Tierpark Hellabrunn Munich zoo news

Eleven year old (reticulated) giraffe Taziyah has been found dead in her enclosure on Monday. Taziyah already has been suffering from health complications during the weekend and was getting veterinary treatment. Taziyah’s body has been through a pathological examination in LMU (Ludwig Maximillian University) but the cause in death has not been mentioned in the announcement. Taziyah arrived at Munich from Brno in 2015.

Giraffe Taziyah verstirbt in Hellabrunn - Tierpark Hellabrunn
 
I had a nice visit despite the chilly weather. Here are some observations:

  • The parts of the path that I colored in blue were blocked off to visitors due to asphalt work. To give visitors access to the lions the path by the pelicans and the path by the pheasantry by the former Villa Dracula were opened for visitors. The asphalt work made the mouse house inaccessible for visitors.
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  • The chital/axis deer enclosure was completely empty. The enclosure was unsigned.
  • The repair of the entrance of the rhinoceros house was complete. But the indoor exhibit area was still closed to the public. I assume work is also going on there as well since there was noise inside.
  • The baboon enclosure seemed to be empty for many of my last visits. I previously didn’t report it because I thought it would be temporary for the very short term. I did see one single male outside during my visit today. I do wonder what’s going on with those simians. I hope they are fine.
  • The thorny stick insect tank in the tortoise house was occupied by a grasshopper.
  • The Baron’s green racer enclosure was occupied by the Taylor’s cantils. I couldn’t see anything in the cantil enclosure.
  • The aquarium walls were getting painted.
  • There was a catshark in the mussel bank tank in the aquarium. A surprising addition since I thought the tank was a but small. The animal didn’t seem good either, it was swimming in circles near the surface.
 

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Is now the primate house completely accessible (I'm especially interested in drills and mustahed guenons)?

Are the flying foxes visible? Where are they now?
 
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Andreaghido said:
Is now the primate house completely accessible (I'm especially interested in drills and mustahed guenons)?
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The primate complex consists of multiple different indoor areas. There’s still construction going on in the drill and orang indoor viewing area but the drills should still be visible. One drill enclosure is accessible to visitors while the other is behind the construction area. Mustached guenons are in the gorilla and chimpanzee indoor building.

Indian flying foxes are in the giant tortoise house. You should be able to see them hang by the plants next to the visitor path/barrier.
 
Today was my last visit to Hellabrunn this year. There were some noticeable changes:

  • The axis deer I couldn’t see last time were seen in the nilgai+blackbuck enclosure
  • The closed paths by the former chamois and moose enclosures were open again.
  • Sloths are now back on display with the rhinoceros house being open again.
  • In the orange-drill indoor area there were two large tanks that were waiting to be installed.
  • The signage for the Taylor’s cantils and baron’s green racers were swapped. The former cantil enclosure is still under preparation
  • The jellyfish tank is finally complete. I am not good with jellies but the tank was full with what looms like juvenile moon jellies.
  • There were rope/wire barriers by the moats in the Persian fallow deer, American bison, and “aurochs”+”tarpan” enclosure. I am not sure if this is an annual thing done for the maintenance of the filled moats or if this will be followed by a construction.
  • Edit because I forgot it. The former green tree python tank had what seemed like red-legged orb weavers. I counted at five individuals. The enclosure was unsigned.
 
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According to the zoo’s podcast Mia san Tier, the terrariums in the orange+drill indoor area will be home to Rio-Pescado stubfoot toads, which are currently behind the scenes. According to a podcast episode from September last year, the zoo obtained fifteen individuals last year.
 
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The Zoo has raised the ticket prices. Starting from February 1 an adult ticket will cost 20 Euros. An annual membership for adults will cost 69 Euros.
 
The zoo published an article about the changes and plans for 2025. These include:

Renovation of the zebra stable and banteng barn. The animals will be moved elsewhere within the zoo while these renovations happen.

Giant anteaters are now in the renovated rhinoceros house.

In addition to the RP stubfoot toads, the zoos herpetological collection will be welcoming specked padloper and serrated tortoise in the snake hall of the aquarium.

The mouse house will be redesigned to include three new species including the Bavarian pine vole.

The JungleWorld is expected to be completed end of this year.

Link to news:

Das bringt 2025 in Hellabrunn: Tiere, Projekte und mehr - Tierpark Hellabrunn
 
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Very happy about the planned arrival and exhibit for Bavarian pine voles...(Maushaus) and the overhaul of the reptile collection (new stubfoot toads and imminent arrival of Southern African rare tortoise species...)!

I do find the comments about giant anteaters in the Rhino House quite the curiosity! What is the long term plan for the Rhino House? Will they renovate the rhino holdings and the outdoor exclosures soon? Are there plans for a new rhino cow (bull Nikolaus is not that genetically important for the population, however it is now one collection bare with no breeding female)?????
 
PossumRoach said:
In addition to the RP stubfoot toads, the zoos herpetological collection will be welcoming specked padloper and serrated tortoise in the snake hall of the aquarium.
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I reread the article and noticed some errors on my part. The tortoises are already in the snake hall of the aquarium. The stubfoot toads are not alone in the orangutan drill house. There will be three other species.

Also, the zoo does not list Baron’s green racers on its website anymore and according to ZTL the zoo doesn’t keep them anymore.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I do find the comments about giant anteaters in the Rhino House quite the curiosity! What is the long term plan for the Rhino House? Will they renovate the rhino holdings and the outdoor exclosures soon? Are there plans for a new rhino cow (bull Nikolaus is not that genetically important for the population, however it is now one collection bare with no breeding female)?
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According to the Masterplan published in 2016 the rhinoceros house is slated to be a South America House featuring the usual South American species such as capybara, rhea, vicugna along with some smaller species such as agouti, cuban hutia, seba’s short-tailed bat. The park will be phasing out greater one horned rhinoceros and instead will be getting white rhinoceros for a mixed species savanna enclosure. Of course the plans could have changed since then.
 
OK, I did not realise that the Rhino House was planned to become a South America House now. Sure sad to see the Indian GOHR go, but their history at Hellabrunn has been more than mixed with the male/female being incompatible, the cow getting reproductive health issues and eventually just a failure to breed... (plus the bull Nikolaus is not exactly one of the most valuable bull and his bloodline is fairly over-represented ... anyway). I assume given his age at 36 they will let him live out the remainder of his years at Hellabrunn.

With regard to a new African savannah themed exhibit ..., I would love to see the plans for that ...! They did rebuild the Giraffe House not too long ago (2013). Is planning still on course for a spring 2025 opening?

BTW: The zoo is also currently still working on the Dschungelpalast/Tropenwelt (re-opening: late 2025). First activities for the grand scale renovation and rebuilding were started in October 2023.
 
I visited early in the morning. Here’s what I saw today.

  • I saw both of the new turtle species. However I didn’t see the two species together. I saw two serrated turtles around opening hours and one speckled padloper after a couple hours. They were in the former Taylor’s cantil enclosure. As previously mentioned the cantils are in the former Baron’s green racer enclosure.
  • The zoo no longer keeps swamp wallabies. Their indoor enclosure was unsigned and was occupied by agile wallabies.
  • I counted two Madagascar crested ibises and six radiated tortoises in the giant tortoise house. Neither species are listed in the zoo’s website.
  • The green keeled lizard enclosure was empty.
  • The new giant anteater enclosure is the enclosure next to the Visayan warty pig enclosure.
 
PossumRoach said:
I visited early in the morning. Here’s what I saw today.

  • I saw both of the new turtle species. However I didn’t see the two species together. I saw two serrated turtles around opening hours and one speckled padloper after a couple hours. They were in the former Taylor’s cantil enclosure. As previously mentioned the cantils are in the former Baron’s green racer enclosure.
  • The zoo no longer keeps swamp wallabies. Their indoor enclosure was unsigned and was occupied by agile wallabies.
  • I counted two Madagascar crested ibises and six radiated tortoises in the giant tortoise house. Neither species are listed in the zoo’s website.
  • The green keeled lizard enclosure was empty.
  • The new giant anteater enclosure is the enclosure next to the Visayan warty pig enclosure.
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I also forgot to mention that the yaks were at the former kiang enclosure. The yak and kiang enclosures were not connected.
 
As previously mentioned, the zoo will be moving many animals within the zoo while the banteng and zebra barns are getting renovated. The moves are listed on the website as the following:

The mountain zebras are in the former kiang enclosure.

The blue cranes are in the nyala enclosure.

The greater kudus are with the Dama gazelles.

The ostriches are set to move to the holding area of the pygmy goats which are by the Isar entrance.

The bantengs are occupying the half of the rhinoceros enclosure which was previously occupied by Rapti.

The bird show neighboring the banteng enclosure is also suspended due to the construction.

In non-animal related news, the suspension bridge by the farm area is open again for visitors.
 
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