Grzimek House Interior at Frankfurt 31/08/10

The zoo\'s small mammal/nocturnal house.


Wonderful house, with species including North Island Brown Kiwi, Northern Cacomistle, Kowari, Short-beaked Echidna, Cape Ground Squirrel, Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur, Moholi Galago, Aardvark, Australian Water Rat, Seba\'s Bat, Giant Jumping Rat, Grey Mouse Lemur, various mice, tamarins, sloths, tamanduas... it\'s a good house!

That has to be one of the most diverse collections of any nocturnal/small mammal house anywhere.

And that's just from memory - I've missed loads out - just reading that back I've remembered Aye-Aye, Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec, Green Acouchi, Dwarf Mongoose, Prevost's Squirrel, Asian Short-clawed Otter, Grey Ground Cuscus, Bolivian Squirrel Monkey, White-faced Saki, Feathertail Glider, Cape Rock Hyrax, Pygmy Dormouse and Asian Desert Dormouse as things I'd forgotten...


EDIT: Basically, Maguari hearts Grzimek House!

It just keeps getting better.

It really is incredible. One of my all-time favourite animal houses - for sheer diversity no other mammal exhibit in Europe comes close.

It even has an ungulate in the form of Lesser Malay Chevrotain. Just a superb display.

Just been through my notes and the below should be a complete current mammal list for the Grzimek House. There are also a few bird - the Brown Kiwi, Scops Owls, Blue-faced Cordon Bleu, Sociable Weavers and Tawny Frogmouths.

Short-beaked Echidna
Kowari
Grey Ground Cuscus
Feathertail Glider
Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec
Short-eared Elephant Shrew
Aardvark
Cape Rock Hyrax
Larger Hairy Armadillo
Southern Tamandua
Linne’s Two-toed Sloth
Mountain Tree Shrew
Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur
Grey Mouse Lemur
Aye-Aye
Slender Loris
Moholi Galago
Goeldi’s Monkey
Pygmy Marmoset
Golden Lion Tamarin
Emperor Tamarin
White-lipped Tamarin
Grey-legged Douroucouli
White-faced Saki
Seba’s Bat
Dwarf Mongoose
Asian Short-clawed Otter
Northern Cacomistle
Lesser Malay Chevrotain
Raffles’ Prevost’s Squirrel
Cape Ground Squirrel
African Pygmy Dormouse
Asian Desert Dormouse (Eliomys melanurus)
Lesser Egyptian Jerboa
Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat
Golden Spiny Mouse (Acomys russatus)
Australian Water Rat
Barbary Striped Grass Mouse
Brazilian Prehensile-tailed Tree Porcupine
Giant Cavy (Cavia magna)
Green Acouchi

In its heyday London's Clore Pavilion had even more, sadly it's just a shadow of that now.

Indeed - my first couple of visits to the Clore many years ago are the only comparable small mammal experiences I can think of. Not so much nowadays, of course, though there are still some nice things in there.

I have never been to Frankfurt and I have no idea about light/dark conditions in this house usually reffered as nocturnal house. But one question arises to my head when I look at these photos...why there is light on almost all photos (except for kiwi)? Were you there in some specific time Maguari or is this light normal for whole visiting hours?

I last visited the Grzimekhaus in February 1984 (and loved it then as much as Maguari loves it now), so unless it has changed the first few exhibits (entering at ground level) and the last eighteen exhibits are diurnal enclosures, everything in between is nocturnal.

I've just pulled out my notes from 1984, just for comparison with Maguari's list above. Numbers in parentheses indicate how many I saw.

Starting with the first enclosure at ground level:

Diurnal
Common Tree Shrew (2)
Lesser Hedgehog tenrec (at least 5, with young born 20/7/83)
Goeldis Monkey (>5) and Green Acouchi (2) - vertical cage with two levels of viewing

Nocturnarium
Desert Dormouse
Pacarana
Green Acouchi, Two-toed Sloth (2), Douracouli (1)
Black-footed Cat (1)
Fennec (2)
Rusty-spotted Cat (2)
Banded Palm Civet
Neotropical Fruit Bat (400+)
Moholi Bushbaby (>4) and Springhare (>4)
Aardvark (2), Aardwolf (1) and Tawny Frogmouth (1, born 3/12/83)
Ground Cuscus (2), Sugar Glider (2) and Echidna (2)
Leaf-nosed Bat
Kinkajou (3)
Eastern Jerboa
Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
Lesser Mouse Lemur (1)
Slender Loris (2)
Zorilla (2)
Slender Loris (1, born 28/10/83)
Demidoff's Bushbaby (young born 26/1/84)
Australian Water Rat (4)

Diurnal Exhibits
Golden Spiny Mouse (at least 2)
Variable Squirrel - 1
Pale-headed Saki (3)
Cape Clawless Otter (2)
Dwarf Mongoose (6)
Yellow Mongoose (2)
Ruffed Lemur (3)
Bushdog (2)
Caracal (2)
Serval (2)
Emperor Tamarin (5, young born 21/9/83)
Striped Grass Mouse (1) and Melba Finch (2)
Giant Elephant Shrew (1)
Red Howler Monkey (4)
Social Weaverbirds (>12) and Cape Ground Squirrels (>4)
Red-bellied Tamarin (2)
Rock Hyrax (4, young born 21/9/83)
and the last exhibit was the top of the Goeldi Monkey/Green Acouchi enclosure.

Hope this was of some interest.