Wuppertal Zoo (german: Zoologischer Garten Wuppertal or ''Zoo Wuppertal'') 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 ...

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and tow ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. About 5,000 animals representing about 500

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

from around the world live at the zoo, including

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister g ...

s, monkeys, bears,

big cats The term "big cat" is typically used to refer to any of the five living members of the genus ''Panthera'', namely the tiger, lion, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. Despite enormous differences in size, various cat species are quite similar ...

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...

s, as well as birds, reptiles, and fish.

History

The zoo was founded on 5 December 1879 by a joint-stock company, Gesellschaft Zoologischer Garten. The central building opened together with the zoo itself on 8 September 1881. It featured 34 animals, among them a pair of

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

and a bear. Since then, the zoo has been steadily expanded. In 1937, the joint-stock company who owned the zoo struggled due to economic hardships, and operations were transferred to the Wuppertal city council since then. During world War II, Zoo Wuppertal was not as badly damaged compared to other German zoos. At that time, a majority of the animals were evacuated to the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and Poznan zoos and did not return. In 1946, the Zoo Banqueting Hall hosted British war crimes trials especially concerning the individuals brought to the dock by the Special Air Service War Crimes Investigation Team. Major Alastair Hunt was responsible for trying several Nazi war criminals, notably

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and '' SS'' Commander ''Standartenfuhrer''

Erich Isselhorst Erich Isselhorst (5 February 1906 – 23 February 1948) was a German war criminal and ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) member before and during World War II. Between 1942 and 1943, during the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Isselhorst was an ''Einsatzk ...

and Fritz Hartjenstein.Lewis. ''SAS Nazi Hunters: The Ultra-Secret Unit and the Hunt for Hitler's War Criminals (Quercus, London (2015)).'' The late 1900s through 2000s saw major upgrades and renovations regarding the zoo's exhibits. A new large cat building was constructed in 1970 to replace the old lion house and moated lion enclosure, followed by a renovated aquarium in 1974, an ape pavilion in 1978, a renovated primate house in 1985, and an aviary for South American birds (added as a section to the bird building that was built in 1960) in 1993. In 1995, a new elephant house was constructed with a 3-acre outdoor yard and 10,750 square-foot (1,000 square-metre) indoor quarters, giving the zoo's herd of elephants expanded room. The

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 ...

enclosure was updated and expanded to in 2006, coinciding with the 125th anniversary of the opening of the zoo. Visitors can view the gorillas through a large glass window. The

drill monkey A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driverchuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to i ...

enclosure was also renovated in 2006. On 24 May 2007, the zoo opened a new enclosure for lions and tigers. The lion enclosure is claimed to be the largest in a German zoo, and the

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 inh ...

s now live in several enclosures in the Valley of Tigers. Anori, a polar bear cub born on 4 January 2012, who shares a father with the internationally well-known late polar bear

Knut Knut (Norwegian and Swedish), Knud ( Danish), or Knútur (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used w ...

, made her debut to the public alongside her mother Vilma on Thursday, 29 March 2012. Until then, a camera inside their enclosure had been monitoring her progress learning to walk and get around.

Animals & Exhibits

The zoo's rocky and hilly terrain as well as the city's humid and rainy climate has led their collection to specialize in animals native to alpine tundra,

temperate deciduous forest Temperate deciduous or temperate broad-leaf forests are a variety of temperate forest 'dominated' by trees that lose their leaves each year. They are found in areas with warm moist summers and cool winters. The six major areas of this forest type ...

, and

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equa ...

. Modern enclosures and zoo buildings exist for

s and apes, there is a house for birds with a specially designed hall, where freely flying birds can be observed, and a small combined aquarium/

terrarium A terrarium (plural: terraria or terrariums) is usually a sealable glass container containing soil and plants that can be opened for maintenance to access the plants inside; however, terraria can also be open to the atmosphere. Terraria are ofte ...

Location

The zoo lies in the western part of

on the so-called "Boltenberg" between

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a doc ...

and Vohwinkel. Public transport is available in the immediate vicinity. The (Wuppertal Suspension Railway) and

Wuppertal Zoologischer Garten station Wuppertal Zoologischer Garten station (locally also called Zoo station) is a station on the Düsseldorf–Elberfeld railway in the city of Wuppertal in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The station building was heritage-listed on 31 Augu ...

on the

Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn The Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn (german: S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr) is a polycentric and electrically driven S-train network covering the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region in the German federated state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This includes most of the Ruhr (and ...

(S8, S9) are close by. Arriving by car via the

Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

46 is possible but not recommended, since parking lots are in very short supply.

Directors

* 1900-1934: Josef Keusch * 1934-1941: Wilhelm Seiffge * 1942-1947: Eduard Wiedmann * 1947-1950: Martin Schlott * 1950-1967: Richard Müller * 1967-1988: Gerhard Haas * 1988–present: Ulrich Schürer

References

External links

* *
Zoo Wuppertal
on zooinstitutes.com {{authority control Zoos in Germany Buildings and structures in Wuppertal Tourist attractions in North Rhine-Westphalia 1879 establishments in Germany Zoos established in 1879