Snowleopard's 2019 Road Trip: Netherlands, Belgium, France & Germany

There's actually a German word for this: "verschlimmbessern" = making something worse by trying to improve it.

 

DAY 30: Monday, August 12th (3 zoos)

Zoo/Aquarium # 89: Osnabruck Zoo (Osnabruck, DE)

This zoo opened in 1936 and is set on 58 acres/23.5 hectares and so is not huge and yet for almost a decade there’s been a consistent stream of 1 million annual visitors….in a city of 160,000 citizens. How so many zoos can have a million or more visitors in the western half of Germany, along with a plentiful assortment of smaller facilities coexisting alongside, is nothing short of amazing. Osnabruck is a hit-and-miss zoo, although the first part of this review will be filled with pleasing adjectives as I really loved some sections of what was at one time a much-maligned facility. A lot of this zoo has been improved in recent years and it has come a long way from its earlier decades.

One fantastic element of Osnabruck is that this big, popular zoo opens at 8:00 a.m. all summer long, meaning that I was there in line and ready to go at that time. There are free maps, but they are crappy, black-and-white copies when I would have happily paid for a nice, thick, colourful version. C’est la vie. Passing a very small pool for Chilean and American Flamingos, I headed into what is easily one of my favourite exhibits of this entire 95-zoo European journey. The Underground Zoo takes visitors down a steep slope and literally into a dark maze of underground tunnels that were dimly lit by old-fashioned lanterns during my visit. Near the end of my stumbling around, someone must have flicked on the lights as things became easier to see, but because I was the first visitor of the day down there it was a spellbinding experience. Mock-rock walls, twists and turns in the labyrinth, signs in German that I couldn’t read, all added up to me getting momentarily lost as I navigated the world of what is essentially a fantastic little Nocturnal House. The species list includes Black-tailed Prairie Dog (also seen above-ground), Naked Mole Rat, Mechow’s Mole Rat, Common Rat, Coruro (a Chilean rodent that I don’t think I’d ever seen before), Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec, Mongolian Gerbil, Siberian Hamster, Leaf-nosed Bat, Domestic Mouse and Buff-tailed Bumblebee. They are all in cave-like exhibits or seen via tubes set in the wall and the entire thing is fantastic. When you are like me and have been to more than 500 different zoos, then something like The Underground Zoo sticks in your memory for the rest of your life as it is unique.

There is a nice Black-headed Spider Monkey island exhibit, Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, both Yellow-spotted Rock Hyrax and ‘regular’ Rock Hyrax in separate exhibits, an aviary with Red Fodys and Taveta Golden Weavers (which does look a bit ‘naff’), and then a Giraffe Barn and a long African Savanna called Samburu with the following species: Reticulated Giraffe, Impala, Greater Kudu, Common Waterbuck and Ostrich that is seen via several vantage points along the trail. African Lions have a small exhibit that will soon be tripled in size as construction begins this fall on that expansion. Kirk’s Dik-diks and Demoiselle Cranes have standard-sized enclosures as the path continues to the zoo’s largest and most notable zone.

Takamanda is the name for an African loop that was added to the zoo, on entirely new acreage, in 2010. Now that it has had 9 years to settle in, with a couple of changes in species, the whole thing looks lush and impressive and I really enjoyed this part of Osnabruck Zoo. The area is themed with faux-mud huts and African artifacts, and with a crashed safari jeep next to the African-styled gift shop. However, none of the theming interferes with the animal exhibits and the very first habitat that I saw is one I would call world-class. I spent a long time watching a couple of Forest Buffalo, at least 5 Diana Monkeys and at least 5 Drills interact with each other in an expansive landscape with many upright tree branches that were heavily utilized by the primates. It really is a fantastic zoo exhibit, with three species that are almost unheard of in North American zoos. Next up is a two-level exhibit with Warthogs and Colobus Monkeys together, with colorful, informative signs and another mixed-species intriguing combination. Some kind of lorikeet/parrot species is also found here in a small aviary, along with indoor viewing of both the Warthogs and Colobus. There are Banded Mongooses, two African-themed, pretty cool-looking children’s playgrounds, Red River Hogs combined with Eastern Bongos and Impala, White-crowned Mangabeys, Servals, Spotted Hyenas and a spacious Chimpanzee habitat. Is there a more natural-looking indoor Chimpanzee exhibit anywhere in the world? The outdoor enclosure is terrific and seen via an overhead tower or through large viewing windows, but the indoor exhibit actually looks just like an outdoor exhibit! There is a real tree, bushes, grass, a translucent roof to let in a lot of sunlight, etc. Takamanda has been an amazing, modern-looking addition to the zoo and the only real detriment is that there is an enormous power-station with lines going overhead that destroys the view from some angles.

The next themed area is called Manitoba, which is one of Canada’s Provinces, and this area just opened in the past couple of years. This a densely-forested zone with approximately a dozen Hudson Bay Wolves in a really impressive habitat, seen via an overhead walkway. A couple of Europe’s very few American Black Bears are here, a large paddock for Wood Bison with minimal barriers, a dozen Arctic Foxes, a walk-through Owl Aviary (Great Grey, Common Barn, Tawny), Striped Skunks, Alpine Marmots, Snowy Owls and then yet another mixed-species exhibit as at least three Canadian Beavers are with 3-4 North American Porcupines. This whole area is very well done, and it is a shadowy walk in thick woods with a ‘wildpark’ feel.

At this point Osnabruck was a brilliant zoo. The Underground section was incredible, the Takamanda African zone was excellent, and the Canadian woodland area was superb. No wonder a million visitors poured through the entrance gates each year and I was scratching my head and curious as to why the zoo hasn’t ever really gotten a lot of notice on ZooChat. However, then the zoo seemed to run out of steam and the second half of my visit was very much hit-and-miss.

There is an ultra-expensive, fairly new area right in the middle of the zoo known as Angkor Wat, in many ways very similar to the center of Hannover Zoo only 48 hours earlier. In both cases, these over-the-top, mock-temple-ruin enclosures are total disasters. I’d be curious to know what the general public thinks, as most zoo nerds dislike them, and I personally hate some of these setups. There is a Sumatran Tiger exhibit seen from various vantage points through glass or from peering past the ‘ruins’ that we all know tigers inhabit in the wild. Red Pandas and Tufted Deer are together in another exhibit, but the viewing angles are atrocious because there are some small windows that are little more than slits through mock-temple surroundings. The larger windows have a ton of glare on them during a sunny day, and why not just build a more natural-looking exhibit? Why do Red Pandas need to be in Angkor Wat in the first place? Bornean Orangutans and Northern White-cheeked Gibbons have mock-temple exhibits that are adequate if one was to strip away all vestiges of the theming, but the Pig-tailed Macaque exhibit is horrendous for viewing (all tight angles from inside a bunker) and just about entirely cement for the bored monkeys. Asian Elephants have a small yard that is not sufficient to meet modern standards, with a bull yard that is much worse for the zoo’s enormous, large-tusked male elephant.

There is a Primate House, with indoor viewing of the Pig-tailed Macaques, plus indoor/outdoor setups for Siamangs, Brown Capuchins and Red-handed Tamarins. Meerkats are passed on the way towards the old South America House, with its mulch visitor flooring and 1960s-vibe. This is a smelly, old-fashioned zoo animal house, with species such as Lowland Tapir, Capybara, Coati, Bolivian Squirrel Monkey, Cotton-top Tamarin, Two-toed Sloth, Boa Constrictor and a real rarity in the form of a Mona Monkey. The outside of the South America House is reminiscent of Berlin Tierpark’s Alfred-Brehm House, right down to some tiled sections on the walls with an attempt of softening via wooden logs. Maned Wolves, Vicunas and Greater Rheas round out the South American zone.

Osnabruck redeems itself a little with an Aquarium, which happens to open a full two hours after the zoo opens, but since a regular visit has the Aquarium as one of the areas explored at the back-end of a typical zoo trip then it’s all good (Wuppertal, take note to change the order of your numbered trail). There are a number of colourful fish, in standard-sized tanks, a handful of turtle species, Axolotls, an Egyptian Locust terrarium, a Spectacled Caiman pool, a Reticulated Python, Leaf-cutter Ants, Jungle Carpet Pythons, some poison dart frogs, a few lizards and the small indoor holding area for the zoo’s Aldabra Tortoises. There are 25 exhibits in one room and 10 larger vivariums in the second room for a grand total of 35 exhibits in the building. In a zoo dominated by mammals, this facility is a nice way to spend some time and see a few of the small creatures of the animal kingdom even if nothing stands out as being special.

There are then a series of aviaries and bird exhibits in this section of the zoo, with species such as Northern Bald Ibis, European Black Vulture, Great White Pelican, Grey Heron, Pied Avocet and at least 10 smaller aviaries that look as if they are the oldest part of the entire zoo. I wonder if they will all still be there in another decade? Small-clawed Otters have a grassy yard just down the visitor path. A Lesser Kudu/Blue Crane exhibit is aesthetically pleasing, and a small Desert House is a nice surprise. There are indoor and outdoor exhibits for Sand Cats (active during my visit), an indoor Short-eared Elephant Shrew exhibit, with a Bat-eared Fox enclosure almost hidden around the back. White Rhinos, Plains Zebras and Red River Hogs have a dusty yet substantial habitat that is looked down upon from a high boardwalk. Kajanaland features a decently-sized enclosure for a unique, one-of-a-kind zoo animal: a Polar Bear/Brown Bear hybrid that lives with some Silver Foxes, who have access to a smaller, side exhibit. The cave viewing area for the bear/fox habitat is called ‘Klimatopia’ and there is a range of climate-change placards and posters, but no live animals. A grassy exhibit for 3 or 4 Wolverines is nice, as is a big yard for Reindeer. There is a rather ghastly-looking California Sea Lion pool that was probably built 50 years ago, all straight lines and cement with the typical green, algae-infested water found in pinniped pools in Europe. Common Seals and Humboldt Penguins fare better in more modern surroundings. Eurasian Lynx have a nicely wooded enclosure, and Raccoons and European Mink share an exhibit to round off ‘Kajanaland’.

Osnabruck Zoo is a real mixed-bag, with something for everyone and perhaps that is why it is one of those German zoos that consistently pulls in a million visitors per year. There are a trio of outstanding sections (The Underground Zoo, Takamanda, Manitoba) that unfortunately are the first three areas that most visitors see, meaning that the zoo appears to be stunning. That modern approach is excellent in those zones, but the mock-temple mess that is Angkor Wat takes theming to a whole other, rather negative, level. The rhino yard is impressive, while elephants once again have a crappy enclosure in a European zoo. For zoo purists from a bygone era, the Monkey House, South America House and Aquarium all date from earlier decades and each has its merits. I enjoyed Osnabruck and spent just over 4 hours at the zoo, and I know that some families must spend the whole day there as there is a Planetarium and Natural History Museum right next door. To end off, a cool fact about Osnabruck is that there is a lot of research done and during my visit I saw 3 students with clipboards taking notes at various exhibits. The zoo’s website lists 6 examples of research projects, with the zoo supporting local biology and psychology students and allowing a lot of student-driven research to occur on the zoo’s grounds.

I then drove 45 minutes southwest to another German zoo that is almost as popular as Osnabruck.

Zoo/Aquarium # 90: Allwetterzoo Munster (Munster, DE)

This zoo, known as ‘all-weather’, has been at its present site since 1974, as the original zoo opened in 1875 and closed down in 1973. There are 74 acres/30 hectares and a minimum of 900,000 annual visitors. Unlike Osnabruck, which began amazingly well and then trailed off in the second half of the visit, Munster was the complete opposite. There are initial, adequate exhibits for Coatis and Bongos, plus a couple of outdated bear exhibits with Syrian Brown Bears and Malayan Sun Bears, with one of the Sun Bears incessantly pacing. There is a Grey Wolf enclosure set far back from the main trail, some ponies, donkeys, horses, a Przewalski’s Horse paddock, Bactrian Camels, guinea pigs, a petting farm and an Equine Museum and that meant that the first half an hour was a bit of a right-off and I was not at all impressed. There are a couple of cages for Yellow-throated Pine Martens, before things begin to look up with a huge aviary with three species (Secretary Bird, Cinereous Vulture, Griffon Vulture) that has the Tropical House as a backdrop. It’s not quite at the level of the vulture aviary at Berlin Tierpark, but it is a fair size.

The Tropical House is disappointing, and this begins a series of covered walkways that connect buildings to each other and thus brings about the ‘Allwetterzoo’ moniker. The Tropical House is a ‘catch-all’ building with species such as White-faced Saki, Asia Minor Spiny Mouse, Harvest Mouse, North African Gundi, Indian Flying Fox, Sun Parakeet, Scarlet Macaw, Red-crested Turaco, White-faced Whistling Duck, Smooth-fronted Caiman, Burmese Python, Gila Monster, Macdougall’s Spiny Lizard, Spiny-tailed Goanna, Oman Spiny-tailed Agama, Jayakari Lizard, Rhinoceros Iguana, Fiji Crested Iguana, Red-footed Tortoise and Vietnamese Pond Turtle, plus some extraordinary dioramas of bear puppets in tiny boxes set on the wall, and indoor viewing of the Syrian Brown Bears, Malayan Sun Bears and Coatis in a separate structure. It’s very rare to see the inner workings of bear holdings, even in Europe, but at Munster just about everything is on display to the public, warts and all.

Outside are a pair of Amur Tiger exhibits, along with a pair of Persian Leopard exhibits that have some height for the cats. Both are nice to see, including the indoor holding round the back, and then there is a ‘Bird Path’ with Southern Ground Hornbills, Red-crowned Cranes, Black Storks, Great Grey Owls and various wading birds. Meerkats have a cool exhibit that allows them to go over the heads of visitors in one small area, with Indian Crested Porcupines in an adjacent enclosure. White Rhinos are seen from several viewing areas, including through glass in a similar situation to Cologne Zoo’s Black Rhino exhibit. Who would keep California Sea Lions entirely indoors in the year 2019? Oh right, Munster, Antwerp and Harderwijk, just to name a trio of places with outdated, all-indoor sea lion monstrosities. A couple of exhibits in this area are currently closed for refurbishment (Visayan Spotted Deer and some kind of peccary). There is a small, all-cement floor Elephant House for the zoo’s 5 Asian Elephants, who are on the older side as they were born in 1966, 1967, 1978, 1992 and 1996. I suppose that Munster is a retirement home for elephants, and in truth while at first glance the outdoor area is disappointing, there are what appears to possibly be 4 different outdoor enclosures that are somewhat compartmentalized, and I think that it all adds up to a pretty decent elephant exhibit. Interestingly, the Elephant House has a Leaf-cutter Ant display, a goldfish pool and a walk-through Rainbow Lorikeet aviary all inside the building.

The second half of the zoo is far better, with a focus on primates and many African species. A couple of Reticulated Giraffes have a basic paddock, and a very nice African Savanna has 8 species: Common Eland, Defassa Waterbuck, Springbok, Blue Wildebeest, Plains Zebra, Ostrich, Grey Crowned Crane and Helmeted Guineafowl. The Giraffe Barn has an exhibit for Round-eared Elephant Shrews, and the African Lion exhibit with its enormous moat at first glance looks awful but there are a couple of cages that join the main enclosure to give the lions a lot more space than it initially appears. Asiatic/Temminck’s Golden Cats (two exhibits) are always a treat to see, and here the African Lion indoor area is very nicely done and there is also a darkened area with Egyptian Fruit Bats and Feathertail Gliders. A pair of paddocks for what is listed as ‘Indian Bison’ (Gaur and Yak) are in this area and whenever I see Gaur I am always tremendously impressed. The male of that species can just stand around and do nothing and still be a fantastic addition to any zoo.

Crossing a bridge, there are an excellent couple of mixed-species exhibits for Lowland Gorillas and Red-capped Mangabeys, full of active primates interacting with each other. A brilliant walk-through for Guereza (Colobus) is very effective, especially when seeing such large primates up close on the visitor trail. Black and White Ruffed Lemurs have an island exhibit, with another walk-through containing Ring-tailed Lemurs. There are a couple of traditional cages for Yellow-breasted Capuchins at the old Monkey House, and there are overhead wire tunnels that lead into a nice outdoor area with plenty of modern flourishes. Goeldi’s Monkeys, Golden Lion Tamarins, Pied Tamarins and Pygmy Marmosets round out a very nice primate zone. African Penguins and Grey Seals have average-sized exhibits, and Munster has a terrific orangutan/Small-clawed Otter enclosure with a lot of thought given to the design of both the indoor and outdoor habitats.

The visitor passes a yard for Reeves’ Muntjacs and an outdoor reptile exhibit of substantial size for San Francisco Garter Snakes and Dice Snakes and I managed to spot each species. That leaves just one thing left to discuss, the Aquarium/Reptile House that has 14 exhibits on the bottom floor and 22 on the second level to add up to 36 exhibits in total. The bottom floor consists entirely of aquatic displays while the upper level is essentially a small reptile section. It's all decent, but a bit dated in spots.

Species list (fish excluded): Golden-headed Lion Tamarin, Two-toed Sloth, Baron’s Green Racer, Cornsnake, Bearded Dragon, Lined Day Gecko, William’s Dwarf Gecko, Green Keel-bellied Lizard, Madagascar Sand Lizard, Prehensile-tailed Skink, Spiny-tailed Skink, Blue-tongued Skink, Star Tortoise, Roti Island Snake-necked Turtle, Lake Patzcuaro Salamander, Phantasmal Poison Frog, Golden Poison Frog, Yellow-headed Poison Frog, Blue Poison Frog, Mexican Red-kneed Tarantula, Walking Stick Insect and Giant West African Snail.

It is interesting to compare Osnabruck with Munster, a couple of mid-sized German zoos that each take at least 4 hours to tour and they are only 45 minutes apart from each other. No one seems to rate them amongst the Top 10 zoos in the nation, but they could arguably be contenders in a second-tier group of zoos in a country famous for its zoological delights. Perhaps in that Top 10-20 German list? Both zoos have Asian Elephants, Reticulated Giraffes, White Rhinos, an Aquarium/Reptile House with almost almost identical number of exhibits (35 and 36), rarely-seen bears (American Black at Osnabruck, with Syrian Brown and Malayan Sun at Munster), sea lions, seals and penguins, and impressive primate collections. Osnabruck has 15 primate species while Munster has 13 primate species. Both zoos are even right next door to Natural History Museums and Planetariums! Overall, I preferred Osnabruck, with its trio of excellent areas (The Underground Zoo, Takamanda, Manitoba) even though that zoo has some awful lows (Angkor Wat). Munster is perhaps a more consistent zoo, but it’s a tad dull and the many adjoining buildings and covered walkways are actually a bit confusing to enter and exit as it’s easy for a visitor to lose their bearings. The gorilla and orangutan exhibits stand out as the two premier sections of Allwetterzoo Munster.

I then drove 45 minutes west to the final stop of the day.

Zoo/Aquarium # 91: Gronau Zoo (Gronau, DE)

Thanks to my early start (8:00 a.m. at Osnabruck Zoo) and the late closing hours of Gronau Zoo (9:00 p.m.) I had yet another in what has become a trend of extremely long days. I might as well just keep going from zoo to zoo until I drop dead after 95 zoos, right?

Gronau Zoo is a very small, free zoo that is only 5 hectares/12 acres in size, and it is located in a nice community park. There is an aviary for a couple of Eurasian Eagle Owls, some smaller aviaries with Java Sparrows, Canaries, Diamond Doves and many finches, a variety of domestic animals such as guinea pigs, goats and sheep, Swinhoe’s Striped Squirrels, Coatis and a small Monkey House with Tufted Capuchins as the only attraction. Indian Crested Porcupines, Fallow Deer and some beautiful flowerbeds basically round out this very small zoo that can easily be seen in around 30 minutes.

 

You've come a long way in your European zoo trip. From amazed that you have to pay for a zoo map, to that you would happily pay for a map if there would be a decent one

 

...also, it has something to do with how most German (Austrian, and Swiss) zoos count their visitors. German zoos use an extrapolation formula to calculate visitor numbers from the number of individual, annual, and family tickets sold. Zoos (e.g. Zurich) that changed their method to counting the actual number of visitors walking through their gates (e.g. with turnstyles) saw a 'droppage' in visitor numbers of afaik roughly 1/3rd.

 

The reason why is that the Chimps don't have access to it during large parts of the year. Where there still free-flying birds in there as well?

Both in Munster and in Antwerp it concerns old delphinariums and in Antwerps case the sea lions will soon get a new enclosure. Munster actually kept Dolphins quite recently and was the last place in Europe with a Sotalia dolphin.

 

Also a member of the genus Chordeiles…

 

Yes, @lintworm , there were some birds in the Chimp area at Osnabruck, but no sign detailing the species. There was perhaps a sign that I missed, as during my visit a family was set up at the picnic tables inside that area. Having full-size tables for eating is actually a bit of a flaw in that Chimpanzee House, as if a family is there then they block some of the views of the apes and birds because the tables are near one section of the viewing windows.

Munster used to have a Sotalia Dolphin? Wow! That would have been interesting to see. I really enjoyed my Osnabruck/Munster day, a couple of half-day, 4-hour zoos that can be seen together primarily because Osnabruck opens at 8:00 a.m. during the summer. I even added on Gronau Zoo late at night!

On a side note, my never-ending ZooChat thread is encouraging others to get out there and visit zoos. Just today, I had a private message from someone who said he was inspired to go and tour both Leipzig and Magdeburg this past week, while a Dutch friend is on holiday in the U.K. and he said that because of my trip he added on a few more zoos to his itinerary. Visiting zoos is contagious!

 

You're sure you're not German, given how much you apparently like to complain?

Not to forget that birds and Egyptian fruit bats somehow seem to survive in there as well...

 

Another explaination for Osnabrück's high attendance could be its proximity to the Netherlands; there were quite a lot of Dutch among the visitors last time I was at Zoo Osnabrück.

&

These features are actually part of the original "all weather" concept of Münster - which might have looked great on paper in the 1970s, but hasn't aged well.
If you want to compare Osnabrück and Münster, you shouldn't forget to mention the great contribution of the latter to conservation - both ex-situ (Asian turtle breeding centre) and in-situ (Langur project in Vietnam, various ZGAP projects).
Did you visit the Equine museum, too?

 

Still enjoying the thread enormously here

I figured an exhibit-man like Snowleopard wouldn’t rate Walsrode as highly as species-man me nor my botanically orientated wife (it’s the zoo with the best kept grounds imo, only rivalled by Antwerp). They do keep the same species in multiple exhibits, but with them being golden-headed quetzals and twelve-wired BoP’s, whose complaining

I had to reply because an all-indoor sea lion exhibit at Harderwijk? When did that happen?

 

DAY 31: Tuesday, August 13th (2 zoos)

Another day and another set of 'Snowleopard' reviews. Today, I eased back a little and visited only two medium-sized zoos as I am winding down the trip. I was actually finished my day of 'zoo-ing' in sunlight, instead of late in the dark evening!

Zoo/Aquarium # 92: NaturZoo Rheine (Rheine, DE)

Today was a real highlight of the entire 33-day, 95-zoo journey through a quartet of European nations. Whenever I meet someone at a zoo, whether it is a zoo nerd or staff member, I would estimate that 95% of the time it is because someone has contacted me and arranged a visit. I almost never make a point of emailing zoo staff or organizing anything at a zoo, as I simply show up and make my rounds. Achim Johann is the Director of NaturZoo Rheine and he is a ZooChat lurker, as are several other Zoo Directors, and he is also a subscriber to the magazine Zoo Grapevine & International Zoo News. Through my co-author Tim Brown, I was given Achim’s email address and he was eager to meet me and show me around his zoo. When I initially traded a couple of emails with Achim I had no idea who he was, and I was under the impression that I’d be meeting a keeper. Little did I know that I’d be shown around by the dude who runs the joint!

Achim spent his first decade in the world of zoos at Saarbrucken Zoo, where he was a keeper and he loved his time there. Then he transferred to NaturZoo Rheine and he has been there for 33 years now, the past 12 years as Zoo Director. He was genuinely excited to show me around, as he claims that 90% of his time running the zoo is sitting in his office and filing through mountains of paperwork and sending off innumerable emails. Just getting an animal shifted from one zoo to another is an arduous process, and so Achim was happy to ramble around his zoo with me alongside him. Not only has he been immersed in the world of zoos for the past 43 years, beginning life in a zoo as a teenager, but he’s also a major zoo nerd. Achim and I chatted for hours, as he and I are amongst a select few who have visited many zoos on both side of the Atlantic. Achim has visited around 100 zoos in North America, plus 250 in Europe for an all-time total of 350 zoos. Anyone who visits that many zoos must take an obsession with zoos to a whole other level, right?

I arrived at NaturZoo Rheine at 8:00 a.m., a full hour before the zoo opened to the public. Achim Johann was waiting at the front gate, because he didn’t want me to write in my review that he showed up late. Ha! He was a perfect gentleman and I learnt a lot from spending time with him. We essentially went around the entire zoo over the next 3 hours, then I went around again to most of the exhibits a second time by myself, and then we met up while I finished my lunch. A zoo that would probably have been done and dusted in two hours ended up being a zoo that I spent almost 6 hours at, and I thoroughly explored every nook and cranny on multiple occasions. The zoo originally opened in 1937 and has 300,000 annual visitors on its approximately 32 acres/13 hectares. It’s known as being a mid-sized facility with a focus on primates and birds, especially waders, and with a range of other animals in top-level exhibits.

Easily the star attraction are the pair of exhibits for Geladas, with NaturZoo Rheine having more Geladas than any other zoo in the world. It’s an astonishing couple of habitats, and at one point I was by myself and I just sat and watched 78 Geladas (with a few Barbary Sheep in an adjacent exhibit), interact with each other in an endlessly entertaining primate soap opera. The Geladas are not brought in at night, with 24-hour access to their exhibits, and this zoo often deals with facilities all over the world as Rheine is the epicenter for Geladas. The zoo has showcased the species for the past 40 years, and whenever a delegation arrives from another zoo (like San Diego or the Bronx) there will be primate keepers spending a week at NaturZoo Rheine and learning from the experts in terms of caring and supporting enormous troops of Geladas.

Achim loves lemurs and so a focus of the zoo has been to work with lemurs in recent years. A beautifully landscaped lemur exhibit, which becomes a walk-through every Sunday and during school holidays when volunteers are utilized, is a wonder to behold. There are 5 species currently at the zoo (Ring-tailed, Black and White Ruffed, Red Ruffed, Crowned, Red-bellied) and the indoor housing and outdoor yard were all opened to the public in 2016. The house is functional but a joy to walk through, with wood used as an aesthetically pleasing design unfolds. There are separate areas with natural substrate for each species, plus overhead walkways so that the lemurs can come and go as they wish. Achim marveled at the details in the lemur enclosures at Bronx Zoo’s Madagascar House when he was last in NYC, but we discussed the fact that all the lemurs inside that building never have access to an outside area. Not only that, but the lemurs are taken away each evening from their all-indoor exhibit because they are too hard on the vegetation, and for 17 hours per day are contained in small, functional steel cages with basic furnishings. Anyone who has watched the TV series The Zoo knows that the Bronx Zoo’s lemurs spend 17 hours per day in extremely basic accommodation and then 7 hours on-show to the public but never with access to an outdoor area. At NaturZoo Rheine, 4 of the lemur species are kept in at night in quarters with natural substrate on the floor, but the group of 10 male Ring-tailed Lemurs have 24-hour access to tall trees, as well as natural elements such as birds and insects, and the lemurs at NaturZoo Rheine thrive in their lush environment. Zoos like the Bronx, as great as they are, seem way behind the times when it comes to this one example.

Besides the Geladas and all the lemur species, other primates at NaturZoo Rheine include a group of 15 Barbary Macaques in a walk-through exhibit that, apart from the perimeter fencing, has remained almost identical to how it looked when it first opened in 1974. Now 45 years down the road, this walk-through has not changed a bit although I suspect that it appears more densely-wooded now with the tree canopy having increased in size. A pair of Cotton-top Tamarins have a spacious island that literally just opened this month, there is a lush White-handed Gibbon island, and approximately 16 Lion-tailed Macaques in a nice outdoor exhibit and with their indoor quarters within the bowels of the old Monkey House. This building is probably the oldest part of the zoo, with its indoor holdings also home to a fish tank and probably a dozen Cuban Hutias. NaturZoo Rheine has 10 primate species and that is a significant number for a zoo of this size, especially when one considers the sheer volume of Geladas in the two premier habitats.

Birds are another focus of NaturZoo Rheine and there are several walk-through zones featuring birds. The Harbour Seal/Humboldt Penguin complex opened in 2004 and the penguins are seen via a walk-through, including a guano-packed cave near the exit where penguins often hang out and I had to slowly walk around several directly on the visitor path. There are 30 penguins and 36 Inca Terns and it’s quite a spectacular aviary with a lot of terns zooming hither and thither while the penguins block the trail. Another walk-through has at least 150 European White Storks, all preening their feathers and roosting in nearby trees and with Black Storks and Abdim’s Storks in a separate area. There is yet another walk-through with just over 100 birds, with 30 Scarlet Ibises, 30 Waldrapp Ibises and approximately 45 Ruffs the main species inside. Another walk-in aviary has exactly 98 Chilean Flamingos and they are all fully-flighted and make for a nice display. There is even a small Bird House, with species outside such as Trumpeter Hornbill, and several aviaries indoors that culminates back outside with a Taveta Golden Weaver aviary of bustling activity with a staggering 170 weavers moving like little machines as they build their nests. The zoo doesn’t have a massive number of bird species, but nevertheless in each aviary there are large numbers and healthy populations. Zoo Director Achim Johann talks a lot about continuity, with the zoo maintaining certain species (Geladas, flamingos, wading birds, bears) for decades and thus there is a desire from both zoo staff and visitors to see particular species at the zoo in stable, impressive numbers.

A major addition to the zoo occurred about a decade ago, with the arrival of two Indian Sloth Bears. There is a large habitat that has a visitor path that stretches all the way around in a big loop, with the two bears being joined by 12 Golden Jackals. I was surprised at what a powerful mixed-species display was there, with the lumbering bears often flanked by a few jackals, who appear to be inquisitive canids that are always on the move. A small Insect House with a few terrariums is to be found in this part of the zoo. Elsewhere are Chapman’s Zebras, a camelid (Bactrian Camel), an antelope (probably a dozen or more Sitatunga), cute, small land mammals (Coatis and Prairie Dogs), a popular aquatic mammal species (Small-clawed Otter – added in 2017), a pinniped (Harbour Seal), a big cat (Sumatran Tigers in two exhibits and currently a situation of 1.1.3), and a macropod (Bennett’s Wallaby – in a walk-through area). The zoo specializes in primates and birds, but there has been a deliberate attempt to have a representative of each part of the animal kingdom.

There is a farmyard zone that is popular with children, and the zoo has benefited from removing the possibility of feeding the animals. There have been less incidents of aggression and the domestic critters can showcase more natural behaviours in the area. A new addition in this part of the zoo is a Mouse House, with perhaps 4 or 5 species, as well as a small café and lavatories, all due to open later this year in what is currently an old, brick, historic building. NaturZoo Rheine is constantly evolving and opening a new exhibit every other year.

Achim and I had a great time hanging out at his excellent zoo, which I would praise regardless of the fact that he laid out the red carpet for me. I had free admission, a free 26-page history book (1937-2012) and even a free lunch because Achim must have called down to the zoo’s nice restaurant (which, as is common in Europe, has staff not connected at all to the actual zoo) because they refused to let me pay for my meal. He was a wonderful host, even having an article published about my zoo visit in the newspaper a couple of days after I left. I know that Achim has been enjoying this thread, because besides running a zoo and working on average 27 out of 30 days per month, 11 hours per day, he is also a zoo ‘nerd’ and has many opinions on what zoos are doing right or wrong all over the globe. He especially liked the fact that I was in a position that not many other zoo nerds find themselves in, that is namely the fact that I’ll have visited so many zoos on both sides of the Atlantic. Therefore, my comments on the many similarities or differences between the styles of zoos that I’ve been visiting have been fascinating to Achim. I was almost sad to leave after 6 hours...

I then drove 30 minutes north to yet another mid-sized German zoo.

Zoo/Aquarium # 93: Nordhorn Zoo (Nordhorn, DE)

I didn’t enjoy Nordhorn Zoo, for a variety of reasons. I find it amazing that the well-respected NaturZoo Rheine just half-an-hour away, with its 78 Geladas and high level of excellence, receives 300,000 annual visitors while Nordhorn has 420,000 annual visitors (and I have a solid source for those visitor numbers). The zoo opened in 1949 (then a private zoo) and the present owners have been there since 1994 on the zoo’s 30 acres/12 hectares. The problem with Nordhorn is that probably 50% of the animals are domestics, there are very few good exhibits, and the animal collection isn’t very impressive.

A neat and tidy entrance, with a bison logo, greets visitors and there is then a panoramic section of exhibits that won’t ever threaten Hagenbeck’s legacy but are enjoyable nonetheless. A turtle pond melts into a Prairie Dog exhibit which then gives way to a large Wood Bison yard that also contains Collared Peccaries. It’s a great first impression. Coatis, Alpacas and Maras have average-sized yards, with a walk-through exhibit for Vietnamese Sika Deer showing me German visitors petting a deer on its antlers. After those initial half-dozen exhibits, there is a very long stretch of walking before any exotic animals appear on the distant horizon. The entire middle section of the zoo is basically a rural German farm, with cows, donkeys, pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits, ducks, geese, chickens and even turkeys all over the place. The zoo’s big restaurant is here and in truth this whole middle chunk of Tierpark Nordhorn was very busy on the day of my visit. Since farmyard animals are not exactly thrilling, I strode past all of the families and headed to the back of the zoo for the exotic animal loop.

There are many small and cute species, such as Bennett’s Wallabies, Meerkats, Indian Crested Porcupines, Squirrel Monkeys, Agoutis, yet more domestics, mice, honeybees, and then some larger exhibits such as a vulture aviary that is arguably the best thing in the zoo. There are Grey Wolves, a rather dull African Savanna with Plains Zebras, Marabou Storks and Ostriches, a few owl aviaries, budgies, a walk-through wading bird aviary and not a heck of a lot else. A couple of exhibits for Persian Leopards offer up nothing exciting, and there are plans for new enclosures for the leopards, a Harbour Seal pool is of the standard variety, European Wildcats are there, plus a brutally outdated Chimpanzee exhibit. A small Amphibian House is very nicely done, but there are only 4 or 5 vivariums inside.

That’s the zoo in a nutshell. Other than the vulture aviary, the amphibian tanks and the bison/peccary paddock, the zoo is 50% barnyard creatures and a handful of mainly mediocre exhibits for exotic critters. Another major flaw is that visitors, when they have seen everything, have to back-track through the entire zoo to get back to the entrance and that’s extremely annoying. The fact that Tierpark Nordhorn receives 100,000 annual visitors more than nearby NaturZoo Rheine almost seems criminal, although both zoos are really punching above their weight class. The city of Rheine only has 80,000 inhabitants, and Nordhorn has 55,000 citizens, and so for these two mid-sized German zoos to collectively pull in more than 700,000 annual visitors is nothing short of astonishing. One fascinating fact is that Nordhorn is directly next to the Netherlands, and so half of all the signs were in Dutch and the other half were in German. If there is one thing that I’ve learned on this trip, and it never ceases to surprise me, is that Europe has a ton of zoos and it appears that almost all of them are boasting healthy attendance numbers and are ending the year with eye-watering visitation levels. Families love zoos in Germany, and that goes for the Netherlands, Belgium and France as well. To perhaps have a thousand 'zoos' in those four nations is amazing.

 

NaturZoo Rheine sounds like both a fantastic facility and experience. A couple things stand out. First, the hospitality of Achim. Two, the social groups for the animals. I think the number of animals is very important for social species, and I think it's fantastic that this zoo has 78 geladas and has exhibits with 98 Chilean flamingos, 170 Taveta golden weavers, 150 white storks (!), and others. It sounds like the numbers and mixtures of species at this zoo allow for quite the social interactions, and some of the flocks or herds must be quite the sight. Three, I enjoy it when zoos allow some of their animals to use their outdoor exhibits at night, so it's great the geladas and male ring-tailed lemurs have this opportunity.

 

Fantastic review of Rheine Zoo: this has long been one of my favourite German zoos, with its sense of professionalism, quirkiness and real flamboyance - the Bird House is, I think, especially impressive. I'm so glad that @snowleopard thoroughly enjoyed his visit to the zoo!

 

Maybe it is just a temporary lack. There were good colorful maps for free last year. I think I have one for you.

Thanks to this, the zoo could buy this area at a low price, it wasn't valuable in terms of landscaping.

No,they were quite cheap.In fact, there were old concrete enclosures, and zoo didn't have money to demolish them and build new ones. So it was decided to mask them by mock-temple-rock at low cost.

If I good remember, there are plans to significantly increase their enclosure..

 

DAY 32: Wednesday, August 14th (2 zoos)

I have an extremely long review and then a fairly short review to finish off my 95-zoo odyssey.

On Tuesday night I made my way to Groningen, in the Netherlands, and I met up with @jwer . His real name is Jan and he’s a 37-year-old zoo nerd who is a certified accountant. He is married, with a well-behaved 6-month-old daughter, and he’s been to at least 80 different zoos in his lifetime. Jan was the 11th and final zoo enthusiast that I met on this trip and all 11 contacted me and offered me a range of items to make my trip easier and smoother throughout Europe. I showed up at Jan’s house, which, incidentally, dates from the 1920s and is a very nice Dutch home, and we had a blast talking all about zoos. His wife and daughter joined us as they ordered delicious Chinese food and it was a feast, and in many ways felt like my ‘last supper’ as the following night I’d eat McDonald’s alone in my hotel room. I felt that at Jan’s house I was able to have a full dinner for one of the very few times on this entire trip.

I was originally going to stay with Jan and his family for 3 nights, but I canceled those plans when I veered east towards the mighty German trio of Hagenbeck, Berlin Zoo and Berlin Tierpark, and so it became just the single evening. However, we clicked, and things went well and before I knew it, he was showering me with gifts. Jan gave me all of his zoo guidebooks, a collection of at least 40 of them, plus at least 40 zoo maps to add to my collection. Even though they weighed a ton, I happily said yes and offered payment, but he donated them to my private collection that is now at more than 1,900 different zoo maps and around 270 guidebooks after this trip. Jan and I then agreed to spend the day together and visit two zoos for my final day of ‘zoo-ing’ before I had to catch an early flight on Thursday morning. The generosity given to me is actually quite humbling, even when I think about it now as I type up this report. I’m going to mention the 11 people that I met, once again, on my final day report.

Zoo/Aquarium # 94: Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (Emmen, NL)

Jan and I drove for about an hour to Emmen and thanks to his keen knowledge of the area we managed to secure free parking. Many zoo enthusiasts regularly spent time in the old Emmen Zoo, which closed down in late 2015/early 2016 after 80 years of operation. There was the sense that the zoo, while still beloved, was hampered by its size and needed a larger location to expand. At a cost of more than 200 million Euros, the entire old zoo was abandoned and just a few minutes down the road a totally brand-new zoo opened to the public in early 2016.

We brought with us a 2004 map of the old Emmen Zoo and for a full hour Jan and I walked the grounds of the now closed facility. It was a bit eerie for me, and a wave of nostalgia crashed over Jan as we walked through the old zoo entrance gate, past animal buildings that have now been turned into shops, and the old elephant paddocks (cow and bull) are easy enough to locate as they are essentially unchanged. There is even an elephant path that leads from the main exhibit to the barn and it must have been a thrill to see the pachyderms walking along that trail. We walked past a gibbon island, with plenty of ropes still hanging from trees, a lookout building (with stairs removed) that used to allow visitors to look down on big cats, an area filled in that once had baboons, a kangaroo exhibit, more primate areas and even the big Tropical House that is now filled with junk but the pathways and some of the interior aviaries are all still intact. It’s like a ‘ghost town zoo’ and the Moose/American Bison area looks as if it could be inhabited at any moment. We saw geriatric sheep grazing where there was once White Rhinos and Giraffes on the African Savanna, and we met a man who runs the animal sanctuary that now takes up a big building on the right-hand side of the zoo. It is where the petting farm always was, but now there are more than 100 volunteers who look after the animals in a rescue facility setup, and the man took us behind the scenes to see the mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters and chinchillas in the old Emmen Zoo ‘rat sewer’ exhibits. The entire hour was a fascinating experience and I’m so glad that I had an old zoo map and a great guide in Jan to point out where the many animal exhibits once stood…and in some cases still stand today.

The ‘new’ Emmen Zoo has the title of ‘Wildlands’ and there has been a push towards a more themed, adventure-based experience. Even though the old zoo had circa 300 species, Wildlands opened with less than 100 species and with themed zones rather than a traditional zoo approach. A massively increased admission fee didn’t go over well with many visitors, but the first year of operation was a resounding success with 1.3 million visitors, dramatically exceeding the numbers at the old zoo. However, a disgruntled public made their feelings known and changes have been made since then. For example, Wildlands had minimal signage for the first two years of operation, preferring visitors to ‘explore’ on their own. Due to a backlash, there are now signs everywhere like a standard zoo, which Wildlands was claiming not to be. Also, two years in, the new zoo had annual memberships drop by 50% as the public weren’t impressed with what was being offered to them.

To give credit to the management of Wildlands, they did listen to visitors. The reintegration of zoos signs was a positive first step. The halting of music playing from hidden speakers in all directions was another bonus, something that was apparently common when the new zoo opened and now has basically been eradicated. Million of Euros were the annual losses for the past couple of years, and Wildlands has since reduced all ticket prices to encourage visitors to return. Just when the new zoo was starting to actually look like a proper zoo, a roller-coaster was added last year that is a blight on the landscape. Does Wildlands want to have some traditional zoological elements, or does it want to go in the direction of a theme park? What kind of identity does the zoo have? These are questions for which I fear that there are no answers.

I found a website that lists the attendance figures for the Emmen zoo(s):

2011 – 695,000 visitors
2012 – 700,000 visitors
2013 – 672,000 visitors
2014 – 675,000 visitors
2015 – 779,000 visitors (when it was publicly known that the old zoo was permanently closing)
2016 – 1.3 million (first year of Wildlands was a huge success)
2017 – 1 million (a steeper than expected drop-off in year two)
2018 – 855,000 (the zoo is now spiraling into debt)
2019 – will things continue to plummet, or will the zoo stabilize itself?

To go from 1.3 million visitors in 2016 and then a couple of years later that number tumbles by 450,000 is scary. Millions of Euros in debt has piled up, with Wildlands not appreciated by zoo nerds or, crucially, the general public. The old zoo was apparently at least a 6-hour experience, with several animal buildings that soak up time. I know that Tim Brown was done and dusted with the Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen in 3 hours and he takes his time around zoos. Jan and I were done in 2.5 hours, and with the high cost of admission and 200 fewer species than the older zoo, it is no wonder that this ‘new’ zoo has basically been a disaster. What can it do to recover and steady the ship? I’d be intrigued to know what ZooChatters think of this whole situation, as the best-case scenario is that Wildlands becomes self-sufficient, perhaps expands with yet more new exhibits, and slowly succeeds in the realm of public opinion. One could make the argument that Wildlands is still pulling in more visitors than the old Emmen Zoo was prior to its closure, but with the enormous cost of running everything Wildlands is a financial nightmare.

After that lengthy introduction, let us take a look at the zoo. It is divided into three main areas, each with clear, one-way trails, with a fourth zone primarily aimed at young children.

Jungola: Tropical Jungle World – Jan and I headed here first, and in truth this section took us a full hour and it is the best part of the whole zoo. I unabashedly really enjoyed this area, and it contains what is prominently described as “Europe’s biggest indoor jungle!” Considering that there is Masoala Hall in Zurich, Burgers’ Bush in Arnhem, and Gondwanaland in Leipzig, the fact that the new Emmen zoo has what could be the largest rainforest tropical building is a bold statement right there. The first thing that visitors see is actually a totally separate, fairly small Tropical House with butterflies in all directions. The centrepiece is an African Dwarf Crocodile exhibit, but there are apparently also some lizards free-roaming, plus exhibits for the likes of Reticulated Python, Emerald Monitor and Giant African Millipede together, Archerfish, and some turtles, poison dart frogs and fish. The whole thing is nicely done, although most visitors probably spend a maximum of ten minutes here because it is very tiny.

Back outside, there is a stunning view over the Asian Elephant exhibit with its unique rock-work and large pools, over to the vast Tropical House in the distance. Indoor housing for Squirrel Monkeys and Agoutis is passed, and here is an extraordinary fact. The Squirrel Monkeys have no containment! Jan and I chatted with a volunteer and he said that there is a single male monkey and 17 females, and the lure of food and shelter is enough to stop the monkeys rampaging through the nearby streets of Emmen. It’s all true, as there are no hotwired trees and we saw a few monkeys ranging far from their indoor quarters. There are no metal grates that visitors walk over, no sectioned-off zones, literally nothing at all to stop the 18 Squirrel Monkeys from taking off with a Canadian zoo enthusiast. Wow. That takes European minimal barriers to a whole new level. The long, textured Asian Elephant exhibit is actually quite original and impressive, with beautiful sight-lines and a robust herd. It’s easily one of the better elephant complexes that I’ve seen on this trip.

We then plunged into Europe’s largest Tropical House, with primates such as Ring-tailed Lemur, Black and White Ruffed Lemur, Colombian Spider Monkey and White-handed Gibbons in side habitats and ‘Birdy Bush’ for Rainbow Lorikeets. There are free-ranging Leaf-cutter Ants, as we saw a colony on a tree trunk and then in a separate area we again came across hundreds of ants roaming the cement floor and quite far from their original location. When a Rodrigues Flying Fox flew by while we were looking at the ants, a jungle atmosphere was authentically created. There are free-roaming species that are probably next to impossible to locate, such as Tokay Gecko and Madagascar Giant Day Gecko, plus small, almost hidden terrariums for the likes of Mexican Red-knee Tarantula, African Clawed Frog and various poison dart frogs. These exhibits are near the boat ride, which we took, and it is a pleasant-enough 10-minute journey with one part going past a crashing waterfall and then a tunnel, both of which are difficult to see from the main visitor path. The last section is the indoor quarters for the elephants, once again up there with the best in Europe. There are numerous birds flying around, an eating establishment, a treetop canopy walk for those brave enough to take to the heights, and a kid-friendly atmosphere.

Emerging from the vast jungle, we walked past the opposite side of the Asian Elephant exhibit and past a decent Small-clawed Otter enclosure that utilizes the same mock-rock sandstone style as what is found in the elephant paddock. Considering that the elephant area is very good, the free-ranging Squirrel Monkeys are delightful, and that the Tropical House is only going to get better with age as the foliage continues to grow, there are a multitude of positives to take away from this part of the zoo. It takes a full hour to see everything and without a doubt I think that Jungola is the premier attraction at Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen.

Serenga: Hot and Dry World – The next loop also takes a full hour to tour, if one ignores the ridiculous roller-coaster that was added in 2018 and taints the landscape from certain angles. The zoo has gone with names such as Jungola and Serenga so that animals from all continents can be displayed without fear that the zoogeographic police will come knocking. There are Dwarf Mongooses, free-ranging Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (and in fact we saw one bolt for freedom as again there don't seem to be any barriers), a dusty farmyard area, before visitors come across a truly spectacular Common Hippo exhibit. It used to be the penguin enclosure at the old Emmen Zoo and now has a substantial land area, a deep, crystal-clear pool and at least 5 hippos that don’t do a lot and yet somehow are still fantastic to watch underwater. Swamp Wallabies and Rheas are together in a walk-through area, just as they would be in the Australian Outback, and then there is a long trail past a huge African Lion exhibit that has massive mock-rock boulders and a sloping hillside habitat for the big cats.

The large, sprawling African Savanna has Rothschild’s Giraffes, White Rhinos, Impala, Defassa Waterbuck, Blue Wildebeest, Plains Zebra and Helmeted Guineafowl in a nice-looking exhibit that is badly marred by the sight of a roller-coaster on one side, the backdrop of the city of Emmen on another, the huge Tropical House in Jungola, and the ridiculous safari trucks that drive through the paved road that is all around and through the African Savanna. I defy anyone to name a zoo with an African Savanna with worse sight-lines than this one in Emmen. On a positive note, there are Red River Hogs, a very nice Meerkat exhibit that appears to melt into the horizon (there’s no roller-coaster behind that sucker!), at least 100 Hamadryas Baboons in a dusty, rocky, themed exhibit, Ostriches in a side yard, and then Bactrian Camels and Onagers that are viewed through train carriages. The entire Serenga area has some decent sections (hippos, meerkats, baboons) but the central savanna becomes worse the more I think about it.

Animazia: Young Adventurer’s World – This is a building that is an offshoot of Serenga, and it’s mainly a spectacular indoor play area that is a bit dark in places but themed as a giant ship amidst ocean waves. For zoo enthusiasts it is vital not to skip this area, partly because it is a remnant of the ‘old zoo’, and partly because there is a nice aquarium tank with schools of fish and at least 4 Green Sea Turtles, plus elsewhere has an all-indoor African Spurred Tortoise enclosure and then a cave-like area for Naked Mole Rats and even a row of 5 aquarium tanks against the wall. It’s mainly a family-friendly building, but a 10-minute jaunt for a couple of zoo nerds was about all the time that was needed.

Nortica: Icy Cold World – This final area has a pair of Polar Bear exhibits that are pretty good for the bears, but both the overhead and underwater viewing areas are compromised due to a complete lack of space for visitors. By the time we arrived at this final stop at around noon, the zoo was packed, and the crowds were overwhelming. Even though the zoo’s annual attendance has plummeted from its opening year, it was still busy during our visit to Nortica. The bear exhibits are decent, if all a bit ‘industrial’, and next door are Humboldt Penguins, a Snowy Owl aviary, and then a series of pinniped pools for the likes of Harbour Seals (excellent), California Sea Lions and South American Fur Seals (industrial-looking). According to the visitor booklet, there are a couple of tiny additions arriving in a few months. The first is called ‘Whale Experience’ and we should all keep our fingers crossed that it’s not some sort of ‘blowhole 4-D’ crap. The second is called ‘Sea Aquarium’ and that sounds a little more promising.

Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen is, by all accounts, a facility that has struggled to adapt to the whims of the public. With the old zoo, much beloved, now an empty series of paddocks, Wildlands has an opportunity to define itself and push towards some forward momentum. Is adding a roller-coaster, as occurred last year, the way to go? Considering that attendance numbers have gone down the proverbial drain, wouldn’t the addition of an animal-based attraction be the intelligent approach? As things stand right now, Animazia is for kids, Nortica is too small, Serenga is a disjointed hot mess, and that leaves the genuinely excellent Jungola, containing possibly the largest Tropical House on the continent, as the one and only excellent part of Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen. I’ll watch from afar to see what this zoo does over the years, but unless there’s an addition of a roller-coaster or a zipline that allows me to simultaneously hug a meerkat and attempt to breast-feed a hyena at the same time…then I am not going back. Now that would be a true ‘Adventure’!

We then drove for more than an hour to the next zoo.

Zoo/Aquarium # 95: Dierenpark Amersfoort (Amersfoort, NL)

Here is the end of the line. My 95th and final zoo of this month-long European journey, and my 516th zoo all-time. Amersfoort opened in 1948 and is a major Dutch zoo, with 800,000 annual visitors on its approximately 44 acres/18 hectares. I had to pay for another zoo map, but I didn’t care because on it there is a sentence that states “All profits from this map will help plant new trees in Ecuador”. I told the cashier that I collect different zoo maps and so I’d like one to walk around and wrinkle while at the zoo, and then another, pristine copy for my collection. He became very interested that I was closing in on 2,000 maps all-time and I received two free maps to trade with others. That was a good sign before I had even entered the zoo!

Amersfoort is a quirky, odd zoo that at times seems to cater exclusively to families. There isn’t anything deliberate in its layout, with a maze-like visitor path (especially in the central areas) that snakes all over the place without any rhyme or reason. Animals from different continents are placed side-by-side, there are traditional cages next to themed zones, and the whole thing is a mixture of everything that one could like or dislike in a major zoological garden. It’s an awesome zoo for kids, with pedal boats in a river-like setting, a mini train, a carousel, a small race track, an overhead zipline near the White Storks, a whole forest filled with dinosaur statues (although none are animatronic) and plenty of curious additions next to animal exhibits. Besides the huge playgrounds and eating venues, there is an enclosed rope bridge that goes over and through the European Brown Bear exhibit, a small castle-like structure that overlooks the new African Lion exhibit (with the male lion sitting in a big green pioneer wagon!), pop-up bubbles in the Prairie Dog exhibit (and a cool, kid-friendly elevator that descends into the tunnel), and play areas adjacent to a long list of animal exhibits. I’d easily spend a full day at this zoo if I visited with my 4 kids.

For zoo nerds, the zoo offers up several impressive exhibits. The small Nocturnal House is terrific, and borderline outstanding, as there are walk-through areas with Douroucouli’s, Two-toed Sloths and Long-nosed Potoroos poking around in the dark. Lorises, Galagos and Brush-tailed Porcupines are also here, with the first two in a glassed-exhibit, but curiously no bats anywhere. There’s a big African Savanna with giraffes and zebras, plus some antelope, an above-average Asian Elephant complex, a brilliant walk-through aviary of considerable size, and yet another European speciality with dozens of Hamadryas Baboons in a dusty, long enclosure. I took very few photos and just kind of chilled and enjoyed the zoo, plus I had Jan as my guide, and he’s visited Amersfoort on 6 or 7 occasions.

There are many popular animals, with elephants, giraffes, rhinos (Greater One-horned), lions, tigers, bears, probably 10 primate species (including a troop of Chimpanzees in a very old-fashioned cage), and a small Reptile House area on the top floor of the building next to the Giraffe Barn. A real highlight was watching a pair of European Badgers gambol around their nicely-landscaped enclosure, near a spacious Grey Wolf habitat deep in the forest. A feature of Amersfoort is that the zoo is set inside a forest, with plenty of towering trees all around and a sense of being enclosed in a thick, wooded park. It’s a good zoo for enthusiasts, a fabulous zoo for families, and definitely worth visiting. It’s all a bit of the good, the bad and the ugly, but I was more than happy to end my tour of European zoos with a quirky oddity.

I then dropped Jan off at the train station just down the road and I ended yet another very long day by heading for an hour-drive to Amsterdam. I had 95 zoos done and dusted, 516 zoos all-time, and tomorrow I’d be flying back home to British Columbia, Canada.

This thread is not over, as I will continue to post relevant information in the coming days as a kind of summary of my European journey. Stay tuned and thanks for following along as it's been an amazing experience.

 

Just a few quick catch-up comments as I'm getting behind.

That's dangerous close to a typical European zoo nerd's opinion on Hannover, @snowleopard . Have you gone native?

Kiwis are one of those animals that really do need repeat visits! I've almost always seen them in places with reverse-daylight enclosures. In an ordinary aviary there's almost no point even looking in the daytime,

C'est very much la vie - there was a full-colour, professionally printed map being handed out on the 18th of June..!
​

The Underground Zoo is an absolute gem. The rest of Osnabruck is very much patchy. I like the two 'boreal' sections a lot - the rest not so much. The Asian temple stuff is among the ugliest I've seen.

Munster is far more my style than Osnabruck overall - though the Undergound Zoo is probably the best exhibit at either.

Glad you had a good day here - it's not a huge place but it's very much a place of quality.

Do they still have ibex in the vulture aviary as well? That was always the 'thing' at Nordhorn. Other than that and the Wood Bison not much else really sticks in the mind of the place, except the general setting.

 

Yes, @Maguari I think that I did briefly go 'native' in regards to Hannover. That zoo is a bit 'naff' in places, although Yukon Bay is spectacular. One thing I cannot understand is how some of these German/Dutch 'adventure' zoos get lumped together, as I personally found ZOOM Gelsenkirchen to be excellent. Hannover was disappointing, Emmen was hit-and-miss and without much there to keep zoo enthusiasts all day, and GaiaZOO was very good and similar in quality to Gelsenkirchen. There are clear differences between the quality of that quartet of zoos.

Off the top of my head, I saw Kiwi exhibits at Avifauna Vogelpark (day-lit enclosures plus a darkened building), Berlin (dark exhibit), Walsrode (all dark) and probably at least one other zoo, but even in nocturnal enclosures the birds are next to impossible to locate.

Yes, Tierpark Nordhorn has the nice mixed-species exhibit and continues the trend of excellent vulture aviaries in Europe.

 

To be fair, you are the first to lump Gaiazoo together with Gelsenkirchen, Hannover or Emmen. Contrary to the latter three Gaiazoo has none of the kitsch or copious amounts of rock work or all these adventures like Golddigging, 4d cinemas or boat tours. ZOOM and Hannover both brand themselve as erlebniszoo and Emmen like Adventure zoo. So in terms of branding these three are similar. How this idea is put into practice differs slightly.

You have been unlucky in Berlin, where they are normally easy to see (if you take plenty of time to adjust to the darkness that is). The one in Avifauna is also relatively showy. In Frankfurt all kiwi are behind the scenes, but at the time of your visit you could have seen a young one during a presentation.

 

My first recap is to produce a list of all the zoos that I visited on this trip, because the thread is now so long that it would be nice to have a place where people can copy and paste a comprehensive list of all the stops that I did. The zoos are listed by country, in chronological order of my visit, and aquariums are in bold.

Zoo Trip 2019 – Netherlands, Germany, Belgium & France

95 zoos in 33 days (including two travel days)

Netherlands: 43 zoos

1- Stichting AAP (Almere, NL)
2- Almere Jungle (Almere, NL)
3- Natuurpark Lelystad (Lelystad, NL)
4- **Artis Royal Zoo (Amsterdam, NL)
5- Dierentuin Animal Farm (Beverwijk, NL)
6- Avonturia de Vogelkelder (The Hague, NL)
7- Sea Life Scheveningen (The Hague, NL)
8- Vlinders aan de Vliet (Leidschendam, NL)
9- Stichting Schildpaddencentrum (Foundation Turtle Center) (Alphen aan den Rijn, NL)
10- Vogelpark Avifauna (Alphen aan den Rijn, NL)
11- Landgoed Hoenderdaell (Anna Paulowna, NL)
12- Fort Kijkduin Aquarium (Huisduinen, NL)
13- Van Blanckendaell Park (Tuitjenhorn, NL)
14- Bergen aan Zee Aquarium (Bergen aan Zee, NL)
15- **Diergaarde Blijdorp (Rotterdam, NL)
16- Familiepark Plaswijckpark (Rotterdam, NL)
17- Faunapark Flakkee (Nieuwe-Tonge,NL)
18- Deltapark Neeltje Jans Aquarium (Neeltje Jans, NL)
19- Berkenhof’s Tropical Zoo (Kwadendamme, NL)
20- Reptielen Zoo Iguana (Vlissingen, NL)
21- Het Arsenaal Aquarium (Vlissingen, NL)
22- **GaiaZOO (Kerkrade, NL)
23- Mondo Verde (Landgraaf, NL)
24- BestZOO (Best, NL)
25- Zoo Veldhoven (Veldhoven, NL)
26- Dierenrijk (Animal Kingdom) (Nuenen, NL)
27- Klein Costa Rica (Someren, NL)
28- Dierenpark Zie-ZOO (Volkel, NL)
29- **Beekse Bergen (Hilvarenbeek, NL)
30- Dierenpark de Oliemeulen (Tilburg, NL)
31- Reptile House de Aarde (Breda, NL)
32- Vogelopvangcentrum Breda (Breda, NL)
33- De Eekhoorn (The Squirrel) Experience (De Evenaar, NL)
34- De Bosruiter (Sprundel, NL)
35- ZooParc Overloon (Overloon, NL)
36- De Paay (Beesd, NL)
37- Aquazoo Leerdam (Leerdam, NL)
38- **Ouwehands Dierenpark (Rhenen, NL)
39- **Apenheul Primate Park (Apeldoorn, NL)
40- Dolfinarium Harderwijk (Harderwijk, NL)
41- **Burgers' Zoo (Arnhem, NL)
42- **Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (Emmen, NL)
43- **Dierenpark Amersfoort (Amersfoort, NL)

Germany: 40 zoos

1- Wildpark Gangelt (Gangelt, DE)
2- Alsdorf Tierpark (Alsdorf, DE)
3- **Aachener Zoo (Aachen, DE)
4- **Frankfurt Zoo (Frankfurt, DE)
5- **Opel Zoo (Kronberg, DE)
6- **Zoo Neuwied (Neuwied, DE)
7- Sea Life Konigswinter (Konigswinter, DE)
8- Drachenwelt (Dragon World) Reptile Zoo (Konigswinter, DE)
9- Affen + Vogelpark Eckenhagen (Monkey + Bird Park) (Eckenhagen, DE)
10- Wildpark Dunnwald (Cologne, DE)
11- **Kolner Zoo (Cologne, DE)
12- Wildpark Reuschenberg (Leverkusen, DE)
13- Solinger Vogel-und Tierpark (Bird and Animal Park) (Solingen, DE)
14- **Wuppertal Zoo (Wuppertal, DE)
15- Tierpark Fauna (Solingen-Grafrath, DE)
16- **Dortmund Zoo (Dortmund, DE)
17- Tierpark + Fossilium Bochum (Bochum, DE)
18- **ZOOM Erlebniswelt (Gelsenkirchen, DE)
19- **Duisburg Zoo (Duisburg, DE)
20- Aquazoo Lobbecke Museum (Dusseldorf, DE)
21- **Krefeld Zoo (Krefeld, DE)
22- TerraZoo (Rheinberg, DE)
23- Sea Life Oberhausen (Oberhausen, DE)
24- Tiergehege Kaisergarten (Oberhausen, DE)
25- Tiergarten Monchengladbach (Monchengladbach, DE)
26- **Tierpark Hagenbeck (Hamburg, DE) = zoo # 500 !!!!!!
27- **Berlin Zoo (Berlin, DE)
28- **Berlin Tierpark (Berlin, DE)
29- **Erlebnis Zoo Hannover (Hannover, DE)
30- Sea Life Hannover (Hannover, DE)
31- Serengeti-Park (Hodenhagen, DE)
32- **Weltvogelpark Walsrode (Walsrode, DE)
33- Tierpark Petermoor (Bassum, DE)
34- Tierpark Strohen (Wagenfeld, DE)
35- Olderdissen Zoo (Bielefeld, DE)
36- **Osnabruck Zoo (Osnabruck, DE)
37- **Allwetterzoo Munster (Munster, DE)
38- Gronau Zoo (Gronau, DE)
39- **NaturZoo Rheine (Rheine, DE)
40- **Nordhorn Zoo (Nordhorn, DE)

Belgium: 10 zoos

1- Serpentarium Blankenberge (Blankenberge, BE)
2- Sea Life Blankenberge (Blankenberge, BE)
3- Boudewijn Seapark (Bruges, BE)
4- **Zoo Antwerp (Antwerp, BE)
5- Harry Malter Familiepark (Destelbergen, BE)
6- **Planckendael Zoo (Mechelen, BE)
7- Pakawi Park (Olmen, BE)
8- **Pairi Daiza (Brugelette, BE)
9- Liege Aquarium-Museum (Liege, BE)
10- Safari Parc Monde Sauvage (Aywaille, BE)

France: 2 zoos

1- Lille Zoo (Lille, FR)
2- Maubeuge Zoo (Maubeuge, FR)

** in the book Zooming in on Europe’s Zoos (Anthony Sheridan, 2016)

- 9 Dutch zoos, 3 Belgian zoos and 19 German zoos = 31 zoos in total (+ Zurich Zoo in 2003) to make it 32 out of the 124 zoos in that Sheridan book. I've therefore visited 26% of all the top European zoos listed in Zooming in on Europe's Zoos.

And just for fun...

I've visited 14 out of the 50 zoos on the ZooChat thread "Europe's 50 must-see zoos", and so that is a 28% total of some of the very best zoos on the continent.

Europe's 50 must see zoos

I've visited 6 of the top 10 zoos provided by @lintworm on the thread below, plus a trio of his 'near misses'.

CGSwans flies north for the winter

I've visited 5 of the top 10 zoos provided by @FunkyGibbon on the same thread.

I've visited 4 of the top 10 zoos provided by @Giant Panda on the same thread.

I've visited 8 of the top 15 zoos provided by @Tim May on the same thread.

I've visited 9 of the top 15 zoos provided by @sooty mangabey on the same thread.

I've visited 7 of the top 15 zoos provided by @CGSwans on the same thread.

However, in true 'Snowleopard style' I also visited at least a dozen zoos just in Germany that have never been represented in the ZooChat gallery. That's a sign of a great road trip...many legendary zoos mixed together with some unknown, obscure places. Delightful! Days of only one big zoo (Pairi Daiza, Hagenbeck, Berlin Zoo, Berlin Tierpark) or days with a really big zoo that was combined with a 30-minute zoo (Artis Royal Zoo in Amsterdam with Dierentuin Animal Farm, Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam with Familiepark Plaswijckpark, Antwerp with Harry Malter Familiepark, and then of course a bunch of days with 3 or 4 smaller zoos. A mixture of the good, the bad and 5 Sea Life franchises.