Original article and photos here Burgers' Zoo, Arnhem, Holland Antoon van Hooffplein 1 6816 SH Arnhem +31-264 450 373 Burgers' Zoo Number of visitors: 1.5 million per year Our guide was the curator of the Zoo. I consider it to be a typical big Zoo, which tries to have a collection of many and different species of animals. The designers created different theme areas to cover the most interesting parts of the world eg.: the Safari, the Ocean, the Bush, etc. The Ocean tries to mimic seawater environment with animals found in coral reef regions. Is one of the most visited locations, being the biggest aquarium in Europe (in Israel is one bigger then this). Because Arnhem is positioned inland, they are doing their own mixture of water and salt (NaCl), instead of importing saltwater from the see. The dimension of the water tank is 17x25x6m, and you could find there Gray Reef and Blacktip sharks. In the tank has a raised floor in order to catch the sharks. The technique to immobilize the sharks is by positioning them on their back (turned upside down) where they enter in a phase of catalepsy and will not move. It is a safe procedure for the animal and also for the handler, clinical evaluation or blood sampling could be easily done. Eight years ago the Zoo successfully clone coral. The coral reproduces once a year and it is shipped at 5 cm in size. The seasonal changes is made by imitating daylight length, water temperature and they also created an artificial moon. The Bush was built in 1998 to mimic the tropical Rainforest, it is a covered enclosure with dense vegetation were heat, humidity and sound are artificially programmed. I found it ingeniously designed; one could walk on different levels of the building surrounded by tropical plants, lizards, free-range birds and fruit bats. You will have the possibility to see otters or manatees in the artificial river that is running along. Species witch presented veterinary interest: Tigers: There is a large and a small outdoor enclosure. There are three sisters tigers are witch are being held together. The feeding is done in separate boxes with 20kg meat /animal/ day plus one fast day per week. They stay indoors at night where there are 5 separable open boxes with sliders (witch are easy to wash having descending ground) and there is also one nursing room. Malayan Sun Bear / Helarctos malayanus / Ursus malayanus : There are 2 females each of 8 years old and one male of 4 years. The Malayan bear presents an aseasonal reproduction, being the only bear witch doesn’t have the winter sleep. In the future they want to socialize the bears with 2 Binturongs in the outdoor enclosures. Binturong / Arctictis Binturong: There are 2 male brothers born in 2003. Being brothers they tolerate themselves -the zoo is searching for a females. They are night-active animals that eat fruits and meat. Ruminants-Monkey enclosure: Banteng -Bos javanicus Elds'Deer deer Cervus elbii Hog Deer Axis porcinus Reeves'Muntiac Muntiacus reevesi Pig-tailed macaque Macaca nemestrina Siamang Hylobates syndactylus Enclosure with many tall trees, witch are connected with ropes –there are 3 trees that can not be climbed because the mounted electricity wires, avoiding that the monkeys will not leave the enclousure. The delimitation with the visitors is made though a pond, which is also used by the animals. Indian (Asian) elephant / Elephas maximus: There are 4 old elephants females (40-50 years) that came 2 years ago from a circus (dehydrated and emaciated) being held in a "retired home" for elephants; they are being handled with protected contact method. Somali giraffe or Reticulated giraffe / Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata: The females and young animals are held together and the breeding bull is being kept separated. Because the anatomy and the physiological patterns it seems that more than 10% of the giraffes die in the anesthesia. The blood tests : tuberculosis, brucellosis, Blue Tongue- fairly easy to be found in zoos Overview on the existing giraffe species1180124 • Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis), eastern Sudan, western Ethiopia • West African giraffe (G. c. peralta), also Nigerian giraffe, formerly throughout West Africa, today only in isolated occurrences, such as the Waza National Park in northern Cameroon. • Kordofanian Giraffe (G. c. antiquorum), western Sudan, Central African Republic • Reticulated giraffe (G. c. reticulata), northern Kenya, southern Somalia, southern Ethiopia • Uganda Giraffe (G. c. rothschildi), originally northern Uganda, South-West Sudan and Kenya, today almost exclusively in Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya and Uganda some areas, such as the Murchison Falls National Park; Unknown situation in Sudan because of the political situation • Maasai giraffe (G. c. tippelskirchi), southern Kenya, Tanzania • Thorn Croft Giraffe (G. c. thorncrofti), Luangwa Valley in Zambia; controversial status • Angola Giraffe (G. c. angolensis), originally in northern Namibia, northern Botswana, western Zimbabwe, southern Zambia, southern Angola • Kapgiraffe (G. Giraffa c.), southern Zimbabwe, Mozambique Southwest, northeast South Africa; once in Kapland Story case: In 2007 an incident took place at Rotterdam Zoo when a silverback gorilla escaped and attacked a visitor witch visited it daily. The person thought that the gorilla liked her attention and often staid for hours in its presence. In fact the gorilla felt threatened from all the visitor attention and one day decided to attack that person, by jumping the fence. Gorilla Escapes From Dutch Zoo, Attacks Random People In the following Photo Gallery you will find other pictures from the zoo, from which those of the primate enclosure, in my opinion, deserve to be more attention. I found surprising that the chimp's floor was only out of concrete and the gorillas floor was covered with a thick layer of wooden bark. It was seen that providing bark layers helps the animals behave more naturally. Spreading seeds in this type of environment will increase the amount of time spent searching, therefore less abnormal behavior. A disadvantage of this layer is that it gets contaminated from the feces and urine, and the animals could get infected by microorganisms, especially protozoa. Because of this it should be changed every 2-3 years (in some places even 4 years) , following a thorough disinfection. Ovidiu Rosu
Just to make some things clear; There are currently 3 elephants at Burgers' Zoo, Arnhem. They have held the elderly "Pinky" for a while, which was joined by "Rupa" who came together with Radza to Holland. In 2008, these two were joined by 2 circus elephants who were badly treated, undernurished and elderly. One of those two (Indra) died in 2009 which left 3 animals. The escaped gorilla was Bokito in Rotterdam Zoo, which had nothing to do with Burgers...
