Germany: Chimpanzee Open-Air Enclosure, GorillaGarden Expansion & AffenPark at Krefeld Zoo
Schimpansin Bally
A lot is going on at Germany’s Krefeld Zoo. After a major fire had destroyed the zoo’s great ape house on New Year’s Eve in 2019, in which more than 50 living creatures lost their lives, the zoo in North Rhine-Westphalia continues to work on the realization of its announced “Conservation Centre Ape Park” project. As part of this project, plans are underway for the construction of a new great ape house, which is still in the middle of planning. Part of the development plan is also the expansion of the existing “Gorilla Garden”, which was opened in 2012, and which is scheduled to start soon on the area of the former ape house.
It will not take long until the chimpanzees “Bally” and “Limbo”, who survived the fire, can temporarily move into the outdoor enclosure. As of early September, the two animals will be able to discover their new home, which is an interim solution until the new chimpanzee house is completed. Concrete plans are already in place for “Construction Phase 1” of the Conservation Centre Ape Park, which includes the creation of the new chimpanzee house with two outdoor enclosures – the Europe-wide call for tenders in “service phase 5” has already been issued, in which companies can apply for the construction.
In early 2022, the zoo and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology signed a Memorandum of Understanding as part of the “Great Ape Research Network” (GrApeNet), the aim of which is to cooperate in the long term in the field of comparative cognition and behavioral research on the primates that will in future live in the Conservation Centre Ape Park. (eap)
