Nürnberg Zoo - Manatee pool

The pool for caribbean manatees in Nürnberg Zoo, Germany. This pool housed 4 manatees during my visit and is WAY too small for even one. The pool is only a bit larger than this photo shows and way too shallow. Fortunately a new exhibit is being built and is set to open in 2010.
July 2007

Four manatees in that ''aquarium''?? Incredible

Another ghastly exhibit at a German zoo. There are some absolutely wonderful habitats across the country (Pongoland is amazing) but they are often right next to animal prisons.

Yes, but at least they are doing someting about it. The new Amazonas House that is due to open in 2010 will b focused around the manatees

Yeah, the german zoos are awful...
This house isn't the best (thats the reason why they build a new one), but there is a bit more than the pic shows and the animals breed very good in this.

Funny enough, that "ghastly animal prison" has been place to the most successful ex-situ breeding of manatees in Europe, if not in the world, with more than a dozend successful births. Back when it was built, the exhibit was considered to be more than sufficient; another example of how opinions can change over the time and how the now modern multi-dollar zoo exhibits might be judged differently in the future...

Let's hope the new manatee enclosure will resemble that in Odense.

Many years ago, I've saw twelve manatees in this pool, TWELVE ! Yes, the breeding was very succesful, because the animals could only lie on top of each other...But breeding of fur animals in the farms is very successful,too....

The problem was the breeding itselfs, it was too succesful and the zoo had many problems to find new holders for them...

Nobody said that german zoos are awul. One of the main problems are the architects in german zoos.

@snowleopard. Please take in look in the gallery German-others, and you will find a lot of pictures of excellent exhibits at the Mundenhof in Freiburg. Its so easy to build good exhibits for animals, but unfortuntely, its to hard for a few german zoos, which are more interested in building good looking exhibits for the visitors, Hannover and Gelsenkirchen are two of the best examples. Visitors are important for zoos, no question, but it is possible to build good exhibits which are good looking,too. See the netherlands zoos or Basel.

Especially in the colder months, manatees will gather at the springs and they remain confined to these warmer waters for months with little room to move around.

@Zebraduiker: there are some brilliant exhibits at many German zoos, and "Pongoland" at the Leipzig Zoo is one that I've referenced a number of times now. The zoo in Freiburg also appears to have a number of impressive enclosures, and so thanks for the nod in that direction.

This manatee exhibit at the Nurnberg Zoo is still horribly tiny, and I chuckle to imagine 12 huge manatees squeezed into such a small space. Brutal.