I have never had problems with these on my visits to Cologne actually... These are behind the scenes....
Having visited Zoo Koln today, and Duisburg back in February, I can hopefully shed a little more light on some things: Red-shanked Douc Langur - I didn't have any trouble; it is held in the ape house and has access to a spherical outdoor cage next to the main entrance - this is where I saw it first time round. When I returned to the house it was visible indoors Tree kangaroo - Easy to see but she seems to like sleeping with her back turned away. A bit of patience and she was active, though. Musk Ox - You won't have problems here. Ring-tailed Vontsira - Might be tricky; sign on indoor exhibit said a pup had been born a fortnight ago and they were pretty elusive. Glimpsed one at end of day. Balabac chevrotain - no problem to see, tricky to photograph. Hausa Genet - not on show Rufous Elephant Shrew - easy; basking under a sun lamp on plain view. Northern Luzon Cloud Rat - easy to see, dark exhibit though. Red Legged Sun Squirrel - took a few attempts, saw around 3pm. Geoffrey’s Cat - offshow.
For the Vontsira it is worth looking rigt above the viewing window indoors, which is a place they sometimes rest...
I passed 5 or 6 times in the day seeking that exhibit, and one was considerable time in front of it. Everytime that I see a movement in the soil, it was just an harlequin quail.
Thanks both, that's great. Hope you had a great time today TLD, looking forward to my visit One question I have that someone might be able to help with is travel to Duisburg zoo. Google maps is saying it'll take 2 hours ish from Cologne Hbf, with a change in Duisburg Hbf to Duissern U-Bf and then a 40 minute walk. Maybe I was mistaken but I thought there was a closer stop to the zoo than that?
There is a tram stop outside the zoo which is served by regular services direct from the Hauptbahnhof. For instance, looking at trains for tomorrow from Cologne HBF to Zoo Duisburg.... Köln Hbf 07:49 >> RE1 >>Duisburg Hbf 08:39 Walk to U-Bahn / S-Bahn station under HBF Duisburg HBF 08:53 >> STR901 >> Zoo/Uni Duisburg 08:58
The grizzly in Cologne was a no show all day for me (and I was in that area of the zoo for a large part of the day) but I would imagine you should have better luck than I did now that the weather is a bit warmer as it was late December when I was there. Luckily enough, the Google maps transport schedules for Cologne are bang on so you can rely on this information for your transport for sure - using Google maps is how I get around everywhere I go, and I rarely ever have any issues (apart from for Czech Republic where information was only available for Prague and Brno) ! Have a fabulous time!
use bahn.de to plan your travels and the route TLD mentions makes most sense, traveling to Duisburg HBF and take the tram (Strassenbahn, which is something different than the S-Bahn....) from there
Thanks for the feedback all, that looks like a much better route. Am planning zoo travel and food today so will get this all noted down
I don't see the King Colobus on your list for Duisburg. A rare species and I only saw it in Duisburg (but maybe you saw it elsewhere before?). Wombat was the only trouble species for me in Duisburg, never saw it during my three visits to the zoo.
Fortunately there are now daily presentations at 13:00 in which you get to see the wombat baby. But it can be extremely busy at these presentations, so be on time
I've seen King Colobus at Paignton and Blackpool, but they're a nice species and always happy to see them again
Yesterday the Grizzly was visible all day, but was inactive and lying down with its back to the public for much of it though it had a burst of energy around 5pm and tore down a tree in order to reach a fish! Not that the distinction matters much as noted, it is caught from the U- Bahn station in any case. For what it is worth, when we visited in February a wombat was visible and active from 11am onwards, so the baby presentation may not be the only opportunity to see the species.
Sounds like that was quite a stroke of luck, as even when I went behind the scenes in the bear section I didn’t see it!
