I've seen a photo of the enclosure for this group- its just a grassy area with a few worn-looking logs and branches stacked in the centre. Quite spacious but very unstimulating. Surely they could improve it?

They surely could, but the management in the Tierpark thinks that too much stuff into an animal enclosure is no good and distracts the visitors from the animals. It`s horrible. Many of the enclosures are spacious but so barren that it`s unbelieveble. Barren enclosures are not that bad for ungulates, but for monkeys, it`s just awful. This is one of the many reasons why I seriously hope that the director of the Berlin Zoos will be kicked out as soon as possible for all the mismanagement he`s responsible for. He`s pretty young (early 50`th) and I truly hope the animals don`t need to wait until he retires.

[quote=Yassa;36397]They surely could, but the management in the Tierpark thinks that too much stuff into an animal enclosure is no good and distracts the visitors from the animals. It`s horrible. /QUOTE]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty awful when I saw the photo. What a way to display Forest-dwelling Monkeys!

Prague zoo have received 7 gharial from the crocodile bank in Madras, India, in exchange for 4 Aldabran tortoise and caiman lizard.

5 gharials are already present at La Ferme aux Crocodiles, at Pierrelatte, France, for a few years.
This institution is implicated in a conservation program concerning Gharials in the wild.

At Pierrelatte, you may see about 300 Nile Crocodiles. Also Asian False Gharials, African slender-snouted crocodiles, African Dwarf Crocodiles , Black Caimans, Yacares, Mississipi Alligators and Chinese Alligators.

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Vinch
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/4...2951sv3cn9.gif

Hannover Zoo imported a group of Caribou (Rangifer Tarandus Caribou) from North America to go on to display at their new Alaska themed part of the Zoo (now under construction). This species of reindeer wasn't kept in Europe...

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My Zoo-Photo's (soon more to be added): http://jwer.fotopic.net

The german List of Zoo animals in Europe has moved to a new (and much improved) site:

ZootierlisteHomepage

I know it's in german and there's no english version yet, but if you want to browse it you can get a lot of info by just using the latin names and searching for that...

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My Zoo-Photo's (soon more to be added): http://jwer.fotopic.net

As the one hosting this site, I had a word with Ronny Graf, who makes most of the work there. A englisch version is in progress but thats not so fast done. But we try to make it work till Summer

Here is a video i found of the gharial at Prague
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELE-UU1NDoA

A dusky langur has been born in Wuppertal Zoo - that means 2 young have been born there within the last 12 months and both are doing well, after no offspring for a couple of years. Maybe hope for the european langur population?

Burgers Zoo has opened a new asian rainforest complex and the plan was to keep dusky langurs with gibbons. It seems the dusky langurs were to be imported from the U.S. This plan has now failed and I don`t know what langur species will replace them - probably javan langurs, they are the most common in Europe. I am dreaming of Francois langurs, though... highly endangered and 4 young have been born in Rotterdam in the last 2-3 years.

Hagenbeck (Hamburg) has announced that again 2 giant otters have been born and are doing well, they are already a couple of months old. Seems to be a male and a female.

They were born at 28th of January 2008, male: Jaó, female: Icana. Interesting, that the litter of 2007 (2,1) are togehter with the youngsters and helping the parents, Maku and Beni, with breeding like in nature!

Twin hippos for Emmen zoo. For the second time hippo Jetje gave birt to a twin. It is also the second time for the zoo. The two were born at May 4, gender is still unknown.

Here a photo: Dierenpark Emmen - Wereldnieuws

One of the hippos died. One of the two, a male called Odongo, wouldn't drink at his mother and has to feed by hand. Unfortunately he didn't make it and died today. His sister (named Hasana) is doing well, she's fed by her mother Jetje.

This small rock island is the most heated place of the exhibit so there are always some of them less than a meter from you. They are still immature, not even 2 meters long. 3 males, 4 females. Hopefully they will be a well reproducing group one day, Prague has been succesful reptile breeders. There's still hope for this endagered specie.

Yes, Samara, one of the twins from first litter of the young pair from Howletts. Is she still waiting for a partner?
Her parents, in Prague only from 2006, don't waste any time and currently have an only cub in their second litter here!