 LOCATION:
Rennbahnallee 21
, 18059 Rostock
, Germany
Phone: 0049-381-2082 - 0
Fax: 4934400
URL: http://www.zoo-rostock.de
 KEY WORDS:
EEP, mixed species exhibit, monkey
 ANIMALS:
| Family: | Species: | Common Name: | Capacity: |
| Callithricidae | Callithrix jacchus | Common Marmoset | 3,1 / max.10 |
| Callithricidae | Saguinus oedipus oedipus | Cotton-head Tamarin | 3,7 / max. 20 |
| Cebidae | Cebus apella cay | Brown Capuchin | 3,7 / max. 20 |
| Procyonidae | Nasua nasua | Coati | 4,0 |
| Psittacidae | Ara severa | Chestnut-fronted Macaw | 1,1 |
 DESCRIPTION:
The old monkey house at Zoo Rostock had housed monkeys for thirty years without undergoing any renovation or changes. Parts of the building even dated from the turn of the century when the zoo was started. In 1997, after some of the species had been moved to new enclosures the old building was ready to be replaced. The new South America House was designed to use the maximum available space between existing exhibits and the historic dahlia garden. An existing 80-year-old silver birch was incorporated into the design, with the building forming a semicircle around the tree. Timber was used for the frontage and for parts of the inside. The courtyard belongs to the cotton-head tamarins and to the visitors. A balconylike walkway marks the edge of the building and the border of the capuchin outdoor exhibit. Visitors can view the monkeys from two levels: from the ground and from the walkway at roof level.
Visitors can circulate around the exhibit and view it from several spots. The fence is repeatedly amazing people: How comes that the animals don't climb the low 1.2 m fence? The monkeys found out quickly how unpleasant it is to touch the inconspicous electric wire, and prefer to make use of the area inside the fence.
At the moment the building houses capuchins mixed with coatis, a group of tamarins and marmosets together with macaws.
 SIZE:
Space allocation in square meters:
| use | indoors | outdoors | total exhibit |
| accessible | total | accessible | total |
| animals | | 104 | | 970 | 1,074 |
| visitors | | 104 | | 200 | 304 |
| others | | 104 | | 50 | 154 |
| total | | 312 | | 1,220 | 1,532 |
 COSTS:
DM 1,400,000 including 10 % for design.
 OPENING DATE:
October 1998
 DESIGN:
Beginning: November 1996
- Architecture: Wolfram Graubner, Herrischried
- Landscape Architecture: Kristin Jacobi, Rostock
 CONSTRUCTION:
Beginning: September 1997
- General Contractor: Sichtling, Rostock
 LOCAL CONDITIONS:
 | | This is a climatic diagram for the closest weather station.
40 m altitude
8.4 °C mean annual temperature
587 mm mean annual precipitation |
 PLANTS:
On the grounds of the actual outdoor exhibit there was a stand of spruce and Douglas fir. Since these trees are mature the monkeys have not damaged them so far. An existing hazel tree is protected by electric wire. The space along the path between the enclosure and the barrier is planted with shrubs of different hights. This prevents visitors from seeing the exhibit from all along the path and enables views from certain points. Where high plants block the view on one side of the path, visitors turn to exhibits on the other side until another viewing opportunity opens to the monkey exhibit. Thorny roses keep visitors on the path. In the courtyard tamarins use an eighty year old birch for climbing. Fruit from newly planted trees can be harvested by the monkeys in fall. The plant list specifies the Latin names of the plants used for this exhibit.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO ANIMALS:
A group of ten capuchins lives in a generous indoor room which can be viewed by visitors through two large glass panels. Through an exterior cage the capuchins and coatis can access an outdoor exhibit. This exhibit is furnished with tall climbing trees connected by dead branches, a pond, climbing nets and ropes. The common marmosets also have access to the outdoor exhibit from their exterior cage. The distance between the bars of the cage is calculated so that the macaws cannot leave and the capuchins cannot enter. The small marmosets have found that they can chase a much bigger capuchin when pairing up.
Using a pipe which crosses the visitor hall the tamarins can get from their indoor cage to the courtyard. Here they can climb the birch from some additionally placed dead branches. At some point they found how to access the visitor walkway on roof level and the top of the capuchin exterior cage. For safety reasons these options were taken away from them by adding plastic panels at critical spots. The birch is very popular for play. A sleeping box mounted in this tree is rarely used. The monkeys prefer to sleep in their boxes inside the building.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO KEEPERS:
A kitchen is centrally located in the building and supplied from the back of the building. A kitchen window to the hall allows visitors to watch food preparation. Keepers have a day-room and storage for food and tools.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO VISITORS:
Visitors can walk around the outdoor exhibit and have access to the courtyard. They can watch the tamarins and other animals in their outdoor exhibits. Inside the building the walls are decorated with ornaments painted on a loam rendering. Cage and hall floors are covered with wood chips. Lianas and ropes are hanging in animal and visitor areas in order to create a feeling of involvement. Visitors can look into the kitchen. Glas panels between animal and visitor area have a space on the top which is closed with a mesh. This way, visitors also have an acoustic experience of the monkeys.
 INTERPRETATION:
A board in the courtyard explains food preferences of the monkey species housed. Visitors can compare the monkeys' food in the wild with what is served at the zoo. The upper floor of the building has provisions for video shows.
 MANAGEMENT:
Common marmosets have access to the outdoor exhibit of the capuchins at all times. However, they don' t use this option very much. Recently, the common marmosets were given access to the courtyard with the birch. They use the courtyard alternating and together with the cotton-head tamarins. There are plans to add black-mantled tamarins to the common marmoset indoor and outdoor exhibit. In case the separate holding of an animal is necessary, a capuchin can be kept in a tiled cage off-view. A marmoset could be kept in a movable cage. Animals can easily be caught in their outdoor cages. Marmosets also can be caught in their night quarter. Delivery of food is done from a road behind the building separted from the visitor paths.
 RESEARCH:
At this point no particular research is done on the monkeys.
 CONSERVATION:
Zoo Rostock participates in the European Endangered Species Program for tamarins.
 LOCAL RESOURCES:
The new house was built with technologies which previously were not used by the zoo: an insolation layer from foamglas underneath the concrete foundation, recycled paper for insolating walls and roof, timber for the frontage and a loam coating in the visitor area inside. Wood chips were used for the flooring of the indoor animal and visitor areas. This material has to be kept moist to prevent dust. Green roofs were used before at Zoo Rostock but not with a visitor walkway on roof level. |
 |
| 54K | 62K |
| Site Plan |
| ©Ammann AG, 1999 |
 |
| 39K | 39K |
| Common marmoset (1) |
| ©Dr. Nehls, 1998 |
 |
| 41K | 41K |
| Capuchins outdoors (5) |
| ©Dr. Nehls, 1999 |
 |
| 35K | 35K |
| Cotton-head Tamarin (12) |
| ©Dr. Nehls, 1998 |
 |
| 33K | 55K |
| Stairs to the gallery (18) |
| ©Fiby, 2001 |
|
