The animals
Presently around 3.300 animals live in the all-weather zoo. Of course we can't describe all of these in detail. Below we will briefly explain our priorities and particularities of caring for the animals.
The walk-in aviary in which the macaws are free to fly around and the tropical house, in which the visitor can experience, unfenced, a variety of animals including numerous species of tropical birds, Indian flying foxes and the lesser Malayan chevrotain (the world's smallest even-toed ungulate) are well worth visiting.
In the large aviary there are two vulture colonies (cinereous vulture and griffon vulture), whose offspring are regularly released into the wild, plus other species of birds of prey.
The all-weather zoo is one of the few zoos in Europe in which the white rhinoceros regularly breeds successfully. At the moment there are three rhinoceroses sharing the great hall with slender-tailed meerkats. The naturally formed backdrop of artificial rocks in the hall displays interesting Namibian bushman paintings.
Our elephants live in a herd of 7 animals at the moment, of which 3 are young elephants, among them the bull elephant "Chamundi" born in 1992 in Hamburg. Our aim is to breed elephants in Münster. In January 1999 "Bernhardine", who now lives in Rotterdam Zoo, gave birth to the first baby elephant in Münster, which sadly didn’t survive. One special feature in Münster: visitors may feed the elephants.
The spacious Africa panorama with about 50 African hoofed animals is separated from the visitors’ path by a moat. Over two bridges you come to the "Serengeti-lodge", from where you can observe zebras and antelopes close up.
The cheetahs live in a very spacious outdoor enclosure of around 7500m². This endangered cat species regularly breeds in Münster.
For the Persian leopard the all-weather zoo is the studbook leader within the framework of the "Europäisches Erhaltungszucht Programm" EEP (European breeding program for species conservation).
Two "walk-through" enclosures are home to ring-tailed lemurs (lemurs from Madagascar) and black and white colobus monkeys from the forests of East and West Africa). There are two monkey houses in which a variety of monkeys including chimpanzees, gorillas, ruffed lemurs, mandrills, brown capuchins, Goeldi’s monkeys and golden lion tamarins live.
In autumn 2000 the new jungle-like enclosure for orang-utans and Asian small-clawed otters was finished.The tropical house which forms a part of it has a transparent foil roof and high glass fronts. The animal area has been designed to appear natural, the entire hall lavishly planted. Instead of glass or bars a natural moat separates the animals from the visitors. In the generous, forest-like outdoor area of the house visitors can explore the habitat of the orang-utans on an adventure path with a swaying hanging bridge.
In the wading-birds´ enclosure, the "little North Sea" in Münster, the visitor can experience tidal changes and artificial waves and children can play in the North Sea sand.
The Aquarium stretches over two levels and embraces installations for insects, amphibians, reptiles, fish and birds.