Sooo instead of seeing extinct in the wild animals that i didnt expect in a place to hunt them like darthquell did i found some in my small childhood zoo that i really didnt expect!
The tiergarten Mönchengladbach is a small, community run zoo that i frequently visited as a child as its in walking distance from some family members but havent for atleast 6 or 7 years.
The only thing that i knew was that they applied for a rewilding programm to send their brownbears to a bearpark in the Czech Republic as their habitats were old and way to small concrete pits and they just wanted the best for them, a journey that was made a documentary i some day catched on tv.
But lets start at the start with the entrance.
For something we we all have to do so often, we only rarely talk about them, even if every zoo has them.
Theirs is quite modest, being just one cash register that doubles as a gift shop in the side of an old farmhouse with a metall turn around as the exit.
Next to it is a smaller second house, serving as the living quarters of the zoos freeroaming pair of peafowls and a group of chicken.
In general this zoo has quite the substantial focus on endangerd breeds, featuring 5 differnt goat breeds, one being our beloved african dwarf goat but also 4 endangerd ones from all across europe, and one endangerd breed each of estonian sheep, one very impressive ungarian cattle and german rabbits.
Ik many people here dont belief that domestic species belong into the game or zoos, but still seeing those breeds, all with strict breeding books with less then 1.200 members of these old breeds each alive on the planet you gotta wonder why especally those being all about zoo conversation reject domestics, as old and little known domestic breeds face extinction just as much as wild animals if they stop being kept in captivity. There is no wild population and if they arnt used economicly, who will keep those breeds alive besides desicated breeders and zoos trying to keep them alive. Just a nugget for thought.
Anyways the thing most of you guys might be more interested in are the extinct in the wild animals i mentioned at the beginning.
Besides helping with breeding endangerd breeds they are by now a listed EAZA member and part of 3 different breeding programms for 3 species all new since my last visit. The first are vitnamese sika deer, only found in the wild in a single protected area, the second is the european mink, europes most endangerd mammal and third is the vitnamese pheasent, a species considerd extinct in the wild.
And you know what the wildest part is? They had not only 2 different breeding pairs but also chicks!
They might be a bit hard to see but 2 of them are in the top left in the back ground.
Besides some small vivariums, there wasnt much in regards to new species besides those 3, instead what the zoo did was giving up multiple animals and enlarging the space of animals allready present. Where they once had nutrias they enlarged the space and put the european minks. The fallow deers still had 2 individuals but most of their main enclosure was given to the sika deer mixed with mouflon, the other part most likly following once those 2 either died or can be given to other zoos. Where they once had 4 different species of monkeys in their monkey house, only 2 remain with tunnels connecting the areas where they once had different species that where rotated into their 2 out door enclosures, with only tufted capuchins and crab eating macaques remaining. Some habitats are still being renovated like the old red fox habitat, while at other places it seemed like they marked an area for an entirly new habitat, but the biggest glow up must have gone to the before mentioned brown bear habitats. What once where two concrete pits conected by a holding facility has now been split into a habitat for short clawed otters and one for racoons and both white nosed and south american coatis, with the racoons and south american coatis recieving a huge huge upgrade this way as before they had both enclosures so small that they have now been connected for small tortoises, which moved out of the parrot house giving all 3 species sizeable upgrades.
The enclosures themself have been severly upgraded aswell, all having their concrete floors broken out and being replaced with dirt, rocks or bark mulch. Especally the otters really enjoyed their enclosures and i saw them run around, climb and jump from level to level, dig in the mulch, carry and play with stones and just general mischief.
Planet Zoos traversable area wouldnt come close to make their crazy movement justice.
There are some more enclosures i want to highlight though, first of their starting habitats, a meadow split into 2 by a fence, both sides containing big wants for the game.
Move left and we find a pond with lots and lots of waterfowl. How many you ask?
Well we got:
- White Stork
- Black Swan
- Domestic Goose
- European Gray Goose
- Canada Goose
- Barheaded Goose
- Snow Goose
- Mallard Duck
- Muscovy Duck
- Mandarin Duck
- Saxony Duck
- Indian Runner Duck
- Unspecified Domestic Ducks
- Wild Mallard Ducks and Grey Herrons
And the best part? Thats not even their only dedicated goose pond as their are two other, one for canada goose in their south america habitat (mara, rhea, alpaca, canada goose) and a second one for the ungarian curly goose.
If we got a quarter of what this zoo has in one pond i could die happy with the amount of waterfowl in the game.
For the other side we have a pond filled with 8 different terrapin species. Worth to note that this zoo colaborates with the local shelter and takes in terrapins and parrots from them and giving them an forever home, leading to quite the varried selection for both groups.
I dont know about you guys, but im
dying to use the terrapin outside of that box and to just have them in natural ponds like this, as in 99,9% of cases thats how they are showcased in european zoos. Even my local aquarium has them in an open topped habitat in their tropical hall in a space where they once had a third small crocodelian species.
Besides the iguana, these guys defenetly are most wanted exhibits to be turned into habitat animals and really if frontier does that id love for them to get the butterfly treatment, as the only thing differentiating most sliders are some patterns and colors of those patterns. Imagine they give us 3 sliders and an update to the terrapin and really what more could we ask for? It would be great
Last for the great glow up gang that i want to feature today is this striped mongoose habitat. It simply does a lot with the little space it has and also looks quite nice, just a great reference habitat all around.
Last but not least we got the habitat of the rhine lander rabbits, another rare breed and an especally fun habitat.
Settled in between the playground and the south america habitat, their habitat is split into 2 parts that the rabbits can travel between freely, one being a nice green grassy part with some bushes and rather natural area in the left and the main feature, the bunny castle. The castle features not only their holding on an circular high point, it also uses the terrain of the playground well. The picture was taken from the main yard behind a fence that you can see on the bottom, but under this little hill there are 2 large pipes for children to crawl through and get into the section before the castle for a closer look. I also really like the style of the holdings of the bunnys and the neighboring curly geese, it looks very simple but also uite fun and i wish that we had such swinging wood roofs in the game.
And thats it, for me it was a nice nostalgic trip mixed with seeing how everything changed. Ofcourse there are still many more improvements to be made, for example expanding the monkeys outdoor area or rebuilding their wisent habitat which literally is 2 halfs, one just dirt, one concrete and a pool, and a general to much concrete problem where many paths could be significantly slimmed down or scrapped to enhance the area for animals, the wisents and crab eating macaques in particular, but in general the zoo came a long way with some impressive successes especally for being community funded and with their successfully breeding of the edwards pheasent, inclusion in three breeding programms and current renovation on the old red fox habitat, which used to be a concrete block aswell but now got both the concrete floor and roof demolished and replaced with dirt and plants i can confidently say that i am more then excited to see how it will change till the next time i will be there!
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An awake kiwi and in day light! I've been in Berlin Zoo twice and I could never see them because the light in their aviary is almost zero, like a night with no moon, darker than any night house I have ever been.
