Yesterday I visited the zoo of Duisburg once again. That was about 10 years ago now. The very first time I went there must have been in the mid-1990s. It must have been one of my first zoos outside of Belgium and the Netherlands. At the time, I thought it was a special zoo because they had many animals I had never or rarely seen: koalas, fossas, clouded leopards, giant otters, ... Over the next two decades I visited regularly but I didn't see much progress in the garden. At that time I was used to some innovation from Planckendael and Blijdorp, for example. So I was curious to see whether much had changed in the last decade, but I was disappointed. Quite a few species disappeared, what was added was hardly to be seen and only new enclosures where build for lynxes and wild cats. Many animals with stereotypical behavior. Delphins who, between shows, were busy throwing up water with their snouts to catch it with their mouths. Elephants who had nothing to do and moved back and forth (no branches, no hay nets or tubes), fossas running back and forth along the wire mesh in rather bare cages. The monkey house in the 1990s was not to be seen, that it still exists is actually a shame. Many enclosuers were poorly maintained (dirty water, nettles in stays, ...) and also the trails poorly maintained. A lot of lost spaces as for example an enclosure with 1 white stork and a dry field with 10 zebra's. One could easily and without great costs put some antilopes with the zebra's and make some protected vegetation in the enclosure. What was invested in were the restaurants. A matter of priorities, of course.I will not be visiting the zoo the next 10 years or so. A lot more and better zoos in het Ruhr area.
The little one has now started to leave the burrow (it was first seen by keepers on June 17th), but a lot of luck is currently needed to see it as a visitor.
