.

There is also an animal island opposite the 'station' - this is meant to have Linne's Two-toed Sloth, Southern Tamandua and Azara's Agouti - we only saw the sloth.

Like the rest of Gondwanaland - it's incredibly impressive, but I was left with a lingering 'needs more animals' feeling. I understand that in time there will be more free-flying birds, which should go some way to sorting this.

Hope this helps!

 

[DavidBrown]

Hope this helps!

A great and helpful description indeed. Thanks!