Aside from the fact that Wildlands had to replace a much loved zoo and the large number of errors that were made in the first years, there are enough reasons to be critical of the current Wildlands. The first is the animal collection, which is minimal for such a large zoo, especially when one sees all the available space that sits unused. The collection they do have is very ABC-focused and aside from the two greenhouses and the tiny unfitting aquarium extremely mammal-focused. But more importantly is the poor landscaping throughout the zoo and the theming, which I personally find bad. The enclosures are almost without exception spacious and mostly well-suited for their inhabitants. But design-wise quite full of flaws. For example, that there is only one larger indoor and outdoor enclosure for the Elephants is weird and both are very narrow and barren and are dominated by strange rock formations. Not a pretty sight and not optimal in terms of enrichment, shade and separation options. For a zoo that aims at transporting visitors to the wild, there is far too much crossviewing, so visitors can often be seen from any given viewpoint. The golf court savanna and elephant outdoor enclosure are good examples. Apart from visible visitors, zoo structures are also very obvious, like the separation cages in Jungola or all the other theme worlds or exhibit barriers that one can see because there was only a half-hearted attempt at immersion. For example the lion enclosure hill is exactly to low to hide the jungola greenhouse, destroying any illusion of depth. With Burgers' Zoo and Gaiazoo, as well as nearby Hannover there are some good examples closeby on how to do landscape effectively and avoid cross-viewing. What I personally find very annoying is the theming. When going for a nature/wild experience one should either opt for the naturalistix/realistic way of Burgers' or Zürich where replicating the natural habitat with a bit of authentic cultural theming present is the main goal. The other option is the way of Pairi Daiza where one heavily focuses on authentic cultural theming that is faithful to the region it aims to represent. Wildlands created a difficult job for itself by going for a biome without a specific geographic location. That this means that the whole jungle zone is a bunch of tropical generic ruins and bamboo and no substance is not very nice imo, but at least effective in some ways. The real eyesore for me is Serenga, which has a heavy African theme, meaning an overload of Afrikaans, some tribal references and 0 substance. That really is a painful caricature of Africa for someone who has worked on that continent for quite a while. The only convincing and well executed part for me was the W-African children's zoo, which is faithful to a specific architecturd. The Arctic area to me is just a bad copy of Yukon Bay in Hannover. And to be honest education and the conservation message on expects of such a zoo are a joke or in some cases almost completely lacking. There is quite some effort put in the theming of the education material, but it did not convince me at all. Does that make Wildlands a bad zoo, no. But there are quite a number of better zoos in the Netherlands that have a more convincing story and a better execution of their ideas. Wildlands created a really high bar for themselves and fail to meet said bar spectacularly, but not unexpectedly. I personally think that with half the cost one could have transformed the old zoo in something much better than Wildlands is now...
The reasons why I dont like Wildlands: - too few species - very poor landscaping- especially Nortica looks horrible with not much nature at all, and being very narrow - most enclosures are ok but far from being great which is very dissapointing for a new zoo and the amount of money spent (examples: hippo enclosure too small, same for polar bears, all enclosures in Nortica are too narrow, visitors are way too close to the animals; elephant enclosure too narrow, elephant indoors a huge waste of space with way too much water and not good enrichment, savannah too small for having a truck driving in it which means stress for the animals). All in all, I consider Wildlands as a gigantic waste of money and a horrible replacement of the old Emmen which was a wonderful pleasant park to enjoy nature and animals with lots of trees and natural vegetation.
By the way, I am not blind to the fact that the old zoo had some big flaws and that the indoor areas for the large mammals (elephants, giraffe, hippos) were very very poor.
Thank you for these replies, most of them i totally get. I think the big thing for me is the: "What could have been." and the startpoint of the whole construction of the new park. Below the post I posted a presentation I found online a few years ago. showing their first ideas. I agree with the animals, there are a lot less species than the old zoo had, also missing a few of the big ones (tigers, bears, crocs). What I understood was the idea of giving the animals more space, the savannah is three times the size of the previous one, the elephants 2, maybe 3 times larger. this is a very good thing. animals need space. and where you give space, you have to take space from other animal species, so I also get why not every animal moved to the new park. the argument about species is with this perspective less valid. Its about animal welfare, not about numbers of species, something a lot of zoos should look into. With the sightlines, I agree, but I also think, because the zoo was built on farmland with no existing trees, just a flat area. its not strange for you too see everything. all the plants have to grow and help hide buildings in that way. so for this I think we just need to give it time. with notica, I totally agree, the polar bear exhibit looks different from the pictures, I love the separation between the exhibits (the oil pipes), but I do not like the execution there. I also don't understand (I get it, but don't understand why they dit it), changed the "Playa Pinguinos" habitat. I thought it was great amazing. close encounters, something people want, in a very big enclosure, very close to their natural habitat. choices need to be made, but I agree with this. nortica is not my favourite part, I really don't like the second part of the sea bear exhibit, and hate the show... I would have preferred something like the Henry Doorly Zoo sea lion exhibit. with the theme, I love that it shows people how animals/nature collides, but also forms the natural world we have today. the way humans impact the world and where the natural world meets humans is great. the different stories, the woman (depiction is probably a bit problematic nowadays) that helps protect the animals of the savannah, the bird-guy that tries to find this giant bird in Jungola, but crashes his plane and now lives there, trying to live in this world where nature is king. Nortica, where scientists try to understand the Nordics and its animals. I miss these stories. Again, I miss what could have been, but have faith it will get there. The negative press is something they got from the beginning, so they already start in negative numbers and I think a lot of people hold on to these thoughts. I don't think that's fair. If you guys want to see one of the presentations about what they wanted to happen, here is a link: (I found it a few years ago and decided to copy it, its not mine) EXPEDITIE EMMEN
I don’t really get the big amount of criticism here, when I went to Wildlands in 2016 I was a bit disappointed and there was a lot to improve but during my visit last month I enjoyed it a lot more than 5,5 years earlier. Yes, there is a lot of space where they could have more small enclosures with non ABC animals, but the past years they already improved that a lot (owls, squirrel monkeys, raccoons, beavers, nortica aquarium, loads of new animals in rimbula). I hope that they will do this more in serenga as well in the future. it is a bit annoying that you can see rimbula clearly while being in serenga yes, but some criticism just doesn’t make sense. Some people complain about the exhibits being too big which means you can’t see the animals good enough, others say the exhibits are too small. Saying all exhibits in nortica is especially ridiculous: the polar bears exhibit is fine, the squirrels are fine, the Aviary for snowy owls is more than enough space for 2/3 owls, and the penguins and sea lions also have enough space. I also thought there was a lot of education, at least a lot more than in 2016 and more than in most Dutch zoos. And the theming is also great for 90% of the zoo. So, I obviously know Wildlands is not perfect but it has already improved a lot since it opened and I think it needs a little more time to get even better. But well, that’s my honest opinion
Yes, it is not perfect now and compared to the diversity and richness of animal species kept in Amazonia or their African tropical habitat or the old Aquarium not quite as attractive as the old small compact zoo in the city center. A view held by many a local too even. I would have thought with all the investment they could have expanded the animal groupings like flamingo, marabu colonies and colobus monkeys et cetera and increase the animal collection significantly. Now despote its size you have a hard time seeing animals the very reason most people vosit a zoo and yes a bit underwhelming. I AM SORRY TO SAY.. I admit it is slowly learning from and by faulty early management decisions and untealistic economic return on investment, also a strong point of the old zoo business acumen I mean. Let us see where we stand in 5 years ..... many more bird aviaries, Reptilarium, Aquarium I mea big .... New animal habiats ... rhinos? Jaguars? Tigers? Free fligjt vultures....???
love the discussion, good arguments. have to say, some of the negative points are positives for me, not being able to see the animals (because exhibits are too big) is for that reason not a problem for me, especially when they want their animals to be able to pull back and hide from visitors. For the lions for example (rip Dudley), they put all the enrichment items where people can see them, so the animals are "forced" to show themselves, but they can go over the hill and lay there if they want for their "privacy." Also the elephants are supposed to have their own choice where they want to be, inside or outside. Right now, they have a lot of male elephants in the group, all born in the zoo, so I get why they have to separate them, but the idea and intention is there. What I also appreciate about Wildlands and the Noorder dierenpark before that, is the way they always try to innovate and do something different. in the first park the were one of the first to put multiple animals together in one exhibit (savannah), they did a lot about education, not just about animals, but the natural world all together, the very. large aviaries (with the nets not really visible (the plants had time to grow), the butterfly garden (the new one is a downgrade) and now (not the first in the world, but in the Netherlands) they try to switch to make it more of an amusement park with animal exhibits. constantly changing and challenging the (dutch) idea of what a zoo is supposed to be. sometimes their gambles work out, sometimes they don't. What do you guys think? I would love to see more rides, but they have to fit the theme and world. that's why I don't get the rollercoaster...
A picture I found online (also a few years ago) from "Playa Pinguinos" If somebody would have the design for the original "Es" that would be great. There were plans to have bears there (Spectacled bear I think) Pudu's. All the people that donated their "monkey puzzle trees"
I understand the rationale of giving animals more space (though for e.g. the gibbons and penguins there is less space currently than there was). But I have a feeling some zoos, including Wildlands, use this less space for more animals, as an excuse to focus only on a few ABCs and almost completely not bother about anything else. It is true Wildlands is less bad than it was in that regard, but there is still so much available space that could have been used smarter. The examples I mentioned: crossviewing in the elephant exhibit and the savanna exhibit won't change when the site matures, that is just extremely bad landscaping. Which is particularly sad for the savanna as the savanna exhibit in the old zoo was a perfect example on how to avoid crossviewing, this one is a downgrade in everything but space... Nor will there ever be trees high enough to hide the Rimbula dome from a distance, maybe in 40-50 years or will the African village be hidden from view from Nortica... I also think they made a very strange choice in lay-out by having the entrance plaza, with entry to all three zones, in the northeast corner of the zoo. In this way, all three zones are narrow at many points and make it impossible to hide the zones from each other. Hannover does this much better, as does ZOOM, other zoos that have a similar idea as Wildlands (minus the roller coaster). They made their job impossible just by taking this route... That is an issue they could have seen coming from a long long way, so I don't understand why they went for a design like this, with having only 1 outdoor enclosure and limited separation options... I must say I am not a fan of these amusement park - zoo hybrids, especially as many seem to take Disney's Animal Kingdom as inspiration, but forget that without 10 million annual visitors and lots of lodging on site, it is very hard to make it work and a budget version of such a thing is just not a smart business model, looking at the financial issues zoos like Hannover, ZOOM and Wildlands have. They can work fine, like Kolmarden in Sweden does, but there theme park and zoo are quite neatly separated, so the zoo and the theme park, which both normally attract somewhat different audiences don't mix and annoy people who visit for only one of the two...
This week the new beaver enclosure was officially opened, a pair of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) occupies it. Source: Instagram of Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (30/03/2022) https://www.instagram.com/p/CbuSJ6WKQym/
I like the local lore. Nearby the zoo Eurasian Beavers have made a huge comeback. In Drentse en Ruiten Aa amongst others they are now quite numerous going up north to Groningen-Friesland even.
Recently 2 Blue-faced honeyeaters (Entomyzon cyanotis) hatched, would this be a zoo first breeding for Wildlands? Source: Instagram of Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (15/04/2022) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcXt8L7D3eV/
Last weekend a female Onager (Equus hemionus onager) was born. Source: Instagram of Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (30/05/2022) Login • Instagram
This year Wildlands received a pair of Palawan peacock-pheasants (Polyplectron napoleonis) and recently 2 chicks hatched, a zoo first breeding for Wildlands! Source: Instagram of Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (11/06/2022) Login • Instagram
Last night a zebra was born. The gender is not yet known, the mother is Imara and this is her 7th foal. Today, the whole zebra herd is still behind the scenes, so that mother and young can get used to each other. If all goes well, the zebras will go back on the savannah tomorrow. Source: Facebook Wildlands
Sad news from Wildlands. Last weekend a South American fur seal was born dead. A day before the birth, zookeepers saw the young moving in its mother's belly. The autopsy showed that there was never any air in the lungs, so the cub did not breathe. It was a male. Mother Aruna is doing well, since yesterday she is back in the fur seal group. Source: Facebook Wildlands
Behind the scenes at the Butterfly temple the zoo succeeded in breeding the Central American silkmoth Automeris frankea. Now a number of specimens has been released into the public part of the Temple. It will last however only for a short period because this species doesn't have a mouth and will die within a short period.
Today a Vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) was born, this is the first time that this species has bred at Wildlands! The vicunas have only been kept in the zoo since January 2021. Source: Instagram of Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (11/07/2022) Login • Instagram
Wildlands announced that they will obtain 3 new primate-species this fall : - Golden lion tamarin, Emperor tamarin and White-faced saki.
