German zoo visit questions

ralph said:
How much are German zoos currently suffering from covid (and/or bird flu) regulations/restrictions?
I know some covid-restrictions will be lifted on march 20th.
Is it to be expected that from that date, animal houses and similar buildings will all be visitable again?

Or is it different for each zoo/city/state?
Berlin had very few restrictions when I visited in september, while Magdeburg still had a lot.
Planning on visiting Hamburg, Hannover, Osnabruck and Walsrode in early april, but I might cancel if parts of those zoos will be off limits still.
Click to expand...


Zoos all are bound to state legislature and there can be local differences within each state. With rapidly growing infection numbers these days I would not be too sure about lifting everything as planned on March 20.

For the zoos you mentioned:

- Hamburg: you will need to wear a FFP2 mask in all animal houses and the aquarium.

- Hannover: you need to have a proof of being vaccinated (I think twice, also counts for Johnson & Johnson) or a public covid test max 24 hrs old to enter the zoo. Also here you will need to wear a FFP2 mask in all indoor places

- Osnabrück: same as Hannover. On top you will need to wear the FFP2 mask also in outside places where crowds have to be expected (entrance area, food areas)

- Walsrode: does not state any covid rules yet, probably as they do not open their season before March 19. You will have to expect the same rules as in Hannover/Osnabrück as it's Lower Saxony as well.

The animal houses should be open in all four mentioned zoos though.
 
Thanks a lot! I'm fully vaccinated and I'm ok with wearing a mask. I just don't want a repeat of Magdeburg where I missed out on all of the animal houses last year.
 
Hi Zoochatters.

I'm going also to Berlin in April so I had a few questions about a few species which I want to see but they aren't on the map.

Zoo Berlin
- Bornean bearded pig (next to the Eagle Canyon this house?)
- Chinese water deer
- Southern gerenuk (somewhere in the antelope house)


Tierpark Berlin
- Baewan deer
- Chinese water deer
- Coquerel sifaka (ape house?)
- Iberian wolf
- Unstriped tamandua (Long-tailed tamandu)
- Yellow-footed rock-wallaby
- Western grey kangaroo
- Siberian musk deer
- Southern gerenuk (next to the oryx?)
- Mountain reedbuck
- Southern pig-tailed macaque

Thank you for your answers!

Fat-tailed dwarf lemur
 
Yes, bearded pig is in the pig area close to the Bird of prey area, next to the red forest buffalo and across from the white-lipped peccaries. Go here early, the individual is usually asleep in the afternoon.
Chinese water deer is in the deer area across the cat house, next to the sika deer. In Tierpark, they are in the Pere Dave's deer enclosure (mixed species)
Gerenuk in the Zoo are indeed in the Antelope house, in Tierpark they're in the area with the desert antilopes (between Cape Buffalo and Arabian oryx)
Bawean deers in TP are in the same enclosure as the Eld's deer. Their enclosure is easy to miss, it's between the Heron house and the Gayals.
Sifaka's indeed in the monkey house
Wolfs are between the camelids and pachyderm house
Yellow-footed rock wallaby are in the walk-through enclosure close to the cafetaria (mixed with walleroos) The grey kangaroos are in a seperate enclosure next to that.
Musk deer was not in the collection in sept 2021 so I'm not sure. Before that, they were in an enclosure across the Pere Dave's deer. I'm guessing they'll return there after the bharal and Marco Polo sheep will return to the Himalaya area.
Reedbuck are across the waterbucks, very close to the Giraffe House
Pig-tailed macaques are in the former Japanese macaque enclosure, between the Przwalski horses and the pheasantry
 
Mo Hassan said:
Thanks both for the suggestion. I moved around my itinerary so it now looks like:

Saturday 19th: Arrive in Berlin
Sunday 20th: Train to Magdeburg -> Magdeburg Zoo -> Taxi to Bierer Berg -> stay in Magdeburg overnight
Monday 21st: Train to Leipzig -> Leipzig Zoo -> stay in Leipzig overnight
Tuesday 22nd: Wildpark Leipzig -> Halle Zoo -> train to Berlin
Wednesday 23rd: Zoo Berlin
Thursday 24th: Tierpark Berlin
Friday 25th: Wildkatzenzentrum -> Aquarium or Museum fur Naturkunde -> home





Thanks both, much appreciated!



Indeed their site is not very informative. Thanks for the heads-up.
Click to expand...

I'm at Leipzig Zoo tomorrow, I might see you there! :)
 
migdog said:
Thanks :)

We went today as well. Lucked out on seeing the pangolin but saw the Sri Lankan giant squirrel at around 9:30am and then no sign of it on the other 3 visits to the elephant house.
Click to expand...

Very lucky indeed - last one in Europe I believe, pretty elderly, and pretty much zero chance of more coming in!
 
@Mo Hassan Hey did you get to see the latest arrivals at Wildkatzenzentrum Felidae yesterday?

They have 3 subspecies of hyena now, just as Berlin Tierpark used to have.
 
Only just getting round to seeing this thread, hard to keep up with notifications!

migdog said:
I'm at Leipzig Zoo tomorrow, I might see you there! :)
Click to expand...

I ended up visiting on the 22nd, had to eliminate some zoos from my plans due to illness on my first day.

migdog said:
Thanks :)

We went today as well. Lucked out on seeing the pangolin but saw the Sri Lankan giant squirrel at around 9:30am and then no sign of it on the other 3 visits to the elephant house.
Click to expand...

I am so disappointed that I saw neither of these :(. The pangolin is especially frustrating, as you can imagine, as I was not feeling really well anyway but made it up to the building indicated on the map but the entrance was blocked off. I must have completely missed the giant squirrel, I don't even remember if I saw the elephant house. Hope it's still there next time.

Magdeburg was even worse though. I didn't see the marbled polecat or Grandidier's vontsira!!!! Couldn't even find the latter, and spent over an hour in total waiting for the polecats to show (evidently I missed feeding time). With a lot of buildings closed, no-show golden jackals, and very few birds on show, it was a disappointing day for the most part.

Tierpark was so difficult due to not feeling incredibly well but did at least get to tour the Alfred Brehm Haus and tick off most of the species there (no earless monitor though :().

markmeier said:
@Mo Hassan Hey did you get to see the latest arrivals at Wildkatzenzentrum Felidae yesterday?

They have 3 subspecies of hyena now, just as Berlin Tierpark used to have.
Click to expand...

I unfortunately didn't make it there either. I changed my plans so that I had less stress to get to the airport and save some money. I will visit in the near future though! Going to plan a shorter trip over a weekend to try Tierpark again, now Himalaya and the train are open.
 
The Grandidier's votsira are in an enclosure inside of the lemur walkthrough enclosure. It was closed in september, so I missed out on them too.

I did see the polecat though.It was sleeping in it's little den initially, but I saw it active during a second try. It was back in it's den at the end of the day. So techinally, it was visible the entire day, even though a curled-up, sleeping ball of fur isn't that interesting ofcourse.

I believe the pangolins in Leipzig used to have a feeding time, but not anymore, so more luck is required to see them.
 
I think in all zoos I visited that had springhares, including Berlin (before the renovations) I've had no problems seeing the species. It's not a notorious no-show in my experience.
 
Today I was in the Tierpark Berlin. I was very Lucky and saw the most animals. But one animal the arabian striped hyena wouldn't show Up. Thats why I asked a zookeeper there. She said they are usuallay asleep at this time. When are they most likely to see? At which time of day?
 
Fat-tailed dwarf lemur said:
Today I was in the Tierpark Berlin. I was very Lucky and saw the most animals. But one animal the arabian striped hyena wouldn't show Up. Thats why I asked a zookeeper there. She said they are usuallay asleep at this time. When are they most likely to see? At which time of day?
Click to expand...

I got lucky on my visit and saw the hyaena active twice, both in the afternoon.
 
Mo Hassan said:
Zoo Berlin

- The zoo keeps “Barbary” and Kruger lions; are they kept separately or is it possible to discern the two easily?
Click to expand...
1,2 Kruger lions are on the exhibit in the empire of cats. The old 0,1 Barbay lion is not on display. She lives "behind the scenes" in the bear district. You can often hear her roaring but you can't see her.

Mo Hassan said:
- Same question for the chimpanzees but with generic/eastern/western?
Click to expand...
All the five chimpanzees live on the same exhibit, but there are no information about their sub-species-status on the informations boards. You have to ask the keeper and you will get this kind of informations. I recommend the public feeding on 1.30 PM, after which you can talk to the keeper.
 
Hi Zoochatters.

I'm going also to Magdeburg in August so I had a few questions about a few species which I want to see but they aren't on the map.

Zoo Magdeburg
- Grandidier's mongoose (so the Zootierliste says in the Madagascar exibith, is this where the lemures are at the map?)
- Goral
- Marbled polecat (when?)
- Mona monkey
- Serval

Thank you for your answers!

Fat-tailed dwarf lemur
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top