But if we really wouldn’t need these tasks of the zoo, then I think we would be in balance with nature but this can not be achieved with big cities. And therefore, I see a great and bright future for zoos. Read More
What do you know about the profession that you’ve devoted so many years of your life to?… Read More
Well, it’s a difficult and hard profession. Especially, the most difficulties usually arise with humans. But it’s a profession, if you see, after a lot of work, a young animal growing up, it’s a wonderful, wonderful profession as well. I wouldn’t like to miss it. Read More
My?… Read More
in your zoo career. I think it’s a combination of things I already reached in Zurich Zoo to what I reached in Frankfurt. For example, well, if I have to select one thing, I probably would say in Frankfurt, we have bred three southern black rhinos, all females. And I… Read More
The sentence is, the best world would be a world where zoos are not necessary. But we need them for our visitors for recreation. We need them for information education. We need them for research. And we need them for conservation. And therefore, we need zoos. And new zoos will… Read More
One pregnant female that gave birth, I think, to about eight offspring, of which about half survived. And this is the founder population of the billions and billions of golden hamsters we have nowadays. I fully admit that probably our golden hamsters that are domesticated, in the meantime, probably wouldn’t… Read More
What’s your proudest accomplishment in your zoo career?… Read More
The regional programs brought a big step forward because in former times, zoos didn’t need to breed so much. Usually, because animals were expensive, we just kept a pair, especially with, for example, gorillas or rhinos or so. And sometimes even a zoo director considered that a male gorilla looks… Read More
The first difficulty is that moving animals can be difficult. What I already said, that airlines no longer accept animals. The border control can be difficult or it can be forbidden, because of health reasons, to import or export an animal. And it can be very, very far away from… Read More
And we know this, for example, for cheetahs. They need to get the choice which mate they select. And these behavioral aspects are so far largely neglected. It’s mostly the genetic aspects that are considered. And there again, it’s one big danger that inbreeding is thought as being the worst… Read More
When you talk about improvement, can you tell me and talk about exhibit design?… Read More
I think what I forgot to mention about captivity is an animal behind fences looks like a captive animal. It doesn’t feel captive but it looks for the visitor as captive and therefore, we should avoid any fences through which we have to look at animals. And so this is… Read More
Would you explain to me the regional breeding programs for EEP?… Read More
But wild animals are captured in their territories. And if they leave their territories, they have to fight with the neighbors. And therefore, I think we shouldn’t use captivity, neither freedom. But I use, under human care, and, in the wild, in the nature. Read More
Are there any programs or exhibits that you would’ve wanted to have done during your tenure, but just didn’t happen?… Read More
Well, of course, we did the master planning and I couldn’t finish it. I couldn’t even finish the ape facility that I planned. This was opened by my successor. But these were the priorities I have had. The next would’ve been a bear exhibit. My successor opened now a very… Read More
So we keep them on the right social condition. The diet usually is optimal. Very often it’s too good because the keeper is sorry for an animal and gives a little bit more and so, as in humans, many zoo animals are rather too fat. And it’s very difficult to… Read More
Another thing is that views more and more symbolic borders for zoo enclosures. Of course, not for elephants or bears or big cats but Lota Deitrich, the sometimes director of Hanover Zoo, developed dry moats for antelopes. And he made trials. If the moats were more than 1.2 meters, the… Read More
And I, therefore, avoid always captivity and say under human care. And I avoid the term freedom as well. A lot of people think all the animals in the wild, they are free. And especially a golden eagle roaming in the sky, they think it’s wonderful how free this flies… Read More