Zoo Frankfurt Frankfurt Zoo

Concept drawings should be handled with caution. I remember the concept drawing for the (still not realized) Oceanium of Zoo Basel containing great white sharks....
 
leone said:
wonderful masterplan
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This is not yet the master plan, but only a concept study, which is the basis for the master plan to be created. This should be completed within one year. For this, the city of Frankfurt will provide 700 000 euros. Only the master plan will show how much these ambitious plans will cost. I'm going from a minimum of 150 million euros, probably more. As nice as the plans are, I do not believe that they will be realized in this form, because the city of Frankfurt is bankrupt. The debt mountain of Frankfurt is higher than all Frankfurt skyscrapers together. Knowing how the city was handling their zoo in the past, I am not very confident that this will change in the future. But the concept drawings are very pretty-they are in most cases much better than the final result-with the exception of the thanksfully not realized Basle Ozenanium-or should I call it"Concreteium"? One of the worst aquarium concepts I've ever seen.

However, the concept study shows very clearly one thing - namely that the competition thinking of the zoo directors is still present. There are so many things in zoos never change. Instead of tuning the future animal inventory in Frankfurt with the nearby Opel Zoo, where there is already a large African savannah, and in the near future also a modern hippo facility will be built, of course Frankfurt must continue to hold hippos and giraffes. It would be much more sensible that Frankfurt, with the exception of Grevy zebras and black rhino, concentrates on the rainforests of Africa, Asia and South America, and keeps here instead of Hippos pygmy hippos, instead of giraffes okapis, etc. I can not exactly say that the plan of Casares is phobic ... If I were the owner of the Opel Zoo, I would still buy apes, bears, tigers and koalas ....
 
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Very good news. It shows that Frankfurt seriously thinks about staying relevant to modern audience. It has nice holistic approach of zoos in the 2010s, linking attractive exhibits, endangered species and in situ projects. Of course, projects in situ last few years only, so a zoo exhibit should not be closely tied to one particular in situ program. Up to now the new exhibits at Frankfurt were consistently good. No tackiness so common in other zoos. Apparently this is due to one staff member doing them locally.

Naturally, this project can change many times. But I like that the Frankfurt Zoo continues to keep African savanna animals. They nicely match the pioneering work of Bernhard Grzimek "Serengeti Cannot Die" which is still popular among the public. Visitors also expect ABCs in a zoo and zebras, rhinos and giraffes are e.g. both in Berlin Zoo and Berlin Tierpark and San Diego Zoo and SD Safari Park.I find it interesting and possibly revolutionary to have big mammals with access to big indoor halls. Their indoor spaces in modern zoos are usually small stalls/stables, despite they spending over half the time indoors: winter season and all nights.

One thing which a little worries me a is the 3000m2 European wetland area. I agree it is worthwhile to educate about conservation in Europe and European projects of FZS. However I am unsure if the zoo can construct a really popular exhibit in such small space. A waterbird aviary, maybe some fish, an otter or a lynx? Such exhibits really look a bit unpopular in major zoos.
 
The Annual report for 2018-the first since 1993, was published today. According to that, 4235 animals in 463 were kept at the end of 2018:

countless invertebrates in 70 Species
ca.2000 Fishes in 130 Species
231 Amphibians in 25 Species
289 Reptiles in 78 Species
283 Birds in 75 Species
1127 Mammals in 85 Species

Of course there is no complete list with all speices and changes within the inventory.

Interesting, the zoo has less bird species than reptiles and mammals... But unfortunately, the total of speices nowadays is less than the half of 1966, when the zoo has kept 965 species ( so at that time, you could call it a "zoo")
 
Bib Fortuna said:
The Annual report for 2018-the first since 1993, was published today. According to that, 4235 animals in 463 were kept at the end of 2018:

countless invertebrates in 70 Species
ca.2000 Fishes in 130 Species
231 Amphibians in 25 Species
289 Reptiles in 78 Species
283 Birds in 75 Species
1127 Mammals in 85 Species

Of course there is no complete list with all speices and changes within the inventory.

Interesting, the zoo has less bird species than reptiles and mammals... But unfortunately, the total of speices nowadays is less than the half of 1966, when the zoo has kept 965 species ( so at that time, you could call it a "zoo")
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I saw the report as well, it can be downloaded here:
http://www.zoo-frankfurt.de/fileadm...Mfx_H8R1SeSILxLbIjrmZEt_ahid8-WyANfhmuwXpt3Cs

I was surprised that the zoo's own revenue (84% of which are ticket sales), covers only 33% of the total costs made, the rest is covered by the city. It is a good thing that ticket prices are reasonable, but such a high dependency on subsidies strikes me as extremely unhealthy and risky on the long term. I am surprised Frankfurt (and other German zoos) get so little revenue out of selling food, beverages, gifts and sponsorships. They could learn some lessons from their Dutch, Belgian and Swiss counterparts there....
 
Something which struck me about Frankfurt was how reasonable the entry price was and how poor the catering options were compared with Basel for example.
 
Shirokuma said:
Something which struck me about Frankfurt was how reasonable the entry price was and how poor the catering options were compared with Basel for example.
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I rather liked the food at Frankfurt!
 
Thats probabably because the food in England is - with the exception of Asian restaurants - even worse... (Sorry, couldn't resist to kidding about your world famous fish-and-chips-cuisine....;):D:p)
 
Good food at Frankfurt Zoo ? But only in the Food kitchens in the Animal Houses....

zoomaniac said:
Thats probabably because the food in England is - with the exception of Asian restaurants - even worse... (Sorry, couldn't resist to kidding about your world famous fish-and-chips-cuisine....;):D:p)
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and boiled wild boar in peppermint sauce..see "Asterix in Britain"
 
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zoomaniac said:
Thats probabably because the food in England is - with the exception of Asian restaurants - even worse... (Sorry, couldn't resist to kidding about your world famous fish-and-chips-cuisine....;):D:p)
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Bib Fortuna said:
New Good food at Frankfurt Zoo ? But only in the Food kitchens in the Animal Houses....
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I can't actually recall precisely what I ate at Frankfurt, but I know I enjoyed it - as @lintworm can attest, as I visited the zoo in his company!

Now, if you want to talk really, really bad German zoo food, allow me to present Tierpark Hagenbeck as Exhibit A and Erlebnis-Zoo Hannover as Exhibit B.....
 
You don't know what you ate ? Wow-that's dangerous.
I can not say how good zoo restaurants are in Germany, because I prefer not to dine there for health reasons.
 
Bib Fortuna said:
New You don't know what you ate ? Wow-that's dangerous.
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You try recalling with precision what you ate on a specific day in April 2018 ;) see how well you do!

Bib Fortuna said:
I can not say how good zoo restaurants are in Germany, because I prefer not to dine there for health reasons.
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...and yet you have no trouble denigrating the quality of the Frankfurt one ;)
 
2 nice monkey-births at Frankfurt :
- on Oct. 30 a Black howler monkry was born to female Lawa. Father of the young is Santiago
- Colombian brown spider monkey born on Nov. 22 to female Ocana and male Zac.
 
Unfortunately, the Black Howler Monkey young died three weeks later. It was the second born at Frankfurt, but also the first young, born in March 2019, died shortly after the birth. No Idea, if it was both times the same mother, but it is possible.
 
The zoo has released its balance sheet for 2019. The number of animal species has decreased again.

Invertebrates : 685 in 70 species 2018 : ? / 70
Fishes : 2016 in 133 species 2018 : ca.2000 / 130
Amphibians : 285 in 19 species 2018 : 232 / 25
Reptiles : 268 in 65 species 2018 : 289 / 78
Birds: 286 in 72 species 2018 : 283 / 75
Mammals : 1012 in 89 species 2018 : 1127 / 85

So 13 species of reptiles are gone.Maybe most of them had to leave because of the extensive Renovation work on the roof.

Unfortunately, the number of visitors also fell. In 2019, 824.691 people visted the zoo, around 44.00 less than 2018.

The zoo hopes to start the remodeling and enlargement of the Lion enclosure in Spring 2021.
 
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