Germany: New Lions Enclosure at Osnabrück Zoo Open

“Mapungubwe” is the name of the new highlight at Osnabrück Zoo, which offers the lion pride almost three times more space than before in its new home, now covering more than 2,000 square meters of outdoor space. In addition, the new enclosure offers a den with underfloor heating and radiant heaters for cooler weather, various surfaces such as sand and grass, and a stream in which the animals can cool off on hot days. A real-looking, ten-meter-high and four-meter-wide artificial baobab tree, which was realized by KaGo & Hammerschmidt, will also serve to keep the animals occupied – meat can be hung from it at height, which the animals then have to “work up” before they can eat it.

The Drecker planning office is responsible for the design and implementation of the new area. From a 127-meter-long and up to six-meter-high elevated path, visitors can now observe not only the lions, but also their direct neighbors, the giraffes, ostriches and antelopes. The African animal world “Manpungubwe”, which was realized for a total of 4.5 million euros, also includes the rhino enclosure, which was already opened in 2019 (see EAP 3/19).

The next major construction project at Osnabrück Zoo was launched around two months ago: The new “Water Worlds” area, which will house sea lions, pink pelicans and Humboldt penguins in the future, is being built on an area of 5,000 square meters and is scheduled for completion in summer 2022 (cf. EAP news of 18 May 2021). (eap)