ZOOM - Madagascar Island

A part of the lemur island in the Madagascar-biotope of the Africa theme in ZOOM Erlebniswelt, Germany. The lemur island is a walkthrough exhibit of approx. 600 sqm meters or 0.15 acres. Living on this island is a group of red ruffed lemurs in a luxurious environment. Lots of space, vegetation and tall, live trees form an excellent lemur habitat.

ZOOM Erlebniswelt is a brand new zoo built completely from scratch on the site of the old Ruhr Zoo. It is divided into three large themes: Alaska (2005), Africa (2006) and Asia (2010).

July 2009

What a marvellous set of pictures from ZOOM! I have really enjoyed looking them through. So many outstanding exhibits, and what an attention to detail in practically all of them. The hippo outside exhibit must be my absolute favorite - what a knock-out!Could it be the best hippo exhibit in the world?

Also, judging by the pictures, I note that I find the artificial rockwork looking more realistic than the rockwork in the Alaska section. Would you agree with that, Toddy?

Thanks Dan. Glad you like them I am not sure that it could be called "the best in the world" but it is indeed a good one. The outdoor exhibit is outstanding and unlike in many other zoos the hippos have a lot of land area covered in grass as well as a large pool at their disposal. But the indoor exhibits has some major flaws. Like I wrote it is not that bad but certainly not great either.

Yes, I would tend to agree to that. The rockwork is generally better except of course for the red rocks by the chimpanzee exhibit.

Oh, I should have written the OUTDOOR exhibit, that was what I meant....

And I really loved lots of other stuff as well, like the enclosures for rhino and chimp. The savannah looks absolutely awesome. Nice with a 700 sq meter enclosure for hyena... the list goes on...

One minor detail disturbs my eyes - the (electric?) fences in "the river". Takes away a little bit of the experience I think.

BTW, are most of what you see from the boat ride also available on foot? You especially pointed that out about some of the exhibits, but not all.

Didn't I? Well, I must just have missed some. Everything that you can see from the boats you can see on foot as well just from different angles.

And better have the electric fences than hordes of aggressive baboons jumping on to the boats with visitors in them!