Ouwehands Zoo Ouwehands Dierenpark, Rhenen

Recently a female Eastern bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci) arrived from a Zoo in France to accompany the already present female. Ouwehands now has 2 female bongos which are actually half-sisters from eachother.

Source:
Instagram of Ouwehands Dierenpark (06/06/2022) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cec_Y_YKrQ6/
 
oflory said:
Excited to visit the zoo for the first time tomorrow. Would anyone be able to help with the location of the following species (drawn from ZTL)?

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The turtle used to be present in the same enclosures as the alligator gars in Urucu, still a slight chance it is there but unsigned. The frog also used to be in Urucu.
 
oflory said:
Excited to visit the zoo for the first time tomorrow. Would anyone be able to help with the location of the following species (drawn from ZTL)?

Click to expand...

The blue-eared starling might be in the Africa House (indoor enclosure of the Mandrills and Bongo), but ZTL doesn't often get updates from Ouwehands so you can't really be sure
 
The Facebook page of the Dutch Zoo Inside podcast reports a new construction site at Ouwehands, near the clouded leopard exhibit and the indoor playground.

They are speculating Ouwehands might be developing a koala exhibit, and although they refer to "multiple sources", nothing official is cited or confirmed, so it might still be something else being developed. The construction site does look quite large.

Zoo Inside Facebook post
 
lintworm said:
In an unsurprising announcement Ouwehands have officially said they will start housing Australian grey tree fungi, aka koala, from summer 2023 onwards.

Source: Ouwehands Facebook.
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A bit of a surprising decision given their recent complaint about the high energy costs and the potential impact thereof on animal welfare.

Koalas are not exactly a low-energy species.

Btw, I like the term "Australian grey tree fungus". Personally if we are talking Oceanian arboreal species I find tree kangaroos more attractive and interesting.
 
KevinB said:
A bit of a surprising decision given their recent complaint about the high energy costs and the potential impact thereof on animal welfare.

Koalas are not exactly a low-energy species.

Btw, I like the term "Australian grey tree fungus". Personally if we are talking Oceanian arboreal species I find tree kangaroos more attractive and interesting.
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That complaint about high energy costs can't have been a real problem as they are still having a 3 month light festival starting now....
 
lintworm said:
That complaint about high energy costs can't have been a real problem as they are still having a 3 month light festival starting now....
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I don't think they would have made the complaint if there is no ground to it at all. But it is true that other zoos have cancelled their light festivals or are only running them for a much shorter period.

I also wonder where they will get koalas, given the current state of the European breeding program...
 
KevinB said:
I don't think they would have made the complaint if there is no ground to it at all. But it is true that other zoos have cancelled their light festivals or are only running them for a much shorter period.

I also wonder where they will get koalas, given the current state of the European breeding program...
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That they have higher energy costs is no surprise, they mentioned they could triple from 0.4 million euros to 1.2 million euros. But in the same article Ouwehands said they were expecting some sort of government compensation. That sounds insincere at best if you still insist on holding a light festival (also, what kind of sustainability message does that send...). Ouwehands is a financially healthy zoo that can easily manage such a price hike, probably better than any other Dutch zoo. So yes it is a serious issue, but they don't really have a lot of ground to complain and even less to ask for government subsidies...
 
Ouwehands mentioned that the koalas will be housed in a large new area called "The Australian Experience". It will be an area of 1800m2 with an 170m2 "indoor garden" in the middle, housing the koalas. They will have access to outside enclosures as well as night quarters.

They also mention a small aspect of the design: the visitor will be taken from the heat of the desert to a central "oasis". They also say they're going to recreate the koala's natural habitat as well as they can. Which hopefully means we won't get the typical concrete box koalas are usually confined to

The central house will be outfitted with solar panels to lessen fossil fuels
 
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