Danish summer, danish zoos

L

LARTIS

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
My family and I spent almost every family vacation in summer in denmark

Over the years I was able to get an impression of tbhe zoological landscape of denmark and would like to share my impression on a country that be overlooked sometimes when it comes to zoos (at least I was not familiar with the zoos when we were there for the first time, but well that was pre-internet)

Please do not feel offended if aome things may have changes aince then

The following list is in no specific order so the update may be differ from the list below

odense zoo
københavn zoo
ķøbenhavn den bla planet
randers rainforest
aalborg zoo
givskud safari park
ree park
skaerup zoo
hirtshals ocenarium
 
First of all I have been quiet bussy and did not thought it would take a week to sit down gor the first description, anyway

The first zoo I want to start with is Odense, which was the first zoo in denmark for me

I won't give the numbers of animals kept at the facilities since the number of species doea not have to say anything abozt the experience one may have at those places

A wonderful example is denmark
 
Odense Zoo

The entrance looked rrally nice and modern and made one expect a little bit from the zoo itself (to be modern as well)

Once you enter entrance the first exhibit you will see is inhabited by a group of banded mongoose, but once kept tamarins

The rest of the zoo is set along a little river and due the river washing out sediment set a little bit lower than the entrance

Once there was only one ramp for wheelchairs but I know that the zoo changed that since I was there and turned the stairs into a second ramp which is partly built (once aside) the red panda exhibit shared with reeve's muntjacs

Odense is a wonderful example that a zoo doesn't need any rare species to make even a zoo enthusiast like me, who has seen quiet a few institutions, enjoying it

The first time we visited the zoo some species were just about to move to there new exhibit and had therefor the opportunity to the see some of the old exhibits

For example the new pig tail macaque exhibit once kept the giraffes with a very tiny paddock

The indoor exhibit enables the visitor to see them up close and learn some facts about the monkeys with interactive boards (and for the younger a climbing wall)
 
After quiet a time my smartphone dropped dead and the review is gone so I have to find another day to redo it
 
Odense Zoo

Since I have allready discribed the entrance before my smartphone broke, I will go on with the main part

(sorry guys for such a messy posting style, the other descriptions are not planned to be splited)

Right after the pig tailed macaque cage starts the main part on the lower side of the river, including a place in front of the penguin house with a few more or less historical enclosures, a south american themes route and a little farm

The "historical" part includes two seal people home to each a group of harbour seals (whichcan be viewed over and under water) and californian sealions, which are a little bit small, but at least they recognized the problem and made plans which are little bit out of time but maybe will be realize one day (by the way the plan included seaotter, which seem easier to get these days than back then)

A exhibit that seemed to be ugly at the first side enables the visitor to meet a group of prairie dogs on eye level which made me view them in a new way

The old kangaroo for red necked wallabys, (which moved to another new walkthrough exhbit) keeps guinea pigs by now

next to them laya an aviary split into two smallee aviaries containing each a couple of hyacinth macaws and a group of bluebilled ducks and american stillts

Quiet a suprise was the white nosed coati exhibit since the were rare back in the days when we firat visited the zoo

Across from the outdoor exhibit lays the tapir indoor exhibit where one can see terrariums with poison dart frog, milk snakes, and tarantulas (maybe other species since aome terarriums were not filled), and an indoor exhibit for goeldi tamarins and pudu

The next part is the south american route which includes a big walk through aviary home to red ibis, cassowary, inca terns, macaws, red legged seriemas, lowland tapir and capybaras in a seperate sandbank like exhibit within the aviary, and free ranging tamarins, a house each for manatees and penguins connected through a glass tunnel in the middle of a little fake coral reef

The manatees may have been the firat of its kind, since it opened when Berlin, Nürnberg and Arnhem still kept them in tiny pools

The vistor starts of in a little wood house home to a couple of boa constrictor, viewing over the manatee pool including little island with nice plants, free raning species are tamarins, sloth and herons, along the way lays a little red footed tortoise exhibit with very vital individuals (somehow always mating when we passed) slowly entering the underwater level to see the fish and manatees from through big glass windows

Beside arapaimas, pacus, silver dollars, red tailed catfish, talapias and freshwater rays, I qas happily suprised to see dorados

(The first time we saw ten manatees, the biggest group I have ever seen)

A little tank is home to a bigger group of red piranhas

The connecting tunnel was under construcrion the last time we were at the zoo, but once snaper, angle fish and rays were kept in there

The penguin house starts in opposite to the manatee house under the water level slowly goin upwards until one can the group of king, gentoo and northern rockhopper penguins from above (until a few years ago they kept the south american rockhopper species)

After the exit of the penguin house one has ro go the same way to continue the route, which I normaly hate, but in this case not, since the zoo is not that big and it may be intereating to see if some of the animals may have changed their position ;)

The next part is the farm with two little barns, each home to a group of domestic ungulates and smaller breeds like mini pigs, guinea pigs and rabbits

Chicken and Geese are fre ranging

Worth to mention is the group of swallos breeding im the barn for smaller breeds flying very close to the visitors head

The last two exhibit are a walkthrough squirrel monkeys with a nice indoor exhibit (well done fake tree) and a alpaca and greater rhea exhibit

The rockwork is very well done at this zoo, which turn exhibits from trashy to classy
 
I am very sorry that I did not uploaded anything

I will try to manage to find time for that
 
Odense Zoo
Review
Second part

On the other side of the little river spliting the Zoo into two seperate areas lays the african and asian part of the Zoo.

One starts (if u chose the south american route first) with a swamp like african savannah inhabited by sittaungas that can walk freely around the vistors, in a fenced more grass land type savannah exhibit live grevy zebras and ostrich, sometimes the giraffes are allowed to use this space as well but everytime I was at the zoo the giraffes were in their own seperate enclousure. Since the walkthrough swamp area is a dead end with a viewing plattform at the end, one has to turn and walk back over a wooden path to the pount u started at this side and then u can choose between a normal way and adventure like trail along a body of water that inhabits no animals, hippos would be nice, on the other side is a even bigger body of water that can be used by the sitatungas and one time the antelopes really went swimming. Right behind the end the trail meets the normal path again, where a little camp is set with tends and goats that can be petted.

Next comes the giraffe exhibit followed by a village in an african style house with a shop in it. Since the lion exhibit is next to it and the building has a second level with chairs where u can sit and watch the lions, u should try to take a picture from this point if u don't want any fence in the background, that un may have when u take a shot from the waterfall rock.

Next to the shop bistro type house lays the giraffe house where u can see the indoor exhibits of the antelopes as well. Almost every sibgle time the roan antelopes stayed inside the stallions.

Behind the giraffe house lays the (in my opion) best giant tortoise exhibit. U enter the house over a path along the outdoor echibit for the tortoise, but most often they are inside the house. The house is the only realistic impression of the natural habitat I have seen sofar both personal and on the Internet. The only exhbit that comes close is the one in Zürich. Inside the house u walk along a path with a lot of information boards and u can visit a research like exhibit with the shells of sea turtle species. The plants and the way the path is designed is very authentic and nice.

Next comes the lemur house that is designed like a habour house, the last time they had tenrecs as well. All in all nice but in conparison to the giant tortoise house a bit of a downer, but just a little bit. The ring tailed lemurs have a nice island that can be seen from the normal path and special outlooks that are made very well.

One of the biggest attractions of the zoo is probably the giant aviary for african birds, home to flamingos, pelicans, spoonbill, ibis, herons, egrets, geese, ducks, storks and fowls.
U enter the exibit through the flamibgo indoor exhibit. The first view is the flamingo lagoon a very nice and big space where except for the pelicans all the birds thrive, along the oaths are litrle houses with educational boards, then comes a lil stream like part where the pelicans rest right next to their indoor exhibit. A little island behind the house is home to a group of dwarf mongooses that u can see inside the chimpanzee house opposite the lil island. Another inhabitant of the house are ball pythons. The indoor exhibit for all zhree species is fair and alternative what makes it pretty nice. When u exit the aviary a second but way smaller aviary is home to african grey parrots.

Next comes the waterfall rock including different levels from where u have a nice view on the outdoor lion and chimpanzee exhibits. Inside the rock with its gidden paths u can find little terrariums that were inhabited by a mouse species, cave crickets, cockroaches, millipedes, rock python and the crocodile that since must have left or passed away.

The rock is followed by a petting zoo and a Restaurant in an nepalese style. The food was very good for a zoo meal.

A small aviary next to the chimpanzee island is the last african exhibit that inhabits love birds.

The asian part is much smaller but rhere were plans to enlarge it and make it home to elephants rhinos and snow leopards. No idea what the current palns are.

The siberian tiger exhibit may be one if not the most interesting exhibt for tiger in the world, since it offer a lot of view. U can climb a rock like plattform from where u can see the tiger climb over it. U can see them close while a feeding show. Through a tunnel that is inside the rock, that also includes the indoor exhibit. There is another plattform made out of wood. Once more the educational boards are well made and interactive games enable the visitorto learn something without reading.

The other animals in this asian part are reindeers and bactrian camels. Their exibits are quiet plain simple ...boring compared to the other exhibits of the zoo.
 
it has been literally years since i updated the thread with the main reason that my phone died several times writing long texts

any way i wanted sorr of finish this project and do so with shorter description
 
a shoet overview of the parks and a lil note how i liked it

odense zoo
the perfect mixture of species set in a beautiful enviorment with quiet a few outstanding exhibits
manatee and penguin house
giant torroise house
african aviary and waterfall rock
tiger exhibit
medium sized zoo

københavn zoo
quiet nice capital zoo with a few rare species
tho i have critize that the park felt like the embodiment of an anthropectric danish attitude that placed design over animal welfare with hippo, elephant and polar bear and aviary exhbits especially indoors out of proportion sized space for visitors and less space for animals and in general a huge amount of land wasted for weird placed forms
some animals depserately need more space like all big cats lion tiger and leopard brown ans polar bear too and chimpanzees
and not to forget about the reptiles inside the tropic buikding that obviously were nervous almost glued du to the tiny size of the terrariums
beside that some nice exhibits with the habour seal tank the flamingo aviary the tropical house the old tasmania exhibit and the underwater view for the hippos and the connection between giraffe and okapis

københavn den bla planet
intereating aquarium that offered themed routes by habitat rather than geographic
a chronic aquarium problem is over stocking
with fish being traded like objects and easy available despite the status in the wild
the tanks a quiet nice but overstocked amd u get so see in one tank what burgers spilt into seven
a lot of nice species but hard to forgwt that these might probably vanish from the aquarium quiet quick since i doubt they couls breed them within the overstocked tanks
bts breeding groups were given for only a few species
i dislike non geographic aquariums that are just of context and remins me of the past where bears and big cats were stuffed together

randers rainforest
i liked the concept and building a lot but i d have to critize the attitude the park seem to have with reguarly getting new species since they could not expand and so not offer much more
i d like to see more acurate geo displays
something less ordinary like certain island forests rather than just africa uncluding madagascar and australasia
the park offered new perpectives and i really like on how many levels the visitors was able to explore the same attractions

aalborg zoo
a tradional zoo with nothing too special except the black caimans that breed several times they are huge and u can see their young
i like the zoo tho they might lack diversity
most exhibits fell rather on the smaller side and therefor outdated
the big cat house is once more and example of what seems to be a danish approach to other creatures with almsot three times the space foe the visitors occupying almost the entire house and leaving tiny cages for the cats
the warthogs prang utans and chimpanzees had way too small exhbits and the elephants too
my favorite was the aviary right next to the entrance with weaver birds one could walk in amd have a nice view onto a small pond with gold fish without the net
also the underwater polar bear
a huge negative point is killing the brown bears because they did not suit the masterplan and seemed bored
sorry for this emotional unproffesiinal opinion on this but and i do not mean all danes with this but seem not empathetic egocentric and few animals like an object
danes are normally not lazy at all but when it comes to finding a place for the animals to go they choose the easy way amd just kill em

givskud safari park
this zoos had an odd scape that was neither walk nor safari like with parking lots cztting the walk area in two with the barbary macaques and hippos on one side and the other side gorillas and lemurs
they was not really a clear route to see all animals and one had to go some ways twice and those paths were long and no animals were along
despite that all animals had a lot of space
tho the gorilla island was a weird saussage shaped peninsular and had no trees to climb
i heard they made masterplan to get rid of the dead ends
what counts is that the animals are well

ree park
this park was praised a lot so i had expectations and honestly everything i wrote above about givskud applies to rhis park even more
no concept dead ends trains and jepa riding thru the exhibits awfull long walks that miss the oporrunity to give special insights to the exhibits that are literally build along the paths
despite givskud the park did not manage to give all animals equally huge enclousures and some seem to be forgotten about both by the park and visitors when they praise a huge savnna that u can hardly view from the main path without pqying extra foe a weird jeep tour
the gibbons and spider monkey had tiny exhbits set direct next to the huge and beautifull squirrel monkey walk through island
same for the lemurs that weirdly got even two of those
i dislike that the natural path was interupted by these street like paths
what i liked was the tree top path and canoeing
there should be more activities like that in zoos

skaerup zoo
a small zoo with small exhbits that happily choose to reduce the number since the visit
a lot rare species
the exhibits did not just lacked size but also enrichment
i absolutely dislike the guinea pic sand box like exhbit that offered no space foe the animals to go away from the children that walk in the tiny cage
odense perfectly shows that less can be more if made right
the coastal aviary with white faced heron was nice
some of the speciea could be vombined like deer and monkeys and both would gain more space

hirtshals ocenarium
one of the best institutions when it comes to concept
the building appears small but we always spend the whole day there with ton of interactive educational boards and games
they wenr for less but bigger tanks
only one thing to critize and that is that a lot of the fish are taken from the wild from the habour next door what could be an oppoetunity how many fishs are consumed each day is left unspoken if not necessarily ask about and that they once again killed an animal for an anthropocentric view to educatethe crowd if not to day entertain when they killed the ocean sunfish before it would have got to big to fit thru the door above the tank

my clear favorites are hirtshals and odense
closely followed by randers and then the two copenhague institutions and aalborg
the safari parks were good but did not manage the balance between walk area and vehicle and did not succeded to give u that safati feeling but the animals have a lot of space
skaerup was quiet nice if the echbits were not small
i can spent a lot of time in front of a very well made landscape exhibit but not a row of cages

the people in denmark were very nice
amd helped us out
i did not manage to learn danish like i planned
since they swollow a lot of the parts of the words that look too familiar from german and dutch
the food was good and the weather is super nice during the summer compared to central european heat
i loved the calm atmosphere in denmark where all the global hectic lifestyle seem far away

oh and lil quote
a german woman complained that there was nothing going on the placw we stayed and the owner of a restaurant said it is the busiest time pf the year and she asked what a normal day would like and he replied when u see no else outside
 
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