Like a Rhinestone Cowboy: FunkyGibbon in Europe

Not as far as I know, although there may be some sort of joint ticket available for some of the zoos to which you are heading. It's worth noting that German zoos are usually much less expensive than their counterparts in the UK, the Netherlands or France.

 

Thanks Sooty

 

Frankfurt Zoo

As mentioned above, last September I briefly visited Frankfurt. It was the postscript of a week in the Czech Republic; an almost complete account of that trip can be found here:

FunkyGibbon's Chinese Takeaway

I thought I would write about Frankfurt here because it fits the theme of the Rhine, and given that it will be some time before this thread kicks into gear it will give people something to chew over. It should not come as a shock that I was flying out of Frankfurt to Shanghai, given it is the busiest airport in Europe, but people might be surprised to know that there are actually lots of cheap flights direct from Prague (my prior location) to China. However, money is not the most important thing in life, and this is particularly true when it is not your own you are spending. I spent quite a lot of time trying to find a connection that would avoid me spending the night in Frankfurt, because I did have some time pressure. However this was simply not possible, so I booked into a hostel opposite the Central Station. If I remember correctly this was a fairly eye-watering thirty euros, about five times what I was paying in Prague. I think this was because there was some convention or festival, because it was the cheapest I could find that night and it certainly isn’t that expensive anymore.

I landed in Frankfurt around seven or eight in the morning, took the shuttle train into the city, checked into my hostel and then headed off to the zoo. Because it was around a forty-minute walk, and I wouldn’t have lots of time for sight seeing in general, I decided to go on foot. Frankfurt seems to have a reputation as being a bit staid or boring, but it certainly is very pleasant on a hot September day. Fortified with a McDonalds strawberry shake (unavailable in China), I made it to the zoo just before 10.00 a.m.

Let’s take a step back for a minute. Two things need to be said.

Firstly, I don’t want or intend to write walkthroughs on this trip (although I may do so inadvertently on occasion). I plan to provide ‘responses’ to zoos, which other forum members can in turn react to. I probably would not have visited Berlin or Prague if @TeaLovingDave and @LaughingDove respectively had not written about them. I hope to inspire other people to follow in my footsteps, or, if necessary, warn them against doing so! Therefore I want to provide enough detail to give those who haven’t visited a flavour of the zoo, and possibly even strike to the heart of what it is all about as an institution. For the older hands, I want to throw in some opinions and thoughts that will either have them nodding along sagely or alternately shaking their heads at the monitor in disbelief. Balanced against this however, is the fact that I am fundamentally lazy, especially when it comes to writing. I will also not have huge amounts of time to write in the evenings, especially because, as I like to remind @Chlidonias, I am one of those young backpacking idiots he so despises There will be beer to be drunk and horizons to be broadened. All of the above being said, I have written what is broadly a walkthrough for Frankfurt, because I have had the time and inclination.

(Whilst on the subject of beer, I hope to try at least one local beverage in every city I visit, and will dutifully report on my findings. Science is important y’all.)

Secondly, it’s probably fair to say my hopes for Frankfurt were not exactly high. Although I didn’t know a huge amount about the zoo, I was very aware that it is long past its heyday, especially thanks to the sterling work of @gentle lemur in the gallery. It seems quite possible I will never see a picatharte or linsang in my life, and that is a shame I think. The main reason I pushed my itinerary a little to visit last year was that I was under the impression that the Grzimek House, in its current form at least, will probably not last too much longer, and I wanted to see it before it changed. I wasn’t even sure I would like what I saw, but the seeing of a thing is the thing, and the regret of not seeing it is very much not the thing.

 

Frankfurt visit, Walkthrough/Review/Observations, September 12th 2016

In we go.

The first thing you see after entering (for a very reasonable €10) are the Spectacled Bear enclosures. They are a reworking of some old grottos. You wouldn’t know it. It’s a really beautiful looking exhibit, with high walls at the front only giving you certain sight lines into it. No doubt this makes it seem bigger than it really is. The best thing on my visit was that one of the bears was foraging for berries, which had just ripened on a bush growing in the enclosure. Needless to say, I thought this was excellent.

After this is the Cat Jungle, a complex for Asiatic Lion, Sumatran Tiger, Fossa and Rusty-spotted Cat. I think that’s a striking line-up and it’s a striking house. The lions’ outdoor area is obviously leftover from a previous era and is a fairly cramped moated affair. Everything else is stellar. The tigers have two outdoor and indoor enclosures, all of which are beyond lushly planted. Viewing of the larger outdoor exhibit is from a bridge over the lake in the middle of the zoo, part of which the tigers have access to (the lake, not the bridge!). Both the fossa and the rusties have very tall indoor and outdoor enclosures that can be viewed from multiple levels, although I saw buggar all of the inhabitants! What was wonderful about this house was the presentation; although it was by no means immersive, there were plants, natural materials and soft substrate flooring everywhere that tied the visitor and animal areas together and created an almost astonishing effect. I would love to know if it regularly looks like this, or if I caught it the day after replanting or something. Verdant.

The next big thing on my route is the Grzimek House itself. Actually, because of some work on a new penguin enclosure, the House was shaded out on the map, which almost gave me a heart attack, but luckily it was preemptive and work had not started yet. I don’t know if it’s currently partly or totally closed. I’m going to list the species on-show in a separate post after this one; if you don’t know what’s coming it’ll blow your head off. You enter the house ‘below’ ground level, as it’s on a slope, and then follow a corridor that spirals up through (I think) 720° and then exits ‘above’ ground level. In the middle of the spiral is a tall exhibit for Two-toed Sloth, Green Acouchy and Golden Lion Tamarin that can be viewed as you enter and exit. Set into the walls of the spiral as you walk gently upwards are 45, that’s forty five, exhibits for a huge variety of species. Approximately the bottom half of the building is dark for nocturnal species and the rest is lit normally. There is often some distance between exhibits, which gives the whole thing a Tardis-like feel as it really doesn’t look that big from the outside. Here’s a taster of what’s on show: Kowari, Prehensile-tailed Porcupine, Eastern Quoll, Springhare, Aye-aye, Pygmy Glider, Australian Echidna, Tibesti Spiny Mouse, Blue-headed Waxbill, Yellow-spotted Hyrax and Komodo Dragon. If that doesn’t whet your appetite then you eat different food to me. Or you are @Arizona Docent

The Grzimek House sees some criticism on here from those who feel that it is old-fashioned and that the exhibits are undersized. I disagree. Or rather, I disagree partially. I do think that a little reshuffling wouldn’t go amiss. If you moved the aardvarks out you could upgrade the night monkeys and porcupines into their exhibits and then ‘backfill’ with any number of cool LBJs (this is an accepted acronym for little brown jobs, right?). Other than that I would say this: the House is a towering monument to the display in captivity of small mammals and it would be a great shame to change it in any serious way. It is without doubt the best Nocturnal House I’ve ever seen. It is probably the finest anyone has ever seen (citation needed). I think any serious criticism of it is fundamentally a criticism of the way almost all zoos keep some nocturnal animals and, while that may be reasonable, it is also problematic to say the least.

From the GH I headed to Borgori-Wald, the ape house. At this point my visit was starting to feel like I was being punched in the face in a cartoon, but instead of anvils and dumbbells the boxing glove was stuffed with world-class zoo exhibits. Borgori-Wald is the bit where I stick my hand in a toaster and you see my skeleton. It holds Bonobo, Gorillas and Mantled Colobus in a mixed exhibit, Sumatran Orangutan and then there’s an aviary with I-really-don’t-remember-what in. The bonobos and orangs both have two netted indoor and outdoor enclosures; I assume this supports the fusion/fission social structure of the former and the naturally solitary nature of the latter. On the day of my visit I think all the orang spaces were connected. It was great to see one of them feeding through the netting at the top of the enclosure. Both these exhibits are amongst the best I’ve ever seen. The gorillas get one large day room and one small one, and a single large outdoor enclosure, which is partially walled and partially moated. I still prefer a good old Aspinall cage, but aside from that this is probably my favourite gorilla exhibit. As in the Cat Jungle, planting and naturalistic effects are ubiquitous without ever making the mistake of trying to convince you are in the wild, an almost impossible task that in its failure completely ruins the impression an exhibit makes on the viewer. Taken together, Borgori-Wald is the best ape house I’ve ever visited, although they seem less common these days, and Frankfurt is undoubtedly my favourite zoo for apes.

The ape house almost transects the zoo and separates the eastern half from the larger area to the west. Moving east from BW one comes to a nice little area featuring Kea, Goodfellow’s Tree-kangaroo and Northern Brown Kiwi. It would be a lot nicer if the kiwi were on show, but I enjoyed seeing the other two species anyway. Next to this is a smallish enclosure for African Hunting Dogs that did very little for me if I’m honest. Along the northeastern edge of the zoo is a (very?) old Bird House, and some pleasant adjoining walkthrough aviaries. The Bird House will allow me to make my next point about Frankfurt; despite the fantastic new developments, there are a lot of traditional enclosures here that look like they are straight out of the ‘70s. I liked this a lot. As long as animal welfare is not compromised I think the feeling of suddenly being thrown back forty years is a rather pleasant one. To be honest some of the aviaries set into the wall were eye-wateringly small, but they contained small passerines (nice unusual ones of course), and these days I’m a bit more wary of criticizing exhibits on size. To the south is the Monkey House, which is basically the same in terms of being extremely old fasioned, but while the Bird House has a certain charm this just looks dated; it is full of shining metal bars and lime-green tiles (something of a Frankfurt staple) and is unfortunately an animal rights photo shoot waiting to happen. The end features a ‘baboon rock’ (Hamadryas), which attracted a lot of spectators due to the ‘intense’ social interaction within. A lot of the animals I saw there have subsequently made the journey to San Diego. I hope to follow them one day.

In the middle of the eastern half of the zoo is a small ‘savannah’ area that was under whelming when I visited, and has apparently become even more so since. I think it’s down to just Addax now.

Having seen everything to the east of Borgori-Wald I had the chance to enjoy it again as I returned to the western half of the zoo.

Next to the Grzimek House is the Exotarium. It is one of the oldest buildings in the zoo, I think. I assume I know this because Frankfurt has some really good signage explaining the history of the collection, however that may be some class-A bovine excrement. It was six months ago and I really don’t remember. In any case, it has an excellent collection of inverts, amphibians and reptiles upstairs and a nice, if slightly poky, aquarium downstairs. The highlight of this building (and possibly the zoo) was watching the Colorado River Toads feeding. The zoo has a fairly big tank with a good half a dozen of them, and they were given a large handful of locusts. The toads hunted them down slowly and steadily, but it was when they got within tongue-shot of them that the magic happened. Their mouths grinned wider and wider and then their hind toes started to twitch or flick quite strongly. They’d sit in this position for quite some time, and the feeling of anticipation was inescapable and delightful. You really felt they were savouring the moment. I vividly remember reading about this exact phenomenon in “My Family and Other Animals”. I think Gerald Durrell had a pet toad named Augustus who did exactly the same thing. I must’ve spent a good twenty minutes watching them. It was, is, and will remain one of my fondest zoo memories.

Southwest of the Exotarium are two pools, one for Common Seal and the other for Cape Fur Seal. They are note-worthy for being there, being of a reasonably high quality and being in possession of some really good interpretive material whose exact nature escapes me. There is underwater viewing of course, and the ivy-covered backdrop of the Exotarium tower is incredibly picturesque.

The rest of the zoo, the southwest quadrant, is basically a collection of small- to medium-sized ungulate paddocks. These are all fairly dated in appearance, and the criticism that the (Black) Rhino House, which also has Common Hippo, receives seems pretty on point in my opinion. The Grevy’s Zebra and Bactrian Camel enclosures feature angular water moats which look manage to look quaint and iconic at the same time. It bears repeating that in this case, at least for this visitor, the dated look is again a most appealing one. With regards to the Giraffe House, I would make the same statement about Frankfurt’s that I would about London’s: a traditional piece of zoo heritage that would not and should not be copied today, and yet is still fit for purpose. Of course, here one can also find Klipspringer. Eat it London! Other noteworthy species in this last area of the zoo are the Mhor Gazelle, so elegant, and the Yellow-backed Duiker. These are huge! I’ve only ever seen red duiker before and I was expecting something similar, but in fact they are easily twice the height and probably ten times the weight.

Tucked away in the hoofstock section are the Vulture aviaries on the south wall. I suspect from what I’ve gleaned on here that this is actually the old Ape House. It’s another handsome building of stone, brick and iron arches. It fits very nicely in this older section of the zoo. Others might describe it as ugly and dated.

Missing from this walkthrough are the meerkats (next to the savannah), tur and wallabies (somewhat bizarrely in exhibits attached to the Exotarium), bongo and okapi (appropriately in the hoofstock area), flamingos and pelicans (hoofstock….), a small walkthrough exhibit for domestic goats (hoofstock) and then on the other side of the entrance to the bears are two South American paddocks, one for Maned Wolves and the other for Vicuna, Darwin’s Rhea and Mara. Last, but by no means least, is a handsome gibbon island opposite the tigers in the lake. This made less of an impression than it should have because I could not see the gibbons (Northern White-cheeked) inside or out. Nonetheless it is an appropriate place for us to finish.

So what did I think of Frankfurt Zoo?

As you can probably gather from what I’ve written so far I absolutely loved it. It would be folly to describe it as the best zoo I’ve ever visited, but it is surely my favourite. Occasionally a zoo visit transcends enjoyment into euphoria, and this was one of those occasions. The new stuff is all fantastic, at least to my untrained eye, and as I’ve reiterated a lot of the old exhibits carry a huge amount of charm. Frankfurt certainly isn’t perfect, but it is perfectly formed. I think I’d be labouring the point to heap any more praise on it, but I really hope my enthusiasm for this wonderful, wonderful zoo comes across in my writing.

 

Grzimek House

Here is the full species and exhibit list:

There are two outside exhibits, which are not in the House, but are of it:

Large Hairy Armadillo, White-faced Saki
Empty

Inside the House there are first two lit exhibits, and a view of the tall central enclosure from its base:

Striped Grass Mouse
Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec

Golden Lion Tamarin, Green Acouchy, Two-toed Sloth

Some interpretive material is followed by the nocturnal exhibits:

Kowari
Prehensile-tailed Porcupine
Grey-bellied Night Monkey, Two-toed Sloth
Northern Luzon Giant Cloud Rat
Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur
Desert Dormouse
Northern Ceylonese Slender Loris
Leaf-nosed Bat (three separate views into this enclosure)
Eastern Quoll
Aardvark, Northern Lesser Galago, Springhare
Aardvark, Northern Lesser Galago
Aye-aye, Grey Lesser Mouse Lemur
Aye-aye
Southern Tamandua
Southern Tamandua
Kowari
Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec
Grey Lesser Mouse Lemur
Northern Ceylonese Slender Loris
Northern Ceylonese Slender Loris
Tibesti Spiny Mouse
Pygmy Glider
Australian Water Rat
Australian Echidna, Tawny Frogmouth
Fat-tailed Dwarf Lemur

Some interpretive material is followed by the diurnal exhibits:

Golden Spiny Mouse
Interpretive Display (in an exhibit, judging from my notes)
Northern Tree Shrew
Golden Lion Tamarin
Asian Short-clawed Otter
Short-eared Elephant Shrew
Short-eared Elephant Shrew
Greater Guinea Pig, White-faced Saki
Javan Chevrotain, Tree Shrew (Northern?)
Goeldi’s Monkey, Green Acouchy

(Here the House features a rest area with seats and some nice planting)

Komodo Dragon
Blue-headed Waxbill, Striped Grassmouse
Common Gundi

(Food Preparation Room)

Empty
Cape Ground Squirrel, Sociable Weaver
Empty
Yellow-spotted Rock Hyrax, Dwarf Mongoose

Lastly one is again treated to a view of the central exhibit, this time from above.

So by my count that’s 47 exhibits, including the two external ones. (This is higher than the figure of 42 I’ve seen elsewhere on ZooChat. Not sure why.)

I count 41 species held in the house, or 40 if you exclude the armadillo outside. Not bad really.

 

Armchair Zoo Director - Frankfurt Edition

I know a lot of people don’t enjoy this game, but I do. I certainly won’t do it on here for every zoo I visit though. I’ll resist the temptation to rework Frankfurt's collection completely to my taste and just make a couple of major suggestions.

There are two exhibits that do need changing as soon as possible. These are the Rhino House and the Monkey House. These look, feel, and probably are substandard. So what to do?

Let’s start with the assumption that we want to keep the rhinos and hippos at the zoo. We’ll get of rid of the Addax in the rather dull savannah area, and adapt this to hold Black Rhino instead. Not the most spacious of enclosures but a major upgrade nonetheless. Presumably a new Rhino House will need to be built. Next we’re going to turf the Vicuna out of their prime real estate paddock next to the Entrance and build a new Hippo House there. There will be a reasonably small indoor pool with underwater viewing from the outside of the House. The real draw of this exhibit though is that we will give the hippos access to the lake in the center of the zoo. It’ll take some work to make it secure and although it won’t need to be crystal clear presumably there’ll be some filtration equipment to be installed. This will leave the old House empty. It can be pulled down and replaced with pretty much anything, but I’d suggest a new Aardvark exhibit to pull them out of the Grzimek House. This could be complimented by an African Aviary, an enclosure for a guenon species (not currently held at the zoo), and perhaps Red or Blue duiker to contrast with the larger Yellow-backed next door.

Then the Monkey House can be knocked down, but we’ll leave the baboon pit at the end as it feels quite iconic. Possibly this area could now hold new primate exhibits for the Spider and Howler monkeys, and here could also be added the Tamandua from the Grzimek House. Another aviary, this time for South American birds, cements the theme. Room for Bush Dogs? Maybe! A notable loss from the old Monkey House are the Ring-tailed Lemurs. They didn’t feel like a particularly ‘Frankfurt’ species to me anyway.

I could go on, but this is the right time to stop. I hope anyone who got to the end enjoyed my extended thoughts about Frankfurt Zoo.

(Just as a final, parting thought, it’s almost hilarious to compare what Frankfurt achieves with its 27 acres to London and its 36)

 

If you use it once or twice as a tourist, maybe. If you must rely on it more frequently, you will start to loathe its tendency to run late for unexplained reasons and leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Your estimation is correct: even for NRW/Ruhr Area standards, most of Duisburg represents one of the truly dodgy, inhospitable, filthy and sleazy parts of Germany. Even friends of mine who were born there couldn't sugarcoat its many shortcomings. Don't stay there unless you have to.

 

@FunkyGibbon: I'm so glad you enjoyed Frankfurt Zoo so much. It was the first German zoo i ever visited (in 1988), and, for me, it has always had that very special atmosphere of which you write. As you suggest here, the older houses - the Exotarium, the Bird House, the Grzimek House - still look magnificent, and the new areas are none-too-shabby either. A fantastic place and, as you say, one which outscores another zoo of limited acreage, a little closer to home.

That track is marvellous! Thank you!

 

Interesting comment about reliability of trains. I have made five trips to Europe over the last decade (and for me Europe includes the UK, recent Brexit vote notwithstanding). I have used trains every trip and have not once experienced a delay. However, I have not (yet) visited Germany.

 

Then you're in for a treat when using Deutsche Bahn - especially when you have to catch connecting trains. Another song might help to illustrate my point:

 

Maybe I will just bike through Germany!
Still, it look better than taking a train in Japan!

 

At least in Japan there's the odd chance of an Australian helping out...


Well, you can always rent a car and drive on the German Autobahn. ^^

 

You are exagarating a bit though... German trains are not that bad and the only times I missed a train was because of my own stupidity... German trains are not like the Swiss ones, but those really are the exception...

 

Armchair director, my new favourite game.

 

Well @lintworm, there are indeed worse train systems in the world. No doubt about that. But the general demise of quality as well as the mismatch of prices vs. offered service in regard to the Deutsche Bahn are noticeable, and that's what this song illustrates so well. The song wouldn't exist if the drawbacks didn't exist in the first place. I had to use the Deutsche Bahn frequently in recent years, and I dare to say that it wasn't my stupidity that resulted in lengthy senseless delays, contingency rebookings or helping out poor foreigners and tourists left on their own by DB.

Sorry for the thread hijacking @FunkyGibbon!

 

True, but to the best of my knowledge no zoochatter has written about seeing one this millenium, including those of us who spend much of our time wandering aimlessly around Asia. It's good to have goals though.

http://mammalwatching.com/Oriental/Otherreports/PaulCarter-Sabah-Apr_2014.pdf

According to this trip report one was seen on the night drive at Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah. Given that I took that very night drive in January I suppose I have more of a shot than I originally thought.

In many ways I know exactly what you mean. However, my overall impression was of something that was fundamentally the wrong size. Like a giant mouse or a tiny elephant.