I will be in Berlin on business next week and will potentially have a couple of hours free for a Zoo visit. Where should I go?
It depends on your location and mobility in Berlin and your preferences. The Berlin Zoo & Aquarium is located right in the city centre, offers a great variety of species and is therefore very popular among tourists. Tierpark Berlin-Friedrichsfelde is located in the former East German part of the city. As one of the largest zoos in Europe it offers a rich diversity of species in a vast park setting. Both zoos are currently in a progress of modernization. Alternatively, Berlin's Museum of Natural History is also worth a visit.
If you only have a couple of hours maybe the zoo would be better, as everything is closer together, so you can get between the things you most want to see more quickly (but you won;t be able to see everything in less than a day, so plan and prioritise ahead).
I agree with zooboy28, though if you rush it you can see almost the complete zoo even in 4 hours, but that is no fun. Depending on the weather you can also decide to spend all the time in the Aquarium building of the Zoo, which has a fine aquarium plus good reptile, amphibian and invertebrate sections and it would take about 2 hours to see properly.
I presume you will travel by plane to Berlin. If so, I recommend Zoo Berlin and Aquarium, because it is closer to (and faster to reach from) Tegel-Airport. If I remember correctly, you can use a busline right from the Airport to Trainstation Bahnhof Zoo, which is only a few footsteps away from one of the zoo's entrances.
If you don´t have even half day free, I think all depends on what species are you more interested, and in what area of Berlin you´ll stay, since both parks need a whole day to see them complete. If you don´t have any priority species and move is not a problem, then I´d go to Zoo, since is smaller and faster to see, but also plenty of interesting animals. Also, there are a lot of houses and the Aquarium/Terrariun on the entrance, so the visit will be more confortable if the weather is bad.
Like those in the UK, Berlin's Zoos (presumably those throughout the region) are taking precautions against bird flu. At the Zoo, the bird house is closed, as is the pheasantry and wader aviaries and all of those species are off show. The bird of prey aviaries are undergoing renovation and, as such, are empty. All of the captive waterfowl, penguins and 'park birds' are indoors so all the ponds and paddocks are empty (plenty of wild mallards though). The carnivore house is virtually empty (a solitary lioness, no tigers, a couple of leopards and an ocelot - plus those in the small carnivore wing). The area immediately behind the giraffe house (formerly housing deer) is a building site. The single remaining polar bear spends most of the day inside. What remains can, rather depressingly, probably be seen in a day.
If you only have a couple of hours, then only the zoo will do. Given the information of Paradoxurus: visit the Aquarium-Reptile House-Insectuarium. Tierpark is outside the city center and is far to large.
Rob, contrary to most advice here, if I were you I would still hold on to the Berlin weekend and spent it at Tierpark and the Naturkundemuseum and perhaps Museum Insel. You really need not visit the Zoo and be depressed. Instead you could wander the great outdoors on Tierpark's landscape.
Thank you all for your responses. I did opt for a couple of hours in Zoo Berlin, which I thoroughly enjoyed despite the lack of birds on show and plenty of building work! I did manage to see the Polar Bear, two Lionesses (not getting on, so assuming a new arrival), two ocelots as well. Highlights for me were the Hippo House, Nocturnal House, Takin and Ring Tailed Mongoose (life ticks) and an extremely friendly Gerenuk inside the Giraffe House..
