Berlin Zoo
The Zoologischer Garten Berlin (Berlin zoological garden) is one of the biggest zoos in Germany and with the largest number of species of the world. It is located in Berlin Tiergarten near the S-Bahn and railway station in the city center.
Along with its aquarium, the zoological garden is one of the highlights of Berlin.
Opened on August 1, 1844 the Zoologischer Garten Berlin was the first zoo in Germany. The early animals were donated by Frederick William IV, King of Prussia, from the menagerie and pheasantry of the Tiergarten. During World War II, the first Allied bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin killed the only elephant in the zoo. By the end of the war, the zoo area was completely destroyed and only 91 of 3175 animals survived. Considering the overall destruction of the city, this was quite remarkable.
Today the zoo houses approximately 14,000 animals from 1500 species on a 35 hectare site in historical animal houses.
Highlights include giant pandas, which can only be seen at a few zoos in the world. All of the animals are housed in enclosures that are specially designed to recreate their natural habitat.
A breeding function of the zoo is its program maintaining the studbooks for white and black rhinoceroses and gaurs.
The Berlin Zoo is the most visited zoo in Europe with approximately 2.6 million visitors from all over the world. It is open all year long and can easily be reached by public transportation. Visitors can either enter the zoo through the exotically designed Elephant Gate beside the aquarium on Budapester Straße or through the Lion Gate on Hardenbergplatz.
Berlin also has another zoo, the Tierpark Berlin, which was previously the East Berlin zoo.
Berlin zoo is one of the few zoos to exhibit Tuatara and Luzon taricitc hornbills.
The Berlin Zoologischer Garten station on Berlin's U2 U-Bahn line is the namesake for Irish band U2's song "Zoo Station" on their 1991 album Achtung Baby.
Polar bear cub controversy
As of March 2007, the Berlin Zoo made a controversial decision to save an orphaned polar bear cub named Knut, who was rejected by his mother [1]. The media reported that Activist Frank Albrecht said that "Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate and is a gross violation of animal protection laws," and that "The zoo must kill the bear", concluding, "If a polar bear mother rejected the baby, then I believe the zoo must follow the instincts of nature. In the wild, it would have been left to die." Albrecht later added that while he thought it was wrong to let the zoo save the cub's life, it would be equally wrong to kill the cub at this point, now that it has gained self-sufficiency.[2]
The German animal rights organization "Four Paws" argued along similar lines, saying it would not be right to "punish the cub for a bad decision made by the zoo."
Other activists defended Albrecht's position. Ruediger Schmiedel, head of the Foundation for Bears, told Der Spiegel weekly that "They (the zoo) cannot domesticate a wild animal." Other activists have also argued that the current humane treatment of the cub is, in fact, inhumane and could lead to future difficulties interacting with fellow polar bears.
The bear's veterinarian, Andre Schuele, disagreed, saying "These criticisms make me angry, but you can't take them so seriously. Polar bears live alone in the wild; I see no logical reason why this bear should be killed." He also argued that polar bears are "under threat of extinction, and if we feed the bear with a bottle, it has a good chance of growing up and perhaps becoming attractive as a stud for other zoos".[3] Knut's popularity and attention grew after the report of Albrecht's comments. Schoolchildren took to the streets, chanting, "Knut must live." The headlines called him "The Polar Bear of our Hearts." Politicians intervened on his behalf. He even replaced the daily topless model in a couple of daily newspapers. T-Shirts were printed and websites launched in his name. Soccer fans chanted for him instead of for their teams... For the last week of March 2007, telecasts nationwide have been filled with pleas to let the cub live.[4]
It has later been reported that the Albrecht's position was misrepresented by Bild. According to Bildbog, "Nobody had seriously demanded that" and the whole controversy was a "false alarm"[5]. The "demanded death of the small bear" was suggested to be "a wrong quotation" from Bild.[6] Albrecht posted a press release saying,
"It is absolutely incorrect that the animal rights activist who filed charges against the Berlin zoo over the hand-raising of Knut demanded that Knut be killed as well.
Albrecht explained that he tried to stop the zoo from giving a lethal injection to another baby bear that had survived. Dr. Junhold also told Albrecht that "the hand-raising of wild animals is not appropriate".
I've got an answer for them: Zoos want to decide from now on who is allowed to survive, when and where. This ethically-morally reprehensible goal of the zoos, this sanctimony and hypocrisy must be exposed first and stopped immediately. This was precisely the reason why I filed charges against the Berlin zoo."[7]
Before travel
- Address: Hardenbergplatz 8, Tiergarten, 10787
- Open time: Everyday 9:00a.m.-6:00p.m. (summer 9:00a.m.-5:00p.m.)
- Fee:
- Zoo/aquarium
- Zoo and aquarium
External links
- Official homepage of the Zoologischer Garten Berlin (english version)
- Berlin Life: A brief introduction to Berlin Zoo
- Berlin Zoo at Zoo-Infos.de (in English)
- Google Maps Aerial View
- CNN Reports of the incident
- Frank Albrecht's response to the media
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