Yes, signage was well out of date, which was frustrating. I should have dwelt more on the gorilla and bonobo complex, which is genuinely great, but I wanted to finish the post off. Between Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart and the zoo I'm in the process of writing up now I've been on a blessed run of great ape exhibits, just when I'd given up on Europe having any really good ones.
Zoo #48: Zoo Frankfurt, 20/08/2017 Frankfurt fits into a genre of zoos that I’ve had quite mixed responses to: the small site, urban zoo – often quite old – that still aspires to at least cover a representative portion of the traditional roster of ‘zoo animals’. Other zoos in this vein that I’ve been to on this trip are Antwerp, Basel, Zagreb and Copenhagen, and Adelaide (which I love) is an obvious corollary back home in Australia. I adored my visit to Antwerp, though I’m not quite sure it would stand up quite so well to the scrutiny of a second visit: I reckon I was there at the perfect time, right down to the day, as I was there on Good Friday and the whimsical Easter decorations – egg-shaped baubles in the trees, wooden rabbits dotting the lawns – conspired with the vintage architecture and spring foliage to create a picture-perfect ye olde zoo experience. Only a few days later Basel – a zoo that does many of the same things as Antwerp, and from an exhibit design perspective does them objectively better – underwhelmed, but I think I was expecting too much that day. And Copenhagen didn’t quite hit the spot for me either, as it has responded to its size limitations by essentially reducing down to a solid but unspectacular ABC collection, cramming most of the headline act big mammals into spaces that are good enough, but only good enough. I was delighted with Zagreb, which I’d recommend to anybody in the area, but that was partially because of low expectations. Frankfurt is in a third sub-category of its own, I think. While I was there it was reminding me strongly of Basel, but now that I sit down to write and think about it, I’m not sure why. Basel’s aquarium and reptile complex is much better than Frankfurt’s over-tired equivalent, and its bird house is better too. Frankfurt doesn’t use the space for the free flight hall at all well, with half the room given over to a tiled viewing area that the birds have no incentive to use. The whole point of walk-through aviaries is to be in the middle of the birds’ living area: to have a starling whizz past your head, to hear a pigeon cooing from behind your back. Frankfurt’s flight hall, and indeed the row of walk-through outdoor aviaries, are mere stages. They give better opportunities for photographers, but that’s about all. But it’s not all one way indoors. The Grzimek House is something Basel can’t match, and to which only Antwerp, of the zoos I’ve mentioned, begins to approach. The current zoo map shades out the construction site for penguins, and the shading covers half of the Grzimek House, so I was fearful that I would only see half. Unless there were 80 exhibits in here, though, rather than 40 it remains very much intact. Many of those 40 are double-ups so there’s a lot fewer species, but that’s fine. I only really cared strongly about one – you know which one – and they were just like my only previous viewing in Tokyo: hyperactive giant possums with brooms attached to their rear ends, like something out of a Tim Burton film. A wonderful, wonderful species and one I hope becomes far more common over time. And as a nice bonus, I had a wonderful two minutes playing with another alien lifeform, a slender loris, which was hanging upside down at the front of the exhibit and kept trying to catch my finger as I wiggled it in front of the glass. Once you get outside the balance tips decisively to Frankfurt. When visiting Basel I felt the limited space nevertheless felt weirdly underused, with big portions of the zoo given over to domestics and then big chunks of empty space too. Frankfurt does neither, and perhaps as a reaction to Melbourne’s barrenness I *love* being in a zoo where I’m surrounded by actual animal exhibits. Perhaps Basel’s extra two hectares – 13 to Frankfurt’s 11 – makes them feel able to spread out in a way that Frankfurt knows it can’t. I also think Frankfurt has made the right call in not having elephants: I reckon they could have had the Etosha complex or the fantastic great ape building (Germany is clearly Europe’s go-to country for ape exhibits), but not both. More generally, Frankfurt’s big mammal exhibits are at a consistently high standard, where Basel’s were patchy. I’d have probably tried to combine the spectacled bear and howler monkey exhibits, and move the giant anteater (unseen, and most likely often so) into the mara and vicuña paddock, which I think would turn three good exhibits into one brilliant and one very good one. Meanwhile, Frankfurt has a trip of big carnivore exhibits – for lions, tigers and maned wolves (unseen) that are each up there with the best in their class across Europe (at least so far). It’s probably an overstatement to say there is an identifiably ‘German style’ zoo – it’s hard to get much more removed from each other than Hanover and Berlin – but there are clear links at least between Nuremberg, Munich and Frankfurt, and it has revived my zest for zoo-going right at a time when it might be forgiven for disappearing, after almost 50 visits in less than six months. At all three zoos, though admittedly less so at Frankfurt than the Bavarian pair, I have had the same thought: there but for the grace of competence goes Melbourne.
Now that 4 different zoo enthusiasts have come out strongly in support of Stuttgart, I feel compelled to point out @lintworm 's brilliant thread with its 10 categories: Why do we love zoos; a summary in stereotypes
Hmmmm. I'm ideologically opposed to the league tableisation of zoos, but, with this gauntlet thrown down, I think I'd have to say that nestling between the Berlins and Stuttgart in my list - which doesn't exist - of my favourite zoos (which is different to a list of the best zoos) would be Cologne, Frankfurt, Wuppertal, Munich, possibly Munster, possibly Magdeburg, possibly (with reservations) Leipzig, Rheine (despite it being so much smaller), Heidelberg, maybe Krefeld, and, of course, Walsrode.
I sympathise with you being "ideologically opposed to the league tableisation of zoos". However, I think it is human nature to have favourites. Of course, Cologne, Frankfurt, Wuppertal, Munich etc are all great zoos that I have visited many times and like enormously but, personally, I enjoy visiting Stuttgart more. I especially like the fact that Stuttgart is a combined zoo and botanical garden; the greenhouses and other horticultural displays make it a very attractive place. In particular, the outdoor heated pond, full of tropical water lilies, is spectacular. The botanical displays, coupled with the rich animal collection, make Stuttgart a favourite of mine. (I must add, though, that the animal collection is not what it used to be: I have fond memories of the elephant seal, woolly tapirs, proboscis monkeys, shoebills....)
Zoo #49, Zoo Duisburg, 23/08/2017 Forgive me if this post is a little rushed, but it’s very humid where I’m sitting, and I’ll be sent on my way soon in any case. I mentioned when writing about Berlin Zoo, where I bought up my zoo-going century, that my ‘species hunter’ phase was over. I’d seen the common species that people overseas take for granted, but that are not displayed anywhere in Australia: the hornbills, lorises and giant anteaters. I’d seen the slightly rarer, slightly outré species that aren’t all that difficult to find in captivity, but that Australia also lacks, such as belugas, sea otters, okapi, shoebills, bonobos, gharials and arapaima. I’d even seen some genuine rarities, like kiwis, hummingbirds, Emperor penguins, pangolins and aye-ayes. Earlier in this trip I saw an Eastern lowland gorilla. Not generally being one to fuss about whether I’ve seen all three subspecies of Eastern greater banded whatsit, I’d ticked off my entire list. Except one. I’d never seen a river dolphin, and I was quite agitated by the thought, as preparations for this trip got underway and especially when it got pushed back not one but two years, that I might be too late. But, I’m happy to report I wasn’t. I just looked up from my iPad to find a boto looking back at me. (Jesus it’s hot in here. Take it as a testament to my journalistic integrity that I really am sitting in Rio Negro writing this, rather than somewhere much more comfortable and only pretending. It’s not like you would have known.) River dolphins aside, I had no real expectations for Duisburg. A solid mid-tier player in the zoo bundesliga, I figured. That’s broadly accurate, I think, but even Germany’s second division is one of the best in the world, so Duisburg’s doing more than alright. And it fits, I think, into that emerging class of German zoos along with Nuremberg, Munich and Frankfurt, that places a premium on densely vegetated, open exhibits, though only patchily so. Ungulate exhibits here are basic to the point of being formulaic: there’s nothing wrong with them, just nothing particularly interesting. Carnivores do very well, but they might be a bit of a flashpoint between my conception of a good exhibit and, say, Sooty’s or Tim’s. The internal spaces for the spectacled bears and Siberian tigers, which I think must be two of the newest exhibits in the zoo, are big, beautiful and complex environments, which to my eye makes them wonderful, however I do think the mock rocky exteriors detract from the otherwise charming ambience of the zoo: they do not sit well in their environment. That applies, of course, to the dolphin stadium as well. On the subject of marine mammals, unfortunately I have to note that the harbour seal pool is perhaps the worst I’ve seen for pinnipeds outside Japan. Shallow, stagnant water on bare concrete: it’s neither enriching or aesthetically pleasing, and should go. (It’s so bloody hot in here.) The gap between Duisburg’s best and worst primate exhibits is about as wide as they come. The densely planted lemur island is wonderful, the best exhibit of its type that I can remember. It took me a good ten minutes of increasingly impatient searching before I found some ruffed lemurs in amongst the bamboo. The free ranging red-handed tamarins here in Rio Negro are cool. And the gorilla exhibit, though not quite on par with Leipzig or Stuttgart, is also quite nice. Unfortunately, I cannot share that praise with the orangutan enclosure – more suitable for mangabeys – or the horror that is what appears to be a secondary siamang exhibit in the Ape House. Tiles and concrete inside, and an outdoor space that I would consider just adequate for squirrel monkeys. If I could get rid of just two exhibits here it would be that and the harbour seals. I loved the sprawling sloth ropes course inside, though. Like Nuremberg, birds are very much out of focus here, and reptiles are barely in the picture at all. And as I was checking out Duisburg’s surprisingly strong collection of Australian mammals I wondered why they aren’t leaning into that strength in a similar fashion to Budapest. Re-purpose the African grey and Jardine’s parrot aviary for cockatoos and maybe rosellas, and build a couple more small aviaries for kookaburras and other Australian birds. The zoo lacks a reptile house: there’s only the token handful of vivaria in the Ape House, plus a caiman lizard here in Rio Negro and a few chelonians elsewhere. So why not build one focused on Australian reptiles? The Ankole cattle enclosure adds nothing, really, so it could be built there. There’s no shortage of Australian reptiles available. It makes sense. But anyway. They’re closing Rio Negro (so freakin’ hot) in 12 minutes, and I’m going to watch a river dolphin swimming around for the second, and almost certainly last, time ever.
I remember the elephant seal, but the woolly tapir was a no-show. My stand-out species was the mountain paca. The local train from the centre to the zoo has a green light that moves along the train map on the train. It is very useful, as I can find it difficult to understand announcements on trains.
I wrote the above paragraph on February 23rd and it is now August 23rd...exactly 6 months later to the day! (at least here in British Columbia, Canada) I'm excited to report that your writing has indeed become "one of the truly great ZooChat threads" and that the "40+ European zoos" that I predicted has been surpassed as you are now one zoo shy of an even 50. Congratulations on enthralling all of us with your wild tales.
Zoo #50: Krefeld Zoo, 24/08/2017 This is one that had made, then missed and finally made the cut. Ins once planned to visit five or even six of the Rhine-Ruhr area zoos (Munster was always going to be too much of a hike). That plan got culled back to three because of general apathy, and a desire for a quiet week as this trip heads into its final stretch. So Krefeld was out and Duisburg, Cologne (spoiler alert, but you knew I was going to go there anyway) and Wuppertal were in. I've been using Düsseldorf as a base while I'm in the Rhine-Ruhr area, however, and my visit is poorly timed: all of the trains between Düsseldorf and Wuppertal are currently suspended for maintenance work, with buses running instead. What would have already been a slightly more than one hour journey is now apparently close to two hours each way. So Wuppertal was out and Krefeld was in. I'm sure Wuppertal is lovely but my appetite for spending over three and a half hours on buses to get there is not exactly strong. It's possible I will make the trip on Sunday, but it's quite unlikely. It'll probably have to wait until the next time I'm in these parts. I admit I didn't *quite* realise until too late that Krefeld is also not all that easy to get to from Dusseldorf, requiring a 45 minute ride on a suburban train, but it's a pleasant enough journey - there are even corn fields in the midst of this chimaera of a metropolis, I now know - and at least I was on a train, rather than a bus. I've often wondered how this area supports so many major zoos, and I think I know the answer now that I'm here. For one, squished together though the cities may be, public transport connections between them are still patchy (exhibit A: 45 minutes from central Dusseldorf to Krefeld, 19km away), and more importantly I gather there are fierce local civic identities at play. Krefeld can't compete with Duisburg or, one imagines, with Cologne on quality. But it's Krefeld's zoo, damnit, and I suspect that's good enough for the good burghers of Krefeld. Another answer is that Krefeld, at least, isn't quite a major zoo. The corn fields weren't the only bucolic note to the day: Krefeld looks and feels more like the regional zoos I know and mostly love back home in Australia, with its simple wire fencing and cages, and solid but by no measure comprehensive collection. They're a dangerous type of zoo for me to visit, because they're the ones that get the would-be zoo director on my shoulder whispering in my ear that I could do this. But no, I can't. Or at least I won't. Probably. Don't give me ideas. Like most little regional zoos there are things Krefeld does well, and things that it does decidedly badly. In Krefeld's case the latter is large primates. That ape house, with its little concrete pits for chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, is simply abominable. Yes, I'm sure I'm going to horrify some by saying this, but none of those exhibits should exist: they are simply unfit for purpose. They're somehow made worse, their inadequacy held up to the light and made transparent, by the pleasant, spacious outdoor exhibit for a second gorilla troop. What did they do right that the other three groups did so wrong? And don't think I missed that baboon platform, either. The moat was empty and the concrete deserted, and I dared hope that it was no longer in use, but alas the water was simply being refilled, and the baboons were shut inside. Just plain horrendous. Big cats, by contrast, mostly do quite well. The exhibits for tigers and jaguars are great, with the latter being one of the best for 'spotted' big cats across the trip. I almost fled in panic at the open-topped gepard enclosure, until I remembered, upon seeing a gepard, that they are cheetahs and not leopards. Thankfully the snow leopard (not snow gepard) is safely contained in a fully meshed exhibit, even if it isn't at the same standard as the others. Undulate exhibits here are very simple, but effective, although those camels must only stay in their paddock by mutual agreement with the keepers, because they could certainly walk out if they wished. It's only now that I'm lying in bed writing this that I've realised I should be kicking myself (not something one should do in bed, at least not in a hostel dorm where others are present). I went past the mountain anoa exhibit, was very surprised to find a mountain anoa exhibit, but couldn't find a mountain anoa, so I told myself I'd return before leaving. But I forgot, so I still haven't seen a mountain anoa. I guess that's fine, though, since I hadn't expected to see one in the first place. Yet again, birds and reptiles are really only minor presences here, though that is certainly exacerbated by the bird house being under reconstruction (although that hasn't stopped chickens living inside, oddly). The new penguin/inca tern/duck walk-through is really nice, but I feel they've missed an opportunity to do something original, like having ibis in there too, perhaps? I didn't *need* to visit Krefeld. We're past that point in the trip now, and it's nowhere near the standard of zoo that is now making up the majority of my visits. But I didn't mind having a bucolic frolic in amongst all the heavy hitters. I just wish that ape house didn't exist.
It's a shame that the Krefeld Bird House is currently being renovated, and thus you missed it: although it is not enormous, I think it is, pound for pound, one of the very best: very German, very nicely done, just about perfect (qv Rheine).
The so-called Mountain Anoas at Krefeld are apparently open to some debate as to whether they are actually that taxon,they appear a little "woollier" but am i wishfully imagining that? One of the good things about zoo-visiting is the indefinable element that is purely personal,we can call it "character" if you like.In Krefeld`s case part of that syndrome is that it exists on two sides of a football stadium(proper football,as recognised by most of the world populace) or that the restaurant is a quirky little cottage-type building with otters on one side.And of course much of opinion is subjective, few would argue that Winston Churchill was "great" or Isambard Kingdom Brunel equally so,however, although Gerald Durrell was a "great" in the eyes of most users of this chatroom(I would think) he wasnt ever accorded a knighthood...so the popular view would be that he isnt "great" i suppose.And yes,even i agree that the purely indoor ape accommodation at Krefeld for some species isnt up to much....I think you did "need" to visit Krefeld however,as in my book all zoos are worth a look - how better to get a sense of perspective?
Great thread CGSwans, really enjoyed reading this. Love the writing style and I always admire strong independent views. Good contributions from other posters also added to the thread.
I didn't have any strong feelings for Nuremberg when I first visited, in 2006 - went back in 2015 and it leapt up in my estimations. Perhaps worth noting that a 'civilian' couple of my acquaintance, not zoo nerds by any stretch, visited recently and absolutely loved it. Love this. ZooChat: Live. And very glad you saw the dolphin! That pushed-back-trip-to-see-a-geriatric-animal-please-don't-die-just-yet feeling is one I know well.
I first went to Nuremberg Zoo back in 1983 and have been many times since; I think the wooded, hilly site makes a superb, attractive setting for a zoo. I have always liked this zoo very much and like it even more since the current manatee exhibit was built (which is a vast improvement over the previous manatee accommodation). The collection is, perhaps, not quite large enough for me to consider Nuremberg one of my very favourite zoos but it would certainly feature in my personal top twenty European zoos. (Incidentally, on my first few visits to Nuremberg, the collection included Sotalia dolphins and I subsequently saw the same individuals several times in Munster.)
I don't regret going at all, but I would never fill an entire trip full of Krefelds. If you're going to travel 15,000km there'd better be a few Zurichs and Pragues involved.
Most true, if they continue building new enclosures in which also smaller animals are featured and if they will use the huge available space for some nice aviaries and make a new aquarium building this would easily be considered one of the best German zoos, for now the collection is still a too much biased towards the big animals.
Zoo #51: Cologne Zoo, 25/08/2017 With all due respect, good people of Zoochat, I’d much rather be watching Game of Thrones right now. I’m sitting on a train from Düsseldorf to… somewhere else, and the download I thought had completed before I left the hostel had not, in fact, downloaded. So I’ll write about Cologne instead, but if there’s a single spoiler in these comments well… valar morghulis, as they say. One surprising weakness I’ve seen recurring through Germany is that quite a few zoos have what I consider to be unbalanced collections, too focused on mammals at the expense of birds and, more often, reptiles. Hamburg, Hanover, Nuremberg, Duisburg, Krefeld and to a lesser extent even Leipzig and Munich all followed this pattern. Luckily the ones that didn’t – both Berlins, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Cologne – do a great job of making up for the imbalance at the others. Cologne manages to be an excellent mammal zoo, a good bird zoo and a very good reptile zoo. I did the aquarium first – or rather second, I went through the children’s farm looking for the entrance to the aquarium, before discovering it was actually outside the main gate. Aquaria as components of a ‘zoo’ seems to be a strong, and perhaps predominantly German tradition: they’re entirely absent from Australia now, except in Canberra (which wouldn’t have an aquarium if the site hadn’t, in fact, initially been an aquarium), relatively rare in the US and have only popped up here or there outside the German-speaking countries in Europe, but throw in Basel and Zurich, and of the 15 generalist zoos I’ve visited in German-speaking cities 10 have significant aquarium buildings. Is this a good thing, or a double-edged sword? They certainly add to the zoos in which they feature, and there’s no good reason other than cost why it shouldn’t be as much a part of a standard zoo line-up as a reptile house, but I also suspect their relative ubiquity is a big part of the answer to SnowLeopard’s question about the lack of a major, standalone German aquarium. Anyway, Cologne’s aquarium exhibits, both aquatic and reptilian, are at the upper end of the German zoo scale, though the Berlin’s remain undefeated. The best fish tank, I thought, was the Northern Australian tank for rainbowfish and lungfish: it struck me when I saw it how rarely you see lungfish with decent swimming space. They might be relatively immobile, but give them room and they will use it at least occasionally, as Cologne’s lungfish was when I visited. That’s a rule that applies generally across reptile and fish exhibits, I think. And the reptile and amphibian tanks are exceptional: primarily for tropical species (including several Papuan monitors, which are about as stunning as lizards get), they manage what is too often beyond zoos, creating habitats that are seemingly alive – they are moist, earthy, dense little excerpts of an ecological niche – and great exhibits, too. The bird displays are a bit patchier, though I enjoyed the ever so slightly secluded cul-de-sac of aviaries. It’s increasingly rare to be surrounded by different aviaries like that: perhaps it has been superseded as an experience by walk-through aviaries, but I like it a lot. It reminded me of one of my favourite spots at Adelaide Zoo. The most surprisingly satisfying aviary,, though, was the ‘owl cloister’ which I’m guessing is a repurposed old carnivore exhibit or similar. It’s nothing complicated or particularly outré, but a slightly dark, almost hidden exhibit works well for owls, storks and falcons. I am choosing to overlook the presence of Waldrapp bin chickens, though. Mammals are, as ever, a mix of good and bad, but with some ‘great’ thrown in. Hot on the heels of Krefeld’s jaguars come Cologne’s leopard: another wonderful, generously proportioned exhibit for the too-often short-changed spotted cats. The tiger exhibit is great, and the lion one is decent, though I’ve been noticing lately that there seems to be a real paucity of outstanding lion exhibits. I don’t think it’s just a Europe thing, either. They’re usually fine, but rarely truly noteworthy. Two highly active cheetahs turned their grassy knoll into a great little exhibit. Active animals so often make an enormous difference. Bears, meanwhile, are unfortunately a throwback at Cologne: small, concrete bear pits that the keepers have done their best with, but are still one of the worst features in the zoo. Yet another German zoo comes to the party with a great ape exhibit, this time the bonobos, but once again I felt like I missed it at its best because the animals were inside. In principle I want animals to be given as many choices as they can be, and that means full access to indoor exhibits, but is enough being done to coax them outside? I’m not sure: it’s been a consistent disappointment to find apes sitting in utilitarian indoor spaces and leaving big, complex, natural outdoor exhibits empty. It’s like going to a football stadium on a non-match day. You see what it is, but have to imagine what it could be. A douc langur, meanwhile, was a pleasant surprise: is there only one? Cologne is one of two zoos I’ve visited that have gone all in on massive, hyper-expensive modern elephant exhibits, following Zurich. As far as indoor exhibits go, they are both about as good as you can ask for, and better than the outdoor yards many zoos have. This is what I’m talking about when I say European zoos need to consider what it is to be an indoor exhibit: a concrete stall isn’t enough to rely upon for four months of the year, and neither Zurich or Cologne need to. On that basis alone they are the best two elephant exhibits I’ve seen all year, and watching the interaction between Cologne’s enormous herd is engrossing. The outdoor yards, though, are massive but pretty much empty, dusty paddocks. And so ends the German leg of my journey. As forecast, I didn’t summon the energy or, to be truly honest, much desire to head out to Wuppertal, and Cologne, as a true heavy hitter both in Germany and across Europe, was a pretty good endnote to my time in the zoo world’s pre-eminent country.
