The sex of the Red panda is now known; it's a girl! Tierpark mentioned that its 9 years ago since a Red panda has been born in the park, which I didn't know. They also mentioned that they together with her sponsor 1 FC Union Berlin, will be looking for a name for the young Red panda. Via Tierparks instagram you can suggest a name.
Planning documents show that the coming African Elephant house will also be home to Bush Hyrax, Gundi, Honey Badger, Weavers and several reptiles and other small animals.
And, according to other visitors, they started turning the complex into a construction site right after sending the last elephants away to Leipzig. It seems like they want to be really quick this time. If I interpret news articles correctly, they will also create the gigantic savannah exhibit at the same time. The current plan is to finish this 40+ mio project by 2022 or 2023.
It would be nice for locals and other visitors' if they communicate their plans with the site as well as building site banners what is happening (always nice when zoos do this to publicise on site what they are building behind the bars and shields).
They definitely did this with the ABH development - not so much over at Zoo with the Raubtierhaus development, though.
They want to start Himalaya in 2021 and finish it by 2022. So both should indeed be tackled at the same time. Which is kind of crazy, considering both areas are the size of entire zoos... Source: Wikipedia The next project for "Africa" involves at least the entire area left of "Brehm-Haus" (i.e. the huge "Dickhäuterhaus" complex and the six large enclosures above it on the map). Himalaya involves everything you see from the upper left corner of the map up to "Elche"! So the next couple of years are going to bring a huge development/ change: There will be a far more striking emphasis on geographical structuring and generous multi-species landscape enclosures. So if Tierpark Berlin already used to be THE German zoo with huge exhibits, this will become even more so in the near future. Fortunately, this also means there won't be any mediocre exhibits for large mammals like sun bears, tigers or elephants any more. However, it will take years or even decades to bring back some rather relevant species which left the Park (lions, rhinos, manatees and further back apes and seals).
I do hope they really redo the Himalaya area , because there are already a lot of Himalaya species (perhaps the best collection) there in large, but boring exhibits. I hope they don't just put a few "erlebnis" features in the existing exhibits and add a snowleopard exhibit instead of the moose exhibit. Maybe the Zoo and Tierpark will divide the species between them so there is less overlap and more reason to visit both.
I guessed, funny how the daughter was playing today and the mother keeping an eye out on her from land.
Some impressions on the future Himalaya complex The Swiss landscape architects that are going to design the future Himalaya area have published some descriptions as well as renderings. The description can be summed up as follows: Purpose: Berlin Tierpark in Berlin Friedrichsfelde is the largest landscaped zoo in Europe. The special character of the park is constituted both by its impressive size and by its extensive landscapes and gardens. The new theme area "Himalayan mountain landscape" is to help modernizing and upgrading the park so to meet up both zoological concerns and the wishes of visitors. Landscape and elements: The complex will be realised in a pre-existing mountain scenery with various embankments. This area is to form a Himalaya habitat with characteristic vegetation and and animals such as pandas, takins or snow leopards. There will be a clear focus on designing interesting visitors areas in front of the enclosures, including viewing platforms some of which may extend into the enclosures. This will be rounded up by a market place representing the culture and lifestyle of the indigenous population, a "nomad camp" and play elements. A highlight will be a summit plateau offering a view over both the artificial rock landscape and Berlin. Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects Copyright: Hager Architects
I really like the drawings but I am a bit scared the Tierpark mind end up losing, years after years, its very "raw" style. One of the charming thing about the Tierpark is its simplicity while having one of the best collections in Europe. I really like the simple, very efficient style of most of the exhibits and I don't know if I like the idea of a fully themed Tierpark.
It looks really nice in concept but I'm concerned it could end up looking tacky and fake in actuality.
Look at the path system!: It might seem that species like white-lipped deer become almost invisible to the general public. The theming and stuff makes me think sometimes they might have tried to copy the Zuerich Zoo snow leopard ring.
