Henning Wiesner

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Henning Wiesner (born November 22, 1944 in Neisse, Upper Silesia ) is a German veterinarian and was director of the Munich-Hellabrunn zoo until the end of 2009 .

Life

Wiesner's family fled Neisse from the Russian army at the end of the Second World War and ended up in Weil am Rhein. After graduating from high school in Lörrach in 1964 , he did military service. After that, his parents (father was a professor of archeology and mother a doctor) wanted him to study human medicine. However, Henning Wiesner decided on veterinary medicine and studied veterinary medicine from 1965 to 1971 at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In 1971 he completed his doctorate with the thesis "Study on the use of Umbelliferen in the Rossarznei of the 16th century" at the veterinary faculty of the University of Munich with "summa cum laude". Immediately afterwards he got an assistant position at the "Institute for Diseases of Domestic and Wild Birds" at the LMU. There he treated, among other things, the famous gray geese of the behaviorist Konrad Lorenz . In 1972 he became a zoo veterinarian in the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich. During his time as a veterinarian, he was able to fight the dangerous parrot disease and thus save the zoo from being closed. He also found that the world-famous Przewalski's horses, which were extinct in the wild , no longer reproduced due to a treatable strep infection.

In 1980 he became the zoological director and a year later a member of the board of the Munich Tierpark AG Hellabrunn. In 1987 he was awarded the title of "Professor". Since then, he has been an honorary professor at the Biological Faculty and the Veterinary Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . In his position as zoo director, he advocated his idea of ​​integrating the animals not in an artificial, but in a natural landscape. In addition, he had most of the walls and fences dismantled and used trenches and Benjes hedges as barriers . In accordance with his motto “quality instead of quantity”, he reduced the number of animals kept during his activity. Despite this, an average of 1.3 million visitors have come annually for the last 25 years, more than Neuschwanstein Castle .

Wiesner has worked as a scientific consultant for various animal welfare organizations and zoos on all parts of the world since 1975. In this role he worked in more than 50 institutions and supported around 20 projects worldwide. He was able to collect around 800,000 euros in donations for animal welfare purposes. He is known worldwide for his sophisticated technique of gently stunning animals with blowguns. This technique is originally used primarily for hunting by various ethnic groups from South America and Asia. Wiesner, on the other hand, has further developed and perfected the blowpipe: a charged syringe is additionally pressurized and the side opening on the needle is closed with a plastic ring. When it hits the skin, the ring shifts so that the syringe automatically discharges. In addition, he developed a special mixture of anesthetics that makes it possible to carefully anesthetize animals of all sizes. In 1998 he was honored with the Felix Wankel Animal Welfare Research Prize. In 2006 he received the Federal Cross of Merit .

On October 31, 2009, he retired as director of the Munich zoo. His successor was Andreas Knieriem . On January 22nd, 2013 Wiesner was appointed veterinary director of the Salzburg Zoo . Since autumn 2012 he has been a member of a commission of experts that is drawing up a master plan for the future development of the zoo.

Trivia

In August 2011, Wiesner took over the scientific management of the efforts to catch the cow Yvonne , who had run away three months earlier . On September 2, he stunned the cow with a blowpipe, which had appeared in a pasture and was then taken to the Gut Aiderbichl sanctuary.

Henning Wiesner has his own section on Bayern 1 . In "Henning Wiesner's Animal World" he answers questions from listeners.

Fonts

  • ed. with Hans-Heinrich M. Hatlapa : The practice of wild animal immobilization. Parey, Hamburg 1982, ISBN 3-490-01818-4 .
  • with Fritz Hirsch: Hellabrunn. The Munich zoo. Wildlife photographs by Toni Angermayer. Bayerland, Dachau 1984, ISBN 3-922394-47-7 .
  • Zoo animals. Characteristics and way of life of the main species. BLV, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-405-13111-1 .
  • with Walli Müller, Günter Mattei: Viechereien. 53 animal questions and answers. Heyne, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-453-13772-8 .
  • with Walli Müller, Günter Mattei: Do animals have to brush their teeth? ... and other questions for a zoo director. Hanser, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-446-20611-6 .
  • The great book of animals. A zoo director tells. Hanser, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-446-20738-4 .
  • Animal children in the zoo. BLV, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8354-0421-2 .
  • If dogs could talk! , Amazing things from the oldest human pet. Illustrated by Günter Mattei, Hanser, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-446-24169-5 .

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e A visionary resigns. Article about Henning Wiesner in the Süddeutsche Zeitung . No. 235/09, October 13, 2009, p. 38
  2. ↑ Zoo director Wiesner says goodbye
  3. ↑ Prof. Dr. Henning Wiesner is the veterinary director at Salzburg Zoo . Homepage of the Salzburg Zoo. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  4. ↑ Lost and not Found: Professor chases the cow Yvonne. In: Spiegel Online . August 29, 2011, accessed August 30, 2011 .
  5. ↑ Captured cult cow: Yvonne wobbles, sways and falls. In: Spiegel Online . September 2, 2011, accessed September 2, 2011 .
personal data
SURNAME Wiesner, Henning
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German veterinarian and zoo director
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Neisse, Upper Silesia