Wildlands Emmen Wildlands Adventure Zoo News 2024

I saw photos in Facebook groups showing a recently hatched sunbittern chick at Wildlands.
 
 
I visited Wildlands for the first time on Sunday June 23rd 2024, and here is my review.

Generally I found the park quite nice and I enjoyed my visit. However one of the things that bothered me is that some main walkways are quite narrow, such as the walkway in the squirrel monkey area in Jungola (rainforest area), and are quite easily blocked by groups standing still and/or handcarts. I am okay with narrower side trails, but main walkways should I think be quite wide and not too easily obstructed. A main walkway of only roughly 2.5 meters width is probably too narrow in terms of visitor comfort and safety. Some of the exhibit viewing areas could also be larger.

I found the interior of all three of the restaurants, or at least what I saw of it, rather dark and not looking to pleasant or inviting, even if the exterior of two of them is quite nice.

Some of my favorite exhibits were the African lion exhibit, the savanna exhibit and the desert exhibit with the stranded train. The savanna exhibit while very nice however does not have quite the same feel as the savanna in the old Emmen zoo had, something that also applies to the majority of Wildlands when comparing it to the old Emmen zoo.

One of my least favorite exhibits, and in my opinion one of the worst in the park, was the red river hog exhibit, which seemed rather crammed in and is too small. Given the red river hogs were kept in the mixed savanna exhibit at the old Emmen zoo, this species has definitely gone backwards in a major way in the new zoo. And maybe mixing them in the current savanna exhibit would not be possible, but it should be possible to give them a better exhibit than what they have now.

The Tweestryd rollercoaster, which I didn't go on, is another part I did not like. Thankfully the rollercoaster is in an area to itself that is some distance away from exhibits and I only heard screaming on a short section of visitor walkway with some separation from animal exhibits, so I don't think it has much effect on the animals, but I still find this kind of attraction out of place for a zoo and not something that really fits well with the goals and societal functions of a zoo. Even though Wildlands spokespeople have sometimes claimed the place is somewhere between a zoo and an attraction park, in my opinion it is functionally and structurally a zoo, and should act accordingly. I do not find this rollercoaster to add anything to the park and to be a bit of a blemish that should preferably eventually be removed and replaced with an animal exhibit. If they ever want to add anymore exhibits, I hope they will look at this area as a high priority for redevelopment and get rid of the rollercoaster in favor of animals.

The safari truck tour, a type of ride I do find consistent with the function of zoos, was nice but it was too short and didn't give me that many additional views of animals or exhibits for the fairly lengthy time I spent waiting for it, and I would not recommend spending a lot of time waiting for this one. On a day with shorter queues perhaps it would be more worth it. Also, the safari truck queue area urgently needs deep cleaning, as all the ropes and poles were greasy, gross and partially covered with left behind chewing gum.

Personally I found the boat tour in the Jungola greenhouse to add quite a bit more in terms of seeing exhibits from a different perspective, and the queue was much shorter for this one also. I did not do the Jungle Trail elevated adventure route in the Jungola greenhouse due to fear of heights and too many kids on it, though. On a final note in terms of attractions, the Nortica zone has a theater showing a 4D movie about the Arctic, which I did not go and see because of a medical issue.

I was a little disappointed with the large Jungola greenhouse, both the main space and the Birdy Jungle section, because I didn't find or see as many birds or bird species as I had hoped. Perhaps this was due to it being a fairly busy day. That said, I did see the Madagascar crested ibises, including one of the juveniles, which I was quite happy with.

I found the Nortica area very mixed. I liked the seal and sea lion exhibits (although the seal one is perhaps a bit on the rocky side for harbor seals) and the sawmill with the beaver and raccoon exhibits a lot, but I found the area near the penguin and polar bear exhibits and the aquarium too industrial and unnatural, and honestly rather ugly. Luckily the exhibits themselves were much more naturalistic. The polar bear exhibits are decent but not as good as others I have seen, and the fencing of them is ugly and too intrusive looking, and the penguin exhibit while very nice does not have nearly the same feeling as the old penguin exhibit that was replaced by the hippopotamus exhibit, where I did very much enjoy watching hippos take an underwater stroll.

A general visual issue in the park is that parts of the buildings of the different sections can easily be seen above the structures in different areas, especially the top of the Dogon building at the entrance to Serenga and the roof of the Jungola greenhouse. This messes up some landscapes and views a bit, and as these visible parts of other areas are not part of some type of landscape or vista they are generally intrusive to some extent. I think they could have done better hiding views of some structures from other areas to enhance the immersion of visitors into a certain theme.

The type of exhibit I missed perhaps the most in Wildlands, which the old Emmen zoo had, is a large outdoor walk-through aviary, like the very nice American bird garden at the old zoo. Admittedly an American aviary would not really easily fit in with the current themed zones, but an African walk-through aviary could also be very nice, and would be a much better use of space for the area now occupied by the Tweestryd monstrosity.

A type of exhibit that was present and very enjoyable at the old Emmen zoo and is notably missing from Wildlands is the aquarium in the former Biochron building. Wildlands has one large marine tank and some small tanks, but the Biochron had extensive sections for both freshwater and marine exhibits. The lack of a larger aquarium or something like the Biochron is something that I did feel at Wildlands, compared to the old zoo.

In general, although not without a few exceptions, the exhibits at Wildlands are quite nice. The park however does not really have any exhibits that I would consider really must see or truly innovate. The mix of an elephant indoor exhibit and free-ranging indoor birds in a greenhouse is the only exhibit concept at Wildlands that I hadn't seen before. I would certainly not tell anyone to not go to Wildlands, but I would say that there are other Dutch zoos that are perhaps more interesting.

In general I enjoyed my visit and liked the park, but because the of distance and what is offered Wildlands is not a zoo I'll quickly put on my list to visit again. I don't see myself going back there anytime soon. There a several other Dutch zoos that I find more interesting in terms of exhibits and collection that are closer. I have a general feeling of I have seen Wildlands now, and unless they add something major, I don't really need to again, and will probably get more from return visits to, for example, Burgers' Zoo or GaiaZoo.
 
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Thanks for typing out a detailed review @KevinB and 'Wildlands' has certainly received many mixed comments from zoo nerds since it opened. You are totally correct with your observation that many structures can be seen from all over the zoo and it destroys any sense of immersion. There's some good stuff there (elephants, hippos, rainforest building, stranded train Asian yard), but a good chunk of the zoo is merely adequate. I've got plenty of old zoo maps of the original Emmen Zoo and I toured the empty grounds in 2019 and it was a neat experience. For sure, it appears that the new zoo cannot live up to the famous history that was at the closed facility.
 
Wildlands has decided to stop keeping Striped skunks, they were getting too fat because they kept eating the Raccoon's leftovers.
Wildlands stated the skunks might be making a return to the park, but it would be in a different enclosure. A similar statement had been made about the Harbour seals formerly held in the same enclosure, which recently made a return in Dock 16
 
Yunha said:
More newborns in Wildlands:

Three African Lion cubs were born yesterday (?). Father of the cubs is new arrival 'Maison', who joined the lionesses in May. These cubs are the first born in Wildlands since 2019, so zoo staff is excited :)
The three cubs will stay behind the scenes for a few weeks with their mom (as they would in the wild).

Source: Leeuwenwelpjes geboren in WILDLANDS - WILDLANDS
Click to expand...
According to the press release, they were born on September 11. (The father's name is actually Mason, without the i ;))
 
Thanks MennoPebesma, I only could find the video release yesterday and it didn't specify the date of birth very well. ;)
 
I have a question about Wildlands that didn't become clear to me during my visit earlier this year.

How does Wildlands prevent the birds in the Rimbula hall, that also have access to the indoor elephant exhibit, from escaping when they let the elephants go outside?
 
KevinB said:
I have a question about Wildlands that didn't become clear to me during my visit earlier this year.

How does Wildlands prevent the birds in the Rimbula hall, that also have access to the indoor elephant exhibit, from escaping when they let the elephants go outside?
Click to expand...

I assume the elephants go outside through double doors, so it would be the same system used with the guests
 
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