Magdeburg Zoo () is a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

in the city of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

in the region

Sachsen-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the 8th-largest state in Germany by area an ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The zoo was founded in 1950, and covers .

About the Zoo

Spanning 16 hectares (39.5 acres), the zoo welcomes approximately 340,000 visitors annually. Set within a park environment in the Neue Neustadt area, it also features a children's playground. Since 1980, Magdeburg Zoo has been home to flatland tapirs ('' Tapirus terrestris''), recording 31 births from three females up to 2018. A total of fifteen male and sixteen female pups were born, with six males and nine females reaching adulthood. The last female cub was raised by bottle-feeding. In 2015, the zoo kept around 1400 animals from 190

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

History

After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

there was a public interest to develop a zoological garden. Many volunteers took part in the creation of the ''Magdeburger Tiergarten'', which opened 1 July 1950. 1957 it was decided to make the zoo larger, and in 1959 it had an areal of 20 ha, and the name was changed to ''Zoologischer Garten Magdeburg'', shortened to ''Zoo Magdeburg''. In 1960 the first elephant arrived from Assam in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, a female

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living ''Elephas'' species. It is the largest living land animal in Asia and the second largest living Elephantidae, elephantid in the world. It is char ...

called Sonja, who died of elephant smallpox in 1971.record for Sonja on the Elephant Database
/ref> From 1979 to 1998, during the appointment for the new director, Zoologist Wolfgang Puschmann, the zoo became internationally famous for its breeding of

black rhino The black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis''), also called the black rhino or the hooked-lip rhinoceros, is a species of rhinoceros native to East and Southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namib ...

s and other threatened species. 1981 started a renovation of the zoo, and a lot of classical exhibits were replaced by more modern enclosures.

Pictures

Tiger zoo magdeburg.jpg Giraffe ZooMagdeburg.jpg White lions MDZoo.JPG Spheniscus demersus ZooMD.JPG Spitzmaulnashorn ZooMagdeburg.jpg Theropithecus gelada ZooMD.JPG Männlicher Afrikanischer Elefant Uli (Zoo Magdeburg).jpg Grevyzebra (Zoo Magdeburg) (2).jpg Pan troglodytes ZooMD.JPG

Literature

* Michael Schröpel: ''Im Zeichen des Luchses. 50 Jahre Zoo Magdeburg.'' Magdeburg ohne Jahr, ohne ISBN * Björn Encke et al.: ''60 Jahre Zoo Magdeburg. Von A–Z.'' Hrsg.: Zoologischer Garten Magdeburg. Klaus Schüling Verlag, Münster 2010. .

References

External links

*
Magdeburg Zoo at Zoo-Infos.de (in English)
Zoos in Germany Zoos established in 1950

Zoological Garden A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden ...