Like a Rhinestone Cowboy: FunkyGibbon in Europe

This tickles me.

This is now a passable mandrill exhibit, with no water in. The seal pool I'm referring to is to the immediate left of this. Wuppertal's isn't much better, tbh, and it's still in use.

Eye-watering indeed, and it's hard to imagine how this was accomplished.

 

The babies are super cute, and very active, in stark contrast to their mothers. I saw eight including them, do two adults must have been offshow.

I've seen devils in Copenhagen as well, and probably three times in Australia, so it's no big deal

The salamander tank was quite big I thought, but I couldn't see any sign of them.

 

Including a mention of Cross-marked langur, which I believe is the Sarawak species.

 

Oooh, I love a plot twist -looks like an interesting (and completely understandable) diversion.

I look forward to your review of the SeaLife Centre. Slightly more seriously (and non-zoo related) if you're hungry and in the Alexanderplatz station I can heartily recommend Scoom and the nearby noodle bar -both delicious, cheap, "eats".

 

Wow, just wow (and not that good a wow).

Another instance of 1970's "cramming" that always astounds me is the species that Bristol held during that era. I still struggle to comprehend the situation when reading a list of species they held though I'm sure there are numerous other examples from that era (in Europe).

 

Yeah they have five females of varying ages, a one year old male offspring and the two new babies onshow. The two breeding males are kept offshow.

 

Germany Part Six - And the Wall came tum-Berlin down

Socks of the Days: Polar bears and Tigers

Sorry for the hiatus, I put in some serious mileage in the last three days, and I'm also just not getting my sleep. Luckily this will be a shorter post. I'm in Hannover now, and I'll be heading to the zoo tomorrow. Today was spent wondering through town, doing laundry, but mostly just chilling in bed. It's been very rainy the last few days, and today was no exception.

Berlin Zoo & Berlin Tierpark, July 21st & July 23rd

I visited the two Berlins in 2015 so this wasn't my first experience of them. After my first visits I wrote this response, which you may find an interesting read. I actually haven't reread that at the time of writing this, in order to try and preserve my impression from this trip. I certainly won't be attempting anything at all like a comprehensive write up - each Berlin is one of the biggest zoos in Europe on it's own right. Instead you can expect the usual rambling commentary leading to an attempt at a conclusion.

Both of the zoos are full day affairs, and the Tierpark in particular always seems to end in a fit of jogging for me. Because I had visited before I felt under less pressure to see literally everything, so I could focus on enjoying the parts I liked most a little more. I was also giving primates and passerines a little more love than usual. For fun I tried to walk both different routes from last time at both zoos. I also didn't do the aquarium, calculating that my time at the zoo would be more enjoyable without trying to squeeze it in.

People often claim that they can't choose between the two when it comes to which is better, but for me the Zoo is an easy choice. The collection is much more comprehensive, the architecture is more historic and generally more tasteful, and there are more knock-out exhibits. The Tierpark has it beat in specific areas, mostly notably hoofstock, but even then it has no tapirs, hippos and almost no pigs. Other opinions are available.

My main criticism of Berlin, as I recall, was that a lot of the enclosures were very small. I was interested to find that this time around many of the examples I previously noted as being among the most egregious, like the rhino paddocks, now seemed adequate. Others like the bison yards had actually shrunk in my memory! I still think very few would suggest that most of the exhibits at the Zoo deserve any serious amount of praise, but a lot of my personal criticisms have been blunted by two years of visiting zoos outside of the UK. The leopard and jaguar cages still suck though.

I was delighted to see the Trumpet Manucode; two years ago I didn't know to look for it and I never thought I'd be back in time to see it again. While we're on birds, the Bird House has improved immeasurably. Before it felt cold and clinical inside; a challenging aesthetic, although I could still get behind it. Now the internal planting has grown out a lot and I'm 99% sure the paint scheme has been changed to something more naturalistic. The addition of the kiwi is a masterstroke, and that was a huge lifer for me. On balance I'm sorry to see the loss of the Australian walkthrough, but in general I enjoyed it a lot more.

The new Panda House is very good, as I noted in the news thread the planting needs time to grow out in the outdoor enclosures, although the pandas were doing their best not to give the bamboo that chance. I particularly liked how the colour scheme and architecture tie in nicely with the existing Elephant Gate. Given this is Berlin I find the ommision of Red panda an odd decision, although they must have rushed it so much to get it ready in time that these may still be to follow. One unfortunate downside of the development is that one of the 'deer paths' now simply has the wall of the house on one side, which rather spoils it. I can't recall another point in the zoo where the side of the oath isn't exhibit or natural growth. I'm not one of the ones who said the zoo shouldn't have gotten rid of existing deer exhibits to build the panda house, but this particular aspect troubles me. I'll be interested in other 'takes' as they come in.

My favourite parts of the Zoo remain broadly unchanged: the Goat Mountain, the Antelope House and the Californian sealion pool are all fantastic. To this I'd now add the Bird House and the cattle complex. Areas that remain let downs are the camelid bit behind the rhino house and the annex across the river. This will become the new Elephant House in due course.

The big change to the Tierpark since 2015 is that the work changing the the Alfred-Brehm Predator House into a South-east Asian Rainforest House has begun. I'll put my thoughts on that in the Tierpark thread, but I'm afraid they've blown it.

The collection of hoofstock remains legendary, as the capacity for the park to continually surprise you with unexpected exhibits tucked away on minor paths. The Mountain area, the rectangular deer paddocks and the vulture aviary are still firm favourites of mine. The pheasant collection is great, but those cages require so much peering. It's hard work when there's a good dozen of them.

The Sun bear house is still the uncut toenail here. The sooner it is lopped off the better.

I left Berlin in 2015 a little disappointed, and said as much on this site on several occasions. Over the last two years though the Zoo in particular stuck in my head and of all the collections I've visited it was the one that most called me to come back and see it again. So I did!

This time around I was much happier with the general standard of the exhibits, but on the other hand the magic of seeing so much in one place was lessened. Not gone by any means, but lessened. The Berlins could be described as anti-Gelsenkirchens, although that would not do them justice. They aren't a model for an ideal zoo in my opinion, but I'm deeply glad they exist.

In my non-Zoo day I had planned to go to the Pergamon Museum, but instead found myself at the Jewish Museum and then the Holocaust Memorial. It wasn't a fun day but I'm glad I went.

 

Thanks very much for taking the time to post all of your thoughts, ramblings, impressions and reviews of some of the most famous zoos in all of Europe. I was recently on my own zoo trip (17 days in California) and now that I've finished I just spent a considerable amount of time catching up with your thread. It is a rather memorable addition to ZooChat, and just off the top of my head I can state that you are obviously a huge fan of Frankfurt, Cologne and Zurich (two hours in the Masoala Hall if I recall correctly)...were a bit underwhelmed by the two Berlin zoos, Wuppertal seems to have gone downhill a bit, and Dortmund was worthwhile but perhaps not as great as expected. ZOOM has a phenomenal Alaskan section and like almost all zoo nerds you enjoyed Basel but didn't for a minute consider it a truly great zoo.

Keep 'em coming!

 

We’re obviously all entitled to our own opinions but I must make a few comments here (which I am basing on your summary not the original review by “FunkyGibbon”).

I don’t understand how any ZooChatter could possibly be underwhelmed by the two Berlin zoos which, with their rich collections, are without doubt my two favourites; I would say that the Hippo House, with underwater viewing, is a truly great exhibit and the beautiful old Antelope House is my all-time favourite zoo building.

I too am a huge fan of both Frankfurt and Cologne. I agree that the collection at Wuppertal has gone somewhat downhill compared to what it used to be (although it is still a zoo that I like very much); I also concur that the Alaskan section at ZOOM is superb. However, I think it is very harsh and extremely unfair to describe Dortmund as a zoo that “doesn’t seem worthwhile at all”.

Personally, and I know I’m in the minority here, I think Zurich is overrated; of the two main Swiss zoos. I much prefer Basle.

 

@Tim May I just edited my post as I think that I was too harsh on how I perceived @FunkyGibbon 's reviews of the Berlin establishments and Dortmund. After reading through 8 pages of this thread (approximately 150 posts) it was difficult to be extremely thorough and go back to each individual review but he clearly did enjoy his time at those facilities...but he did claim to be "disappointed" with Berlin after his 2015 visit. I'll try not to put words into his mouth.

I'm actually a bit astonished that our intrepid traveler skipped the Berlin Aquarium, although he did say that he toured that building in 2015 and thus did not want to run out of time this year.

On a side note, on my Canadian laptop the city of Basel is spelled just as I typed it, although a quick Google search lists Basel, Basle, Basilea and Bale as possible spellings. Intriguing!

 

@snowleopard. Many thanks for your speedy response; I appreciate that it is difficult to summarise such a long thread in a few sentences.

Continuing this interesting digression; I was taught as a child that "Basle" was the correct English spelling for this Swiss city and I have continued to spell it this way; however, I have noticed that, these days, most people appear to spell it "Basel".

Similarly, I was taught that the correct English pronunciation was "Barle" with a silent "s" although most people now seem to pronounce the "s".

 

It took me a while to unpick Tim's response, until I realised what snowleopard had edited! A pretty good summary thus far, but I should make a couple of comments in return.

I think I was disappointed in 2015; underwhelmed would not be an accurate choice of words I think. At that point my zoo visiting had been almost solely confined to the UK. The Berlin zoos simply would not exist in Britain today; the collections would have been downsized and the enclosures expanded. Especially in the Zoo, many of the enclosures were probably the smallest I had seen for their inhabitants, at that point. Given that Berlin Zoo often competes for the title of ZooChatters' favourite zoo in the world I was expecting better enclosures frankly. The collection and the history of the place were still astonishing. As I said above, with a lot more experience the Berlins' exhibitry looks more reasonable, and knowing what to expect helps as well.

They'll never be my favourites, but they're special places and although I do hope to see changes I hope that the Zoo in particular maintains its current character. They are Great zoos, and I use the capitalisation deliberately, in the style of Alexander

Incidentally, I don't share your enthusiasm for the Hippo House Tim. The land areas inside and out are really on the small side for the Common Hippos. It must be said that it is a beautiful building though.

Dortmund is a lovely zoo, but it isn't in the same league as the others on this trip. There's nothing wrong with that, but the next time someone does a Ruhr trip I will be advising they consider further afield offerings, like Frankfurt for example.

I assume the 'silent s' pronunciation of Basel comes from French; given that it is in one of the Swiss-german speaking cantons it seems a little perverse that the convention is for Basle, and I am thus an unabashed flouter.

 

I certainly wouldn't argue with that comment; I think that is perfectly fair.

It was the statement (that has since been edited) that Dortmund "doesn't seem worthwhile at all" that really prompted my response to the post from "snowleopard".

However, as I said in my earlier post, we are all entitled to our own opinions. (And a discussion forum in which everybody agreed would be rather boring!)

 

German -> Basel
French -> Bâle
Italian/Spanish -> Basilea
English -> Basle

 

Germany Part 7 - The Hannover Part VII

Sock of the day: Spiderman

Brum's Beer Briefing: Lindener Spezial
Cheap, which is always a bonus. Very flavoursome, with a bit of a fizz to it. I couldn't drink too much of this for that reason but the one bottle is delightful. Feels 'uncommercial'.

Yesterday I wandered around the old town in Hannover. The cathedral may just be my new favourite. It's mostly done in red brick, and was reconstructed after the second world war. I assume those two things are related. Very distinctive, lots of clean, straight lines, with an imposing square tower.

A bit of a warning before we get to the review proper: it rained almost the entire day today. I put off leaving for the zoo until the afternoon, because I'd been warned it only needed half a day. Still the rain didn't stop and so I headed off after lunch. Most of the animals were inside and so I didn't see them. It's unavoidable that this coloured my visit to some extent. I also dropped my phone on some mock rock and shattered the screen almost as soon as I entered the zoo. I hope I don't sound too peevish if I point out that this would have almost certainly not happened with a simple woodchip flooring. So I wasn't in the best of moods as I trudged around.

Hannover Zoo, July 25th

It's twenty five euros to get in. That's the first problem. That's almost twice as much as the Tierpark in Berlin, and I believe it's the most expensive zoo of the trip so far. What I would suggest anyone who balks at that cost do is this: just get the nine euro evening ticket, available from 4.30 onwards. That would give you 90 minutes, and you could genuinely see the zoo in that time. You couldn't linger, and there are some nice places to linger, but on balance I think it's a much better value proposition.

Like Gelsenkirchen, a natural comparison due to the Erlebnis Zoo concept, the zoo essentially has one path that visitors are required to follow. The benefits of this are obvious, but planning a route is one of the great joys of the zoo visit. It feels like the zoo is dumbing down because it doesn't trust the visitor to organise themselves. It also means that there are essentially no quiet spots in the zoo, as everyone is channelled though every part. Furthermore the joy of discovering an unexpected exhibit is either nonexistent or diminished, as your experience is just more managed and you feel like you have less autonomy. Not a fan.

The zoo's geography is a little strange, in that there appears to be a wooded hill in the centre that is unused as space. This obviously encourages a one-way route around it, but I can't help feeling in a zoo that really feels like a short visit that space might be worth developing.

The first section is Africa. The hoofstock collection here is actually really good, with some slightly unusual species like Hartmann's zebra, Thompson's gazelle and Springbok. Most of the animals were inside, so I skipped the boat ride, which is based on the same technology as Gelsenkirchen's and Chester's (in fact I recall from Zoolex that they were provided by the same company). The Hippo enclosure seemed decent, which is something I'm always looking for these days, although this is also where my phone made its ill-fated bid for freedom. Some nice underwater viewing opportunities. A walkthrough pelican enclosure was also a fun oddity. A lot of the area of the African section is taken up by a farmyard/kraal kind of thing. Given that Hannover also has a western style farmyard section this feels unnecessary and a misuse of space.

The African section is characterized by lots of red mock rock and lots sand on the ground. There are also the usual smattering of 'native' style huts and so on. The effect was never given a chance by the weather, but unlike Gelsenkirchen the paddocks are too constrained in size (visually, not from a welfare perspective) to be convincing anyway. It's also worth noting that if there had been indoor viewing I'd have seen a lot more animals and probably had a better visit, so to that extent the zoo does have control over the wet weather experience.

The Ape House has been patched onto this area quite effectively. A huge fake baobab in the Chimpanzee outdoors takes up most of the space, but it does create a more dynamic environment I suppose. The house is undergoing renovations , which seem to be a drill outdoor area and an Orangutan outdoor area. These are advertised to be finished by summer 2017, but in fact I would be astonished if it is ready before the autumn. The ape indoor areas are a little more traditional, but quite good. Unsigned free-flying zebra finches and java sparrows are the only passerines in the zoo.

Just after the Ape House, if you pay attention you can drop off the main trail and walk around the old monkey house, I guess the last piece of the old zoo still remaining. Currently it holds de Brazza's, drills and Ring-tailed lemurs, all but the latter to be moved to the Ape House I believe. Inside there are also some vivariums and terrariums, cutting slightly forlorn figures as reminders of the past. This house will presumably become the new Madagascar development mentioned on my map.

A tunnel in the style of an old mine (sound familiar?) leads to the Yukon. You will have noticed I'm not striking a positive tone overall, but this bit really is excellent. Some preliminary exhibits are nothing special, but nicely done. Timber wolf, caribou, racoon, wood bison and prairie dog all make for a nice aperitif, before the main course. The path enters the main street of someone's imagining of a Canadian frontier town, which initially frustrates as there are no animals in sight. Then you round a corner to reveal the gloriously recreated harbour. A 'ship' moored in it provides a habitat for penguins (it's not worth explaining), whilst also giving views onto the excellent polar bear exhibits the can be viewed from the harbours edge. There's a huge loading crane, a buoy in the water, even realistic debris underwater. Go and find some pictures of itinerary the gallery, it's a thing of beauty. It's so well done that you don't question why there would be a forested slope in the harbour itself!

A wave machine really adds to the effect, and this is replicated in the large seal pool in another section of the harbour. This holds Grey seal, Californian sealion and Northern fur seal. It's a very big pool indeed,with a large amount of seating for the shows. This whole area is really fantastic and I spent quite a lot of time there just soaking it all in. Here the cold weather and spattering rain was very atmospheric. Perhaps the best bit of a zoo on the trip so far?

The last major area is the elephant temple. Auxillary exhibits for Amur tiger, Chinese leopard, Hanuman Langur and Burmese python are all located in or around it, but the main attraction is obviously the elephants themselves. The enclosure is probably too small, particularly as they have had four births this year, but it's otherwise nice enough. I was pleased not to see any of the questionalble handling techniques others have described on here. The leopard's cages are themed like a construction site to provide lots of climbing possibilities at different heights.

Overall the Asian temple theme is just so overdone. One of the reasons I actually like London's Land of the Lions is that it actually feels like it's offering something new. No such luck here. It is great to watch the four elephant babies playing, and they had a TV in the house showing one of the births, which was fascinating.

An Australian zone has some nice touches, especially in terms of the buildings, but ultimately doesn't really bring too much to the party. Wombats are the item of interest here but of course I didn't see them.

Before we arrive back at the entrance we go through a wonderful farmyard with all the buildings and trappings. It's a much higher quality offering than most zoos', and after Yukon I'd say it's the best area of Hannover. The thing is though, who cares? It's a farm. If I wanted to see one I'd go and visit one. (I guess families care. I'm not at all against farms in zoos, it just feels like this one is being asked to do too much relative to the rest of the collection. Contrast that with, say, Plzen, which also has a lovely farm.)

And that's it. No tropical house, no reptile house or aquarium, no bird section. It does have all the big ABCs, but I wonder whether that's genuinely enough for the average visitor.

If it had been a hot sunny day here and a rainy day in Gelsenkirchen maybe the two reviews would read very differently. But I sort of doubt it. If only Hannover could have captured the spirit of the Yukon, and developed the whole zoo with the same essence. But they haven't so instead we make do with a thoroughly unremarkable offering. I understand now why so many ZooChatters suggested I could afford to skip it.

 

Well, this is embarrassing!

As penance for promoting your wasted afternoon, maybe I should outline why I like Hannover so much. Ignoring the minor quibbles, I think what I appreciate that you perhaps don't is the zoo's cohesiveness. Every recent exhibit has the same theme: an exploration of the relationship between humans and animals. It's tacky at times and pretty shallow (perhaps "motif" is a more appropriate term than "theme"), but it is there. Purely as a matter of taste, I think the well-planned circulation adds to that: like beads on a necklace, you move from one exhibit to the next, but there's a common thread running through them all.

I guess it's like a Wes Anderson film, or an Ernest Hemmingway novel, or an Oscar Wilde play. Hannover isn't my preferred style of zoo, but it is internally consistent, so I take it on its own terms. You wouldn't describe an exhibit as Colognian or Frankfurtian, but I'd know exactly what you meant if you said an exhibit was Hannoverian. Incidentally, this is also why I enjoy Berlin, despite it being pretty much antithetical to what I believe a good zoo should be. I like consistency.

PS. My "likes" on these reviews are now solely determined by the quality of the opening pun (or entertaining lack thereof). This was a good'un.