Rostock Zoo (German: ''Zoologische Garten Rostock'') 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 zoo ...

in the city of

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

, founded in 1899. It covers 56 hectares and with 4,500 animals from 320 species, Rostock Zoo is the largest zoo on the German east coast. Rostock Zoo is

studbook A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry and the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders ...

keeper of Polar bears within the

European Endangered Species Programme The EAZA Ex-situ Programme (EEP) is a population management and conservation programme by European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) for wild animals living in European zoos. The programme was formerly known as the European Endangered Species ...

. The director of Rostock Zoo is Udo Nagel.

History

From foundation to 1945

Around 1864, previous military grounds were transferred into a garden, and by 1866 completed and named ''Trotzenburg''. In 1898, the first fenced animals were introduced, as wild boar and different kind of deer. The next year was the official opening for the ''Hirschgarten'' an der ''Trotzenburg'', and the first zookeeper, Carl Lange, was employed to take care of the different animals.Historie des Rostocker Zoos
retrieved 10 August 2012.

1945 to 1989

The air bombings during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

on the city of

were extremely heavy. All buildings and enclosures in Rostock Zoo were destroyed. The garden architect, Arno Lehmann, started in 1951 the renovation and rebuilding of the zoo. Many people from the town volunteered in this work, with direct manual work, as well as with their support. The zoo was re-opened for the public in 1952, was enlarged in 1956, and renamed and refounded 16 January 1956 as ''Zoologischen Garten Rostocks'' In 1960, the two first

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus ''Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the no ...

s arrived to the new built elephant enclosure, and later Rostock Zoo took over the breeding of Arabian horse and became the largest breeder of the horse in the entire

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. In 1963, the first polar bear was born in the zoo, and it was given the name ''Katja''. In 1973, the zoo was once again enlarged with an added 56 Hectares, coordinated with a new master plan. Since 1980, Rostock Zoo is

keeper of Polar bears within the

Since 1989

In 1992, ''Gemeinnützige GmbH Zoologischer Garten Rostock'' was founded and chaired by Rostock Zoo director, Udo Nagel, and from 1992 until 1998, several new animal enclosures were established, among them

painted dog The African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus '' Lyca ...

eared seal An eared seal or otariid or otary is any member of the marine mammal family Otariidae, one of three groupings of pinnipeds. They comprise 15 extant species in seven genera (another species became extinct in the 1950s) and are commonly known eith ...

s and Hussar monkey, and since then more enclosures has been created or renovated. In 1999, the zoo celebrated the Jubileum named ''100 Jahre Tiergärtnerei'', after being a garden for a hundred years. The female African elephant, Sara, who was the oldest in a European zoo, died 2013, and ended the Zoo's keeping of elephants, and the elephant enclosure was replaced with

Pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It has ...

Darwineum

Named after the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

, ''Darwineum'' was opened on 8 September 2012. This living museum, which covers 20,000 m², and contains over 80 species of animals, was the largest building project throughout Rostock Zoo history, at a cost of more than 28 million Euro. In two interactive expositions is biological

diversity Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to: Business *Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce *Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers * ...

on earth exposed, as well as the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

behind it, starting with the

Big Bang Theory The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

and the creation of the

Observable Universe The observable universe is a ball-shaped region of the universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and exploratory probes at the present time, because the electromagnetic radiation from these ob ...

. Theme Boxes with

living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living foss ...

s, aquarium with corals, seahorses and Germany's largest circular tank for

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrell ...

. The center of the exhibition is the ''Tropenhalle'', a 4,000 m² tropical exhibition with gibbons,

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 or fi ...

orangutan Orangutans are 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 the genu ...

s and

De Brazza's monkey De Brazza's monkey (''Cercopithecus neglectus'') is an Old World monkey endemic to the riverine and swamp forests of central Africa. The largest species in the guenon family, it is one of the most widespread arboreal African primates. Aside from ...

. Next to the ''Tropenhalle'' is an exhibition which shows the culture evolution of

Man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

. Eisbären 05.09.2013 mz 12.JPG, Polar bears in the Zoo Erdmaennchen-24-jk.jpg, Meerkat in the Zoo Antilopenziesel 25.07.2013 mz 01.JPG, Antelope squirrel in Darwineum

References

*Much of the content of this article comes fro
the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article.
Retrieved on 16 January 2014. Some of the following references are cited by that German-language article:

External links

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rostock Zoo

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 zoo ...

Zoos in Germany