Maybe because Loro Parque is located on Canary Islands and geographically it is part of Africa.
Snowleopard's 2019 Road Trip: Netherlands, Belgium, France & Germany
- Thread starter snowleopard
- Start date
What about Antibes?
DAY 24: Tuesday, August 6th (1 zoo)
Zoo/Aquarium # 78: Burgers' Zoo (Arnhem, NL)
Zoo #499 all-time.
This privately-run, family-owned zoo opened in 1913 and is known as Burgers’ Zoo because of the founder Johan Burgers. There are well over a million annual visitors and many zoo nerds declare that this place is the best zoo in the Netherlands. As much as I loved Blijdorp earlier in the trip, I would have to agree that Burgers’ Zoo sets the standard for this country’s zoos. The facility has what it deems to be ‘ecodisplays’, and the park is divided up into thematic areas known as Bush, Ocean, Desert, Safari, Rimba, Mangrove and Park, all being built in different eras but coming together to form a world-class zoological garden. I had my own private guide in the form of @lintworm who claims to have visited Burgers’ Zoo on 500 occasions in his 27 years. He toured the whole zoo with me, pointing out a lot of little things that a regular visitor would never notice, plus he told me about the history of the establishment. We were joined for most of the day by @Mr. Zootycoon who is a young guy that knows quite a bit about Dutch zoos and so together we formed an impressive trio of zoo nerds. Instead of a big species list at the end of this trip, I'll make a list of all the zoo enthusiasts that I have met!
Burgers’ Bush opened in 1988 and annual attendance immediately doubled from 600,000 to 1.2 million in a single year, which is the exact same occurrence that happened when Omaha built Lied Jungle in 1992. Burgers’ Bush was the catalyst for change at the zoo and the Bush experience is a terrific one because the building has truly become a jungle over the past 31 years. Everything appears to be slightly damp, there are dirt trails off to one side, signage is minimal, there is a jungle-like smell in the air and at some points the air is thick with humidity, especially near the top by the roof. There are hundreds of anoles all over the place and we must have seen well over a dozen, plus there are 35 bird species and hundreds of birds in total. Mammal-wise, I saw an Aardvark, a couple of Small-clawed Otters, a couple of bats and a Capybara or two…and that’s about it. There is an exhibit for Broad-snouted Caiman and a few other reptiles, plus the largest waterfall in the Netherlands. Anyone expecting larger animals like in Leipzig’s Gondwanaland or Omaha’s Lied Jungle will be sorely disappointed, as Bush is more like Zurich’s Masoala Hall. I liked Bush a lot, and days later I felt it improving in my mind, but as someone who isn’t that big into tropical birds, or doesn’t necessarily want to scour the jungle to locate a basilisk or one of only two Green Iguanas in a massive indoor rainforest, my only quibble would be that Bush needs a few more marquee species. I’m not talking about tapirs and gibbons all over the joint, but why not a few marmosets, tamarins or even a handful of sloths? Bush sets about creating a realistic atmosphere inside a human-made jungle and it does a wonderful job of evoking a true ‘Bush’. We actually spent two periods of the day going through this building and it is known as one of the great zoo Tropical Houses of the world.
Burgers’ Desert opened in 1994 and it can be accessed via a long, dark mine shaft from the Bush building to the Desert. There are a few vivariums, a mock cave and a lot of artifacts in the tunnel, and the initial view when walking into Desert is excellent. The Mexican-American landscape is the focus, with Bighorn Sheep, Collared Peccary and Bobcat as the three large mammal species on-show to the public. There are two exhibits for Ringtails (we saw 4 of the creatures), quite a few reptiles, and the guidebook that I purchased that morning lists almost 15 bird species with Turkey Vultures and Roadrunners as the two largest. Just like in the Bush building, Desert has a bewildering array of plant life, including large Saguaro Cacti area and a plethora of desert plants in the arid environment. Desert is probably half the size of Bush, but still a great zoological experience and the temperature was nice as it didn’t actually reach ‘desert-like’ conditions.
Burger’s Ocean opened in 2000 and it contains the largest living coral reef aquarium tank on the planet (outside of one location in Queensland, Australia) in a zone that is specifically Indo-Pacific. We stared at it for a long time and in fact sat down to watch the ecosystem in action. It’s an amazing recreation of nature, as if a tiny chunk of the Great Barrier Reef was flown to Arnhem and deposited in a world-class zoo. It took many years to build up the network of coral to make the reef effective and self-sustaining and now almost 20 years later it apparently looks better than ever. The Ocean building, which is actually entered via the Bush building, has a theme in that the first thing visitors see is a small beach and lagoon zone, then as the path winds down through some mock-rock caves, the ocean becomes deeper and deeper until it emerges at a gorgeous shark tank with dark background walls so that large sharks come out from nowhere. The Ocean building doesn’t contain a lot of tanks (less than a dozen), but what is there is of a very high quality and some of the tanks are enormous.
Burgers’ Rimba opened in 2008 and the highlight of the day occurred here because we had a clear view of a Sun Bear cub, with a second cub barely seen behind the mother on the edge of the indoor quarters. The first-ever birth of a Sun Bear in the Netherlands has made the zoo proud and we watched the youngster for a number of minutes. This part of the zoo has a South-East Asian theme and there was another treat in the form of a mixed-species habitat with 6 species that continues the excellent European tradition of combining different groups of animals. In one large exhibit can be found Banteng, Eld’s Deer, Hog Deer, Reeves’ Muntjac, Pig-tailed Macaque and Siamang. There are hotwired trees and many ropes so that the Siamang cannot come down and mingle with the other 5 species, but it all seems to work beautifully. Other species in Rimba include Sumatran Tiger, Binturong and Spectacled Langur.
Burgers’ Mangrove opened in 2017 and is a large domed building that doesn’t have a lot of big-name species but is nevertheless exceptional and it is the largest indoor mangrove structure in the world. There are three Caribbean Manatees, including a youngster, in a spacious pool, many butterflies in all directions, a few birds and at least one species of lizard, and the other main inhabitants are a lot of Mudplane Crabs and Fiddler Crabs. Seeing the public gathered around, pointing out crabs to each other and being thoughtfully engaged with the ecosystem presented in front of them, was a rewarding experience.
I’ve gone through 5 of the 7 ‘ecodisplays’ and in chronological order of when they opened. Bush (1988), Desert (1994), Ocean (2000), Rimba (2008) and Mangrove (2017) have together revolutionized Burgers’ Zoo over the past 30 years. What is truly amazing, though, is how the oldest two sections of the zoo arguably contain some of the real highlights.
Burgers’ Safari used to be a drive-through section, including a part where African Lions could be all around the vehicles of visitors. Those days are long gone, but along one lengthy stretch of walking trail are extremely large exhibits for African Lions and Cheetahs. On the other side, coming back towards the main part of the zoo, is a truly massive African Savanna with species such as Rothschild Giraffe, White Rhino, Grant’s Zebra, Ellipsen Waterbuck, Roan Antelope and others, including some holding yards that are the size of some entire antelope exhibits at urban zoos. A major flaw to the Safari area is that it involves a lot of walking for only a few enclosures, and animals are occasionally seen at a great distance away. There is enough space for the zoo to easily add a dozen small-mammal exhibits, or an African aviary, or at least something else to keep visitors engaged.
Burgers’ Park is the final area, found in different sections of the zoo, and the main two attractions are a pair of 1970s-era great ape habitats. Lowland Gorillas have a spacious, grassy exhibit for a large troop, and Chimpanzees have an even bigger exhibit that allows them to showcase their natural behaviours. (How Krefeld’s chimps would benefit from such an experience!). There are many viewing areas of these superb enclosures, and my only complaint is the main pair of covered viewing areas are dead-ends, thus creating congestion on busy days. This part of the zoo also has some flamingos, macropods, and a very old Bird House that @lintworm suspects is on its last legs. Up by the front of the zoo is a solitary Asian Elephant (awaiting a companion) who lives in an adequate exhibit that clearly will not be there forever. Nearby is a brand-new area that contains Ring-tailed Lemurs, Black Lemurs, Coatis and Squirrel Monkeys that meets the typically high standards of this zoo. Meerkats, Reindeer, leopards and even a great zoo rarity, in the form of Golden Jackals, rounds out this zone.
Burgers’ Zoo was a 6-hour experience for me, and I felt that I saw every single exhibit and even every playground, of which there are several nice ones, and my traveling companions chuckled as I took a quick peek at various slides, swings and climbing equipment. I think that it's important to see almost every inch of a zoo, not just the major animal habitats. This review is not entirely comprehensive in terms of lists of species, but I've still provided a long overview. It sounds weird to say this, but for a zoo often hailed as one of Europe’s premier zoological establishments, that aren’t a lot of animals. Insects are basically nonexistent, the whole zoo contains around 20 species of reptile and amphibian, there are approximately 55 mammal species (less than the obscure Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas!), with birds at 80 species and fish around 200 thanks to the Ocean aquatic building. The thing with Burgers’ Zoo is that ‘less is more’ appears to be the mantra. I’d personally like a few more small mammals in Bush and Desert, and maybe a few more exhibits in Ocean (for example Blijdorp has a ton of animals in its Oceanium) and Safari, but that is not the point of Burgers’ Zoo. Visitors have to look hard to see any creatures and a zoo visit is about experiencing different biomes and ecosystems rather than simply looking at animals in enclosures. The zoo is an experience.
The Netherlands is not a very large country in term of geography, but there are plenty of great zoos within its borders. From the nation’s most popular, Artis Royal Zoo in Amsterdam, to a couple of zoos that are right up there amidst the best zoos in all of Europe (Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem and Blijdorp in Rotterdam), to the world’s foremost primate zoo (Apenheul), to Europe’s largest marine mammal park (Harderwijk) and other big, popular facilities like Beekse Bergen and Ouwehands. The establishment known as GaiaZOO was a pleasant surprise, as were so many others as I’ve now toured 41 Dutch zoos. The initial plan was to visit exactly 50 zoos in the Netherlands, but that next-door neighbour Germany, with its colossal behemoths, kept tugging at me to come over and play. So, reluctant to leave one of the world’s great zoo nations in the shape of the Netherlands, and let us not forget about the magnificent trio of Antwerp, Planckendael and Pairi Daiza in Belgium, I am diving back into Germany for yet another week of German brilliance. I haven’t entirely given up my love affair with the Dutch, as I have a couple of big, popular zoos left there for the very end of the trip (Emmen and Amersfoort), but here comes Germany!
Zoo/Aquarium # 78: Burgers' Zoo (Arnhem, NL)
Zoo #499 all-time.
This privately-run, family-owned zoo opened in 1913 and is known as Burgers’ Zoo because of the founder Johan Burgers. There are well over a million annual visitors and many zoo nerds declare that this place is the best zoo in the Netherlands. As much as I loved Blijdorp earlier in the trip, I would have to agree that Burgers’ Zoo sets the standard for this country’s zoos. The facility has what it deems to be ‘ecodisplays’, and the park is divided up into thematic areas known as Bush, Ocean, Desert, Safari, Rimba, Mangrove and Park, all being built in different eras but coming together to form a world-class zoological garden. I had my own private guide in the form of @lintworm who claims to have visited Burgers’ Zoo on 500 occasions in his 27 years. He toured the whole zoo with me, pointing out a lot of little things that a regular visitor would never notice, plus he told me about the history of the establishment. We were joined for most of the day by @Mr. Zootycoon who is a young guy that knows quite a bit about Dutch zoos and so together we formed an impressive trio of zoo nerds. Instead of a big species list at the end of this trip, I'll make a list of all the zoo enthusiasts that I have met!
Burgers’ Bush opened in 1988 and annual attendance immediately doubled from 600,000 to 1.2 million in a single year, which is the exact same occurrence that happened when Omaha built Lied Jungle in 1992. Burgers’ Bush was the catalyst for change at the zoo and the Bush experience is a terrific one because the building has truly become a jungle over the past 31 years. Everything appears to be slightly damp, there are dirt trails off to one side, signage is minimal, there is a jungle-like smell in the air and at some points the air is thick with humidity, especially near the top by the roof. There are hundreds of anoles all over the place and we must have seen well over a dozen, plus there are 35 bird species and hundreds of birds in total. Mammal-wise, I saw an Aardvark, a couple of Small-clawed Otters, a couple of bats and a Capybara or two…and that’s about it. There is an exhibit for Broad-snouted Caiman and a few other reptiles, plus the largest waterfall in the Netherlands. Anyone expecting larger animals like in Leipzig’s Gondwanaland or Omaha’s Lied Jungle will be sorely disappointed, as Bush is more like Zurich’s Masoala Hall. I liked Bush a lot, and days later I felt it improving in my mind, but as someone who isn’t that big into tropical birds, or doesn’t necessarily want to scour the jungle to locate a basilisk or one of only two Green Iguanas in a massive indoor rainforest, my only quibble would be that Bush needs a few more marquee species. I’m not talking about tapirs and gibbons all over the joint, but why not a few marmosets, tamarins or even a handful of sloths? Bush sets about creating a realistic atmosphere inside a human-made jungle and it does a wonderful job of evoking a true ‘Bush’. We actually spent two periods of the day going through this building and it is known as one of the great zoo Tropical Houses of the world.
Burgers’ Desert opened in 1994 and it can be accessed via a long, dark mine shaft from the Bush building to the Desert. There are a few vivariums, a mock cave and a lot of artifacts in the tunnel, and the initial view when walking into Desert is excellent. The Mexican-American landscape is the focus, with Bighorn Sheep, Collared Peccary and Bobcat as the three large mammal species on-show to the public. There are two exhibits for Ringtails (we saw 4 of the creatures), quite a few reptiles, and the guidebook that I purchased that morning lists almost 15 bird species with Turkey Vultures and Roadrunners as the two largest. Just like in the Bush building, Desert has a bewildering array of plant life, including large Saguaro Cacti area and a plethora of desert plants in the arid environment. Desert is probably half the size of Bush, but still a great zoological experience and the temperature was nice as it didn’t actually reach ‘desert-like’ conditions.
Burger’s Ocean opened in 2000 and it contains the largest living coral reef aquarium tank on the planet (outside of one location in Queensland, Australia) in a zone that is specifically Indo-Pacific. We stared at it for a long time and in fact sat down to watch the ecosystem in action. It’s an amazing recreation of nature, as if a tiny chunk of the Great Barrier Reef was flown to Arnhem and deposited in a world-class zoo. It took many years to build up the network of coral to make the reef effective and self-sustaining and now almost 20 years later it apparently looks better than ever. The Ocean building, which is actually entered via the Bush building, has a theme in that the first thing visitors see is a small beach and lagoon zone, then as the path winds down through some mock-rock caves, the ocean becomes deeper and deeper until it emerges at a gorgeous shark tank with dark background walls so that large sharks come out from nowhere. The Ocean building doesn’t contain a lot of tanks (less than a dozen), but what is there is of a very high quality and some of the tanks are enormous.
Burgers’ Rimba opened in 2008 and the highlight of the day occurred here because we had a clear view of a Sun Bear cub, with a second cub barely seen behind the mother on the edge of the indoor quarters. The first-ever birth of a Sun Bear in the Netherlands has made the zoo proud and we watched the youngster for a number of minutes. This part of the zoo has a South-East Asian theme and there was another treat in the form of a mixed-species habitat with 6 species that continues the excellent European tradition of combining different groups of animals. In one large exhibit can be found Banteng, Eld’s Deer, Hog Deer, Reeves’ Muntjac, Pig-tailed Macaque and Siamang. There are hotwired trees and many ropes so that the Siamang cannot come down and mingle with the other 5 species, but it all seems to work beautifully. Other species in Rimba include Sumatran Tiger, Binturong and Spectacled Langur.
Burgers’ Mangrove opened in 2017 and is a large domed building that doesn’t have a lot of big-name species but is nevertheless exceptional and it is the largest indoor mangrove structure in the world. There are three Caribbean Manatees, including a youngster, in a spacious pool, many butterflies in all directions, a few birds and at least one species of lizard, and the other main inhabitants are a lot of Mudplane Crabs and Fiddler Crabs. Seeing the public gathered around, pointing out crabs to each other and being thoughtfully engaged with the ecosystem presented in front of them, was a rewarding experience.
I’ve gone through 5 of the 7 ‘ecodisplays’ and in chronological order of when they opened. Bush (1988), Desert (1994), Ocean (2000), Rimba (2008) and Mangrove (2017) have together revolutionized Burgers’ Zoo over the past 30 years. What is truly amazing, though, is how the oldest two sections of the zoo arguably contain some of the real highlights.
Burgers’ Safari used to be a drive-through section, including a part where African Lions could be all around the vehicles of visitors. Those days are long gone, but along one lengthy stretch of walking trail are extremely large exhibits for African Lions and Cheetahs. On the other side, coming back towards the main part of the zoo, is a truly massive African Savanna with species such as Rothschild Giraffe, White Rhino, Grant’s Zebra, Ellipsen Waterbuck, Roan Antelope and others, including some holding yards that are the size of some entire antelope exhibits at urban zoos. A major flaw to the Safari area is that it involves a lot of walking for only a few enclosures, and animals are occasionally seen at a great distance away. There is enough space for the zoo to easily add a dozen small-mammal exhibits, or an African aviary, or at least something else to keep visitors engaged.
Burgers’ Park is the final area, found in different sections of the zoo, and the main two attractions are a pair of 1970s-era great ape habitats. Lowland Gorillas have a spacious, grassy exhibit for a large troop, and Chimpanzees have an even bigger exhibit that allows them to showcase their natural behaviours. (How Krefeld’s chimps would benefit from such an experience!). There are many viewing areas of these superb enclosures, and my only complaint is the main pair of covered viewing areas are dead-ends, thus creating congestion on busy days. This part of the zoo also has some flamingos, macropods, and a very old Bird House that @lintworm suspects is on its last legs. Up by the front of the zoo is a solitary Asian Elephant (awaiting a companion) who lives in an adequate exhibit that clearly will not be there forever. Nearby is a brand-new area that contains Ring-tailed Lemurs, Black Lemurs, Coatis and Squirrel Monkeys that meets the typically high standards of this zoo. Meerkats, Reindeer, leopards and even a great zoo rarity, in the form of Golden Jackals, rounds out this zone.
Burgers’ Zoo was a 6-hour experience for me, and I felt that I saw every single exhibit and even every playground, of which there are several nice ones, and my traveling companions chuckled as I took a quick peek at various slides, swings and climbing equipment. I think that it's important to see almost every inch of a zoo, not just the major animal habitats. This review is not entirely comprehensive in terms of lists of species, but I've still provided a long overview. It sounds weird to say this, but for a zoo often hailed as one of Europe’s premier zoological establishments, that aren’t a lot of animals. Insects are basically nonexistent, the whole zoo contains around 20 species of reptile and amphibian, there are approximately 55 mammal species (less than the obscure Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas!), with birds at 80 species and fish around 200 thanks to the Ocean aquatic building. The thing with Burgers’ Zoo is that ‘less is more’ appears to be the mantra. I’d personally like a few more small mammals in Bush and Desert, and maybe a few more exhibits in Ocean (for example Blijdorp has a ton of animals in its Oceanium) and Safari, but that is not the point of Burgers’ Zoo. Visitors have to look hard to see any creatures and a zoo visit is about experiencing different biomes and ecosystems rather than simply looking at animals in enclosures. The zoo is an experience.
The Netherlands is not a very large country in term of geography, but there are plenty of great zoos within its borders. From the nation’s most popular, Artis Royal Zoo in Amsterdam, to a couple of zoos that are right up there amidst the best zoos in all of Europe (Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem and Blijdorp in Rotterdam), to the world’s foremost primate zoo (Apenheul), to Europe’s largest marine mammal park (Harderwijk) and other big, popular facilities like Beekse Bergen and Ouwehands. The establishment known as GaiaZOO was a pleasant surprise, as were so many others as I’ve now toured 41 Dutch zoos. The initial plan was to visit exactly 50 zoos in the Netherlands, but that next-door neighbour Germany, with its colossal behemoths, kept tugging at me to come over and play. So, reluctant to leave one of the world’s great zoo nations in the shape of the Netherlands, and let us not forget about the magnificent trio of Antwerp, Planckendael and Pairi Daiza in Belgium, I am diving back into Germany for yet another week of German brilliance. I haven’t entirely given up my love affair with the Dutch, as I have a couple of big, popular zoos left there for the very end of the trip (Emmen and Amersfoort), but here comes Germany!
Great to hear you liked Burgers' Zoo. I always love the fact that you have to look and search well to find species in the ecodisplays. Some are easy but others are difficult. I think Lintworm has shown you some feeding spots for birds hidden in the Bush, where you have a good chance to find some, otherwise difficult to detect, bird species.
Before I was active on ZooChat I never fully realized I have been lucky to be living in an area with a lot of zoos and some of them regarded as within the best of the world. It makes me as a Dutchman a bit proud that you speak so highly of several Dutch zoos. And to show we as a country are not perfect and put a contrast to some great zoos, you also found 'De Paay'....
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Maybe you know this already, but in terms of behaviour, this group of chimpanzees could be the most studied group of captive great apes in the world. Primatologist Jan van Hooff grew up in Burgers' Zoo, with his grandfather being the founder of the zoo, his parents and later his brother being the directors of Burgers' Zoo. Jan van Hooff studied different species of primates in different places in the world, but he and a lot of students from him observed this group at Burgers' Zoo for countless hours. Probably the most famous student that followed lessons with Jan was Dutch-American Frans de Waal, who later became a world renowed primatologist. He also did a a lot of behaviour research regarding this specific group of chimpansee.
Before I was active on ZooChat I never fully realized I have been lucky to be living in an area with a lot of zoos and some of them regarded as within the best of the world. It makes me as a Dutchman a bit proud that you speak so highly of several Dutch zoos. And to show we as a country are not perfect and put a contrast to some great zoos, you also found 'De Paay'....
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
As I have already detailed elsewhere, I was phenomenonally glad of the ability to drop into these two areas multiple times during my visit, given the bitterly-cold outside temperature that day
Congratulations on joining the “which one is better, Blijdorp or Burgers” banter 
happy to hear you have joined the correct side
Burgers is also highly enjoyable in mid winter, not only to escape the bitter cold, but you also get to walk in the Bush in utter darkness, which is amazing.
Your review of Burgers seems to me to be a bit more factual and a bit less judgemental than most other reviews. Since you seemed to love Blijdorp and rate Burgers even higher, it must be pretty high up there but you never mention a top 5 spot so apparantly it doesn’t reach that high on your list?
Anyways, have fun at the neighbours. I wonder if the Berlins and Walsrode have had your expectations cranked up so high that the only way possible is disappointment.
I just experienced the other way around as I visited ZOOM for the first time and utterly enjoyed it after my expectations were pretty low coming in.
happy to hear you have joined the correct side Burgers is also highly enjoyable in mid winter, not only to escape the bitter cold, but you also get to walk in the Bush in utter darkness, which is amazing.
Your review of Burgers seems to me to be a bit more factual and a bit less judgemental than most other reviews. Since you seemed to love Blijdorp and rate Burgers even higher, it must be pretty high up there but you never mention a top 5 spot so apparantly it doesn’t reach that high on your list?
Anyways, have fun at the neighbours. I wonder if the Berlins and Walsrode have had your expectations cranked up so high that the only way possible is disappointment.
I just experienced the other way around as I visited ZOOM for the first time and utterly enjoyed it after my expectations were pretty low coming in.
I don't think he will like the Berlins anywhere near as much as I do, though I do think he will like them. What I look forward to is his opinion on which of the two he prefers!
SabineB
Well-Known Member
I totally agree that the Berlins will not please snowleopard as much a Burgers and I for one would wholeheartedly agree with that and i am eager to learn which Berlin was liked better.
Perhaps Snowleopard will like Burgers for lunch and Berliners for dessert.
Let's see - I believe both Berlin Zoos are world-class - however different in its stile.
Unfortunately Snowleopard will be there with construction going on at the preadator houses in both zoos - nevertheless there is still a lot to see.
I personally really love both of them - however if I have to rank them I prefer the East-Berlin Tierpark a bit more.
Unfortunately Snowleopard will be there with construction going on at the preadator houses in both zoos - nevertheless there is still a lot to see.
I personally really love both of them - however if I have to rank them I prefer the East-Berlin Tierpark a bit more.
You would be great at Small mammals TAG
Nevertheless, the lack of institutions interested in keeping some of the species, especially rodents is starting to be a problem...I mean would it be THAT hard to have 1 or 2 terrariums with some rodent species somewhere? And most of them are really nice and (sort of) active throughout the day.
My issue with those are the inner enclosures. They are spacious and all but the furnishing was (at least during my visit) rather bland...
Great review! I’ve been without internet for the past couple of weeks and so I’ve just spent an hour or so reading through the last 2 weeks of reviews. I’m extremely excited to see your impressions on the zoos of Germany!
I can see why some people would like to see more enclosures in the Bush and Desert, but I mostly disagree with them, though in the Desert there would be some space, especially as it is emptier than the Bush. It should however be noted that Burgers' has an extensive off-show breeding facility for three rare (by European standards) N-American rodents.
These enclosures are largely unchanged since 1971. For the Gorillas who are pretty much terrestrial I feel the indoor enclosure is fine, with enough opportunities to get away from each other. The chimps could indeed do with better climbing equipments, but with the current set-up that is impossible.... I hope that one day the Gorilla (and Mangabeys) will get an own house next to their island, so that the whole current house can again be remodelled for the Chimpanzees alone.
In this case I even have to be more lucky because :
- I was born exactly between 2 of snowleopards favorite zoos ( 40 kilometers to the north and I'm in Rotterdam Zoo and 40 kilometers to the south and I'm in Antwerp Zoo ).
- I've lived in the 3 main-countries snowleopard is visiting on this tour ( Netherlands, Belgium and Germany ) and I've worked at 2 of the zoos snowleopard has visited ( Pairi Daiza and Walsrode ) from which Pairi Daiza is one of his all-time favorites and Walsrode - I'm sure - also will end-up high on his best-zoo list !
- Visited allmost all Dutch zoos snowleopard has visited, about half of his Belgium collections and for Germany ..... still an awefull lot to visit for me
!
I was talking more about zoos in general. That's what working with small mammals does to you...you want to see them everywhere and every pavilion is perfectly suited to house them
Given the fact the almost all of Pilsen's kangaroo rats are from Arnhem, I know about it
coincidentally we discussed it just today with my colleague
I don't work with small mammals but I can definitely relate to wanting to see small mammals in every pavilion you see. At my local Toronto Zoo whenever I'm in one of the main pavilions I'm thinking "wow you could totally fit a mongoose exhibit there" or "that planted section would make a great squirrel exhibit"That's what working with small mammals does to you...you want to see them everywhere and every pavilion is perfectly suited to house them
To a certain extent. Many species are just not "flashy" enough for zoos to display them on a regular base, and it can usually be contributed to individual zookeepers or curators (who have a personal special interest in certain animals and might even keep & breed them in private life) that these zoological "wallflowers" pop up on display now and then. This is also the case for rodents and other small mammals, which brings us to...
Two possible explainations: for the majority of visitors, most rodents are "a mouse", "a rat" or "a squirrel" (or a mara ^^)- if they've seen one, they think they've seen them all. So it takes some extra effort from the individual zoo to present its rodents more efficiently. Secondly, many rodent species have a (at least for human beings) fast alternation of generations. So you need to have and properly manage a larger number of specimens to prevent an overaging of your population. If you don't have the space and/or dedicated staff, your rodent species is suddenly gone for good from zoos.
Setting aside zoo reviews for a moment, there are some other cultural differences that I'd like to comment on. I've mentioned numerous things over the course of this month-long Euro trek, such as paying for parking everywhere, smokers everywhere, a few comments on demographics, etc. I wouldn't view these 5 items necessarily as positive or negative (except for the smoking), as overall I keep thinking in my head that I generally prefer touring European zoos, but there are some items that keep cropping up time and time again.
- At Tierpark Hagenbeck I happened to stroll past the Lowland Tapir exhibit while a keeper talk was going on. Of course, this being Hagenbeck, the keeper was in there and hand-feeding a very large tapir and slapping it on the back and rump in a casual manner. I know that tons of keepers do go in with tapirs and this happened at a zoo where various keepers spend hours inside the elephant paddock, but at one point many years ago a keeper at the Oklahoma City Zoo lost one of her arms to a tapir! Anyway, there were 3 people standing there smoking with their kids while the man was going on about tapirs and nothing was said. It really was like being at a zoo in some bygone era. The tobacco packages in convenience stores are covered with ghastly-looking photos of people with cancer, or other awful images, and yet people must be strongly addicted to continue the habit.
- Pumping gas in Europe is nice because I pull up and immediately start pumping. In British Columbia, zero gas stations allow you to do that as it's a Provincial law and might even be a Federal law. Customers have to pre-pay for the gas, usually by just swiping their credit card through the machine or else going inside the building. I've only had to do that on a few occasions, with pre-payment just not a thing at most places in Europe. In Canada it is a harsh law because there were people getting gas and then dashing off without paying on a regular occasion. Those damn Moose hunters!
- I've continued to get a hotel every single night, always through booking.com and I've had a few for 40 Euros to 50 Euros (which is $60-70 Canadian per night). Of the 25 different hotels that I'll end up staying at on this trip, perhaps only two have had air-conditioning, which I've mentioned in the past. It's a rarity in Europe. Also, ceiling fans in the bathrooms scarcely exist, with only two or three having those. Again, this is simply a cultural difference as in North America just about every bathroom/toilet/lavatory/restroom has a little ceiling fan that turns on with the light or you turn on separately so that when you shower the steam from the water doesn't fog up the mirror. In Europe, if someone goes to the toilet or uses the shower there is no little ceiling fan to take away odours or steam. It's a valuable amenity that is missed in Europe.
- Dogs in zoos...what is with the freaking dogs in zoos? Name any zoo in the entire United States or Canada, and it would be intriguing to find out if more than 2% allow dogs in zoos. When I was at Duisburg it was like a breeding convention or dog show, with dogs being walked on leashes everywhere, dogs taking dumps on the visitor pathway and then the owner has to pull out a plastic baggie (but does he or she really get all of the poo off the trail?) and it's all rather disgusting. Dogs are generally well-behaved in zoos but they are annoying, sometimes bark at the zoo animals and it's obviously a cultural item that is far more prevalent in Germany than it was in either the Netherlands or Belgium. If any of you Europeans have a big American zoo trip then you might see a handful of guide dogs (for the blind) in U.S. zoos and that's it. There will be no one walking a dog with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth.
- The 5th and final item for today's agenda is tattoos. I like tattoos and have tattoos myself, but they are not visible and if I didn't say anything no one reading this would ever know. My gut feeling is that most zoo nerds, for whatever reason, do not have multiple tattoos. However, tattoos are a MAJOR thing in Germany, with an endless stream of people walking past me with entire sleeves with tattoos, lots of piercings, etc., and this is not confined to young, 'goth' folks. Older, middle-aged people around my age (I'm 43) have loads of visible tattoos on all different body parts, including their necks and hands. I tried to look up some statistics via Google, but from anecdotal evidence tattoos are a huge hit in Germany and I feel that there are likely millions upon millions of Germans with non-visible tattoos on top of what I see walking around zoos. It's a huge cultural thing in Germany to have tattoos and in some cases loads of them all over one's body. Intriguing!
- At Tierpark Hagenbeck I happened to stroll past the Lowland Tapir exhibit while a keeper talk was going on. Of course, this being Hagenbeck, the keeper was in there and hand-feeding a very large tapir and slapping it on the back and rump in a casual manner. I know that tons of keepers do go in with tapirs and this happened at a zoo where various keepers spend hours inside the elephant paddock, but at one point many years ago a keeper at the Oklahoma City Zoo lost one of her arms to a tapir! Anyway, there were 3 people standing there smoking with their kids while the man was going on about tapirs and nothing was said. It really was like being at a zoo in some bygone era. The tobacco packages in convenience stores are covered with ghastly-looking photos of people with cancer, or other awful images, and yet people must be strongly addicted to continue the habit.
- Pumping gas in Europe is nice because I pull up and immediately start pumping. In British Columbia, zero gas stations allow you to do that as it's a Provincial law and might even be a Federal law. Customers have to pre-pay for the gas, usually by just swiping their credit card through the machine or else going inside the building. I've only had to do that on a few occasions, with pre-payment just not a thing at most places in Europe. In Canada it is a harsh law because there were people getting gas and then dashing off without paying on a regular occasion. Those damn Moose hunters!
- I've continued to get a hotel every single night, always through booking.com and I've had a few for 40 Euros to 50 Euros (which is $60-70 Canadian per night). Of the 25 different hotels that I'll end up staying at on this trip, perhaps only two have had air-conditioning, which I've mentioned in the past. It's a rarity in Europe. Also, ceiling fans in the bathrooms scarcely exist, with only two or three having those. Again, this is simply a cultural difference as in North America just about every bathroom/toilet/lavatory/restroom has a little ceiling fan that turns on with the light or you turn on separately so that when you shower the steam from the water doesn't fog up the mirror. In Europe, if someone goes to the toilet or uses the shower there is no little ceiling fan to take away odours or steam. It's a valuable amenity that is missed in Europe.
- Dogs in zoos...what is with the freaking dogs in zoos? Name any zoo in the entire United States or Canada, and it would be intriguing to find out if more than 2% allow dogs in zoos. When I was at Duisburg it was like a breeding convention or dog show, with dogs being walked on leashes everywhere, dogs taking dumps on the visitor pathway and then the owner has to pull out a plastic baggie (but does he or she really get all of the poo off the trail?) and it's all rather disgusting. Dogs are generally well-behaved in zoos but they are annoying, sometimes bark at the zoo animals and it's obviously a cultural item that is far more prevalent in Germany than it was in either the Netherlands or Belgium. If any of you Europeans have a big American zoo trip then you might see a handful of guide dogs (for the blind) in U.S. zoos and that's it. There will be no one walking a dog with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth.
- The 5th and final item for today's agenda is tattoos. I like tattoos and have tattoos myself, but they are not visible and if I didn't say anything no one reading this would ever know. My gut feeling is that most zoo nerds, for whatever reason, do not have multiple tattoos. However, tattoos are a MAJOR thing in Germany, with an endless stream of people walking past me with entire sleeves with tattoos, lots of piercings, etc., and this is not confined to young, 'goth' folks. Older, middle-aged people around my age (I'm 43) have loads of visible tattoos on all different body parts, including their necks and hands. I tried to look up some statistics via Google, but from anecdotal evidence tattoos are a huge hit in Germany and I feel that there are likely millions upon millions of Germans with non-visible tattoos on top of what I see walking around zoos. It's a huge cultural thing in Germany to have tattoos and in some cases loads of them all over one's body. Intriguing!
Nicotine addiction is indeed hard to shake off; prisons that tried to ban smoking completely within their facilities in the past quickly lifted the ban due to prison riots. I also don't think the pictures and large warning signs on the boxes help at all.
- Tapirs: yeah, tapirs can be dangerous; just like most large mammals. There are however, different individual temperaments and situations (like a female with her calf) to take into account.
- Air-conditioning: what sooty wrote. qed
- Dogs in zoos: being able to take your dog with you is a great bonus for both owners and (most) dogs. Some zoo animals even seem to consider visitor dogs as kind of behavioral enrichment (big cats in particular). Whether the zoo allows dogs in or not is actually one of the most commonly asked visitor questions and can be quite a decision criterion for a zoo visit. Some zoos charge extra entry fees for dogs. Which is also used for additional clean-ups.
- Since its beginning in the 1990s, the tattoo hype in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, NL etc
has found such widespread social acceptance that it is hard to find someone in certain age and social groups not sporting one (like me, who is jokingly referred to as a "Reinhäuter" aka a "Clean skin"
). I'm, however, getting the impression that the trend has passed its summit and tattoos are now again mainly a thing among the lower social classes. Piercings and other body modifications, on the other hand, are still frequently associated with alternative lifestyles (and sexual kinks). Which is kind of funny, as their users seem to strive to underline their individuality by being more and more uniform in their modifications. ^^
@Batto I very much know the issues in keeping these species. I don't want to have every zoo to have Pilsen-sized collection, but 2-3 species here and there would be nice and it would be an enormous help...
Which species was it? There are big differences in temperament of each species.
Which species was it? There are big differences in temperament of each species.