 LOCATION:
Zittauer Strasse 43
, D-02826 Görlitz
, Germany
Phone: 0049-3581-407400
Fax: 407401
URL: http://www.tierpark-goerlitz.de
 KEY WORDS:
Chinese fauna, EEP, Goerlitz, Gorlitz
 ANIMALS:
| Family: | Species: | Common Name: | Capacity: |
| Ailuridae | Ailurus fulgens fulgens | Red panda | 1.1 + young |
| Cervidae | Muntiacus reevesi | Chinese muntjac | 1.3 + young |
| Passeridae | Urocissa erythrorhyncha | Blue magpie | 1.1 + young |
| Phasianidae | Crossoptilon crossoptilon drouyni | White-eared pheasant | 1.3 |
 DESCRIPTION:
This enclosure has broken new ground in zoo design when considering its size, furnishings, construction and occupants. With a surface area of 1,500 m², it is one of the largest red panda enclosures in any zoo. It has a naturalistic design and planting scheme. Initially, chain link and electric fencing were chosen for the perimeter, but they did not prove to be effective, nor was the mixing with white-eared pheasants. Both problems have since been alleviated; the fence was covered with Plexiglas, and the white-eared pheasants are now housed in an extra aviary (see section 'Features Dedicated to Animals').
Design criteria: A) a large naturalistic exhibit; B) exhibit layout and planting to emulate a natural habitat in China; C) aesthetically appealing exhibit (through the use of a transparent perimeter, for example); and D) a mixed exhibit featuring red pandas and Chinese muntjacs as well as white-eared pheasants and blue magpies as attractive representatives of their central Asian habitat.
 SIZE:
The exhibit has three parts: 1. Enclosure for red pandas and Chinese muntjacs - 1100 m² 2. Aviary for white-eared pheasants and blue magpies - 165 m² 3. Visitor area (China pavilion, playground) - 300 m² Space allocation in square meters:
| use | indoors | outdoors | total exhibit |
| accessible | total | accessible | total |
| animals | | | 1,265 | 1,265 | 1,265 |
| visitors | 20 | 20 | 280 | 280 | 300 |
| others | | | | | |
| total | 20 | 20 | 1,545 | 1,545 | 1,565 |
 COSTS:
EUR 175,000 including 1 % for design.
Low design costs due to our own input. Construction costs include expenses for a workforce program. Low recurring costs: EUR 5000 annual costs for keepers, EUR 500 annually for keeping the animals and about EUR 500 for the maintenance of the enclosure and visitor area.
 OPENING DATE:
17 August 1997
 DESIGN:
Beginning: November 1994
- Landscaping: Landschaftsarchitekturbüro Panse, Bautzen, Germany
- Landscaping: Naturschutz-Tierpark Görlitz, Görlitz, Germany
- Design: Naturschutz-Tierpark Görlitz, Görlitz, Germany
- Design of pavilion: R-E-I-L-E Zimmerei & Holzbau, Waldhufen, Germany
- Painting: Joachim Penz, Bad Urach, Germany
 CONSTRUCTION:
Beginning: 20 May 1995
- Timber construction: R-E-I-L-E Zimmerei & Holzbau, Waldhufen, Germany
- Roofing: Deutsche Reetdachhaus Baugesellschaft Dabow&Niedan GbR, Naundorf, Germany
- Fencing: Bekaert Deutschland, Bad Homburg, Germany
- Electric Fence: Gallagher/Allié, Miltenberg, Germany
 LOCAL CONDITIONS:
 | | This is a climatic diagram for the closest weather station.
215 m altitude
8.2 °C mean annual temperature
657 mm mean annual precipitation |
 PLANTS:
A location for a naturalistic exhibit was available in our zoo that contained 100-year old rhododendrons, yews, a pine and a meadow. These woody elements are also found in the natural habitat of the red panda, for example in the rolling bamboo and rhododendron forests of the Sichuan province of China. Bamboo was the one missing element needed to create such a native forest. Over 100 large bamboo plants were, therefore, planted and enclosed with an electric fence, so that the pandas would not be able to eat their favorite food all at once. However, because the red pandas ignored the electric wiring, the bamboo had to be taken out of the enclosure. A handkerchief tree (Davidia involucrata), a Chinese juniper (Juniperus x media), a mountain ash (Sorbus vilmorinii) and aralia (Aralia chinensis) were added as "substitutes" adjacent to different shrubs such as monkshood (Aconitum spp.) and senecio (Senecio spp.). The plant list specifies the Latin names of the plants used for this exhibit.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO ANIMALS:
Outdoor enclosures: enclosure with wire mesh fencing (1.8 m high, 60 mm mesh width) and Plexiglas (1.6 m high, 2 mm strong, attached to the interior of the fence), display windows made of safety glass, a naturalistic brook (80 m long) with a source lake open areas with grasses and herbaceous plants for supplemental nutrition, and exercise trees for utilization of the animals including two yew groupings with Chinese plants and supplemental foraging plants (see above); two hollow tree trunks, two sleeping crates each divided into three sections, and two feeding boxes (one heated) for the pandas, and a covered feeding station for the dwarf Chinese muntjacs.
Aviary: enclosure with wire mesh fencing (1.8 m high, 30 mm mesh width) and aviary net as canopy, plantings with shrubbery, sleeping tree for the pheasants and a small covered feeding station.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO KEEPERS:
No special features were required for the keepers.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO VISITORS:
A reed-covered pavilion, that is a replica of a real pavilion in the Chinese province of Sichuan, containing information about the animals and about Chinese culture. A panda playground for children where they can climb like pandas, view the enclosure from above and try different quizzes and games. A "secret path" leading through the rhododendrons to the sleep area of the pandas.
 INTERPRETATION:
- traditional exhibit signage; - a large information board in the pavilion about the natural habitat represented (including other animals which live in the "steepest mountains of the world"), about conservation problems (habitat destruction and hunting in China) and about the meaning of the symbolism in China; - two large Chinese pictures (black-necked crane and golden pheasant); - panda playground with bamboo games. (Bamboo poles of varying thickness represent different animals in the pandas' habitat. If the children can press the corresponding bamboo pole down, then they are as strong as a bamboo rat, a porcupine, a boar, a giant panda or a takin.); - outlook station for children with two games (children recognizing the faces of the pandas in the enclosure as well as categorizing different animals from the habitat.)
 MANAGEMENT:
Animals: food is given twice daily. Red panda food: bamboo, fruit, mice, etc. (in two crates), in addition to the berries from the yew, raspberry bushes and Chinese birdberry bush as well as grass and herbaceous plants from the meadow. Chinese dwarf muntjac food: grass and herbs, hay, fruit, vegetables, dry biscuits and oats. Pheasant food: mixed seeds, pellets, mealworms and fruit. Blue magpie food: soft-feed mixture, insects, mice, and fruit. The pandas are caught with a small hand-held net in the outdoor exhibit. The muntjacs are caught with a net annually. The pandas are immunized against hepatitis and canine distemper.
Keeper talks held twice daily during feeding explain animal care. The "secret path" leading through the rhododendrons to the sleeping area of the pandas offers the visitor a good impression of the habitat and enables them to look into the sleeping tree. The Chinese pavilion offers visitor information and a resting-place. The children's panda playground provides room to play and learn.
 RESEARCH:
Gebauer, A. (1998): CICONIA, Jahresbericht Tierpark Görlitz (Annual Zoo Report). 11: 24-27 Gebauer, A. & Engler, S. (2001): Anmerkungen zum Nahrungsverhalten und zur Aktivität von Katzenbären (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) in einem großen Freigehege. (Observations on the Feeding Behavior and the Activity of Red Pandas in a Large Outdoor Enclosure) Zool. Garten N.F. 71(4): 209-220. Actual study: Research on the eating of berries of Taxus baccata by red pandas.
 CONSERVATION:
Contact with Professor Fu Wen Wei (China) was initiated by studbook keeper Dr. A. Glatston. Professor Wei heads the research on free roaming red pandas (social organization and mating system of the wild red panda) in the Sichuan province that the zoo will support. To this effort, a donation drive followed the opening of the panda exhibit that will be supplemented through the Friends of the Zoo Society.
During construction of the enclosure, environmentally friendly materials (wood, reed, paint, etc.) were used, and the existing terrain and planting was not changed or damaged.
 LOCAL RESOURCES:
Cooperation with construction contractors from the region. For example, the Chinese pavilion was built based upon a photo from the Sichuan province; primary support during the professional and artistic formation of the pavilion through Joachim Penz, an artist who specializes in Chinese art; landscape design and planning by our own master gardener and an architectural firm from the region; overall transposition of the landscape by ourselves. |
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| 67K | 69K |
| Site Plan |
| ©Naturschutz-Tierpark Görlitz/ Annett Buchholz, 2001 |
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