Leipzig Zoological Garden, or Leipzig Zoo (German: Zoologischer Garten Leipzig) is a zoo in the Leipzig district of Mitte, 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 27 hectares (67 acres) and contains approximately 850 species.[1]
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 gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans) and Gondwanaland (the world's second largest indoor rainforest hall at 1.65 ha or 4.1 acres).[4] It has bred more than 2,000 lions, 250 rare Siberian tigers, and other carnivores like bears.[5][6] Leipzig Zoological Garden has been called the "Zoo of the future".[7] It is ranked as the best zoo in Germany and also the second-best in Europe (after Vienna).[8][9]
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 aimed 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 koalas since 2016 in the former ape house as well as a budgerigar aviary and primate islands.[10]
In 2010, the massive greenhouse Gondwanaland opened comprising an area larger than two football pitches (16,500 square metres (178,000 sq ft)). It has its own tropical climate and hosts 170 exotic animal species and around 500 different plant species from Africa, Asia and South America. 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.[11]
Another rare animal living in Gondwanaland is the eastern quoll, a medium-sized carnivorous dasyurid marsupial native to Australia.[12]
One of the main attractions of this theme world are the Indian elephants. They have their own swimming pool, complete with a visitor gallery underneath.
The critically endangered Chinese pangolin – almost extinct in the wild – also inhabits this part of the zoo.[13]
Until they finally received an appropriate environment in 2017, the snow leopards lived in „traditional cages“ like the pantherRainer Maria Rilke wrote about in 1902.[14]
The modern ape-world with spacious outdoor facilities was opened in 2001 and allows four species of primates to live in family groups.
Besides that it hosts a research centre in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 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: chimpanzees,
gorillas (in this case western lowland gorillas), orangutans, and bonobos. There is a special focus on the ontogeny (origin and development) of chimpanzee cognition.
When it was planned and constructed the Yerkes National Primate Research Center functioned as the role model for its creation.[15]
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. Guanacos, flamingos and Chacoan peccaries are amongst the inhabitants (before reconstruction).[16]
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