Alex Rübel

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Opening of the Masoala Hall in 2003. Alex Rübel on the left, Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger 2nd from the right

Georg Alexander Rübel (born May 4, 1955 in Zurich ) is a Swiss veterinarian . He was director of the Zurich Zoo until the end of June 2020 .

Life

Youth and veterinarian

Alex Rübel grew up in the city of Zurich on the Zürichberg as the son of an old family from Zurich . As a boy he set up an aviary for quails and canaries in his parents' laundry room and raised a long-eared owl . As a teenager, Rübel had a zoo subscription. When he applied for an internship, he was told not to accept interns. He tried it at Basel Zoo , was accepted and assigned to the rhino keeper as requested. For eight summers, Rübel worked as a shepherd in the Alps in the Bernese Oberland and Glarnerland .

Alex Rübel v / o «Chüngel» was a member of the Boy Scouts since childhood . At the age of 24 he became head of the traditional Zurich scout corps Flamberg and in 1984 the first cantonal director of the Zurich scouts after the merger of the cantonal associations of boy and girl scouts .

Rübel studied veterinary medicine at the University of Zurich . He wrote his dissertation on the subject of "X-ray examinations in internal diseases of large parrots". He later worked in the department for zoo, pet and wild animals at the Zurich Animal Hospital, first as an assistant, later as deputy zoo veterinarian.

Zoo director

Elephant house

After around ten years at the animal hospital, Rübel applied in 1990 for the vacancy of the director of the Zurich Zoo. He was discontinued: On November 17, 1990, the zoo president Rolf Balsiger and the then director Peter Weilenmann introduced the 36-year-old Alex Rübel to the press. With the zoo's board of directors, Rübel developed a master plan that was to apply until his retirement. In addition to smaller measures and six medium-sized plants, the plan also includes four major projects: “ Masoala Rainforest ” (opened in 2003), the “Pantanal” wetland (2012), the “Kaeng Krachan” elephant park (2014) and the “Lewa Savanne” (2020 ).

Rübel described the main tasks of a zoo in addition to optimal animal husbandry, education, nature conservation and research, which must above all contribute to the protection of species in the wild. During Alex Rübel's tenure, the zoo's area doubled. Thanks to his good network, the more than 200 million francs that have been invested in various large and small projects since 2000 have been financed entirely through sponsorship and donations. Its networking also contributed to anchoring the zoo well in Zurich across all sections of the population. In 2012, Rübel received the prize from the World Zoo Association named after his predecessor Hediger , of which he was President from 2001 to 2003. Under his leadership, the Zurich Zoo became one of the best in the world.

Rübel reached retirement age in spring 2020. In September 2019, 32-year-old Severin Dressen, then the zoological director of the Wuppertal Zoo , was elected to succeed him .

Rübel is a member of the Schildner zum Schneggen Society and has been a guild master of the Zurich Guild of Saffran since 2011 . He has three children and lives in Zurich- Witikon .

Awards

literature

  • Simone Bammatter: Habitat - the Zurich Zoo under Alex Rübel . Stämpfli, Zurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-7272-6055-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Time online, May 6, 2019
  2. ↑ Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, May 18, 2020
  3. ↑ Urs Bühler: NZZ of June 27, 2020
  4. ↑ SRF: After 30 years is enough
  5. ↑ Alex Rübel the master of posture goes
  6. ↑ Test.de
  7. ^ NZZ Zoo Zurich: Alex Rübel becomes the new director
  8. ^ Zoo Zurich: New director elected for the zoo
  9. ↑ Helene Arnet: The director who questioned the zoo. In: Tages-Anzeiger of June 27, 2020, p. 21.
  10. ↑ Saffran.ch
  11. ↑ https://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/alex-ruebel-das-fernziel-staendig-im-auge
  12. ↑ 10 questions to… Alex Rübel. In: Naturschutz.ch, December 11, 2019.
  13. ↑ Habitat - The Zurich Zoo under Alex Rübel
personal data
SURNAME Rübel, Alex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rübel, Georg Alexander (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss veterinarian and zoo director
DATE OF BIRTH May 4th 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich