Zoo tour from Nürnberg to Berlin

LegoOwl

LegoOwl

Active Member
5+ year member
Hi,

I'm looking for some suggestions for my next Germany zoo tour. I will have around 7 days for the trip from Nürnberg to Berlin. I have already visited zoos Nürnberg, Leipzig, Dresden and both in Berlin. Now, I will have rent a car and I want also visit some smaller zoos and bird parks.

So, do you have any recommendations? If you have in mind that I'm not a big fan of parrots, elephants and ring-tailed lemurs. :) But I like rare seen species, reptiles, owls and eagles and also local European birds, which are rare in bigger zoos. I'm also a big fan of unique and natural exhibits.

At the moment I'm looking for Chemnitz, Erfurt and Halle. Maybe also Cottbus.

Thanks for help.
 
Given your preferences I would skip Erfurt, which is predominantly a big mammal zoo. They do have some good enclosures though (largest African Elephant complex in Germany + a small calf now).

A must add would be a day in Magdeburg + Schönebeck, the latter has a very good rodent collection and the former a good allround mammal (+ some birds) collection with quite some rarities in mostly good enclosures.

Halle is a nice zoo, especially due to its location on a (steep) hill. Animal enclosures are often a bit small, but the collection is nice and there is a nice atmosphere. You can combine it with Bernburg, a small zoo which feels a bit Czech and they have some good bird species and mammals as well in mostly fine enclosures.

Close to Nürnberg is the Freilandterrarium Stein, which has a very good collection of European reptiles & amphibians in open-air enclosures. Depending on when you want to visit it might be closed though... The Bayerwald Tierpark Lohberg is good for European birds, but might be somewhat out of the way for you. Not far from Lohberg is the Freigelände of the Bavarian Forest National Park in Neuschönau, which has some huge enclosures for native animals and also some native birds (several grouse species and owls/BoP).

Cottbus + Görlitz would be another very nice day. Cottbus has a very good waterfowl and wading bird collection in a lovely setting. It is a simple zoo, but it uses limited resources optimally. Görlitz is really small but has high quality theming and a good selection of Central Asian species and is very unusual for a zoo of it's size.

If you venture north of Berlin, the Vogelpark Marlow has some of the best aviaries in Germany, but a limited collection for a birdpark and you can combine it with the Ozeaneum aquarium in Stralsund, which is very well done and shows many Baltic and North Sea species. Zoo Rostock is a very good allround zoo with some high quality new enclosures and generally very large and naturalistic enclosures for a major zoo.

If you make it to Chemnitz (Vivarium is currently closed due to COVID...) then nearby Limbach-Oberfrohna has a small zoo with a good selection of American species (Swift Fox!) and Aue has a Zoo of Minis with many small species, some of which rarely shown (Least Weasel, Haussa Genet).

And finally, Czechia is not far away, Plzen is less than 3 hours from Nürnberg by car....

So more than enough choice. The former GDR is really developing into one of the areas with some of the highest densities and variation of zoos in Europe.
 
lintworm said:
If you venture north of Berlin, the Vogelpark Marlow has some of the best aviaries in Germany, but a limited collection for a birdpark and you can combine it with the Ozeaneum aquarium in Stralsund, which is very well done and shows many Baltic and North Sea species. Zoo Rostock is a very good allround zoo with some high quality new enclosures and generally very large and naturalistic enclosures for a major zoo.
Click to expand...
That would be a "tad" bit off the intended route now, wouldn't it? Trust me - I know that area rather well...
 
Thanks lintworm, Batto and Dassie rat for nice suggestions. I'm already included most of your suggestions in my trip, which starts next weekend.

lintworm said:
If you make it to Chemnitz (Vivarium is currently closed due to COVID...)
Click to expand...

Hm, is Chemnitz without Vivarium worth visit?
I'm missing some bird parks. :( Are they any interesting in this area?
 
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