Wim Mager (26 September 1940 in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

– 23 March 2008 in Silvolde) was a Dutch photographer who is mainly known for founding the Apenheul Primate Park near

Apeldoorn Apeldoorn (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including the villages of Beekbergen, Loenen (Apeldoorn), Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo ...

of which he was the director until 1997. When he had found a successor he moved to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and started a similar primate park near

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

called La Vallée des Singes. Apenheul was the result of an out of control hobby. Mager had two small monkeys as a pet but when the pair got children one thing led to another. His ideal was starting a primate park where the primates would not be kept in cages but could walk free among the people. Apenheul was the first park of its kind in the world. Bert de Boer, the later director of Apenheul called him a "pionier of the zoo world". Mager died on the first Easter day in 2008 at 67 years of age after having been ill for some time. He twice had a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

, the last heavy one a week before his death.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mager, Wim 1940 births 2008 deaths Photographers from Rotterdam 20th-century Dutch businesspeople