How many major zoos does Germany have, and what are the "must see" ones?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Hello zoo people of Germany.

I like to go on virtual tours of zoos in the ZooChat gallery and one thing that I keep coming across is the fact that there seem to be about six million zoos in Germany.

How many of these places would be considered major zoos? I'm not sure what the definition of a major zoo is. One definition would be that they have exhibits and/or species that someone would go out of their way to visit.

The Berlin Zoo and Tierpark are world famous, and the Leipzig Zoo is all over ZooChat because of Gondwanaland, but what are the other "must see" zoos in Germany that either German zoo enthusiasts or international tourists trek to?
 
DavidBrown said:
Hello zoo people of Germany.

I like to go on virtual tours of zoos in the ZooChat gallery and one thing that I keep coming across is the fact that there seem to be about six million zoos in Germany.

How many of these places would be considered major zoos? I'm not sure what the definition of a major zoo is. One definition would be that they have exhibits and/or species that someone would go out of their way to visit.

The Berlin Zoo and Tierpark are world famous, and the Leipzig Zoo is all over ZooChat because of Gondwanaland, but what are the other "must see" zoos in Germany that either German zoo enthusiasts or international tourists trek to?
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Some interesting "new school" German zoos include Hannover and Gelsenkerchen, with old standards including Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Duisburg, Dresden, Wuppertal, Stuttgart, and Dortmund. And about 5 million others!
 
Cologne, Duisburg, Frankfurt, ZOOM Erlebniswelt, Hagenbeck, Hannover, Munich, Munster, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Wuppertal
 
It depends what you consider a major zoo (numbers of species, size, numbers of visitors, zoos with elephants, hippos and/or giraffes etc.)

To those you and others have already mentioned, I would add: Zoo Erfurt (nice hillside zoo with elephants, one of the bigger German zoos in size); Zoo Osnabrueck (close to Muenster, also with elephants and some newer african style exhibits); Zoo Rostock (a larger zoo with elephant and polar bears); Zoo Krefeld (elephants and a nice South American themed Building) and Zoo Augsburg (in Bavaria; elephants and a nice African savannah). Then there is a nice Indoor-Zoo in Duesseldorf (Aquazoo) with mainly invertebrates, fishes, amphibias, reptiles, penguins and some smaller mammals). If you are fond of birds, then nothing beats Weltvogelpark Walsrode (between Hannover and Hamburg). And if you like to see a very reach collection of venomous critters, then the Gifttierhaus Eimsheim (unfortunately in the middle of nowhere) is the no 1.
 
I was greatly underwhelmed by the book "What Zoos Can Do", but its listing of major zoos in Europe is probably the one moderately authoritative thing about it. It lists the following German zoos as among the top thirty zoos in Europe:
Berlin Tierpark
Berlin Zoo
Cologne
Duisburg
Frankfurt
Gelsenkirchen
Hagenbeck (Hamburg)
Hanover
Karlsruhe
Leipzig
Munich
Munster
Nuremberg
Stuttgart

The following make it into the top 80 zoos:
Augsburg
Dortmund
Dresden
Erfurt
Halle
Heidelberg
Krefeld
Kronberg
Magdeburg
Osnabruck
Rostock
Wuppertal

I believe the two categories are based on attendance, rather than quality as such.
 
CGSwans said:
I was greatly underwhelmed by the book "What Zoos Can Do", but its listing of major zoos in Europe is probably the one moderately authoritative thing about it. It lists the following German zoos as among the top thirty zoos in Europe:
Berlin Tierpark
Berlin Zoo
Cologne
Duisburg
Frankfurt
Gelsenkirchen
Hagenbeck (Hamburg)
Hanover
Karlsruhe
Leipzig
Munich
Munster
Nuremberg
Stuttgart

The following make it into the top 80 zoos:
Augsburg
Dortmund
Dresden
Erfurt
Halle
Heidelberg
Krefeld
Kronberg
Magdeburg
Osnabruck
Rostock
Wuppertal

I believe the two categories are based on attendance, rather than quality as such.
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Anthony Sheridan has 26 different factors that were considered when ranking European zoos, and he then narrowed those facts down into 3 broad areas (Visitor Factors, Education & Conservation, Commercial & Organization) to achieve his final rankings of all 80 zoos. You are correct that Group A and Group B were divided based on attendance within the zoos, with 1 million+ visitors in Group A and 500,000+ visitors in Group B.

What is astonishing is that of the 80 best zoos in Europe there are a staggering 26 from Germany. I often spend my summers driving around the U.S. visiting every major accredited zoo, but if I won the lottery then I could easily spend a month just in Germany sampling the zoological delicacies on offer!
 
snowleopard said:
What is astonishing is that of the 80 best zoos in Europe there are a staggering 26 from Germany. I often spend my summers driving around the U.S. visiting every major accredited zoo, but if I won the lottery then I could easily spend a month just in Germany sampling the zoological delicacies on offer!
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You would also find it much easier in Germany. German railways are very well developed and you can get to every major zoo with no difficulties. Also, they are situated much closer to each other than in the U.S. I go to Germany at least once a year to see zoos.

A good example of the closeness of the German zoos are the Ruhr district in which 6 major zoos (Cologne Zoo, Duisburg Zoo, Dortmund Zoo, Wuppertal Zoo, Krefeld Zoo and ZOOM Erlebniswelt) can all be found within 1,5 hours driving time of each other (car or train). If you are willing to extend your travel time to 2,5 hours you can also see zoos such as Frankfurt Zoo, Opelzoo Kronberg, AllwetterZoo Münster and GaiaPark (Netherlands, just across the border). If you go up to 3-4 hours you can see even more, including all the Dutch zoos which are as densely placed and of equal or higher quality to the German zoos.
 
Toddy, NEVER call Cologne, Wuppertal or Krefeld a part of Ruhr district, you will initiate great trouble...^^
 
@Toddy: If I lived somewhere in central Europe I would more than likely have already visited over 300 zoos in my lifetime, and that is not an exaggeration. The ZooChatters there can toss a rock in the air and hit a zoo or an aquarium! Here I have to load my family into a minivan, drive for 20,000 km just to see 40 major collections...but if I lived in Germany I could almost take 40 day-trips and equal the same number of establishments. It is astonishing that so many zoos battle for visitors within such a tiny geographical area.
 
snowleopard said:
It is astonishing that so many zoos battle for visitors within such a tiny geographical area.
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I know it is relative depending on where you live but it isn't that tiny. Ignoring for a moment the historical factors which allowed so many zoos to develop in the first place, a key factor here in them being sustainable is population.

If you look at a wide catchment area from Belgium, through the Netherlands and Germany, taking in Austria and Switzerland and across to the Czech Republic you have a resident population of over 130 million. And in many areas the population density is extremely high and as has been noted, very well connected both by road and public transport. So it isn't that astonishing really.
 
Aside the major German zoos, there is an astounding number of small collections, sometimes with better and more interesting enclosures then the big ones, even though the place as a whole is usually quite small. You can also find some interesting and quite rare species in some of those places as well as some surprising breeding successes. Naturzoo Rheine is probably the best known of those facilities but others like Landau are also interesting.
 
Shirokuma said:
I know it is relative depending on where you live but it isn't that tiny. Ignoring for a moment the historical factors which allowed so many zoos to develop in the first place, a key factor here in them being sustainable is population.

If you look at a wide catchment area from Belgium, through the Netherlands and Germany, taking in Austria and Switzerland and across to the Czech Republic you have a resident population of over 130 million. And in many areas the population density is extremely high and as has been noted, very well connected both by road and public transport. So it isn't that astonishing really.
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Thanks for this analysis Shirokuma. I was wondering the same thing that snowleopard was regarding how so many zoos can be sustained in what seems like short distances from each other. I think that we North Americans who have not traveled through Europe have a skewed impression based on the distances that we travel between cities, at least here in the west where snowleopard and I live.
 
BjoernN said:
Toddy, NEVER call Cologne, Wuppertal or Krefeld a part of Ruhr district, you will initiate great trouble...^^
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What are they going to do, invade again? :p

Joking aside, wouldn't Cologne, Wuppertal and Krefeld be part of the industrial area that is centred around the Ruhr then, if not part of the Ruhr itself? Or would these just be part of Nordrhein-Westfalen?


Shirokuma said:
If you look at a wide catchment area from Belgium, through the Netherlands and Germany, taking in Austria and Switzerland and across to the Czech Republic you have a resident population of over 130 million. And in many areas the population density is extremely high and as has been noted, very well connected both by road and public transport. So it isn't that astonishing really.
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Just look at the numbers of population density for a bit:

Germany = 229/km2
The Netherlands = 1105.22/km2
U.S.A. = 33.7/km2

I know these numbers don't tell the whole story but it does indicate why Europe can sustain more zoos in a denser area.
 
Hello!

in my zootrip around Europe i visited some German zoos:
Berlin zoo and the tierpark zoo are both good, i like (most) of the tierpark zoo exhibitis
Hamburg ( Hagenback) zoo was very nice
Hannover was very American (in style) and very people friendly
Halle zoo is small but very nice zoo
Leipzig is a must (espcially now after the built the new area) and the elephants exhibit
Osnabruck is nice as well but very "country" zoo
Duisburg is also a must, one of the best in Germany
Koln zoo has a great elephant exhibit (Huge one) and nice collection of animals
Heidelberg zoo is ok
Frankfurt zoo is very famouse for the night house which was very nice
Stuttgart zoo (Wilhelma zoo) is a nice zoo with some older parts but some intresting old style areas.
Munich zoo (Hellabrunn zoo) is old but has some nice spots
Nurenberg zoo is a very nice zoo which i liked, old but nice
Dresden is ok


:) if you have more questions please feel free to ask
 
If you are fond of birds, then nothing beats Weltvogelpark Walsrode (between Hannover and Hamburg).
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Agreed entirely. Walsrode is the finest bird zoo in Europe, although Loro Parque (politically European, geographically African) is ahead on parrots.
 
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