Antwerp zoo » ZOO Antwerpen

10-01-2012

I'll do my best, but I promise nothing.

Yes, the 5 females goes to the sister parc of the KMDA: Planckendael.
Planckendael will open in a few months one (or maybe the) biggest Asiatic Elephants exhibit of Europe.
At the end of February, the indoor enclosure will be ready and a few months later the outdoor enclosure.

Together with Hussein, the bull of Hamburg, it will be the start of a breeding group.

Antwerp will do a quick and little renovation of the current exhibit and hold 2 young bulls.
After a few years, they will build a fantastic new enclosure for elephant bulls in Antwerp.

10-01-2012

Fantastic new elephant enclosure in Antwerp?! That is yet to be seen. There is no space for anything that could resemble a good elephant enclosure, let alone a "fantastic" one, unless they give up the idea to keep elephants AND giraffes (AND gorillas AND chimpanzees...) in Antwerp. Bull groups of just 2 young bulls don`t work very well, so a good bull elephant enclosure needs space for at least 3, better 4 bulls, needs to be safe for adult bulls, and the possibility to divide the outdoor space in 2 outdoor enclosures in case one bull becomes incomatible with the others and has to wait for transfer. I cannot see Antwerp fulfilling these conditions due to lack of space. They are doing the right thing by sending the family group away, they shouldn`t invest millions into another substandard, while too-small elephant facility.

10-01-2012

I know what you mean, and you are right in some way. But no one knows what the plans are for the new exhibit, because is too far away in the future. So nobody can deside already what it will be.
Fact is that the new exhibit will be bigger and, the most important, will have new stables. That is already for me een huge improvement for Antwerp. And by the way, I don't know many big Elephant bull enclosures in Europe (OK, for one bull most of the times). They are most of the time small and far from bigger then the current elephant exhibit of Antwerp.
A New exhibit wil be at least 2 times bigger than the current one, I guess.

There is space for such an exhibit I think (maybe not with giraffes and chimpansees (I don't know if the gorillas will be housed in the zoo in the future), but that is another discussion).

And the space is available. The current Kids playground, 't Stokstaartjes Restaurant (and the Great Apes building, but you hear many stories of it) + expansion area may demolished as one of the only things in the garden.

Fact is, Europe need more facilities for (young) Elephant bulls and a zoo like Antwerp is for that a good solution, but maybe not the best.

20-01-2012

An Aardvark was born on January 6. It's called "Nuru" and hopefully the first succesfull offspring after the previous 3 offsprings of the female all died within one month.
The female has yet not enough milk, so the young Aardvark is getting some extra.

The link with a video and some pictures: ZOO Antwerpen | Nieuws

05-03-2012

An update of the renovation of the Harbor Seal exhibit.

On the leaning rock, you gonna have a viewpoint of the Zoo.


On this picture, you can see where the waterfall must come.

25-03-2012

Another update of the renovation of the Harbor Seal exhibit.





On the left, you see the new river.


The new path has the same view as the former sand/gravel paths, but in concrete.

29-03-2012

This all looks very encouraging - i look forward to seeing the new developments when i visit next May.

01-04-2012

The temporary Bat-eared fox exhibit on the old lion-island is totally ready now. The red framework indicates how small the animals are in the big space.

It's the beginning of the Easter Holiday in Belgium and the way along the renovated Harbor Seal enclosure was just in time open yesterday morning. Most of the works are ready, only a few rocks, plants, painting, etc. and the renovation is complete.

01-04-2012

I love the size of that bat-eared fox enclosure!!!

01-04-2012

It must have looked so small for lions if you take into account the fact that there was also a moat in the front part.

01-04-2012

It did. This is very much one extreme to another!

03-04-2012

Extreme but temporary because in a few(?) years the present carnivore exclosures (of which this former lion present bat-eared fox enclosure is part of) will be remodelled into a brand new leopard and tiger exibit.

04-04-2012

At which time I assume the bat-eared foxes will have been relocated within an exhibit in the African savannah precinct (not necessarily near the lions and mongoose, more like the giraffe area).

27-04-2012

The totally renovated Harbour Seal enclosure is open now.

26-05-2012

3 Asian Elephants bulls of the age of 4 till 5 years old shall be moved the half of July to the Antwerp Zoo: Bun (Tbilisi), Budi (Dublin) and Ming Jung (Cologne). Budi will be moved later to Denver Zoo (USA).
From the 18th of June, the current Elephant enclosure of the Anwerp Zoo will be updated: everything will be reinforced, the rubber floor in the stables will be changed to a floor of sand and a crush will complete the enclosure.