Duisburg Zoo

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The Duisburg Zoo (founded on May 12, 1934 is one of the largest zoological gardens in Germany. It is especially well known for its Dolphinarium and, since 1994, for breeding Koalas.

Far less well known are the breeding successes in other areas like, for example, with fossas (civits from Madagascar) and Red River Hogs.

The zoo is located in the northern part of the Duisburg urban forest on the boarder with Mülheim on the Ruhr. Federal highway A 3 divides the zoo into a western and an eastern part, which are joined by a leafy country bridge. The highway is scarcely noticeable to the visitors.

[edit] History

The Duisburg Zoo was founded in 1934 as the Duisburg-Hamborner Tierpark am Kaiserberg. In 1936 the zoo began to grow from a small animal park with its first (loaned)

Turtles in the Duisburg Zoo

elephant. With the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the zoo had to be closed. Only in 1946 was the zoo reopened with animals loaned from the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich. In 1952 the zoo could register the acquisition of its first elephant. In 1958 a facility for penguins and seals was dedicated by the businessman and promoter Helmut Horten. In 1965, one of Europe’s largest dolphinariums was opened in a newly developed area. Research into the behavior of dolphins increased the zoo’s prestige, but also drew sharp criticism, since even the generously dimensioned dolphinarium only managed to offer a small fraction of the space available to a dolphin in its natural habitat.

pygmy hippopatami

Director Wolfgang Gewalt drew similarly vehement criticism for leading an expedition to supply the zoo with a white whale. In the summer of 2004, the beluga Ferdinand and the Commerson's dolphin Yogi, the last animals of their kind in Duisburg, were flown to Sea World in San Diego, CA where they are spending their twilight years in species appropriate tanks together with their others of their kind. Amazingly, the animals, which are the oldest of their kind known, appear to have tolerated the move well.

The Chinesese Garden in the zoo

In 1970, the animal park renamed itself a "zoo" and marked 1978 with the birth of its first dolphin. Besides the construction of a house for kodiak bears (1982), big cats (1985), koalas (1994) and an outdoor facility for gorillas among other things, a city partnership between Duisburg and Wuhan was dedicated with the construction of a Chinese garden complete with fauna. The Duisburg Zoo celebrated its 70 years of existence in May 2004. In recent years, the zoo made efforts to renovate its antiquated enclosures, which lead to the result that many species, for example the polar bears, had to be given up. There are, to be sure, a few facilities which in no wise meet contemporary standards. Since September 2005, a new facility for the two river dolphins dubbed the “Rio Negro” has opened. This should afford a species appropriate enclosure for the fresh water dolphins in the coming years.

[edit] Ruhrpott-Schnauzen

You can follow everyday life at the Duisburg.Zoo daily on ZDF. The TV sender has broadcast the documentary series "Ruhrpott-Schnauzen" since June 2006.