@snowleopard You made a few references to Frankfurt Zoo's aquarium being a disaster, but did not describe it. What was going on with their aquarium?
Snowleopard's 2019 Road Trip: Netherlands, Belgium, France & Germany
- Thread starter snowleopard
- Start date
I did not compile a comprehensive species list due to the missing signs, closed tanks, etc., but I did describe parts of the Aquarium in the review:
Next up was the Exotarium, which blew hot and cold for me. I’m guessing that for some zoo nerds they are desperately in love with this building and hope that everything stays the same…but the two levels are dramatically different in my opinion. The bottom floor was a bit of a disaster during my visit, with two empty tanks not making a great first impression. There are a couple of Australian Freshwater Crocodiles temporarily living in the old penguin pool as the penguins have moved to their brand-new habitat outside and elsewhere in the zoo. There are 6 touch screens that are all in one section and none of them were working and so that left 6 tanks without proper labeling. Lastly, my best estimate is that 90% of all the tanks have rust peeling off the walls, or simply look badly outdated and borderline decrepit. The whole bottom floor of the Exotarium truly needs an overhaul of epic proportions. Others might differ with that opinion, but the bottom floor could use a good scrub.
Thanks. I didn't realize that you were describing the aquarium there.
Opel/Kronberg were I believe, the very first Zoo to receive Persian Fallow deer from the wild circa 1950/60's. I saw some there on my only visit in 1968. They bred them before a problem arose as having lost a founder( the male?) they created some persian/common hybrids. I think those problems are long in the past now and the current herd is presumably pure.
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Frankfurt actually have 8 gorillas rather than 4. Someone who goes there a lot told me if its very hot though, they use a passageway between the outside and indoor areas where they can't be seen from either viewing area, so some may have been in there. Also the blackback male Quembo has recently been split from the group after father Viatu attacked him.
Apologies for being pedantic but surely the first in modern times not the very first; London Zoo acquired its first Persian fallow deer in 1877 and bred them several times during the 1880s.
I visited Frankfurt Zoo over twenty years ago, and remember being impressed by the Grzimek House, the Exoterium and the Bird House. But mostly I remember having tea with the Director in his office, a huge room panelled in dark wood. He was very apologetic that there were no curators available to show me around. But I didn’t mind, I was having tea in the very room Bernhardt Grzimek had worked from.
Chester do precisely this
Whipsnade too. You can buy tickets, then wander around the shop and cafe before the internal doors open to the zoo. That was partly why they redeveloped the entrance area, so there was somewhere covered to wait before the zoo opened.
Andrew Swales
Well-Known Member
That is interesting. We are in the process of re-developing our own entrance area - part will be done this year, the rest on stream for next..
Do I understand that the shops/catering at Whipsnade open before the Park does? - it is usually the other way around...
Sorry, yes, I meant in the last few decades and involving the current captive population. You are of course, correct.
Again, an interesting review to read, with points I agree with you on and points I disagree with you on.
Some notes on Frankfurt:
- they actually have 5 orangutans and 8 gorillas
the gorillas are mixed with a single colobus I believe (he’s the last one left). I agree with you on your thoughts for their enclosures - often times I’ve found myself saying that Frankfurt’s indoor ape accommodation is one of the best I’ve seen in Europe.- The rhino and hippo are both elderly singletons as you wondered - the male rhino is the last individual of the subspecies minor left in Europe, and the female hippo is indeed an old lady. I’m unsure what future plans are after they both die but I believe they may renovate the house for one species (rhino or hippo), or knock it down altogether maybe?
- The Grzimek Haus is a fantastic building, and whilst I’ve never been to Omaha I think it’s safe to say it’s certainly one of the best nocturnal houses worldwide, and in any case in Europe!!
Did you see the pied herons in the bird house? Are they not there anymore?
Again, an interesting review to read, with points I agree with you on and points I disagree with you on.
Some notes on Frankfurt:
- they actually have 5 orangutans and 8 gorillas
- The rhino and hippo are both elderly singletons as you wondered - the male rhino is the last individual of the subspecies minor left in Europe, and the female hippo is indeed an old lady. I’m unsure what future plans are after they both die but I believe they may renovate the house for one species (rhino or hippo), or knock it down altogether maybe?
- The Grzimek Haus is a fantastic building, and whilst I’ve never been to Omaha I think it’s safe to say it’s certainly one of the best nocturnal houses worldwide, and in any case in Europe!!
Did you see the pied herons in the bird house? Are they not there anymore?
The pied herons have left the zoo some years ago. There are plans for a whole new savannah zone in the masterplan, I don't quite remember what is in it for the Rhino house, but it won't remain the same I guess. Actually the Black rhino enclosure is sizewisr hardly any differen from new Black rhino enclosures, the hippo enclosure is a different story...
There are no Colobus on show at least...
With regards to queing in the morning. You can buy tickets online and skip the queue...
The aquarium section of the exotarium is slowly being renovated, so that partly explains its current state...
I've been to both Zoos (Frankfurt and Kronberg) several times and I very much agree with your review on Frankfurt and Kronberg
Luckily Frankfurt decieded some years ago to develop from a very small 'complete' zoo into a niche zoo focussing on specific endangered animals that don't need too much space. I'd also expect that after the Rhino and the Hippo die that they will maximum keep one of the two species. Beside the Grzimek House which is really amazing I also like the entrance of the Zoo with the South American enclosures and I really hate the extremly slow entrance process which I've experienced in any other zoo in the world (I've already been waiting there more than 30 minutes to enter).
Regarding Kronberg - they developed from a private collection of mainly hoofed animals to a reasonable good zoo with same very nice latest enhancements (the African Elephant and Savanne enclosures) - the next big Investment there will be for Indian Rhino and Malayan Tapirs which will take another 2 years to finalize.
Luckily Frankfurt decieded some years ago to develop from a very small 'complete' zoo into a niche zoo focussing on specific endangered animals that don't need too much space. I'd also expect that after the Rhino and the Hippo die that they will maximum keep one of the two species. Beside the Grzimek House which is really amazing I also like the entrance of the Zoo with the South American enclosures and I really hate the extremly slow entrance process which I've experienced in any other zoo in the world (I've already been waiting there more than 30 minutes to enter).
Regarding Kronberg - they developed from a private collection of mainly hoofed animals to a reasonable good zoo with same very nice latest enhancements (the African Elephant and Savanne enclosures) - the next big Investment there will be for Indian Rhino and Malayan Tapirs which will take another 2 years to finalize.
Yes, the shop/cafe/ticket desks act as a 'bridge' between the outside (road and carpark) and the zoo. I believe the entrance to the shop/cafe/ticket desk building opens at 9am, but the doors into the zoo itself are only unlocked at 10am once the zoo-proper opens. Rather annoyingly, if you want to use the loos, these are accessed through doors on the 'outside' side of the building; once you've got your ticket you have to go back outside to use the facilities (or remember to use them before getting tickets)
New Entrance - 27/06/2015 - ZooChat
This has always been a personal irritation of mine too. With the time it takes to process each entrant's admission, it can make for ridiculous waiting times, particularly when only limited entry boxes are open.
I mean, the species list is really impressive, but I still don't see the point of having herps in nocturnal exhibit...they do basically the same thing they would do in daylight exhibit just with dim light.
DAY 15: Sunday, July 28th (4 zoos)
Of note is that there are practically zero ballcaps anywhere to be found in gift shops in European zoos. In North America, whole sections of stores are set aside for people to purchase ballcaps, which are enormously popular across the Atlantic. I’ve been wearing my Detroit Zoo hat every single day and no one has ever commented on it, and I’ve yet to purchase my annual new hat because I cannot find any. An interesting observation…although I have seen an improvement in gift shops lately and I enjoy puttering around in them so that I can look at souvenirs for back home.
Today was a weird day, with some obscure zoos that probably very few ZooChatters have ever visited. It wasn’t the most successful day, but I can have no complaints because I’ve been having an unbelievable trip overall.
Zoo/Aquarium # 41: Zoo Neuwied (Neuwied, DE)
According to Wikipedia, this zoo opened in 1970 and is set on 33 acres/13.5 hectares. The latest figures that I have record the annual visitors as being 330,000 and since there has been a lot of new development, I was keen to visit this mid-sized German zoo that seems to fly under the radar. With more than 500 zoos in the nation, it is easy for a smaller facility to not be widely visited by zoo enthusiasts. The zoo has two quite new, memorable animal houses and I’ll come back to those later because, just like in Frankfurt, neither one of them opens when the zoo opens. Totally ridiculous and downright bonkers, but I’m not going to go off on a rant again. Suffice to say, a full HOUR after the zoo opens then those two buildings (the two highlights of the entire zoo) finally unlock their doors for visitors.
The zoo is located in a rural setting, in a small town of around 65,000 people, and I drove down narrow, tight little streets to emerge in a dusty parking lot. Upon navigating the front entrance, the first few exhibits aren’t exactly ground-breaking. Greater Flamingos (with metal Giraffe statues in their enclosure), an African Savanna seen through a thick fence, although I must admit that there are better views on different paths and the species list is decent: Defassa Waterbuck, Ostrich, Ankole Cattle, Sitatunga and Common Wildebeest. There are Marabou Storks that you can reach over and pet (if you don’t mind risking a finger), a line of half-a-dozen aviaries with the likes of Green Aracari, Pale-billed Aracari, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Crowned Lapwing, Red-crested Turaco, Guira Cuckoo, Lilacine Amazon Parrot and Golden-capped Parakeet. Not too shabby at all, and with a big sign heralding the future construction of some sort of stork/crane enclosure.
Moving along the path brings visitors to a large Cheetah enclosure, a dull Common Seal pool (where it is easy enough to touch an inhabitant), and then a mammoth enclosure that is apparently 8.5 acres/3.5 hectares for something along the lines of 150 Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Bennett’s Wallabies, with at least 10 Emus tossed into the mix. I’ve read about those numbers before, but the exhibit is so large and is essentially just a fenced-off chunk of forest, that I have no idea how accurate that data is. How are those creatures managed? The enclosure is not a walk-through and so it just sits there like an absolute behemoth in the very center of the zoo. In fact, essentially 25% of the entire grounds of the zoo is this Australian ‘walkabout’ area.
There are species such as Red Panda and Humboldt Penguin and then a very steep slope that takes visitors skywards to the upper level of the zoo. It’s so steep that pushing a stroller/pram would be almost inconceivable, and at the top there is a focus on European animals. That means exhibits for species such as Griffon Vulture, Eurasian Eagle Owl, Great Grey Owl, Snowy Owl, Little Owl, Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Brown-eared Pheasant, Golden Pheasant, Reeves’ Pheasant, European Fallow Deer, European Badger, Siberian Weasel, European Wildcat and Swinhoe’s Striped Squirrel. It’s all rather ‘cagey’, but for the most part it works because animals like the wildcats, squirrels and weasels are all in basic cages that have wire tunnels running into another two other cages. Obviously, the zoo has thinned out its species over the decades and now turned a small cage into a liveable space for a species in a trio of cages and I’m all right with that. Down the hill again, there are ungulates such as Bactrian Camel, Blackbuck, Przewalski’s Horse, and then others such as Maned Wolf, Raccoon (a trio of adjoining cages), Pallas’ Cat, ‘Barbary’ Lion, Amur Tiger, Red Ruffed Lemur, White-fronted Brown Lemur, Indian Crested Porcupine, Meerkat and Vicuna (practically unknown in North American zoos but fairly common over here in Europe).
The first of the two major buildings that will rise the eyebrows of zoo nerds is the brand-new South America House that only just opened last year. From the outside the structure is functional and I wasn’t sure if it was an existing building that was renovated or a totally new addition to the zoo…and I found out that it is the latter. The South America House is not very large and when a visitor enters, they can just about see everything from one spot. That sounds disappointing, but there are some really ‘choice’ species inside even though at first glance the animal house is not very jungle-like and there are poles and stairs all over the place. There is a Lowland Tapir/Giant Anteater exhibit outside that is very nice, with decent accommodation indoors. There is an extremely large Tayra exhibit with indoor and outdoor enclosures that are spacious enough for the two rampaging animals that probably never stop moving. Chacoan/Dwarf Mara, Lowland Paca, Southern Tamandua, Greater Guinea Pig, Linne’s Two-toed Sloth, Southern Three-banded Armadillo, Brown Spider Monkey, Bolivian Squirrel Monkey, Pygmy Marmoset, Red-footed Tortoise, Yellow-footed Tortoise and Maroon-tailed Parakeet round out the list of species. The primates have excellent, well-furnished outdoor cages as well as indoor areas with deep layers of wood chips. I was just about to leave when I noticed a sign going down some stairs and to my surprise, as I hadn’t recalled reading anything about it, there is a nocturnal room with three large exhibits, and everything is extremely dark except for some areas bathed in a blue light. One exhibit has Three-banded Armadillos and Douroucoulis, another has armadillos and a Kinkajou, and the big bat cage (swarming with bats!) only said ‘brillenblattnase’, which means something about leaf-nosed bats although the translation might be wonky. The South America House is small in comparison to tons of others that I’ve visited, but it’s got some rare species and for a mid-sized zoo off in the country it is a fantastic development. It is by far and away the biggest, most expensive thing that the zoo has ever built and there are 8 huge signs on one wall showing the construction as it progressed over more than 2.5 years before culminating in 2018. It would be important to remember that this is no Gondwanaland (Leipzig), Lied Jungle (Omaha) or Jungle World (Bronx), but it’s a notable step towards a zoo improving itself.
The second major building is the ‘Exotarium’, a name found both here and at Frankfurt even though it is an unknown term in North America. It’s basically a ‘catch-all’ group of animals and at Zoo Neuwied the main attraction is the indoor holding for a group of 5 Chimpanzees. One of the chimps was born in 2009, but the others are all at least 25 or older. The apes have a well-furnished indoor area that has a lot of light, many tree trunks for climbing, hay on the floor and then a cool idea is having a netted top part of the roof. That way keepers can toss play things or food on the netting and it allows the Chimpanzees to climb up and gain some enrichment. There are a couple of exhibits for Emperor Tamarins and then the rest of the building is essentially a Reptile House. There can be found a grand total of 38 exhibits (26 on the bottom floor and 12 on the top floor) and while that doesn’t seem like a lot, I’m tempted to call the whole thing truly fantastic because the quality of the vivariums is highly impressive. There are many of the exhibits that at least 6 feet in height, beautifully adorned with natural items, quite a few mixed-species environments, and it’s a bit of a process to locate all of the inhabitants.
Reptile House/Exotarium species list (55 species in 38 exhibits): Prevost’s Squirrel, Short-eared Elephant Shrew, Rothschild’s Mynah, Spectacled Caiman, Reticulated Python, Green Tree Python, Ball Python, Eastern Corn Snake, Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake, Cuban Iguana, Guatemalan Spiny-tailed Iguana, Amboina Sailfin Lizard, Brown Pricklenape, Spotted Tree Monitor, Freckled Monitor, Reisinger’s Tree Monitor, Panther Chameleon, Crested Gecko, Tokay Gecko, Golden Gecko, Leopard Gecko, Roughtail Rock Agama, Taylor’s Strange Agama, Martinique’s Anole, Baja California Rock Lizard, Common Flat Lizard, Blue Spiny Lizard, Beaded Lizard, Frilled Lizard, Northern Chuckwalla, Common Bluetongue Lizard, Gidgee Skink, Solomon Island Skink, African Pancake Tortoise, Egyptian Tortoise, Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle, Common Snapping Turtle, Black Marsh Turtle, Giant Waxy Tree Frog, Phantasmal Poison Frog, Blue Poison Frog, Colorado River Toad, Golden-eyed Stick Insect, Sungay Stick Insect, Leaf Insect, Two-spotted Assassin Bug, Warty Glowspot Cockroach, Checkerboard Cockroach, Desert Locust, Peacock Tarantula, Socotra Island Blue Baboon Tarantula, Flat Rock Scorpion, Black Cameroon Train Millipede, Giant African Land Snail and Lowland Cichlid.
That’s a wrap on Zoo Neuwied. The Exotarium/Chimpanzee House is mainly excellent, although the outdoor chimp yard isn’t huge for the veteran apes and it lacks climbing structures. The new South America House, just opened in 2018, is a coup for such an unknown zoo. The rest of the grounds is a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly, but it’s an enjoyable zoo for about a 3-hour visit.
I then drove 45 minutes south to the city of Konigswinter.
Zoo/Aquarium # 42: Sea Life Konigswinter (Konigswinter, DE)
I ducked and dived down narrow streets in my rental car, narrowly going over the backs of tourists as they stepped into the roulette wheel that is known as the German round-about, and I made it all the way to the summer resort city of Konigswinter (pop. 40,000). What did I see with my own two eyes? It was a 20-minute lineup for a freaking Sea Life Aquarium! Waiting patiently in line, holding my Frankfurt Zoo umbrella to protect me against both the rain and the shame of visiting another Sea Life, I mused on the sheer volume of people anxious to see a crappy aquarium. The guy running the ticket booth told me that when the sun comes out the place is deserted, but due to the rain they were selling tickets like hotcakes. Amazingly, this is the very first Sea Life that I’ve been to without either a map or a guidebook and usually these facilities have both of those things. This was the smallest and worst of the Sea Life Aquariums that I’ve seen, knocking my usual 45-minute visit down to a crisp and clean 30 minutes and that’s with overwhelming crowds. There is no outdoor area, a very small tunnel in a puny shark tank and very little to see at all. The Sea Life franchise is clearly a set of aquariums that pull in tourists and guys like me that simply want to chalk up another ‘zoo’ before hitting the road.
I then drove perhaps 20 minutes when in reality I only needed to drive approximately 10 minutes because finding this next place was no easy task.
Zoo/Aquarium # 43: Drachenwelt (Dragon World) Reptile Zoo (Konigswinter, DE)
At least while in the small town of Konigswinter I had a double-shot planned of a crappy Sea Life and then a small Reptile Zoo so obscure that it would be interesting to learn if anyone else has visited it. I parked near the city’s transport hub, in a lot filled with graffiti and the cigarette butts of a million Germans, and then finally found a helpful sign after a few people I stopped to ask for directions had no clue what I was saying. The way to this place is to walk, as only local neighbourhood cars with passes are allowed to be on the road, up an incredibly steep incline for 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe how popular the route was, even though I passed a few human skeletons from folks that had obviously perished years ago. I think one was even clasping a laminated image of a virile Lothar Matthaus lifting aloft the World Cup, so that visitor must have died circa 1990. In all seriousness, the climb is so steep that I and everyone around me was sweating like crazy even though it was drizzling rain.
Eventually I made it to the top, gasping for breath while a smug lady smiled behind an enclosed ticket booth, and I slapped some coins down on the counter. Inside a 1913 building is a single large room with many paintings on the walls, followed by a small path that leads outside and around the back of the building with a twisting, turning, barely-lit cave trail that is too narrow for strollers/prams. At one point it opens up into an area with a 13-meter long carved, stone dragon lying beside a pond. It’s a great, Smaug-like scene. After that, the trail continues a little longer and visitors arrive at a Reptile Zoo that has seen better days. The biggest and probably best exhibit is for a couple of American Alligators, but there are also some Cuvier’s Caiman, lizards, a few random snakes, and loads of pythons and boas. I don’t have a species list because everything was entirely in German, but I can tell you that there are 36 exhibits, and most are functional rather than aesthetically appealing. There are many constricting snakes with various colour morphs, so for example I saw some bright yellow, or granite, or orange, or white pythons and boas.
I then drove for more than an hour to the final stop of the day.
Zoo/Aquarium # 44: Affen + Vogelpark Eckenhagen (Monkey + Bird Park) (Eckenhagen, DE)
This zoo opened in 1981 and is a family-fun affair with no map, no decent signs pointing in which direction visitors must go, and an air of decrepitude in all directions. There’s a big jungle gym indoor zone for kids, a very small and stinky Tropical House that can be seen in under 5 minutes, Meerkats, loads of macaws and cockatoos, an Agouti and then the path winds down, down and down through a walk-through owl aviary, a walk-through budgie/lorikeet aviary and into an area with the usual Emus, Coatis, Small-clawed Otters, Arctic Foxes, Squirrel Monkeys and my first ever walk-through Barbary Macaque enclosure. Those big males are a little intimidating as they rush for food, which is actively encouraged by this small zoo. Most of the monkeys behave themselves, but a couple of the large males with their impressive canines are not to be trifled with. After that the rain came pouring down and I, without my umbrella, became thoroughly soaked as I had to go up, up and up to the start of the zoo. There was a flashback to last summer’s road trip, when I was on that kiddie train in the rain in rural Wisconsin. Here I was again getting drenched, with macaques urinating on the visitor trail, some mangy Emus grunting as a backdrop, visitors smoking all over me, and the zoo is a nasty little one that seems as if it is built on the side of a freaking mountain. I ran for the hills and swam my way through a muddy parking lot before my rental car floated away into the ‘monkey-piss abyss’.
Today began well with Zoo Neuwied and hopefully that zoo can continue to develop as the years roll by. Sea Life was a dud, as was the Reptile Zoo because there wasn’t a lot there for the effort that it took to arrive at the destination. The Monkey + Bird Park was nothing but budgie noises and monkey faeces, which means that today was the one true dud of the trip. Not to fear…Kolner Zoo (Cologne) was on the horizon.
Of note is that there are practically zero ballcaps anywhere to be found in gift shops in European zoos. In North America, whole sections of stores are set aside for people to purchase ballcaps, which are enormously popular across the Atlantic. I’ve been wearing my Detroit Zoo hat every single day and no one has ever commented on it, and I’ve yet to purchase my annual new hat because I cannot find any. An interesting observation…although I have seen an improvement in gift shops lately and I enjoy puttering around in them so that I can look at souvenirs for back home.
Today was a weird day, with some obscure zoos that probably very few ZooChatters have ever visited. It wasn’t the most successful day, but I can have no complaints because I’ve been having an unbelievable trip overall.
Zoo/Aquarium # 41: Zoo Neuwied (Neuwied, DE)
According to Wikipedia, this zoo opened in 1970 and is set on 33 acres/13.5 hectares. The latest figures that I have record the annual visitors as being 330,000 and since there has been a lot of new development, I was keen to visit this mid-sized German zoo that seems to fly under the radar. With more than 500 zoos in the nation, it is easy for a smaller facility to not be widely visited by zoo enthusiasts. The zoo has two quite new, memorable animal houses and I’ll come back to those later because, just like in Frankfurt, neither one of them opens when the zoo opens. Totally ridiculous and downright bonkers, but I’m not going to go off on a rant again. Suffice to say, a full HOUR after the zoo opens then those two buildings (the two highlights of the entire zoo) finally unlock their doors for visitors.
The zoo is located in a rural setting, in a small town of around 65,000 people, and I drove down narrow, tight little streets to emerge in a dusty parking lot. Upon navigating the front entrance, the first few exhibits aren’t exactly ground-breaking. Greater Flamingos (with metal Giraffe statues in their enclosure), an African Savanna seen through a thick fence, although I must admit that there are better views on different paths and the species list is decent: Defassa Waterbuck, Ostrich, Ankole Cattle, Sitatunga and Common Wildebeest. There are Marabou Storks that you can reach over and pet (if you don’t mind risking a finger), a line of half-a-dozen aviaries with the likes of Green Aracari, Pale-billed Aracari, Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Crowned Lapwing, Red-crested Turaco, Guira Cuckoo, Lilacine Amazon Parrot and Golden-capped Parakeet. Not too shabby at all, and with a big sign heralding the future construction of some sort of stork/crane enclosure.
Moving along the path brings visitors to a large Cheetah enclosure, a dull Common Seal pool (where it is easy enough to touch an inhabitant), and then a mammoth enclosure that is apparently 8.5 acres/3.5 hectares for something along the lines of 150 Eastern Grey Kangaroos and Bennett’s Wallabies, with at least 10 Emus tossed into the mix. I’ve read about those numbers before, but the exhibit is so large and is essentially just a fenced-off chunk of forest, that I have no idea how accurate that data is. How are those creatures managed? The enclosure is not a walk-through and so it just sits there like an absolute behemoth in the very center of the zoo. In fact, essentially 25% of the entire grounds of the zoo is this Australian ‘walkabout’ area.
There are species such as Red Panda and Humboldt Penguin and then a very steep slope that takes visitors skywards to the upper level of the zoo. It’s so steep that pushing a stroller/pram would be almost inconceivable, and at the top there is a focus on European animals. That means exhibits for species such as Griffon Vulture, Eurasian Eagle Owl, Great Grey Owl, Snowy Owl, Little Owl, Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Brown-eared Pheasant, Golden Pheasant, Reeves’ Pheasant, European Fallow Deer, European Badger, Siberian Weasel, European Wildcat and Swinhoe’s Striped Squirrel. It’s all rather ‘cagey’, but for the most part it works because animals like the wildcats, squirrels and weasels are all in basic cages that have wire tunnels running into another two other cages. Obviously, the zoo has thinned out its species over the decades and now turned a small cage into a liveable space for a species in a trio of cages and I’m all right with that. Down the hill again, there are ungulates such as Bactrian Camel, Blackbuck, Przewalski’s Horse, and then others such as Maned Wolf, Raccoon (a trio of adjoining cages), Pallas’ Cat, ‘Barbary’ Lion, Amur Tiger, Red Ruffed Lemur, White-fronted Brown Lemur, Indian Crested Porcupine, Meerkat and Vicuna (practically unknown in North American zoos but fairly common over here in Europe).
The first of the two major buildings that will rise the eyebrows of zoo nerds is the brand-new South America House that only just opened last year. From the outside the structure is functional and I wasn’t sure if it was an existing building that was renovated or a totally new addition to the zoo…and I found out that it is the latter. The South America House is not very large and when a visitor enters, they can just about see everything from one spot. That sounds disappointing, but there are some really ‘choice’ species inside even though at first glance the animal house is not very jungle-like and there are poles and stairs all over the place. There is a Lowland Tapir/Giant Anteater exhibit outside that is very nice, with decent accommodation indoors. There is an extremely large Tayra exhibit with indoor and outdoor enclosures that are spacious enough for the two rampaging animals that probably never stop moving. Chacoan/Dwarf Mara, Lowland Paca, Southern Tamandua, Greater Guinea Pig, Linne’s Two-toed Sloth, Southern Three-banded Armadillo, Brown Spider Monkey, Bolivian Squirrel Monkey, Pygmy Marmoset, Red-footed Tortoise, Yellow-footed Tortoise and Maroon-tailed Parakeet round out the list of species. The primates have excellent, well-furnished outdoor cages as well as indoor areas with deep layers of wood chips. I was just about to leave when I noticed a sign going down some stairs and to my surprise, as I hadn’t recalled reading anything about it, there is a nocturnal room with three large exhibits, and everything is extremely dark except for some areas bathed in a blue light. One exhibit has Three-banded Armadillos and Douroucoulis, another has armadillos and a Kinkajou, and the big bat cage (swarming with bats!) only said ‘brillenblattnase’, which means something about leaf-nosed bats although the translation might be wonky. The South America House is small in comparison to tons of others that I’ve visited, but it’s got some rare species and for a mid-sized zoo off in the country it is a fantastic development. It is by far and away the biggest, most expensive thing that the zoo has ever built and there are 8 huge signs on one wall showing the construction as it progressed over more than 2.5 years before culminating in 2018. It would be important to remember that this is no Gondwanaland (Leipzig), Lied Jungle (Omaha) or Jungle World (Bronx), but it’s a notable step towards a zoo improving itself.
The second major building is the ‘Exotarium’, a name found both here and at Frankfurt even though it is an unknown term in North America. It’s basically a ‘catch-all’ group of animals and at Zoo Neuwied the main attraction is the indoor holding for a group of 5 Chimpanzees. One of the chimps was born in 2009, but the others are all at least 25 or older. The apes have a well-furnished indoor area that has a lot of light, many tree trunks for climbing, hay on the floor and then a cool idea is having a netted top part of the roof. That way keepers can toss play things or food on the netting and it allows the Chimpanzees to climb up and gain some enrichment. There are a couple of exhibits for Emperor Tamarins and then the rest of the building is essentially a Reptile House. There can be found a grand total of 38 exhibits (26 on the bottom floor and 12 on the top floor) and while that doesn’t seem like a lot, I’m tempted to call the whole thing truly fantastic because the quality of the vivariums is highly impressive. There are many of the exhibits that at least 6 feet in height, beautifully adorned with natural items, quite a few mixed-species environments, and it’s a bit of a process to locate all of the inhabitants.
Reptile House/Exotarium species list (55 species in 38 exhibits): Prevost’s Squirrel, Short-eared Elephant Shrew, Rothschild’s Mynah, Spectacled Caiman, Reticulated Python, Green Tree Python, Ball Python, Eastern Corn Snake, Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake, Cuban Iguana, Guatemalan Spiny-tailed Iguana, Amboina Sailfin Lizard, Brown Pricklenape, Spotted Tree Monitor, Freckled Monitor, Reisinger’s Tree Monitor, Panther Chameleon, Crested Gecko, Tokay Gecko, Golden Gecko, Leopard Gecko, Roughtail Rock Agama, Taylor’s Strange Agama, Martinique’s Anole, Baja California Rock Lizard, Common Flat Lizard, Blue Spiny Lizard, Beaded Lizard, Frilled Lizard, Northern Chuckwalla, Common Bluetongue Lizard, Gidgee Skink, Solomon Island Skink, African Pancake Tortoise, Egyptian Tortoise, Chinese Soft-shelled Turtle, Common Snapping Turtle, Black Marsh Turtle, Giant Waxy Tree Frog, Phantasmal Poison Frog, Blue Poison Frog, Colorado River Toad, Golden-eyed Stick Insect, Sungay Stick Insect, Leaf Insect, Two-spotted Assassin Bug, Warty Glowspot Cockroach, Checkerboard Cockroach, Desert Locust, Peacock Tarantula, Socotra Island Blue Baboon Tarantula, Flat Rock Scorpion, Black Cameroon Train Millipede, Giant African Land Snail and Lowland Cichlid.
That’s a wrap on Zoo Neuwied. The Exotarium/Chimpanzee House is mainly excellent, although the outdoor chimp yard isn’t huge for the veteran apes and it lacks climbing structures. The new South America House, just opened in 2018, is a coup for such an unknown zoo. The rest of the grounds is a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly, but it’s an enjoyable zoo for about a 3-hour visit.
I then drove 45 minutes south to the city of Konigswinter.
Zoo/Aquarium # 42: Sea Life Konigswinter (Konigswinter, DE)
I ducked and dived down narrow streets in my rental car, narrowly going over the backs of tourists as they stepped into the roulette wheel that is known as the German round-about, and I made it all the way to the summer resort city of Konigswinter (pop. 40,000). What did I see with my own two eyes? It was a 20-minute lineup for a freaking Sea Life Aquarium! Waiting patiently in line, holding my Frankfurt Zoo umbrella to protect me against both the rain and the shame of visiting another Sea Life, I mused on the sheer volume of people anxious to see a crappy aquarium. The guy running the ticket booth told me that when the sun comes out the place is deserted, but due to the rain they were selling tickets like hotcakes. Amazingly, this is the very first Sea Life that I’ve been to without either a map or a guidebook and usually these facilities have both of those things. This was the smallest and worst of the Sea Life Aquariums that I’ve seen, knocking my usual 45-minute visit down to a crisp and clean 30 minutes and that’s with overwhelming crowds. There is no outdoor area, a very small tunnel in a puny shark tank and very little to see at all. The Sea Life franchise is clearly a set of aquariums that pull in tourists and guys like me that simply want to chalk up another ‘zoo’ before hitting the road.
I then drove perhaps 20 minutes when in reality I only needed to drive approximately 10 minutes because finding this next place was no easy task.
Zoo/Aquarium # 43: Drachenwelt (Dragon World) Reptile Zoo (Konigswinter, DE)
At least while in the small town of Konigswinter I had a double-shot planned of a crappy Sea Life and then a small Reptile Zoo so obscure that it would be interesting to learn if anyone else has visited it. I parked near the city’s transport hub, in a lot filled with graffiti and the cigarette butts of a million Germans, and then finally found a helpful sign after a few people I stopped to ask for directions had no clue what I was saying. The way to this place is to walk, as only local neighbourhood cars with passes are allowed to be on the road, up an incredibly steep incline for 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe how popular the route was, even though I passed a few human skeletons from folks that had obviously perished years ago. I think one was even clasping a laminated image of a virile Lothar Matthaus lifting aloft the World Cup, so that visitor must have died circa 1990. In all seriousness, the climb is so steep that I and everyone around me was sweating like crazy even though it was drizzling rain.
Eventually I made it to the top, gasping for breath while a smug lady smiled behind an enclosed ticket booth, and I slapped some coins down on the counter. Inside a 1913 building is a single large room with many paintings on the walls, followed by a small path that leads outside and around the back of the building with a twisting, turning, barely-lit cave trail that is too narrow for strollers/prams. At one point it opens up into an area with a 13-meter long carved, stone dragon lying beside a pond. It’s a great, Smaug-like scene. After that, the trail continues a little longer and visitors arrive at a Reptile Zoo that has seen better days. The biggest and probably best exhibit is for a couple of American Alligators, but there are also some Cuvier’s Caiman, lizards, a few random snakes, and loads of pythons and boas. I don’t have a species list because everything was entirely in German, but I can tell you that there are 36 exhibits, and most are functional rather than aesthetically appealing. There are many constricting snakes with various colour morphs, so for example I saw some bright yellow, or granite, or orange, or white pythons and boas.
I then drove for more than an hour to the final stop of the day.
Zoo/Aquarium # 44: Affen + Vogelpark Eckenhagen (Monkey + Bird Park) (Eckenhagen, DE)
This zoo opened in 1981 and is a family-fun affair with no map, no decent signs pointing in which direction visitors must go, and an air of decrepitude in all directions. There’s a big jungle gym indoor zone for kids, a very small and stinky Tropical House that can be seen in under 5 minutes, Meerkats, loads of macaws and cockatoos, an Agouti and then the path winds down, down and down through a walk-through owl aviary, a walk-through budgie/lorikeet aviary and into an area with the usual Emus, Coatis, Small-clawed Otters, Arctic Foxes, Squirrel Monkeys and my first ever walk-through Barbary Macaque enclosure. Those big males are a little intimidating as they rush for food, which is actively encouraged by this small zoo. Most of the monkeys behave themselves, but a couple of the large males with their impressive canines are not to be trifled with. After that the rain came pouring down and I, without my umbrella, became thoroughly soaked as I had to go up, up and up to the start of the zoo. There was a flashback to last summer’s road trip, when I was on that kiddie train in the rain in rural Wisconsin. Here I was again getting drenched, with macaques urinating on the visitor trail, some mangy Emus grunting as a backdrop, visitors smoking all over me, and the zoo is a nasty little one that seems as if it is built on the side of a freaking mountain. I ran for the hills and swam my way through a muddy parking lot before my rental car floated away into the ‘monkey-piss abyss’.
Today began well with Zoo Neuwied and hopefully that zoo can continue to develop as the years roll by. Sea Life was a dud, as was the Reptile Zoo because there wasn’t a lot there for the effort that it took to arrive at the destination. The Monkey + Bird Park was nothing but budgie noises and monkey faeces, which means that today was the one true dud of the trip. Not to fear…Kolner Zoo (Cologne) was on the horizon.
Who on Zoochat holds the record for most zoos visited in Germany? Has anybody come close to visiting all 500 of them?
It's super cool to find out more details about the many zoos that I've been visiting on this long European jaunt. For instance, learning about Opel Zoo's Persian Fallow Deer from @Pertinax and then more Fallow Deer information from @Tim May
Also, @lintworm and @ShonenJake13 tell me that plans are afoot to do something about the antiquated Rhino/Hippo House at Frankfurt Zoo. I made mention of how that was a very poor building and so it is great to read about possible plans to either refurbish that area or knock it down for good. Hopefully the zoo can maintain the building with new inhabitants as it has a lot of character.
I just uploaded almost 80 photos of Zoo Neuwied into the gallery as that zoo was surprisingly underrepresented on this site. I've toured a number of world-class, famous zoos but at the same time some of these places are ones that barely any zoo nerds have even heard of. That must be the sign of a great zoo trip...classics mixed with the detritus of the zoological world. Ha!
Also, @lintworm and @ShonenJake13 tell me that plans are afoot to do something about the antiquated Rhino/Hippo House at Frankfurt Zoo. I made mention of how that was a very poor building and so it is great to read about possible plans to either refurbish that area or knock it down for good. Hopefully the zoo can maintain the building with new inhabitants as it has a lot of character.
I just uploaded almost 80 photos of Zoo Neuwied into the gallery as that zoo was surprisingly underrepresented on this site. I've toured a number of world-class, famous zoos but at the same time some of these places are ones that barely any zoo nerds have even heard of. That must be the sign of a great zoo trip...classics mixed with the detritus of the zoological world. Ha!
These will have been Seba's Short-tailed Bat.