Zoo Rating: Antwerp Zoo

Antwerp Zoo

Antwerp, Belgium

 

 

About the zoo

Antwerp Zoo (Dutch: ZOO Antwerpen) is a zoo in the centre of Antwerp, Belgium, located right next to the Antwerpen-Centraal railway station. It is the oldest animal park in the country, and one of the oldest in the world, established on 21 July 1843. It houses a wide variety of species from all over the world.

1. Species

Antwerp Zoo houses about 350 species of animals. Alot of these are quite rare in zoos. Slender lorises, a Black-and-rufous elephant shrew, Eastern lowland gorillas and Dusky pademelons are prime examples of those of those. Besides those, Antwerp also has a lot of the regular zoo animals like lions, tigers, giraffes, hippos and elephants.

Score: 9,5

2. Animal welfare

The animals at the Antwerp Zoo are well cared for, they get top-notch care and the Zoo has good breeding results with several endangered species such as okapis and congo peafowl. However, some of the enclosures are quite small which doesn’t allow the animals to get a lot of exersize.

Score: 7

3. Construction

The enclosures at the zoo of Antwerp are often quite old and thus rather small. There are still quite a lot of iron bars and some of the primates don’t have access to outdoor enclosures. They will try to improve a lot of these enclosures in the future though, and a lot are improved already.

Score: 7

4. Accommodations

There are several restaurants spread over the park, as well as playgrounds for the children. There are also plenty of benches to sit on and enough toilet facilities.

Score: 8

5. Education

There are signs at every enclosure and from experience I can tell, visitors can ask the keepers anything they want. With special species like the okapis (for which Antwerp coordinates the SSP) they offer extra signs with more info than just the general information about the species.

Score: 8

6. Interaction

There is a bit of interaction between the visitors and the animals at Zoo Antwerp, beside the feeding presentations and several events in holidays, there are a couple of walkthrough enclosures where visitors can get quite close to the animals.

Score: 7

7. Total Score: 7.8

Zoo Antwerp is definately a must see zoo. It has a ton of rare species and the atmosphere is splendid (thanks to all the old buildings and all the care for the flowers). The only downside are the small old enclosures on site, however these are being improved.

Jasper, 05/05/2014.