Berlin Tierpark Tierpark Berlin news 2021

markmeier

markmeier

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Tierpark Berlin just announced the official start of preparatory measures for the new/modernised elephant building. They also promised frequent updates building process as they had them for the Brehm building.

Meanwhile there aren't any news or updates on the Himalaya area or any of the other projects for the time being.

By the way, the park is still open for the public but they implemented strict regulations to receive permission for this (masks have to be worn at all times and places).
 
Still not any big news for the time being.

AFRICA
As Berlin faces a rather cold period at the moment, most building projects in the city don't really progress. The old pachydermy building still looks the same. But they have demolished (and piled up) all the old concrete edges.

Besides that, the park now keeps 3 East African Oryx (I think it is 3,0 and they may be part of the large savannah exhibit but I'm not sure):


HIMALAYA
As for the old mountain area, all animals have left and the whole area is fenced off. So now you can meet Bharals at the very left border of the park (when you enter the park through the castle entrance and head for the monkey building, keeping as far left as possible and passing the concrete wall). On the other hand (or rather on the very right), you now meet Moose after passing Prairie Dogs, New World Porcupines, Wood Bisons and American White Pelicans heading for the Polar Bears. The Bharals are going to return to the mountain area, wheras the Moose won't.


OTHER PARTS:
Of course, the park also had some offspring in recent weeks and months (I hope I didn't show any of this before):


So at present, there are early signs of the big changes to come as well as some small developments.

By the way, all of the videos come from supporters of Tierpark Berlin, hence they are not procuced in a professional fashion. I still thought they document the present situation quite well.
 
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The new park map gives a good impression of what is actually going on in the park at the moment. The scale of the building sites is huge and so will be the impact of the elephant building as center piece of the new Africa Zone:
csm_RZ_Tierparkplan_Website_EN_beige_101220_76583fea3e.jpg


The elephants will get combined 16.000 square metres or more than 170.000 square feet (1,6 ha/ 4 acres) of inside and outside enclosures (only actual enclosure area counted!). Some of this will be hidden behind the scenes. There will be a second smaller hall with flexible fences as well as 4 large boxes each with a wall for protected contact and they will also keep animals behind the scenes. But there will also be reptiles, birds and small mammals to watch in the visitors' area.

And soon after that, the large savannah exhibit will be created next to the building, where you can already see giraffes and zebras. Both elephant building with its inside and outside enclosures and the savannah will be the biggest of their kind in Germany as far as I know. I just hope they get the design right for such large complexes and the same hope goes for Himalaya. But if they manage this well, the Tierpark will soon be more attractive than ever before.
 
Plans at Berlin Tierpark are really awesome and as said will put back the zoo as one of the most attractive in Europe. But I can't help myself to think that not enlarging current elephant space is a missed opportunity.
Combined, current zebras complex and giraffe pen already offer enough space for exhibiting a large combination of herbivores. I wish elephants would have been included in the project and enjoy a third or half of this extensive space, maybe with one or two smaller species.
 
Any development in Berlin Tierpark is welcome, given it was always underfunded compared to the Zoo. However, I would give priority to the most outdated and too small parts: the old gibbon island, heated parrot-harpy eagle aviaries or the domestic animal section near the gulls and the ABH.
 
Jurek7 said:
Any development in Berlin Tierpark is welcome, given it was always underfunded compared to the Zoo. However, I would give priority to the most outdated and too small parts: the old gibbon island, heated parrot-harpy eagle aviaries or the domestic animal section near the gulls and the ABH.
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the ABH house was allready compleatly renovated last year
 
Jurek7 said:
Any development in Berlin Tierpark is welcome, given it was always underfunded compared to the Zoo. However, I would give priority to the most outdated and too small parts: the old gibbon island, heated parrot-harpy eagle aviaries or the domestic animal section near the gulls and the ABH.
Click to expand...

To be fair, I don't see why this gibbon enclosure
full


should be prioritised. I would say that with the AB haus and the pachyderm house they have taken on the two biggest eyesores of the whole zoo. The latter house was outdated since the opening and especially indoors was very bad. I don't see why they are remodeling the whole mountain ungulate area, but generally the choices seem fair.
 
AthleticBinturong said:
In what sense? I can’t remember it very vividly but I never remember thinking this when I seen it. Similar to primate islands in several other zoos.
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Just because it is similar to other enclosures doesn't mean its an acceptable standard.

Indoor area is too small, outdoor area is a climbing frame on a small island footprint. They could do so much better, as others have stated its probably not a priority right now.

The two enclosure down by the play ground in Monkey World is probably the best I have seen in Europe. But they have benefited from using the mature trees they already had.
 
taun said:
Indoor area is too small, outdoor area is a climbing frame on a small island footprint. They could do so much better, as others have stated its probably not a priority right now.

The two enclosure down by the play ground in Monkey World is probably the best I have seen in Europe. But they have benefited from using the mature trees they already had.
Click to expand...

There actually are plans to restructure the monkey building so that orangs and gibbons can live there. But as others pointed out, there are projects with higher priority at present. If you consider the harsh critcism which Brehm building, pachydermy building and sunbear building received this is kind of understandable. However, I also have to agree about the Himalaya project: It may (or may not) turn out well, but it wasn't desperately needed like some of the other projects. So I guess, this could indeed be a bit questionable.

Still, I'm not sure I should feel impatient about the new gibbon enclosure. To be honest, I never even thought the gibbons have such a bad enclosure. Yes, they do live on a rather small island (in fact there are four very small islands but the gibbons usually don't come down to the ground so I guess it is like one island for them). But I heard that some gibbons in South East Asia actually live on rather tiny islands as well - perhaps not always by choice but it seems to be a somewhat common situation.

I'm also not sure, if they miss climbing on actual trees. They do use the entire construction and their movement always seems quite versatile and natural to me. As far as I know, the small building is mainly used for sleeping. They sometimes disappear inside throughout the day but it's usually not for long. They often can be spotted high up on the top beams, but they also move around quite actively. And as soon as the temperature drops so they would need to be inside more often, they move to another enclosure anyways.

But of course there is always room for improvement. I don't know the model enclosure you speak about but hopefully they will get something similar, when they redo the monkey building for them.
 
markmeier said:
But if they manage this well, the Tierpark will soon be more attractive than ever before.
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Albeit with a massive overthemed mess where one of the best parts of the zoo (and least in need of an update) used to be found :p

lintworm said:
I don't see why they are remodeling the whole mountain ungulate area, but generally the choices seem fair.
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How better for Kniereim to make it clear he is trying to expunge the legacy of Blaszkiewitz than by completely replacing the one major extension to Tierpark Berlin the latter oversaw? :P ;)
 
If I'm fully sincere, I'm pretty bummed that the mountain ungulate area is being phased out and didn't get to see it for myself. Are most of the species gonna be phased out? I really hope I'm wrong :(
 
SivatheriumGuy said:
Are most of the species gonna be phased out? I really hope I'm wrong :(
Click to expand...

Well, just looking at the list of species held in the area in recent years, one can work out which don't fall within the biogeographic remit of "Himalayas" - it's not a perfect means of seeing how much will be lost (or indeed gained) but I suspect it will be fairly accurate:

Ural Owl (Strix uralensis) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
White-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris) - HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Transcaspian urial (Ovis vignei arkal) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Chinese goral (Naemorhedus griseus arnouxianus) - HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Marco Polo sheep (Ovis ammon polii) - HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Tajik markhor (Capra falconeri heptneri) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Altai lynx (Lynx lynx wardi) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Northern blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur szechuanensis) - HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Sichuan takin (Budorcas taxicolor tibetana) - HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul) - HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Steller's sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus) -NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Snowy Owl (Bubo scandica) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
European Wolverine (Gulo gulo gulo) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra rupicapra) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Eurasian elk (Alces alces alces) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
European wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon) -NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Eurasian crane (Grus grus grus) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN
Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus barbatus) - NOT HIMALAYAN/TIBETAN

Two confirmed additions are snow leopard and red panda I believe.
 
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