Planning trip to Cologne and nearby

[Kakapo]

Dear zoochatters,
This summer I will go to Köln (Cologne), where I would like to visit every collection of biodiversity (zoo, botanical garden, natural history museum, aquariums, butterfly houses, etc). I also will visit Duisburg (my main goal) and if possible Bonn. I want to see (and of course photograph) as many collections as I can. I did a bit of research and I will try the next:

Koelner Zoo. With 32 species exclusively found here between European zoos (mainly fishes and amphibians), many other very rarely kept species (kept in less than 6 zoos) and species very wished for me (the first goal is the douc langur, also trunk snake, various rare species of dart frogs, flame-breasted fruit dove and some other rare fruit doves, Matschie's tree kangaroo, elephant shrews, large-spotted genet, red duiker, pinecone fish, plumed whistling duck, bamboo snake, Australian lungfish, african pygmy goose, Baja California lizard, luzon cloud rat, Rodrigues fruit bat, pudu, golden langur...)

Flora (Cologne botanical garden). Very close to the Zoo, open daily and free entry.

Geomuseum, the mineral and fossil museum from the University. Less important, optional to me as I already photographed widely various extensive collection of German fossils... It's surprising to me that seems to lack a true Natural History Museum in Köln, being an important city.

Duisburg Zoo, with less number of total species than Cologne but I believe that generally the species are more interesting. Here is the reason of my travel, I want to photograph the Amazon River Dolphin before he dies (as he is old....), and I also want to meet again my dear friend Johannes. Appart of the dolphin, there are other 12 species exclusive to this zoo amongst European zoos (almost all are fishes), some very rare species, and species so wished to me as Kori bustard, fossa, Goodfellow's tree kangaroo, green knifefish, Madagascar giant rat, Australian lungfish, giant otters and arctic fox.

Museum Köenig, Bonn. 40 minutes in train/subway to Köln, and said to be the best natural history museum in the area. I must take in account that is closed on Mondays.

Botanical Garden Bonn. Closed on saturdays. I probably should visit both the same day as will be difficult to visit nearby cities for more than a day. I don't know if I will have enough time for both thing at same day, taking in account that I must photograph most of the exhibited species If I must choose, I would choose first the Museum as I have Flora for compensation.

My main question is:
There is another interesting collection in Cologne or in nearby cities that are easily accesible by public transport and not too expensive?

Also I would like to hear some advices for a better experience, f. e. there are any of the wished animals off-exhibit or all of them are accesible to public? are some of them too shy, or in bad enclosures for photograph them (too much plants or hides, etc), some of the mentioned species pass the day sleeping and there will be a chance only at the opening time...? etc etc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vision]

Cologne - I've never seen trunk snake there on my past 3 visits (2015-2016), so I'm not sure if those are a recent addition or off-show? All mammals and birds you mention are on-show except for Hausa genet. Also, look out for Weddell's saddleback tamarin and Red-bellied sun squirrel, as they are the only ones of their species in Europe!

Duisburg - Dolphin, bustard, fossa, tree kangaroo, lungfish and otters should be easy to spot, I missed out on arctic fox and giant rat when I was there. (but didn't look very hard either, as I visited on the same day as Krefeld so had to go through the zoo quickly)

Other collections:

-Wuppertal is relatively closeby and they have the only Indian leopards outside of Asia, Andean cock-of-the-rock, purple-throated fruitcrow, little friarbird, white-tailed trogon, blue manakin, crested and blue coua, 3 eider species, pacific hornero, yellow-backed duiker, Ansell's mole-rat, Temminck's golden cat, Gordon's wild cat, etc. One of my favorite German zoos!

-Krefeld is very close to Duisburg and has mountain goats, jaguarundi, mountain anoa, Taiwanese reeves' muntjac, Gambian epauletted bats, etc.

-Frankfurt is a bit of a journey but doable from Cologne, and has quoll, Brazilian porcupine, cloud rats, feathertail gliders, slender lorises, continental Europe's only aye-ayes, and black-and-rufous elephant shrews in the biggest nocturnal house in the world. Other than that they also have klipspringers, south-central black rhinoceros, hellbenders, etc.

-Dortmund is also somewhat closeby but I don't know the collection well, as I haven't been there.

 

[bongorob]

You are lucky.

 

[Sneeuwpanter]

Duisburg also has tasmanian devils since april.

 

[Tim May]

That area of Germany has some great zoos all within easy travelling distance from each other; in addition to Cologne and Duisburg, as “Vision” has already mentioned, Wuppertal, Dortmund and Krefeld are relatively close too.

Munster and Gelsenkirchen are also easily reached by public transport from Cologne.

“Vision” also mentions Frankfurt which is one of my very favourite zoos although I have never attempted to travel there by public transport from Cologne; I tend to stay in Frankfurt when visiting the zoo there.

If time is limited, I think that the three main zoos that you should concentrate on are Cologne, Wuppertal and Duisburg; you certainly don’t want to miss those.

I thoroughly recommend the Natural History Museum in Bonn too; it has a great African diorama.

 

[Tim May]

Further to my earlier post, the aquarium in Dusseldorf (Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum) is also within easy travelling distance from Cologne.

However, this aquarium was closed for renovation the last couple of times I've been in the area and I am not sure when it will be reopening....

 

[Kakapo]

Thanks a lot for your complete replies, dear pals! Certainly time is limited, as I only have eight days and will travel with my mother who wants to see other things.

Vision, the trunk snake is not the usual species A. javanicus but another one, being Köln the only holder: ZootierlisteHomepage Maybe I did a bit of mess with common names, I'm more familiar with scientific ones.

Hausa genet was one of the very important ones for me :-( I saw it at Plzen zoo some years ago but the enclosure was in absolute darkness, and was of course impossible to take photos as camera can't focus in that light. There is no way of visit it behind the scenes? I don't mind too much the tamarin because I consider as the same species than Saguinus fuscicollis, species that I already have from Plzen. I took the squirrel in account, just an unknown species for me but unique in European zoos so I must have, hehe.

I like arctic foxes that I never saw but to miss it is not so important because there are a loooot in european zoos, so soon or later I will have it. Would be better in winter, hehe. For giant rats, I saw in London zoo eleven years ago, sharing enclosure with aye-aye, but too dark for take photos.

From what Vision and Tim May says, looks like than if any other nearby city can be visited, Wuppertal is the best choice. Frankfurt is too far, and we always travel from Köln. I don't mind on subspecies (Indian leopard, Taiwan muntjack, etc), but I wish a lot some of the other species. Blue coua is also present at Köln, the crested I already have. Eiders are interesting, overall if they have my favourite one (spectacled), but as arctic fox, better in winter hehe. I missed yellow-backed duiker in San Diego :-( theorically present but was too difficult to visit all the enclosures in a limited time... And for Temminck golden cat I would die!!!! Also mountain anoa... I already have mountain goat, jaguarundi, epauletted fruit bat and tasmanian devil, but always a delight to see!

The Natural History Museum of Bonn (Museum Koenig) was contemplated already, probably is the only one that I will visit...

Thanks a lot for your kind and very complete replies. Now I have a very good idea of what can be seen in nearby cities to Cologne.

 

[Najade]

Duisburg Zoo, with less number of total species than Cologne but I believe that generally the species are more interesting. Here is the reason of my travel, I want to photograph the Amazon River Dolphin before he dies (as he is old....), and I also want to meet again my dear friend Johannes.

It's usually easy to see him but if you wanna make sure public feeding for the Rio Negro house is at 11:30am.

Appart of the dolphin, there are other 12 species exclusive to this zoo amongst European zoos (almost all are fishes), some very rare species, and species so wished to me as Kori bustard,

Easy to see. Also feeding at 3pm.

fossa,

Three enclosures so you usually see them quite easy.

Goodfellow's tree kangaroo,

50:50 shot I'd say.

Madagascar giant rat,

In one of the houses on lemur island. Usually you only see them quite late/after dark. The zoo doesn't have a closing time so you can stay as late as you want (within reason).

Australian lungfish,

Easy, although the ones at Cologne Zoo are more active and therefore more fun to watch.

giant otters

Easy.

arctic fox.

Next to the penguins. But they are usually curled up so you just see grey hairy balls.

Further to my earlier post, the aquarium in Dusseldorf (Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum) is also within easy travelling distance from Cologne.

However, this aquarium was closed for renovation the last couple of times I've been in the area and I am not sure when it will be reopening....

They are supposed to open again in September (but let's see if that's actually gonna happen since the date has been reset quite a few times already).

 

[lintworm]

By train it takes about the same time to get from Cologne to Duisburg Zoo as it does to Frankfurt Zoo.....

The trunk snake in Cologne is no more, I fear... The enclosure for which it is signed has some crabs now...

 

[Kakapo]

Fantastic advices, Najade! Very valuable the one about giant rats, I will return to the enclosure at the end of my visit. Don't worry about aquarium, if I can I will visit a giant pet shop in Duisburg with tons of rare aquarium species.

Thanks for the comment about Frankfurt, lintworm. I will se what I can do, it's not only distance but also a limited number of days and travel with my mother who will want to see another things with me...
Very sad new about Acrochordus granulatus, as is the only specimen in Europe and would be a new family for me...
Once Johannes reply me about certain chances to visit some places with him, I will made a more elaborate calendar and if I can I will include some of the other places suggested in this thread. Thanks!

 

[Najade]

Frankfurt is further than Duisburg and the fastest way there (by ICE) is gonna be more expensive too.

 

[kiang]

-Frankfurt is a bit of a journey but doable from Cologne, and has quoll, Brazilian porcupine, cloud rats, feathertail gliders, slender lorises, continental Europe's only aye-ayes, and black-and-rufous elephant shrews in the biggest nocturnal house in the world.

I had always wondered what the biggest was, is this as in collection or area?

 

[Hevden]

Krefeld and duisberg can be done in the same day as they are close together and if you go to krefeld first it opens very early.

 

[temp]

I had always wondered what the biggest was, is this as in collection or area?

Grzimek House at Frankfurt may be largest by species number (I'm not really sure) and I strongly suspect it it largest by area in Europe, but by far the largest by area in the world is Kingdom's of the Night at Omaha's Henry Doorly. Of course all these are behind Singapore's Night Safari, but it's not really fair to include it in the same category.

 

[Chlidonias]

Koelner Zoo. ...... golden langur...)

what is this? They most surely don't have golden langurs in Europe (Trachypithecus geei).

 

[Kakapo]

Trachypithecus auratus... what is the common name then?

 

[Mehdi]

Javan lutung/langur is the common name for Trachypithecus auratus.

 

[Kakapo]

Thanks! I was confused due to the scientific name (auratus means golden in Latin). I'm not really very good with common names...

 

[ralph]

I got a question about Hippodom. I visited last week.
Besides the crocs, hippos and free-flying birds, I saw 3 additional enclosures in the building.
- Mud turtles
- Lesser hegdehog tencrecs
- Sun squirrel, rufous elephant shrew and harlequin quails.

But I am to understand there a few more animals to be found in the Hippodom (veiled chameleon, African bull-frog, egg-eating snake, African pygmy mouse)
Did I just completely miss those enclosures or are they no longer there?

 

[Vision]

Veiled chameleon should be in a relatively well-hidden open-topped enclosure right besides the elevated "lookout" overlooking the hippo exhibit. Pygmy mouse are in a glass terrarium directly to the right of the entrance. Egg-eating snake and bullfrog are in 2 smaller terraria underneath the covered area (where there is a view over the crocodile 'beach' and the squirrel/sengi exhibit).

I last visited about a year and 3 months ago, so things might have changed since then I didn't see any tenrecs when I was there, so perhaps those replaced either the snake, the frog, or the mice?