Some news from Amersfoort from my visit today:
Park news
- Park signing and the park map has received an update! The former 'Mis Niks' route is no longer, and has been replaced by the 'Padvinder', deviding the zoo up in smaller themed areas, each having focal species and species you have to look for more carefully (if you are a kid
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Notable is that the future Chimp enclosure is already its own theme area (number 9 on the map)
The Chimp enclosure's works have started at the edge of the dinosaur forest, near the flamingo aviary.
The route signage in the park is now closer to the signage as it is in Burgers Zoo: it guides you to general area's, but also to certain species using a pictogram. I'll take a picture next time. You'll find this general overview maps on the pole that's used to hold up the route signings.
I'm wondering if this update means the species signing will receive an update as well.
For non-Dutch speakers that wonder why the new route is called 'Padvinder', it's a combination of a few Dutch puns.
- A new education area opened, the Zoo Kitchen. Staff uses this new kitchen to prepare food for all the animals, but Amersfoort grabbed the opportunity to make the kitchen accessible to visitors. Through several glass walls, you can see meal prep, menus and the insect breeding area. These insects will serve as food to several species.
Outside the building there's informative games besides the pathway going there, teaching kids what animal eats what kind of food (and how much). One particularly fun ones are mystery packages (adressed as if they were shipped by mail to Amersfoort Zoo) that challenges kids to feel inside a box to guess what food is 'shipped' with this box, and which animal will consume it. There's also a large insect wall to house several native species.
- The park is currently hosting a winter themed event. Because of this, there's festive lighting and extra games and food stalls, but I was pleasantly surprised to notice more educative elements, especially inside theme area 'het Woud'. Near the wolf enclosure there were videos about the winter rest cycle of hedgehogs and several common insects.
- A lot of new enrichment items spotted again! Balls at the meerkats, toys for Yindi at the elephant enclosure, tons for the lions, and especially the tigers seem to be in kitty heaven, with new scratching posts, ropework and of course tons and boxes
Looking back to a year ago, I think Amersfoort has quite improved on education with the Zoo Kitchen and with animal wellfare because of the variety of enrichments being offered to the animals. It's really fun to see animals interacting with their enclosure and toys more. The past visits, I have spotted new items for different species every time. I'm sure this makes for happier animals.
Animal News
- There's a new wolf group in the forest. There seem to be five individuals of the same species as before (Eurasian). I wonder if this group was moved as a whole, or is consisting of individuals from different zoos. We noticed some behaviours that could be associated with shifting social structures in the group (gnarling, a wolf play-attacking another individual, but getting corrected, two individuals showed submission to one of the wolves, and were trying to assert dominance over others.)
For now this means the childrens adventure route under / inside the wolf enclosure is boarded off. Probably to give the wolves some more space while getting used to their new surroundings.
- Red ruffed lemurs have moved onto the macaque island. They are outside without any limit to their enclosure, but didn't seem to want to move beyond the exit of their inside enclosure. Might have been the weather today as well.
We have seen three different individuals, but more might have been inside.
