Berlin Zoo in Germany is one of the largest in the country. Only its area covers 35 hectares! And there are no more such species of animals in any zoo in the world: about fifteen thousand! The Berlin Zoo in Germany is one of the main attractions of the city center. This is evidenced by the number of visitors. During the year he is examined by more than two and a half million tourists!
Zoo history
The beginning of collecting exotic animals, to which he had a passion, was laid by the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III. Together with his first wife, Louise, he created an impressive menagerie on Peacock Island, which was open to visitors from the beginning to the middle of the 19th century. Numerous birds, mongooses, raccoons, kangaroos, monkeys joined peacocks, sheep, deer.
Many animals were presented to him, but, in addition, the king did not skimp on the acquisition of new representatives of the fauna from the menagerie in Karlsruhe. After his death, the son who ascended the throne did not share the passion of his father. He simply inherited this essentially private zoo in 1840.
Change hands and open
Martin Lichtenstein, who served as director of the Zoological Museum and professor at the University of Berlin, was also an adviser to the young king. He had been thinking about creating a zoo for a long time and now saw the possibility of a dream come true. He persuaded the king to part with the well-groomed islet in Tiergarten (center of Berlin) and all its inhabitants. He was joined by naturalist A. Humbolt and landscape architect P. Lenne. They arranged everything and three years later opened the Berlin Zoo in Germany on August 1, 1844. The start was not successful. But painstaking work led to the fact that he became a holding company and is now mostly in private hands.
The heyday of the zoo
In 1869, when Director Heinrich Bodinus arrived from Cologne, a new life began in the pavilions. More animals appeared, exotic stylized houses, terraces, restaurants, cafes were built. Significantly increased attendance and revenue. In 1884, Bodins died. The next director made no significant contribution.
However, after him, Ludwig Heck from Cologne very successfully ran the Berlin Zoo in Germany from 1888 to 1931. When it appeared a wide variety of animals. He also successfully bred Asian elephants, orangutans and chimpanzees. During the golden years of the leadership of Boding and Hake, the construction of the main entrance with elephants on Budapest Strasse was carried out, as well as the construction of enclosures for antelopes, ostriches, monkeys and predators. In 1913, Oscar Heinroth, under the leadership of Heck, developed a large aquarium, which was opened to visitors.
In 1932, Ludwig Heck transferred the leadership of the zoo in Berlin to his son, Dr. Lutz Heck. This director modernized the zoo by building luxurious bars using natural stones, a cliff of monkeys, smashed magnificent meadows and arranged mountain fences for brown bears, wolves, goats and other animals.
Destruction
In 1939, the zoo in Berlin totaled about four thousand animals. The war caused him tremendous damage. After the bombings in 1943 and 1944, as well as in the final battles for Berlin, almost everything that was the pride of the Berlin Zoo was almost completely destroyed. Berlin, Germany were hard-pressed for the death of almost all animals. Less than a hundred were left, and they wandered through the ruined streets. Rangers watched the survivors with selfless devotion. It was reported that the universal favorite of the hippo Knauske, the Siamese elephant, the chimpanzee Susa, was still alive.
Recovery
Dr. Katarina Heinroth undertook to restore everything from the pile of rubble. Thanks to her determination and energy, her husband developed a new aquarium, and the antelope enclosure was brought back to life. The houses of elephants and hippos were completely rebuilt. In 1956, she was replaced by an experienced doctor, Heinz-Georg Kless, who was previously the director of the Osnabruck Zoo. Many of today's buildings and buildings date back to its activities. Examples are enclosures for monkeys with fences and places for predators with a night zone for animals.
In addition to the proper reconstruction of architecturally significant structures, such as the gates of elephants, the main task of the leader was to preserve and enhance the species. Thanks to his success in breeding, he laid the foundation for many currently successful, and previously rare and endangered groups, such as black rhinos, Przewalski’s horses or white pelicans. In addition, he founded a zoo school. Under him, sculptural images of popular animals began to be placed on the territory. Looking ahead, let's say that in 2005 a white teddy bear was born, who was named Knut. His mother refused him, but the whole country fell in love with the baby. They began to produce a series of stamps, cards with his image. He appeared on the covers of magazines.
This is how he looked with his caretaker Thomas Durflein. And now a monument has been erected to him in the park. In 1991, Mr. Kless retired.
So, we talked about the difficult history of the Berlin Zoo, animals of the zoo, the address of which we will now prompt. About the animals that inhabit it, we will describe in more detail below.
Where is the zoo located and when?
In the meantime, you should find out the address, opening hours of the Berlin Zoo. It is located at Hardenbergplatz 8. It operates daily during daylight hours from March 20 to October 3: it opens at 9 a.m. and closes at seven in the evening. In autumn and winter, the regime changes slightly: from October 4 to December 31 - from nine in the morning to five in the evening. Mostly everyone comes after dinner. You can find out the entrance to it immediately after seeing the gate with stone elephants that weigh 27 tons.
How to keep pets
Berlin Zoo is Germany's best zoo. Where else can you approach the animal at arm's length? Where else will you be allowed to feed the animal? To do this, you just need to buy a balanced feed in a vending machine on site. What else is the park interesting for? For each species, conditions have been created that are as close as possible to the natural, familiar to his natural inclinations. From visitors to the animals are separated by ditches filled with water, or transparent glasses, behind which games and calm animal behavior are visible.
Zoo fauna
The area occupied by the Berlin Zoo in Germany is very large, and it is difficult to see everything at once. Now we will head to the three-story aquarium. In this largest water kingdom in the country, there is, perhaps, only Neptune.
But you can see exotic freshwater and marine fish, as well as amphibians, reptiles, insects and invertebrates. There is also a terrarium for crocodiles and not under the open sky, but closed, which allows you to watch them all year round. A variety of arthropods and insects are kept and bred in the insectarium.
All animals are arranged by the guide as conveniently as possible. Penguins and fur seals have pools with rocks. They have rookeries.
Artificial wave shore built for seabirds.
All animals have a sufficient amount of feed and look very attractive and well-groomed. In addition, they can at any time get the help of a veterinarian.
Night animals live in almost complete darkness, as they require. They are pretty hard to see. But all artiodactyls have spacious enclosures, they can be seen well and can be photographed.
Who you can meet in the park! An Indian rhino, for example, which in its dimensions is only slightly smaller than an elephant, or a dwarf hippopotamus. They seek to preserve and increase this endangered species in the zoo. Everyone can see a huge hippo, whose weight is about 4 tons. White polar wolf, Javanese leopard, sand cat, rusty cat from Sri Lanka, African antelope (lychee), giraffe, elephant, flamingo, lowland gorilla, small brisk meerkat - this is not a complete list of all the inhabitants who live in the zoo.
