Berlin Tierpark Tierpark Berlin news 2023

Al said:
Any hints of how the enclosure is decorated to work out what kind of species it could be?
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Funny enough, I thought along the same lines and asked some German web forum users for more information. This is the picture I received:
142366.jpg (800×525) (schueling.com) I'm not sure, if there will be a second spot to look into the enclosure, but it's also more open than I expected after I received the description I just shared above.

I think it could be suitable for the golden cats, but I don't know if they want to move them. They also still have the Palm Civets which don't have a great enclosure at present:
www.Zootierliste.de
However, it could also be a new species. As far as I know, Berlin Tierpark still has close connections to Indonesia.
 
Once again, I searched through the archives of the Berlin Senate and came across some interesting information:

Document 1 (pages 215 + 217) concerning GRW funds (GRW means something like common mission of funding the local economy including touristic structures):
https://www.parlament-berlin.de/ados/19/WiEnBe/vorgang/web19-0154-01-v.pdf
GRW funds for 2022:
projects across different areas (savannah?): 7,146,543.81 euros
Pachyderm house: 0 euros
GRW funds for 2023:
projects across different areas (savannah?): 3.700.000 euros
Pachyderm house: 679,131.56 euros
GRW funds for 2024:
projects across different areas (???): 2,927,700.00 euros
Pachyderm house: 9,000,000.00 euros
GRW funds for 2025:
projects across different areas (???): 2,700,020.70 euros
Pachyderm house: 14,609,577.95 euros

This means that the Pachyderm House will (hopefully!) finally get underway next year, although most of the money will not be spent in 2025. However, I don't quite understand the "projects across different areas" for 2024 and 2025 (totalling almost 6 million euros). It's a shame that there are no more details! According to current planning, however, it should actually be something for Africa again.

Speaking of Africa: Now to document 2 (here it's page 7 of 7)
https://www.parlament-berlin.de/adosservice/19/Haupt/vorgang/h19-1206-v.pdf
This is not about GRW funds, but about the so-called Innovation Promotion Fund IFF, a pot totalling 750 million as of 2023. And here, too, the Tierpark has apparently secured funds, namely a share of 3 million (out of a total of 5 million budgeted) for the "Species conservation project "Breeding station for northern white rhinoceros" at Friedrichsfelde Zoo"! Planned funding: 1 million out of 1.8 million budgeted for 2024 and 2 million out of 2.755 million budgeted for 2025! So not only is it finally clear which rhinos are being planned for, but this project should actually even start very soon! This also confirms my suspicion that the unlabeled GRW funds are also planned for Africa (e.g. the outstanding funds for the rhinos or funds for the lions, etc.).

So 2024 could once again be a very exciting year and 2025, or perhaps 2026 should hopefully be a very joyful year with great new animals arriving and important new exhibits opening. It also seems like they are really doing an amazing job at securing funds now.
 
markmeier said:
This is not about GRW funds, but about the so-called Innovation Promotion Fund IFF, a pot totalling 750 million as of 2023. And here, too, the Tierpark has apparently secured funds, namely a share of 3 million (out of a total of 5 million budgeted) for the "Species conservation project "Breeding station for northern white rhinoceros" at Friedrichsfelde Zoo"! Planned funding: 1 million out of 1.8 million budgeted for 2024 and 2 million out of 2.755 million budgeted for 2025! So not only is it finally clear which rhinos are being planned for, but this project should actually even start very soon! This also confirms my suspicion that the unlabeled GRW funds are also planned for Africa (e.g. the outstanding funds for the rhinos or funds for the lions, etc.).
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I do not understand the project for the northern white rhinoceros. Is this breeding situation in the field or at the Tierpark?
 
So the Pachyderm House will cost 21 million euros in total?! Look forward to it even more now! Do we know for certain whether manatees will return in the new house, which would be great and definitely contribute somewhat to the cost, due to pool filtration?
 
markmeier said:
I would say, It's definitely situated in the Tierpark. This is a regional fund and the Tierpark has been planning for African rhinos anyways.
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That sounds astonishing and very exciting. Does anyone know how it might work logistically?
 
PossumRoach said:
I do not understand the project for the northern white rhinoceros. Is this breeding situation in the field or at the Tierpark?
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markmeier said:
I would say, It's definitely situated in the Tierpark. This is a regional fund and the Tierpark has been planning for African rhinos anyways.
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Considering the fact there's only two northern white rhinoceros left alive anywhere in the world, both female, I severely doubt it's going to entail living animals :p my guess is that (if anything) it would be a scientific complex for creating embryos for future IVF implantation using historically-harvested eggs and semen.

More likely by far, the document made an error and meant to say Southern White Rhinoceros!
 
Kalaw said:
So the Pachyderm House will cost 21 million euros in total?! Look forward to it even more now! Do we know for certain whether manatees will return in the new house, which would be great and definitely contribute somewhat to the cost, due to pool filtration?
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Unfortunately, it's even far more than that (can't remember from the top of my hat but I think it was sth around 35 Mio). And I phrased it incorrectly as well. They actually have been working on it for some time now, but apparently the major process (particularly putting the new roof on) will probably start in 2024 with the biggest progress happening in 2025 (if everything goes according to plan now).

And no, there won't be any manatees in there. It will only be elephants and some smaller African species.
 
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TeaLovingDave said:
Considering the fact there's only two northern white rhinoceros left alive anywhere in the world, both female, I severely doubt it's going to entail living animals :p my guess is that (if anything) it would be a scientific complex for creating embryos for future IVF implantation using historically-harvested eggs and semen.

More likely by far, the document made an error and meant to say Southern White Rhinoceros!
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Oh, I wasn't aware of this. In fact, I don't know much about the different African rhinos.

But what on earth have they been thinking (or drinking) then?
Having said that, it actually would make some more sense if it was sth related to innovative breeding. I actually have been wondering why an innovation funds would give funds to the Tierpark. Breeding animals the traditional way wouldn't be much of an innovation.

But it is a bit sad that this might mean there won't be any living rhinos for some more years in the park and the new facility could well be situated at the IZW at the border of the park where they have scientists. (the IZW used to belong to the Tierpark until the Wall went down)

Edit: W Dreier just wrote in Schueling forum that breeding rhinos doesn't work with petri dishes. He suggested they would need to have have females of the Southern rhinos to raise offspring for the Northern ones. Really interesting. This whole development comes as a total surprise for me. I'm really curious how this will go about (if it actually happens - which it seems like it will).
 
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I did some more research and stumbled upon this source;
Last chance for the Northern White Rhinoceros: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports high tech for conservation with the BioRescue project

Apparently, the IZW located next to the Tierpark has indeed been leading international attempts to artificially breed Northern white rhinos and plant them into Southern white rhinos. The project is called "Bio Rescue Project". So the IZW already has the technology and some genetic material. And they actually first launched the project in the Tierpark back in 2019:
Max Delbrück Center auf X: „Das nördliche #Breitmaulnashorn kämpft ums Überleben: Forschende des #mdcBerlin, @IZWberlin, @Helmholtz_MUC, @zooberlin sowie vieler anderer Institutionen haben heute das Projekt #BioRescue im #TierparkBerlin vorgestellt.https://t.co/4KZZL3Crhu @BMBF_Bund https://t.co/B2iQcZlK2p“ / X (twitter.com)

So I guess they may really be building a breeding facilty with female Southern white rhinos in the Tierpark to make this work happen. Crazy stuff!
 
markmeier said:
I did some more research and stumbled upon this source;
Last chance for the Northern White Rhinoceros: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports high tech for conservation with the BioRescue project

Apparently, the IZW located next to the Tierpark has indeed been leading international attempts to artificially breed Northern white rhinos and plant them into Southern white rhinos. The project is called "Bio Rescue Project". So the IZW already has the technology and some genetic material. And they actually first launched the project in the Tierpark back in 2019:
Max Delbrück Center auf X: „Das nördliche #Breitmaulnashorn kämpft ums Überleben: Forschende des #mdcBerlin, @IZWberlin, @Helmholtz_MUC, @zooberlin sowie vieler anderer Institutionen haben heute das Projekt #BioRescue im #TierparkBerlin vorgestellt.https://t.co/4KZZL3Crhu @BMBF_Bund https://t.co/B2iQcZlK2p“ / X (twitter.com)

So I guess they may really be building a breeding facilty with female Southern white rhinos in the Tierpark to make this work happen. Crazy stuff!
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I have known about this project for a while. San Diego WAP already has an outstation for NWR with Southern white rhino surrogate mothers. Same might happen at IZW ..., I do hope behind the scenes.

Honestly, I would rather hope they do invest in new on exhibit accomodation for black rhinos with which the Berlin Zoo has been effectively the studbook keeper (as well).
 
I also found two small videos about this project taken at the IZW campus as well as in central Africa:


I wonder, when there will be news about the project planned in the Tierpark.

@Kifaru Bwana I honestly have no idea, where in the park they plan this breeding station. But I'm sure, they would protect the young rhinos really well. Having said that, I really would love to see some living rhinos in the park again. It has been far too long now.
 
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