Leipzig Zoological Garden, or Leipzig Zoo (german: link=no, Zoologischer Garten Leipzig) is a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zool ...

in Leipzig`s district

Mitte Mitte () is the first and most central borough of Berlin. The borough consists of six sub-entities: Mitte proper, Gesundbrunnen, Hansaviertel, Moabit, Tiergarten and Wedding. It is one of the two boroughs (the other being Friedrichshain-Kreu ...

, Germany. It was first opened on June 9, 1878. It was taken over by the city of Leipzig in 1920 after World War I and now covers about and contains approximately 850 species. By 2020 the zoo featured six different theme worlds, aiming at providing habitats appropriate for the species on display. Leipzig zoo is internationally noted for its large building projects such as Pongoland (housing

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four ...

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative the ...

bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus '' Pan,'' the other being the comm ...

s and

orangutan Orangutans are Hominidae, great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in ...

s) and Gondwanaland (world's second largest indoor rainforest hall at ). It has bred more than 2,000 lions, 250 rare

Siberian tiger The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is a population of the tiger subspecies ''Panthera tigris tigris'' native to the Russian Far East, Northeast China and possibly North Korea. It once ranged throughout the Korean Peninsula, but currently inhabit ...

s, and other carnivores like

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nort ...

s. Leipzig Zoological Garden has been called the "Zoo of the future". It is ranked as the best zoo in Germany and also the second-best in Europe (after

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Family visit

Family friendly extras include a large number of playgrounds, picnic areas, various gastronomic offers. Apart from Godwanaland every part of the zoo is accessible with strollers and carts. There are various possibilities to get close to animals such as goats and stroke them. Children under 6 pay no admission. If you want to make sure to be there at feeding time, there is the possibility to find out online at what time which aminals will be fed. Parking is across the street, which is convenient, but the rates per hour reflect the fact that the zoo is situated downtown. Dogs have no access to the zoo.

Theme worlds

The Zoo Leipzig hosts six different theme worlds; the Founder's Garden, Gondwanaland, Asia, Pongoland, Africa and South America. Zoo director Prof. Dr. Jörg Junhold wants to combine species conservation, with spacious compounds, which are as appropriate for the species kept within as possible. Additionally the zoo offers educational tours to visitor groups and various special events.

Founder's Garden

The Founder's Garden is located close to the entrance, partially in historical buildings. Besides the explorer's arch, which is also used for educational purposes this part of the zoo includes compounds displaying

koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womba ...

golden lion tamarin The golden lion tamarin (''Leontopithecus rosalia'', pt, mico-leão-dourado , ), also known as the golden marmoset, is a small New World monkey of the family Callitrichidae. Native to the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil, the golden lion ta ...

s, coppery titi monkeys and bearded emperor tamarin, partially in the facilities of the former monkey house, which was replaced by Pogoland in 2001.

Gondwanaland

In 2010 the massive greenhouse Gondwanaland opened comprising area larger than two football pitches (16.500 m²). It has its own tropical climate and hosts almost 200 exotic animal species and around 500 different plant species. There is a treetop trail, with squirrel monkeys jumping around very closely. Visitors can also take a small open boat (for a small extra fee) to gain a different perspective. Another very rare animal, living in Gondwanaland is the eastern quoll, medium-sized carnivorous dasyurid marsupial native to Australia

Asia

One of the main attractions of this theme world are the

Indian elephant The Indian elephant (''Elephas maximus indicus'') is one of four extant recognised subspecies of the Asian elephant and native to mainland Asia. Since 1986, the Asian elephant has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List as the wild pop ...

s. They have their own swimming pool, complete with a visitor gallery underneath, in case you make it there when the pool is opened to them, swimming elephants can be seen from below. The critically endangered

Chinese pangolin The Chinese pangolin (''Manis pentadactyla'') is a pangolin native to the northern Indian subcontinent, northern parts of Southeast Asia and southern China. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2014, as the wi ...

– almost extinct in the wild – also inhabits this part of the zoo. Other species in this part of the zoo are:

sloth bear The sloth bear (''Melursus ursinus'') is a myrmecophagous bear species native to the Indian subcontinent. It feeds on fruits, ants and termites. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, mainly because of habitat loss and degradatio ...

and snow leopards. Until they finally received an appropriate environment in 2017 the snow leopards lived in „traditional cages“ like the panther

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogn ...

wrote about in 1902.

Pongoland

The modern ape-world with spacious outdoor facilities was opened in 2001 and allows four species of

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including human ...

s to live in family groups. Besides that it hosts a research centre in cooperation with the

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (german: Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, shortened to MPI EVA) is a research institute based in Leipzig, Germany, that was founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Plan ...

the Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center is situated in Pogoland, operating in collaboration with the Leipzig Zoo. The research focuses on both behavior and cognition of the four species of great apes:

s (in this case

western lowland gorilla The western lowland gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'') is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla'') that lives in montane, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Africa ...

s),

s, and

s. There is a special focus on the ontogeny of chimpanzee cognition. When it was planned and constructed the

Yerkes National Primate Research Center The Emory National Primate Research Center (formerly known as Yerkes National Primate Research Center) located in Atlanta, Georgia, owned by Emory University, is a center of biomedical and behavioral research, is dedicated to improving human and a ...

functioned as role facility for its creation. All monkeys, except the orangutans, participate in the

European Association of Zoos and Aquaria The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), is an organisation for the European zoo and aquarium community that links over 340 member organisations in 41 countries. EAZA membership is open to all zoos and aquaria across Europe that compl ...

which is part of the EAZA Ex-situ Programme. Numerous young monkeys were born in Leipzig since Pogoland opened.

Africa

Leipzig - Zoo - Afrika + Diceros bicornis 03 ies

One of the main attractions of the African area is the 25,000 m² Kiwara Savannah, a shared habitat occupied by Grévy's zebras,

Rothschild's giraffe Rothschild's giraffe (''Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi'') is a subspecies of the Northern giraffe. It is one of the most endangered distinct populations of giraffe, with 1,399 mature individuals estimated in the wild in 2018. Taxonomy and ...

Thomson's gazelle Thomson's gazelle (''Eudorcas thomsonii'') is one of the best known species of gazelles. It is named after explorer Joseph Thomson and is sometimes referred to as a "tommie". It is considered by some to be a subspecies of the red-fronted gazelle ...

s, Scimitar oryx,

Nile lechwe The Nile lechwe or Mrs Gray's lechwe (''Kobus megaceros'') is an endangered species of antelope found in swamps and grasslands in Sudan and Ethiopia. Description Males are an average of long and tall at the shoulders, and weigh between , whil ...

s and

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There ...

es. Amongst the other animals are lions,

hyena Hyenas, or hyaenas (from Ancient Greek , ), are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae . With only four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the clas ...

and the very popular

meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kil ...

South America

This area is scheduled to be redesigned to host a South American landscape with a large aquatic habitat will be opened for seals and penguins.

Guanaco The guanaco (; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids, the other being the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Etymology The guanaco ...

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean ...

s and Chacoan peccaries are amongst the inhabitants (before reconstruction). File:ZooLeipzigAquariumEingang.png, Entrance to the aquarium File:Petrosaurus thalassinus b.jpg, Baja blue rock lizard File:Family (23885479).jpeg, Tiger family File:Leipzig - Zoo - Afrika 06 ies.jpg, Kiwara Savanne with

giraffe The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, ''Giraffa camelopardalis ...

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. z ...

oryx ''Oryx'' is a genus consisting of four large antelope species called oryxes. Their pelage is pale with contrasting dark markings in the face and on the legs, and their long horns are almost straight. The exception is the scimitar oryx, which l ...

and crowned crane File:Lunch time (31573691267).jpg, Young gorilla having lunch File:Leipzig - Zoo - Afrika - Suricata suricatta 11 ies.jpg, Meerkats File:Gondwanaland Leipzig, Vogelperspektive.jpg, Gondwanaland from above (white hall) File:Zoogeschichten - panoramio (3).jpg, Giraffes File:Tiliqua scincoides (White, 1790).jpg, Eastern blue-tongued lizard in the terrarium

Notes

External links

* * {{Authority control Zoos in Germany Buildings and structures in Leipzig Tourist attractions in Leipzig