Wilhelma Zoo Wilhelma zoo, Stuttgart

After the death of the last polar bear in 2018, the last Syrian brown bear died last week at the age of 34 years. Now there is only one bear left in the Wilhelma, a 29-year-old spectacled bear, who will soon be using both bear exhibits. After his death, the Wilhelma wants to keep a pair of spectacled bears. The keeping of polar bears is not continued in the current exhibit.
 
I believe Wilhelma is heavily under-represented in this Forum and I will try to provide some updates from time to time and also add photos in the media area.

In the latest Sheridan ranking of the best zoos in Europe (more than 1 million visitors) Wilhelma improved from the 14th place in 2015 to the 9th place in 2018.

From my perspective Wilhelma is an amzing zoo in combination with an probably even more outstanding botanical garden. It clearly has some exhibits from the 60s and 70 that are not state of the art anymore - however there are also many exhibits that are just great and the animal collection is one of the most impressive in Europe.
 
Jogy said:
I believe Wilhelma is heavily under-represented in this Forum and I will try to provide some updates from time to time and also add photos in the media area.

In the latest Sheridan ranking of the best zoos in Europe (more than 1 million visitors) Wilhelma improved from the 14th place in 2015 to the 9th place in 2018.

From my perspective Wilhelma is an amzing zoo in combination with an probably even more outstanding botanical garden. It clearly has some exhibits from the 60s and 70 that are not state of the art anymore - however there are also many exhibits that are just great and the animal collection is one of the most impressive in Europe.
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You may find my lengthy and fully-illustrated walkthrough discussion of Wilhelma interesting, then :) I would value your comments.

The Bavarian Adventures Of A Tea-Loving Dave - April 2015
 
Wow - your walkthrough is really extensive and looks very complete for me! :)

It will take me some time to read through all of it - however the abstracts I just read - including your summary - reflect very well also my Impression.

Luckily - after many years of little Investments in the park - there has been an masterplan for Wilhelma developed and agreed upon by the government and first changes are already visible.

Some Major changes since your visit:
  • The rearing house is closed and the old ape house has as interim solution been transformed into a South America house hosting the various small apes who were formerly living in the rearing house
    Mid-term the house will be tranformed into an Australia house (likely to open 2021 or 2022)
  • The construction work on the big Asia exhibit at the upper end of Wilhelma - which will host as main element a huge elephant house that can hold up to 14 elephants - has started recently. Beside the elephant house there will also be an Asian farm that replaces the existing 'Schaubauernhof' and exhibits for Yaks, Camels and Sibirian Tigers.
  • The new snow Leopard enclosure is really great - apparently also for the animals
  • There is a brother pair of Asian lions now shown in the largest exhibit of the big cats house
  • Even if not so relevant for zoo nerds - they have reworked and expanded the playgrounds - with almost a dozen of them now spread accross the entire zoo
  • The number of animal species on display is constantly reduced - last prominent 'exits' were polar bears (used for californian sea lions as Interim location until the renovation of their pool is finished), brown bears (in future to be used for spectacled bears) hippo and pigmy hippo (they now have a breading pair of Malayan Tapirs instead)
  • At the same time they added e.g. scimitar-horned Oryx (two calves Born this year) and the largest crocodile on display in Germany - a more than 500kg heavy saltwater crocodile
 
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@Jogy Where is the new elephant exhibit to go exactly? The plans for the under construction deer and yak paddocks don't show any space for it. Will the zoo receive more land from the surrounding park?

Also, two more questions:

I assume the Rearing House to be the now-unused building next to the old Ape House (Now, temporarily it seems, the Sud Amerika House).Is this the case?

I never found a small mammal house during my visit. What came of that?
 
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FunkyGibbon said:
I assume the Rearing House to be the now-unused building next to the old Ape House (Now, temporarily it seems, the Sud Amerika House).Is this the case?
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Correct.

FunkyGibbon said:
I never found a small mammal house during my visit. What came of that?
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It was to be accessed through one of the greenhouses - as had previously been the case - but I believe construction/redevelopment has been indefinitely halted.
 
The elephant exhibit is planned at the same area north of the Gorilla/Bonobo house and the malayan tapir house - unfortunately there is no expansion in the surrounding park possible anymore.

The new enclosures will cover the area formerly used for anoas, onager, bison and the existing deer / farm / petting zoo. In between these two parts there is currently also a major area unused which is since a few years a construction area due to the city building a big tunnel below Wilhelma and Rostensteinpark (as the tunnel construction has been delayed also the start of the elephant house construction had to be delayed a few years)

Wilhelma plans to built a major Asia area there starting with the existing big cat house with Sumatran tigers, Persian leopards and Asian lions, continuing with an extended Indian rhino house and the Malayan tapir house than followed by an enclosure for Sibirian tigers, the huge elephant house and an Asian village including yaks and deers.
 
@Jogy I stood in that part of the zoo yesterday, and I'm looking at the map now. It's really hard to imagine it all fitting. I suspect both the elephant house and the outdoors will be somewhat less than massive.
 
It obviously depends on what you consider as 'massive' - according to the masterplan it should have 11.700 m² outdoor and 5.100 m² indoor surface - what would allow hosting a group of up to 14 elephants. In comparison - the existing elephant enclosure has an outdoor surface of 830 m²...
 
Jogy said:
It obviously depends on what you consider as 'massive' - according to the masterplan it should have 11.700 m² outdoor and 5.100 m² indoor surface - what would allow hosting a group of up to 14 elephants. In comparison - the existing elephant enclosure has an outdoor surface of 830 m²...
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Well, that's obviously a huge improvement, and recent projects at Wilhelma seem to have been very well executed, if a little delayed. Let's hope it is all we could hope for!

If I might ask two more questions:

What are the plans for both the orangutans and their current exhibit in the 'Gorilla Bonobo House'?

And, is it know what will go into the pool in the mountain area when the sealions go back to their exhibit in the lower zoo? I thought they looked great in there and I think the zoo really couldn't do better than going into a second pinniped species.
 
Concerning the Orang-Utans the answer has to be split in two parts:
  • Short term the two remaining females (both way to old to breed) will remain in the 'Gorilla & Bonobo House' until they die (their former house will be re-constructed into an Australia house by 2021)
  • Long term there are plans to built a new home for Orang-Utans at Wilhelma - however only after the new Asian enclosure with the Elephant house is finished (after 2024)
Concerning the former polar bear enclosure I must admit that I don't know what the future plans are - at least one year ago when the sealions moved into their temporary home it was not yet decided whether the enclosure will host polar bears in future (followed by potentially some re-construction work) or not. If not a second pinniped species might be a very good idea...
 
..the only animals confirmed so far (without definition of a sub-species) are tree-kangaroos.
 
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