Officially mentioned by the Tierpark are the following species: - Indochinese tiger (but in fact, the animals are Malayan tigers) - Sumatran tiger - Sun bear - Binturong - Javan leopard - Asian golden cat - Palawan leopard cat - Tomistoma - Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo - Indochinese clouded leopard - King cobra - Asian Fairy-bluebird - Red-whiskered bulbul - Bali myna - Palawan peacock-pheasant - Blue-crowned laughingthrush - Weaver ants
Aren't Bear Cuscus and flying foxes not also for here. Do you know where the Sumatran Masked Palm Civets are supposed to go?
I'm just refering to the recently published announcements.. Probably those species will be shown in the house, too.
Great to see some rare species are still being maintained in the collection! Also, is it true that the tree kangaroos will be in a walkthrough exhibit? I don't think I've seen that attempted before.
Those are the plans. You can see some pictures of the walkthrough outdoor-exhibit for tree kangaroos here.
Contrary to the opinion of some people who think anything from the Blaskiewitz era was better, the mammal collection of Tierpark, is among the best it has been in the past 20 years, less good for small mammals (marsupials excepted), but when it comes to ungulates, carnivores and primates, better than it used to. With Tree Kangaroo, Bear Cuscus, Asian Golden Cat, Francois Langur and Coquerel's Sifaka as planned arrivals this year one really cannot complain much. The duck collection is greatly reduced because of predation by wild mammals, but the rest of the bird collection is still at a pretty high level. And yes the Tree Kangaroo will get a walk-through exhibit.
This evaluation seems rather a bit too enthusiastic to me. It is true that things are not quite as bad as some expected. But for a fact, all animal classes have been on the decline and there have been and will be some spectacular losses even for regular visitors (cougars and Indian lions among many other carnivores, rhino, manatee, Asian elephants...). Not to mention birds (not only ducks by the way and zoo supporters attempted to collect funds for nets/ aviaries which was rejected by the administration), reptiles, amphibians. Denying any of this would be wrong, in my opinion. Having said that, there indeed are some arguments to be taken in consideration. First and foremost, some animals which are gone or soon will be really didn't/ don't have great enclosures or at least not very attractive ones. For this reason, there actually already has been a substantial decline under Blaszkiewitz. This is something often forgotten because of the spectacular additions. And as you correctly pointed out, there also have been will be attractive additions under Knieriem. Besides that there has been much progress in actually presenting the jewels of this park as the great highlights they are and should be, which includes pointing to their often vulnerable status in the wild. In short, the general trend of reducing species is not new nor should it be condemned without further consideration. Things have somewhat accelerated in this respect, including some unnecessary losses (in my opinion). But it could have come much worse. In my opinion, the more obvious change relates to the priorities between having great animals (in more or less acceptable exhibits) and actually presenting/ 'selling' them as attractively as possible.
I agree. When I compare the mammal collection at my first visit (2005) and the current status of and plans for the collection, I see a clear reduction for almost all groups. For sure, for me the addition of species like gerenuk, Chaco peccary , golden takin, tree kangaroo and bear cuscus, and the transformation of the two main buildings way up to these losses. What are the plans with the small mammals of the Dickhauterhaus? Will the rodents, elephant shrews, echidnas, sloths, tamanduas and neotropical monkeys return, move to an other location or leave?
The steep decline in reptiles, amphibians and also fish is true, mainly because they closed the reptile house (and the crocodile house will follow soon I guess, which is a loss when it comes to birds). It almost seems a too convenient reason why they shut it down. With the refurbishment of the Brehm house and the coming renovation of the Pachyderm house many species were indeed lost, but I can only be happy that they so strongly reduced the number of cat taxa they keep and the decision to stop keeping Manatees is great too. I am not a huge fan of the new mock rock style of the Monkey house I am not saying everything is better, but when comparing with my first visit in 2007 many more common species have made way for rarer species (e.g. Axis Deer, Red Deer, Cretan "wild" goat, Wild Boar, Collared Peccary,Red-necked Wallaby --> Atlas Red Deer, Siberian Wapiti, Marco Polo Sheep, Chaco Peccary, Eastern Wallaroo Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby ). The loss of the waterfowl collection is what I feel most, with many areas of the park now seemingly empty... But there has been an attitude of people trying to paint everything Knieriem is doing in terms of collection management is bad, which it very clearly isn't. More importantly Knieriem appears to have the goodwill of the city and seems to be able to turn visitor numbers and finances around, which is long-term much more important than displaying 4 types of Leopard and 3 types of Tiger.
Thanks for this, I forgot those species of ungulates and kangaroos. Palawan Leopard Cat, Nicaraguan Margay, Honey Badger, Malayan Civet, New Guinean Echidna, Bush Hyrax and Lowland Paca are some other rarities that arrived in recent years, although I'm not sure all are still kept given the work on the Brehmhaus and Dickhauterhaus.
Lowland Paca, Margay, Honey Badger and Leopard Cat are still around. The Civets have died out since. Echidna and Hyrax should also still be there, but don't know what their long-term future is, I would expect the Echidna to show up in the Brehm house in the Tree Kangaroo or Bear Cuscus enclosure.
They were the last ones of Europe, I think. Blijdorp used to have some success with them and I remember that the last one was kept together with gibbons (or langurs?), which was quite an odd combination to me.
@lintworm Quite a number of the species you mention have been added under Blaszkiewitz, so the trend towards fewer yet more special species had been ongoing, when Knieriem took office. But it does seem like it will be continued. And I agree that overall progress clearly outweighs the downsides.
Nunsi, a 13 years old Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo, arrived from Duisburg. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=841435479690794 Neue Bewohnerin des Alfred-Brehm-Hauses Security Check Required
We are in lock-down, but the zoos are still kind of operating. Not sure, if there will be any more transfers for the time being, though...
Some good news among all that turmoil: -A gerenuk and two yellow-throated martens have just been born. -The construction sites progress. Brehm building is virtually finished now (incredible timing just after those long years, but nobody can help it). The tree kangaroo arrived just in time (whereas some snakes could not be transported yet). The economic situation remains difficult of course, but at least they can present some attractive things when the park reopens....
