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I was reluctant to revisit Dierenrijk for quite a time, because the zoo switched from a Palearctic collection to not a very clear vision on the collection, but today I visited the zoo at the end. I liked the two mixed Asian enclosures (elephant + crab-eating macaque + chital + red deer; rhino + hog deer + nilgau + warty pig) and some of the great enclosures that I saw on my previous visit some ten years ago are still there.
 
AWP said:
I was reluctant to revisit Dierenrijk for quite a time, because the zoo switched from a Palearctic collection to not a very clear vision on the collection, but today I visited the zoo at the end. I liked the two mixed Asian enclosures (elephant + crab-eating macaque + chital + red deer; rhino + hog deer + nilgau + warty pig) and some of the great enclosures that I saw on my previous visit some ten years ago are still there.
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Libema - the parent company - made a great turn around for this park too when they took over from Zoodiac Zoos.

I think they have created a neat and attractive zoo experience with an informed move away from that concept and introduced a mix of visitor favourites with lesser sexy species and the landscaping is wonderfully done. When I visited earlier they had just gotten the Indian rhino and to my great and contented surprise also Visayan warty pigs.
 
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AWP said:
I liked the two mixed Asian enclosures (elephant + crab-eating macaque + chital + red deer; rhino + hog deer + nilgau + warty pig)
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Does the first work well ? I am curious to have your personnal feelings. The enclosure seems not to be so large and so complete for all the species.
 
Antoine said:
Does the first work well ? I am curious to have your personnal feelings. The enclosure seems not to be so large and so complete for all the species.
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There is 2 enclosures and a separation area for the 2 female rhino to that. There is plenty of space for the hog deer and muntjac with these 2 in exclosure 2. Exclosure 1 is for the male rhino and decidedly smaller, but equally designed and landscaped to allow for animals to separate. On that side the Visayan warty pigs are housed too.

The latter 2 females are actually on temporary loan while Zoo Berlin is rebuilding their Rhino House. They have said they will have a younger animal in at a later date for the young male.
 
Antoine said:
Does the first work well ? I am curious to have your personnal feelings. The enclosure seems not to be so large and so complete for all the species.
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I'm not sure I ever saw a mixed enclosure with elephants and ungulates (Beekse Bergen has baboons with elephants), but it seemed to work well. Elephants and red deer (I saw two females) were feeding together with the macaques walking around them. There is a small fenced area with trees were the macaques can retreat away from the elephants and deer.
 
Thank you AWP for your answer. Good to know it seems to work. It could be a great idea to do the same on larger exhibit !
To answer your question :
- Zürich mix asian elephants and blackbucks and,
- at Boras the elephant cows share the african plains with buffalos, giraffes and antelopes.
- a zoo un Italy (I don't remember the name) has a mixed exhibit for asian elephant cows and gaurs.
 
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I remember the exhibit too. I prefer them at some point to take out the red deer and replace these with black buck and axis deer at the very least. The red deer seemed very out of place (allthough I assume they are a relict from the Palearctic themed zoo).

I would appreciate if they would set up a separate area with the red deer somewhere in the European area (wild boar ..?) as they can tell the story of the new national park coming up in Brabant with red deer (having been reintroduced ..., that is a few years back in order to restore ecosystem and habitat for this unrare species elsewhere and ultra rare in fenced exclosures in some parts of the Netherlands). Admittedly, the current layout of the zoo does not leave much room for an exhibit (unless they own land outside their current perimeter).
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Libema - the parent company - made a great turn around for this park too when they took over from Zoodiac Zoos.

I think they have created a neat and attractive zoo experience with an informed move away from that concept and introduced a mix of visitor favourites with lesser sexy species and the landscaping is wonderfully done. When I visited earlier they had just gotten the Indian rhino and to my great and contented surprise also Visayan warty pigs.
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What is the history of this company zoodiac zoos?
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Libema - the parent company - made a great turn around for this park too when they took over from Zoodiac Zoos.
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What do you mean? That they turned this park around in the same era they acquired the Zoodiac Zoos? Because Dierenrijk was never owned by Zoodiac as far as I am aware...

PossumRoach said:
What is the history of this company zoodiac zoos?
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Perhaps the wrong thread, but Zoodiac was a relatively small company that started with a small Zoo called Wissel Zoo in a Dutch town, Epe. They then started Overloon Zoo from scratch and acquired an old otter breeding and rewilding centre called AquaLutra and turned it into what is now known as AquaZoo Friesland.

When the company went bankrupt, Libema (a bigger company that operates Safaripark Beekse Bergen among other leisure things) bought it. Wissel Zoo was closed and the other two parks are still in operation today.

Zoodiac were imo masters in creating budget exhibits for small, rare in captivity species that were decent enough for the animals and offered perfect sight for the visitors, with plenty of live vegetation. They were among my favorite parks to visit.
 
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My observations were indeed given credence with citing Zodiac by example. Dierenrijk Europa went through a rough time itself and when the focus was on purely European animal species it seemed to waver a bit - justly or unjustly so -. Pretty much how the company Zoodiac Zoos had a brilliant focus, just probably not the business plan like acumen to pull it off.

BTW: I remain convinced a purely European focussed animal collection can work in The Netherlands, even given its small geographic area.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
BTW: I remain convinced a purely European focussed animal collection can work in The Netherlands, even given its small geographic area.
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I agree, or a bit wider scope with palearctic animals. Plenty of interesting animals for the general public I guess, with wolves, brown and polar bears, seals, otters, elks, Barbary macaques etc. With the other option you can add camels, tigers and even giant pandas. For some reason both Dierenrijk and Ouwehands failed in their European/palearctic concept.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
BTW: I remain convinced a purely European focussed animal collection can work in The Netherlands, even given its small geographic area.
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I agree with you most often, but I more than happy to find we still differ on some matters :)

I do not believe a European theme could be made economically viable for a commercially operating leisure company. Just my 2 cents...
 
Last month(September) the zoo received 4 Humboldt penguins from a zoo in Germany, Dierenrijk now has 25 penguins.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHFSMjUqiSG/

Interesting to know is that Dierenrijk opened the penguins enclosure at the beginning of this year on the 10th of February. When the enclosure opened a total of 24 penguins were present (14.8 according to zootierliste), which came from both London zoo and Zooparc de Beauval.

Pinguïns feestelijk ontvangen in Dierenrijk - Dierenrijk
 
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