There have been quite a few births in the last couple of months: Besides the young Gerenuk there were also 1,1 Marco Polo Sheep, but unfortunately the female lamb died. There also have been some young Chacoan Peccaries again, but this species breeds all the time now. Of course, the little Giraffe bull is the newest highlight: Copyright Tierpark Berlin Another species which breeds quite well: Hyacinth Macaws Unfortuntaley, one of the Cheetahs from Chester died, but they will get another two males soon, making it 3,0. And a large male King Cobra just got into its new enclosure at the Brehm building:
Hi, I'm from Spain. I'll travel to Germany in august with some friends and we want yo visit the Berlin Zoo and the Berlin Tierpark. We see some buildings of the Zoo are now closed, by the Covid19 crisis. Do you know if the situation is similar in the Tierpark? When sill ABH open? Do you think the buildings will be opened in finals of august?
@aramacao Apparently, Tierpark Berlin has been working on a scheme to open the Brehm building in the upcoming weeks. Unfortunately, I haven't heard about any specific date, though. So I think you should be lucky, but you cannot be positively sure.
Hello guys, It's been 12 years since I haven't been to Berlin. I'm planning a visit again. I'm in search of the Palawan Leopard cat (Sunda Leopard cat). My understanding is these cats can only be seen in one of the houses that remain closed due to the pandemic. is that right ? or they can be seen from the outside as well ? Thank you.
The leopard cats used to be in one of the glass fronted enclosures next to the entrance of the Brehm Haus facing the honey badger-caracal cages row, but I don't know if they are still visible during the renovation of the building.
It's time for another update: Best news first: The reopening improves. Both monkey and giraffe building are open to the public and the flight show started again - of course there still are precaustions and regulations in place. Unfortunately, I don't know when the Brehm building finally opens as well. I hope it will be very soon now. There also is an additional time slot to visit the park on some days (as you have to book online anyways, just check the website if you plan a visit). As most ofyou probably won't get to visit the park soon anyways, here are some fresh impressions from the official platforms again. It gives a fairly good impression of what happens and which changes the park undergoes... -Most species have entered their new enclosures in and around Brehm building now (including the Sun Bears). Many enclosures have been extended and given more structure as well as a more naturalistic look and immersive embedding accompanied by new didactic elements in the visitors area. 1. Javenese Leopards Copyright: Tierpark Berlin 2. Cheetahs Copyright Tierpark Berlin 3. Penguins Copyright Tierpark Berlin -The young giraffe calf clearly enjoys life in its herd. The video also shows how they try to have the giraffe building blend in the landscape, while the Marabou Storks give a small reminder of future ambitions with a large mixed species savannah: -Last but not least the Tierpark successfully managed to reintroduce Bearded Vultures despite Corona restrictions (it was quite dramatic, as they almost missed the critical time frame). And this time they even could bring two birds to the alpine region of France: I hope it wasn't too much at once. I tend to collect news, before posting
Regarding the bearded vultures releases: Are these offspring from both pairs or just the one seasoned pairing? Edit: Sorry it was in the video. The second chick is from the same pairing, but has been cared for by fostering it into the other breeding pair's nest. Unsure, which is the seasoned pair and which is the foster pair. Has the foster pair at all bred successfully previously I wonder?
Let's have an early update this time. The Tierpark just had its 65th anniversary since it first opened its doors to the public (July 2nd 1955). So I visited the park a couple of times and also closely followed the media coverage. I will start with the (more or less) hard facts: -The Brehm building is to open this month! (some sources even say mid July) -The plans for the new elephant building are ready and they plan to start the project no later than September 2020 (scheduled opening: 2022) -The work on Himalaya are to start in 2021 and perhaps still open that same year Now some impressions and rumours which I collected during my visits: -The monkey building is open now, but it looks like a building site again. They are redoing a number of enclosures. Fortunately, they are quite fast. And still better, a friend of mine told me that Coquerel's Sifakas may move in quite soon (perhaps still in July)! There is some speculation in this, though. -The remodelled enclosures for African Penguins, Cheetahs and Vultures all look really nice. While the penguins still need time to settle in, it was amazing to actually enter the huge vulture aviary for the first time! Watching a cheetah just some feet away also was a new experience in this park. -Finally, the Brehm building seems virtually finished. I already peeked through some windows and fences and let's say I quite liked what I saw! The inside boxes and glass terraria form kind of a rain forest strip. You can still spot the cats through the plants. There also are a few smaller terraria close to the entrances of the tropic hall. They display spiders, insects, amphibians and reptiles as well as small mammals from South-East-Asia. I also spotted a Sun Bear exploring its large new outside enclosure (no comparison to their old complex) and a Dusky Pademelon doing the same. I am incredibly thrilled to enter this building in a couple of weeks. After all these years and delay after delay this will be a huge pleasure. -Unfortunately, there are no more Musk Deer in the park. But I could see the Sumatran Madked Palm Civet next to the reindeer exhibit. -Some minor details: The landscape of the park gets more and more beautiful, since they received additional staff for this. The new, bilingual signs are far more accessible to young and international guests. There is a new restauration at the old castle grounds right next to the actual castle (Schlosscafé) which is quite nice. Some smaller enclosures and aviaries have been redone (e.g. the heron aviary) and look better now. To support this small report, I want to share two new videos from the official YouTube channel of Zoo and Tierpark Berlin. The first video shows the indoor enclosure of the Sumatra Tiger as well as impressions from inside the tropic hall: The second one follows zoo director Andreas Knieriem along a small trip through the park, showing both traditional highlights and new projects (particularly the penguin enclosure and the site of the Himalaya project): Last but not least, there is a third video with many(!) more details of the Brehm building which I can highly recommend!
Just a pity that the director heartily dislikes zoo guidebooks and (as he did at both of the previous collections he was in charge of) mandated an immediate halt to production of such items when he took over the two Berlin collections as this anniversary would be a fine excuse to produce another one......
Well, he is not alone in this in Germany - these nowadays unnecessary "things" no longer sell here. (supposedly).The reason for this is the internet and apps. Oddly enough, zoo guides sell in the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - no other country in the world has so many zoos that produce a zoo guide ... even if most of them are not as good as the previous ones Zoo guides from Germany. By the way, I recently took the trouble to count how many animal species are mentioned in the zoo guide from Tierpark Berlin. In the 1976 edition there are exactly 457 species. Unfortunately, I do not know how many species were in stock at the end of 1975 - does someone has the annual report from this year, and could I tell me? In the 2013 edition - the final edition - there are exactly 541 of 861 species. That is exactly 63%! I did the same with 9 other German zoos. Vogelpark Walsrode takes the first place with 973 species in the 1976 edition. I think that should be 100% ...Even Affenberg Salem ist not that good-they mention only three of four species in their current guide... Hagenbeck does very poorly with only 20% in the 1977 edition. Many German zoos even haven't published a book for a big anniversary. some of them destroyd their archives and their library-so the Tierpark Berlin for example. Most German zoo directors have no interest in the history of their own zoo. Anyone who took part in the English guided tour at the last Zoohistorica in Nuremberg - personally from the zoo director - knows that ..
It was quite disappointing when there weren't new guidebooks on sale at my last visit to the Berlin zoos in 2015. Zoo had none anymore, Tierpark had some left (the 2013 one) so I bought that one. Nowadays German zoos seems to think a map is all that is necessary. Walsrode, Duisburg, Dortmund, Köln, Wuppertall... just maps. Next to the one of Tierpark Berlin, the most recent one I bought are a 2012 guidebook of Zoo Duisburg and a 2014 guidebook of Leipzig. Strangely, guidebooks are upcoming in some Dutch zoos. The last ones of Artis and Rotterdam are years ago, but I bought a pretty nice one from Burgers' Zoo last year and the one of Ouwehands is also quite recent.
It's interesting because they were becoming quite rare in most of the traditional zoo countries inEurope a few years ago, but a few seem to have seen a bounce-back, while Germany has seen near-extinction.
Walsrode and Leipzig still do guidebooks - good ones too! And Dortmund certainly still had one as of my 2018 visit!
Walsrode does? I looked for it last year, but it wasn't on sale. My visit to Zoo Dortmund was some years ago, but no guidebook at that moment.
Still the edition with a Curl-crested Aracari cover? not far off a full set (missing four of the ones from the 1960s, and the 2009 one) so always handy to know when there is another to seek out. Just spotted Wuppertal on your list - they still do guidebooks too! Picked up a very good quality guidebook there in 2018.
Very strange. Maybe the zoos hadn't one at my last visits (already some years ago, 2010-2015) but got new editions in recent years. I do have older ones though. EDIT: I searched a bit and it seems Wuppertal got a new one in 2017, a little more than a year after my last visit.
I believe there *was* a decade-long gap between Wuppertal guides, but Walsrode guides are relatively regular (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019).
I visited Walsrode just a few weeks after opening of the 2019 season, so I guess the new guidebook wasn't avaliable at that moment yet.
