Rostock Zoo (German: ''Zoologische Garten Rostock'') is a zoo in the city of

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

, founded in 1899. It covers 56 hectares and with 4,500 animals from 320 species, Rostock Zoo is the largest zoo on the German east coast. Rostock Zoo is

studbook A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry and the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeder ...

keeper of Polar bears within the

European Endangered Species Programme The EAZA Ex-situ Programme (EEP) is a population management and conservation programme by European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) for wild animals living in European zoos. The programme was formerly known as the European Endangered Species ...

. The director of Rostock Zoo is Udo Nagel.

History

From foundation to 1945

Around 1864, previous military grounds were transferred into a garden, and by 1866 completed and named ''Trotzenburg''. In 1898, the first fenced animals were introduced, as wild boar and different kind of deer. The next year was the official opening for the ''Hirschgarten'' an der ''Trotzenburg'', and the first zookeeper, Carl Lange, was employed to take care of the different animals.Historie des Rostocker Zoos
retrieved 10 August 2012.

1945 to 1989

The air bombings during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

on the city of

were extremely heavy. All buildings and enclosures in Rostock Zoo were destroyed. The garden architect, Arno Lehmann, started in 1951 the renovation and rebuilding of the zoo. Many people from the town volunteered in this work, with direct manual work, as well as with their support. The zoo was re-opened for the public in 1952, was enlarged in 1956, and renamed and refounded 16 January 1956 as ''Zoologischen Garten Rostocks'' In 1960, the two first

Asian elephant The Asian elephant (''Elephas maximus''), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus '' Elephas'' and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in ...

s arrived to the new built elephant enclosure, and later Rostock Zoo took over the breeding of

Arabian horse The Arabian or Arab horse ( ar, الحصان العربي , DMG ''ḥiṣān ʿarabī'') is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily ...

and became the largest breeder of the horse in the entire

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. In 1963, the first polar bear was born in the zoo, and it was given the name ''Katja''. In 1973, the zoo was once again enlarged with an added 56 Hectares, coordinated with a new master plan. Since 1980, Rostock Zoo is

keeper of Polar bears within the

Since 1989

In 1992, ''Gemeinnützige GmbH Zoologischer Garten Rostock'' was founded and chaired by Rostock Zoo director, Udo Nagel, and from 1992 until 1998, several new animal enclosures were established, among them painted dogs,

eared seal An eared seal or otariid or otary is any member of the marine mammal family Otariidae, one of three groupings of pinnipeds. They comprise 15 extant species in seven genera (another species became extinct in the 1950s) and are commonly known eithe ...

s and Hussar monkey, and since then more enclosures has been created or renovated. In 1999, the zoo celebrated the Jubileum named ''100 Jahre Tiergärtnerei'', after being a garden for a hundred years. The female African elephant, Sara, who was the oldest in a European zoo, died 2013, and ended the Zoo's keeping of elephants, and the elephant enclosure was replaced with

Pygmy hippopotamus The pygmy hippopotamus or pygmy hippo (''Choeropsis liberiensis'') is a small hippopotamid which is native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia, with small populations in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. It has b ...

Darwineum

Named after the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

, ''Darwineum'' was opened on 8 September 2012. This living museum, which covers 20,000 m², and contains over 80 species of animals, was the largest building project throughout Rostock Zoo history, at a cost of more than 28 million Euro. In two interactive expositions is biological diversity on earth exposed, as well as the

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

behind it, starting with the Big Bang Theory and the creation of the

Observable Universe The observable universe is a ball-shaped region of the universe comprising all matter that can be observed from Earth or its space-based telescopes and exploratory probes at the present time, because the electromagnetic radiation from these obj ...

. Theme Boxes with

living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living foss ...

s, aquarium with corals, seahorses and Germany's largest circular tank for

jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

. The center of the exhibition is the ''Tropenhalle'', a 4,000 m² tropical exhibition with

gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast Indi ...

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four ...

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the gen ...

s and De Brazza's monkey. Next to the ''Tropenhalle'' is an exhibition which shows the culture evolution of

Man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chrom ...

. Eisbären 05.09.2013 mz 12.JPG, Polar bears in the Zoo Erdmaennchen-24-jk.jpg,

Meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square K ...

in the Zoo Antilopenziesel 25.07.2013 mz 01.JPG,

Antelope squirrel Antelope squirrels or antelope ground squirrels of the genus ''Ammospermophilus'' are sciurids found in the desert and dry scrub areas of south-western United States and northern Mexico. They are a type of ground squirrel and are able to resist ...

in Darwineum

References

*Much of the content of this article comes fro
the equivalent German-language Wikipedia article.
Retrieved on 16 January 2014. Some of the following references are cited by that German-language article:

External links

* *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rostock Zoo Zoo Zoos in Germany Zoo Zoo