Visited yesterday and I’m still trying to find words to describe Wilhelma…
I don’t think any one zoo compares, because i doubt if there’s any other zoo that is such a hodgepodge of zoological architecture. The zoo really showcases 150 years of exhibitry, with all it’s pro’s and con’s on show.
We hit the zoo, oddly not in his best. I say oddly, because the middle of may is not a time you expect a botanical garden to look not on it’s best. Ok, for one it was a drizzly day which of course wasn’t the zoo’s fault. But the zoo was also busy re-arranging many of it’s flower beds which culminated into the Azaleenhaus, Australischer kleinvogelvolieren and the Kamelienhaus (a large part of the old greenhouses) being closed. Even though the Germans don’t have a holiday these days and we’re in between Easter and Ascension day (they will be re-opened before), it still feels weird to have halve your greenhouses closed because you’re re-arranging your plants.Lastly, the zoo did suffer a little because of “baustelle” (tigers, wombats and the petting zoo are under construction) and closed exhibits (the much bespoke gibbon cage).
The zoo immediately starts off with a set of stunning old cast-iron greenhouses. One small aviary holds the only animals in this part, a few rare birds that Phillipine Eagle pointed out before.
Adjacent is a new greenhouse called the “small mammal house”. It contains a few smaller aviaries that contain a stunning set of species, with rock pratincoles, red-throated bee-eaters and a male king BoP being my personal stars. Stuttgart also changes their inventory around a lot, because quite a lot of species were off-show (rose-crowned fruit-dove) or in a different aviary. The few mammals in this house get a shorter end of the stick, with tamandua and armadillo’s in way too small and barren cages.
From there onwards to the moorish garden. Although suffering from a lot of dead tulips sticking out of the ground, another stunning piece of botanical architecture, though no animals. Then into Terra Australis. A very nice set of exhibits for Australian tree moulds, followed by a very decent night house. It was “just” too dark for my liking, but I applaud any zoo creating a night house when all hope for nighthouses seems lost in Europe.
By that time my wife argued this could be the most beautiful zoo we ever visited. And then it went all nose-dive down the proverbial cliff.
First up, the now closed gibbon cage. It should be a monument, hands down. It’s not beautiful in any sense, but unique it really is. But with it being unused and unloved, it now detracts from the zoo. Across from it, something they dare to call a spider monkey exhibit (and even stick a spider monkey in), but it really isn’t anything near suitable as any exhibit (perhaps umbrella ants?). Jikes.
The zoo is cut across by a small hill and on the hillside or two classic parrot rows above each other. Another blast from the past that I thought we were past, but after visitjng Lisbon and Beauval in the last few years and now Stuttgart, we clearly are not. One of it’s inhabitants (the kaka) wasn’t going to come out, no matter how many times an extraordinary Dutch gentleman showed up at it’s cage (and believe me, he tried). Drizzle clearly isn’t “her thing”.
On top of the hill it becomes apparent why Germany must have ran low on concrete during the 60’s. All of their zoo’s were busy creating monstrosities, with Stuttgart clearly being front in line holding up two hands. You get eased in with bulky cages for Jaguar and persian leopard (cages Artis stepped out of 15 years ago?), then the lion terrace is a step up before being finished off by a classic bunker for elephants and indian rhino’s. Now that Liberec stepped out of keeping elephants and Artis expanded their exhibit (a little), Stuttgart is in prime position being the worst elephant exhibit in use that I know off?
The malayan tapir bunker that followed is a little more suitable for the species, although I emphasize the words “a little”.
On the hill are a few unnoteworthy enclosures, the construction site for the tigers and the huge concrete thingamybob that holds the bonobo’s and gorilla’s. The inside reminded me of Ouwehands gorilla exhibit a little, long with windows on both sides. The building was clearly old, but had a huge facelift somewhere in it’s recent past. The indoors looked concrete, but very functionable and the new outdoor exhibits for both species were pretty good.
Past the unremarkable exhibits for okapi and bongo over to the side of the hill. On the slopes next to the parrot terraces live spectacled bear, markhor and alpine Ibex in exhibits bordering on very good indeed. The new snowleopard exhibit was oddly wedged between the visitor path and the perimeter fence, two old small beargrotto’s were now used for excess cheetahs (which looked odd) and this corner also holds the botanically most neglected maned wolf exhibit of Europe.
Down the slopes we go through the terrific (100+) year old Moorish landhouse. The botanicals in here are stunning and It holds a few smaller aviaries and one mammal. The fanaloka showed itself terrific on my second attempt.
The aquarium and terrarium bunker adjacent to the moorish garden is large but shows no new exhibitry. Instead of brushing up the building itself, they seem to have added a very modern style greenhouse right at the middle and keep a few massive crocs in it. Bit out if style, but it works and I liked the fact they kept freshies and salties together. I had seen both before, but never together. The whole building adds nicely to the species count though.
Onwards past a sealion tub, to the “Amazonienhaus”. This pretty large and brand spankin greenhouse for some reason failed to impress us. I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s only one path, it lacks big ticket species, it contains a few mediocre aviaries inside or we’re just very very spoiled (with both Burgers and Emmen in our backyards and having recently visited Beauval and Paris Vincennes), but we went out thinking they could have done better with the space the building offered.
The adjacent insect house was nicely done, but the butterfly house was a bit of a dud for us as well. Just one wooden veranda peering into the greenery, although this also suffered from “spoiled guest syndrome”, I did feel they could have done better by creating more pathways and make it more of an exploration.
By then the kids wanted to play, we ate at the restaurant too find out we had just passed the closing time of the free flight aviaries. It always bugs me a little when a zoo advertises an opening hour of 20:00, only to fibf they close all “buildings” (and apparently, aviaries) at 18:30ish.
I have no doubt the aviaries were very nice, they looked very good from the outside. But the rain also kicked in and the kids were spent, so that was that.
I dont’t remember a zoo that throws you from WOW to OW and back again to such extremes. Architecturally, it goes from stunning 100 year old buildings, to parrot rows, to unpolished 50/60/70 bunkers, to fully refurbed bunkers, to bunkers with something new attached to brand spankin greenhouses. It has the lot.
Happy to have visited, nice collection and I would like to come back in another march/april when the magnolia’s and flowers in the moorish garden must be spectacular, instead of fully spent.
If anyone has any questions, let me know!
I don’t think any one zoo compares, because i doubt if there’s any other zoo that is such a hodgepodge of zoological architecture. The zoo really showcases 150 years of exhibitry, with all it’s pro’s and con’s on show.
We hit the zoo, oddly not in his best. I say oddly, because the middle of may is not a time you expect a botanical garden to look not on it’s best. Ok, for one it was a drizzly day which of course wasn’t the zoo’s fault. But the zoo was also busy re-arranging many of it’s flower beds which culminated into the Azaleenhaus, Australischer kleinvogelvolieren and the Kamelienhaus (a large part of the old greenhouses) being closed. Even though the Germans don’t have a holiday these days and we’re in between Easter and Ascension day (they will be re-opened before), it still feels weird to have halve your greenhouses closed because you’re re-arranging your plants.Lastly, the zoo did suffer a little because of “baustelle” (tigers, wombats and the petting zoo are under construction) and closed exhibits (the much bespoke gibbon cage).
The zoo immediately starts off with a set of stunning old cast-iron greenhouses. One small aviary holds the only animals in this part, a few rare birds that Phillipine Eagle pointed out before.
Adjacent is a new greenhouse called the “small mammal house”. It contains a few smaller aviaries that contain a stunning set of species, with rock pratincoles, red-throated bee-eaters and a male king BoP being my personal stars. Stuttgart also changes their inventory around a lot, because quite a lot of species were off-show (rose-crowned fruit-dove) or in a different aviary. The few mammals in this house get a shorter end of the stick, with tamandua and armadillo’s in way too small and barren cages.
From there onwards to the moorish garden. Although suffering from a lot of dead tulips sticking out of the ground, another stunning piece of botanical architecture, though no animals. Then into Terra Australis. A very nice set of exhibits for Australian tree moulds, followed by a very decent night house. It was “just” too dark for my liking, but I applaud any zoo creating a night house when all hope for nighthouses seems lost in Europe.
By that time my wife argued this could be the most beautiful zoo we ever visited. And then it went all nose-dive down the proverbial cliff.
First up, the now closed gibbon cage. It should be a monument, hands down. It’s not beautiful in any sense, but unique it really is. But with it being unused and unloved, it now detracts from the zoo. Across from it, something they dare to call a spider monkey exhibit (and even stick a spider monkey in), but it really isn’t anything near suitable as any exhibit (perhaps umbrella ants?). Jikes.
The zoo is cut across by a small hill and on the hillside or two classic parrot rows above each other. Another blast from the past that I thought we were past, but after visitjng Lisbon and Beauval in the last few years and now Stuttgart, we clearly are not. One of it’s inhabitants (the kaka) wasn’t going to come out, no matter how many times an extraordinary Dutch gentleman showed up at it’s cage (and believe me, he tried). Drizzle clearly isn’t “her thing”.
On top of the hill it becomes apparent why Germany must have ran low on concrete during the 60’s. All of their zoo’s were busy creating monstrosities, with Stuttgart clearly being front in line holding up two hands. You get eased in with bulky cages for Jaguar and persian leopard (cages Artis stepped out of 15 years ago?), then the lion terrace is a step up before being finished off by a classic bunker for elephants and indian rhino’s. Now that Liberec stepped out of keeping elephants and Artis expanded their exhibit (a little), Stuttgart is in prime position being the worst elephant exhibit in use that I know off?
The malayan tapir bunker that followed is a little more suitable for the species, although I emphasize the words “a little”.
On the hill are a few unnoteworthy enclosures, the construction site for the tigers and the huge concrete thingamybob that holds the bonobo’s and gorilla’s. The inside reminded me of Ouwehands gorilla exhibit a little, long with windows on both sides. The building was clearly old, but had a huge facelift somewhere in it’s recent past. The indoors looked concrete, but very functionable and the new outdoor exhibits for both species were pretty good.
Past the unremarkable exhibits for okapi and bongo over to the side of the hill. On the slopes next to the parrot terraces live spectacled bear, markhor and alpine Ibex in exhibits bordering on very good indeed. The new snowleopard exhibit was oddly wedged between the visitor path and the perimeter fence, two old small beargrotto’s were now used for excess cheetahs (which looked odd) and this corner also holds the botanically most neglected maned wolf exhibit of Europe.
Down the slopes we go through the terrific (100+) year old Moorish landhouse. The botanicals in here are stunning and It holds a few smaller aviaries and one mammal. The fanaloka showed itself terrific on my second attempt.
The aquarium and terrarium bunker adjacent to the moorish garden is large but shows no new exhibitry. Instead of brushing up the building itself, they seem to have added a very modern style greenhouse right at the middle and keep a few massive crocs in it. Bit out if style, but it works and I liked the fact they kept freshies and salties together. I had seen both before, but never together. The whole building adds nicely to the species count though.
Onwards past a sealion tub, to the “Amazonienhaus”. This pretty large and brand spankin greenhouse for some reason failed to impress us. I don’t know if it’s the fact that it’s only one path, it lacks big ticket species, it contains a few mediocre aviaries inside or we’re just very very spoiled (with both Burgers and Emmen in our backyards and having recently visited Beauval and Paris Vincennes), but we went out thinking they could have done better with the space the building offered.
The adjacent insect house was nicely done, but the butterfly house was a bit of a dud for us as well. Just one wooden veranda peering into the greenery, although this also suffered from “spoiled guest syndrome”, I did feel they could have done better by creating more pathways and make it more of an exploration.
By then the kids wanted to play, we ate at the restaurant too find out we had just passed the closing time of the free flight aviaries. It always bugs me a little when a zoo advertises an opening hour of 20:00, only to fibf they close all “buildings” (and apparently, aviaries) at 18:30ish.
I have no doubt the aviaries were very nice, they looked very good from the outside. But the rain also kicked in and the kids were spent, so that was that.
I dont’t remember a zoo that throws you from WOW to OW and back again to such extremes. Architecturally, it goes from stunning 100 year old buildings, to parrot rows, to unpolished 50/60/70 bunkers, to fully refurbed bunkers, to bunkers with something new attached to brand spankin greenhouses. It has the lot.
Happy to have visited, nice collection and I would like to come back in another march/april when the magnolia’s and flowers in the moorish garden must be spectacular, instead of fully spent.
If anyone has any questions, let me know!
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There are few zoos that pack so many extremes into one place. But it is a zoo that does grow on you with every revisit, so that gives some hope 
. Einst war der Steinbock in großen Teilen der Alpen verbreitet. Durch rücksichtslose Bejagung hat der Mensch die Art fast überall ausgerottet . Mit einer Ausnahme: Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts war noch ein Restbestand von rund hundert Tieren im italienischen Nationalpark Gran Paradiso erhalten – die Vorfahren aller heute in den Alpen lebenden Steinböcke. Dank strengen Schutzes und Wiederansiedlungsmaßnahmen sind Steinböcke heute wieder in vielen Regionen der Alpen heimisch. @zoosalzburg @zooljubljana 1 Wilhelma/Birger Meierjohann, 2 Wilhelma/Thomas Seitz, 3-5 Wilhelma/Dr. Ulrike Rademacher, 6 Martin Forstner"
