As previously mentioned on this forum Odense Zoo's newest project is the Kiwara African area. The goal of this project is to create a large new African area in the zoo and give better living conditions to the zoo's reticulated giraffes. The project is set to open in two phases. Phase one consists of one of Europes largest aviaries. In here visitors can experience greater flamingoes, pelicans and other African birds. The purpose of the aviary is to stop the clipping of the birds' wings. The Kiwara African Aviary opened on October 9th 2009 and lots of photos are alrady available in the gallery. Phase two consists of several things: 1. A group of ring-tailed lemurs will move into the island currently inhabitet by aldabra giant tortoises. The tortoises will at the same time recieve a new outdoor exhibit. 2. New stalls and indoor housing will be built for reticulated giraffes, grevy's zebras, sitatungas, ostriches and nile crocodiles. It is not yet known if more species will inhabit Kiwara yet (though there is a rumor regarding rock hyraxes). 3. A huge new outdoor savannah will be built on the site of the existing Okavango wetlands area for all the savannah animals. The size of this new savannah area + indoor housing will be approx. 4 hectares or 10 acres. Below I have attached the so far only public available map of the new Kiwara. I have added some text for the benefit of all you that don't speak Danish. The Tortoise Giants house (2006) and African Aviary (2009) are both already finished. You can see recently uploaded photos from the new Kiwara African Aviary and the Okavango wetlands in the Odense Zoo Gallery.
Yes, I must have forgotten to write it in my first post. The second phase of th Kiwara project will open in the spring of 2011.
Forumster Dan wrote some questions in another thread that I will attempt to answer here. The wetland savannah will presumeably house the sitatunga antelopes as well as some cranes and marabou storks. The "very small enclosure" might be the one for rock hyraxes (personal guess). Yes, that is a bridge stretching accross the wetland savannah. The whole area is natural wetland and the current pathway is also wooden boardwalks. The nile crocodiles will have their own section of the Savannah House (the bottom rectangular part seen in the maps). To help answer your questions I have posted two close-up maps below: Hope this helps!
Thanks a lot! I am sure this will be a very good exhibit and I look forward to see it when it opens. Especially the wetland savannah sounds like an intersting idea. Still wondering about the "very small enclosure", though. The sketch seems to suggest a tunnel between it and the wetlands savannah....
Are we talking about the same thing here? I mean the enclosure just left of the wetland savannah. There will be no tunnels in Kiwara. The things you can see on this map are pathways, wooden boardwalks and watermoats.
Aha, no... we have misunderstood each other! And NOW I suddenly understand what must be the watermoats, oh yes. If so, I have been talking about what must be a small island in the watermoat, north-east of the wetland savannah. And then it is not a tunnel but a bridge....
That island would be located northEAST of the wetland enclosure And actually this map is twisted. North is actually left, south is right, east is up and west is down. So the island is technically located to the southeast of the wetlands savannah (right on the map). And I can tell you that the island will serve as a lookout post for visitors.
You read my post before I changed "north-west" to "north-east"... you were really fast... But let´s use "left" and "right" instead, yes that is better. Tway I read the sketch/plan... maybe "plan" is a better word, I can´t see how the visititors could get to this lookout. The way I read the plan, there is a semi-circular pathway, including the bridge in the wetland savannah and also including two small bridges over the watermoats. I don´t see any connection for the visitors to get to the "lookout" to the right?
You are quite right. I cannot confirm this 100 % but the original plan of Kiwara was to have a small grassy picnic area by the savannah and I believe that what we are seeing is the picnicn area between the lookout and main pathway.
Will the flamingos be separated from the storks in the Aviary? Flamingos will experience too much disturbance and will not breed when in close association with other estuarine or wetland bird species
The flamingoes are already living in the Kiwara Aviary. There are no stork species in there. The birds living in the aviary are: Greater flamingo Pink-backed pelican African spoonbill Hammerkop Sacred ibis Cattle egret Egyptian goose Helmeted guineafowl. Check my pictures of the Kiwara Aviary in the Odense Zoo Gallery.
Hello Toddy! I will be going to Odense in the beginning of November. Do you know if the giraffes, zebras and African birds will be aviable to see while they are building the Kiwara?
@Swedish Zoo Fan: Construction on Kiwara will be at its highest during this winter. The giraffes will still be viewable in their current exhibit where they will stay until Kiwara is ready for them. However, I doubt that you will be able to see the zebras and ostriches and the African birds that haven't moved to the Kiwara Aviary. On another note: As part of the new Kiwara theme the lion exhibit in Odense Zoo has undergone a slight redevolpment and should now include a small mountain from where the lions can look out over the zoo.
@Toddy: Thanks for the information! Although, on their website they say that you will probably be able to see the animals under the construction, and that the African house has been renovated, while the animals where in the Okavango during the summer.
Kiwara opened The huge new African theme "Kiwara" opened on June 1st 2011. Quite a few changes have been made to it since the original sketch that I posted here on ZooChat. here is a map of what it actually came to look like: "Kiwara" is divided into four sub-themes: Africa's Rainforests, Africa's Rivers, Africa's Savannah's and Africa's Islands. The rainforest theme consists of the original chimpanzee house and outdoor island from 1999 (still one of the best in Europe). The river theme is made up of the huge Kiwara Aviary from 2009 (featuring free-flying flamingos, pelicans, hammerkops, etc.). The savannah theme consist of the huge new savannah and wetlands area as well as the lion exhibit from 1997 (also still one of the best I have ever seen). Finally the islands theme houses wildlife from Madagascar and Aldabra. The species list for Kiwara is as follows: Africa's Rainforests Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) Dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula) Africa's Rivers Dwarf mongoose (Helogale parvula) Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) Pink-backed pelican (Pelecanus rufescens) African spoonbill (Platalea alba) Hamerkop(Scopus umbretta) Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) Abdim's stork (Ciconia abdimii) Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus) Helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris) Africa's Savannahs Lion (Panthera leo) Reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) Grevy's zebra (Equus grevyi) Common ostrich (Struthio camelus) Western sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekii gratus) Africa's Islands Ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) Overall, the new Kiwara theme in Odense Zoo is VERY well done. Special attention has been paid to the animal welfare which is top class. The original exhibits for chimpanzees (1999), lions (1997) and giant tortoises (2006) have been well incorporated into the theme and are all still some of the finest in Europe. The new wetland exhibit for sitatunga comprises a huge part of marshland creating the best possible exhibit for this species. I visited the new Kiwara theme myself a few days ago and I will post some pictures in this thread when I have the time.
