I gather that means the manatee pond gets complaints from the average visitor just because they want to see them in a crystal-clear tile-lined tank, even though its probably a perfectly acceptable habitat for the animals themselves?
I'm sure the animals are quite happy, but it's not very interesting to look at. The pond is lowered into the ground, and there is no underwater viewing. The fact that it's murky doesn't realy bother me, but they could have made some better viewing points.
Thanks for linking to my site, but since the reveiw is in Danish, I dont' think that many people here can enjoy it
I've made the pictures on this pages. A week ago I went to Burgers Zoo again. I give you here more photo's! Burgers Safari Vieuw from the restaurant The rhino part of the savannah The separate exhibith, this time for a new male group of Thomson gazelles for the savannah and 3.0 Grant zebra's. Safari part
Burgers's Rimba This part of the zoo opened in 2008. Bisons, Black Crested Mangabey, bacitrian camels, wolf,llama and more animals left the zoo. Sun bear & Binturong exhibith Big mixed asain field. With bantengs, eld's deer, hog deer, siamang and southern Pig-tailed Macaque. Sumtran tigerexhibith
It may be naive, but bothers me and I can't find an answer: Why small town zoo has money for these great projects, and other zoos don't? Burgers built this fabulous Bush and Desert over 10 years ago. Why all other zoos are not busy copying and improving it?
Are Bush and Desert really THAT fabulous? Personally, I like to see them in Burgers, but I am happy no others zoos copied it 100%. I mean, there are a lot of zoos with tropical/rainforest halls - Stuttgart, Krefeld and Cologne are just the 3 which come into my mind right now. These halls are much smaller, though. But Zurich has one which is even bigger then Burgers Bush! The reason why I am not a great fan of the Bush and the Desert is because a) there are no outdoor enclosures for the large mammals and b) the (indoor) enclosures for the large mammals are pretty small, especially if you consider that there are no outdoor enclosures. Conditions for the wild sheep in the Desert, and the aardvark in the Bush for example are hardly exiting, just in contrary. If a zoo wants to house (larger) mammals, the "traditional" concept of outdoor enclosures with just smaller houses like the new "Rimba" area in Burgers is much better, and cheaper, too. These large tropical halls are only suitable for birds and smaller mammals, and all species must be carefully selected so that they either don`t eat too many of the others or get et a fenced area of their own. For breeding, they might not be that suitable; often breeding sucess for birds is better in a controlled environment.
@Jurek7 Burgers' Zoo is a privat company, owned bij de descendants of Johan Burgers. They are not getting money from the city of Arnhem, which is, btw, not a small town compared with the other Dutch cities. To build a display like the 'Bush' is not always a matter of money but has also to do with the identity of the zoo. Some zoos are to small, and they don't have the intention to grow much larger, but are focused on keeping their animals in better exhibits or to keep rare species. Other zoos are more focused on keeping their animals in large exhibits, like Emmen, with less species. Zoos like Artis don't have the space for a 'Bush'. It looks strange but in The Netherlands it seems that the zoos don't have to compete with each other. Every zoo has his own public. Even in a small country like ours you can met people in Emmen who don't visit Rotterdam and vice versa. I spoke a few years ago some people who are living 20 kms from Amsterdam, but always visiting Emmen, 150 kms from their hometown, and who rarely visited Artis! Rotterdam Zoo could build a 'Bush' but don't feel the need for it. They just build a very large exhibit for polar animals, and an exhibit for savannah animals. This zoo is one of the most visited zoo of The Netherlands, and owned by a foundation. Another privat owned zoo is Ouwehands' Zoo in Rhenen, not far from Arnhem. How is it possible for this zoo to survive while Burgers' Zoo is in their neighbourhood? This zoo is not very large but attractive to children, with a large indoor playground. The founder, Cornelis Ouwehand, always saw some means to promote his zoo. For example: after Berlin and Paris, he brought the '1000 crocodils' to Rhenen. A famous Dutch tv-series (Zoop) was recorded at a location in the zoo. When the foundation Alertis, who rescues bears, need a place to build a sanctuary, they found it in Ouwehands' Zoo: the Bear Forest. This zoo has not the money for a 'Bush', but don't need such. Today the zoo is thriving, with a new (privat) owner, with a masterplan for the next 15 years. One of his first things he did was bringing back the elephants to the zoo, building a large polarbear exhibit, and the tiger woods. Other zoos are more thematic, like Avifauna (birds), Apenheul (monkeys), Dolfinarium (dolphins), Safari Beekse Bergen (safari park), etc. I hope I have answer your question properly?
Afaik Zurich's Masaola is a little smaller then the Bush. Of the other "rainforest houses" mentioned i've only seen Cologne and photo's of Krefeld and they don't even come close to the experience the Bush offers. The main reason it isn't copied is that new zoos that have room for such a project lack the money, and the richer zoo's are the older ones who rather replace/rebuild their existing exhibits then spent that much money on a new venture. That being said, i believe Leipzig is proving everyone wrong, but as far as i understand they are going to build in the same sort of problems then the Bush. Seperate exhibits for the larger mammals without outside accomodation for some of them.
I agree that Burgers exhibit could be improved - larger mammals get larger exhibits and access outdoors, glass vitrines in "caves" in Desert are bad and empty. When I said copied, I didn't mean exact copy. Zoos could adapt this idea large indoor hall with vegetation and landscape. If they want avoid two rainforest halls in Holland, they could build hall with savanna or freshwater swamp. Or have more tropical mammals in separate exhibits (primates, predators etc) and no free flying birds. I understand that such exhibit is costly, but why Burgers gets money and other zoos cannot? Big cities with large population of residents and tourists seem to have it much easier to sustain such bussiness. Other thing which Burgers beats others is naturalistic and beautiful lanscaping. Rocks are eroded sandstone from Arizona not some misshapen heap of concrete. Many new zoos build ugly, tacky and non-natural stuff now, like reversing trends into many decades before.
Other zoos use their money to build oher things. Look what Blijdorp has built in the last years/ is currently building - no large tropical hall, but many very good and exiting exhibits: giraffe and antilope house & enclosure, crocodile house with enclosures for many small mammals, 2 large bird avarys, colobus enclosure, outdoor pool for chinese alligators, polar bear enclosures ect. and plans for orang utans. I can just repeat myself that large tropical halls are a very expensive and space-consuming way to exhibit larger mammals, and usually the results are not ideal from the point of animal welfare. If you want to house larger mammals like bears, cats, primates, ungulates ect., "normal" enclosures are way cheaper and usually better for the animals.
Having visited most of the zoos in Holland - and six in the past month - I'd have to add that the level of ambition shown in the Netherlands is just extraordinary. For example, at Arnhem, a cafe has been built over-looking the African plains exhibit. it's one of several cafes through the zoo - and it's just enormous! (And very good). I'm not a mssive fan of the Bush (for the reasons others have mentioned above), but it is certainly an admirable concept, and infinitely better than the more manicured versions found in some zoos. I'd like to live nearby, and be able to spend regular time there. The new Rimba thing is quite impressive too - and again, so ambitious. One of the things which i do think is odd about Burgers is the lack of a proper shop, and the rather shabby entrance. the former is a real surprise, given the very commercial nature of the place; the latter seems like something which might be improved. Does anybody know whether a new entrance complex is on the agenda? Finally, the one area of the zoo which is just plain bad is that for orang utans. Again, does anybody know whether they will be rehoused soon? They would fit in quite nicely with the Rimba theme....
I agree this is not a very impressive entrance, the old one had more "style". But the old entrance only had one ticket box, and the museum nearby needed also more space at the car park. This is why the zoo build a new entrance in 1989, together with a new car park and an administration building. The square in front of it (named:Anton van Hooff Square, after the late director) also has a better bus stop. I don't think they have plans to improve or rebuild the entrance in the nearby future. First things to do are to give the old parts of the zoo a facelift. The old birdhouses, aviaries, but also the roads desperate needs some improvements. They started with the "hart" of the old zoo, and builded Rimba. I think that before 2013, the centenary of the zoo, the staff will surprise us with something special.
