Hamm Zoo
| Hamm Zoo | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Full name | Zoo Hamm gGmBH | |
| motto | animal close - naturally good! | |
| particularities | Fossa, Tayra, four-horned goat | |
| place | Grünstraße 150 59063 Hamm |
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| surface | 9 ha | |
| opening | June 30, 1934 | |
| Animal species | 86 species (2014) | |
| Individuals | 539 animals (2014) | |
| Species focus | Africa, Asia, New and Old World camelids, dry-nosed monkeys | |
| Visitor numbers | 195,475 (2019) | |
| organization | ||
| management | Managing director: Sven Eiber | |
| Sponsorship | 100% city of Hamm | |
| Funding organizations | Friends of the Tierpark Hamm e. V. | |
| Member of | VdZ , DTG | |
| www.tierpark-hamm.de | ||
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Coordinates: 51 ° 39 ′ 46.5 ″ N , 7 ° 48 ′ 59.2 ″ E
The Hamm Zoo , located in the south of the city of Hamm, now covers an area of around 9 hectares after a partial expansion in 2019.
Almost 200,000 people visit the zoo annually ; it is a popular destination for families in Hamm and the surrounding area.
history
Foundation and first years
The idea of founding an animal and plant garden in Hamm came from Fritz Vogel, a 28-year-old employee of the city of Hamm. The Animal and Plant Garden Association was founded on August 6, 1933 . Almost 100 members passed the association's statutes on May 9, 1934. The monthly fee at that time was 10 pfennigs.
With the establishment of the Tierpark Hamm e. V. begins the history of the park. The facilities for the zoo and plant garden were set up in the Südstadtpark, which the city made available. The first enclosures were created in self-help. Initially pheasants, guinea pigs and budgies were acquired. Fallow deer, roe deer and a wild boar were added later. It is still controversial today whether the first zoo inhabitant was a fox or a parrot.
Mayor Leinberger opened the first zoo created in this way on June 30, 1934. The association now had 6,000 members and had thus become something of a popular movement in Hamm. In the following years he improved his finances with a varied entertainment program, which was offered in the Kurhaus , among others , with the participation of the Heesener Waldbühne . Since the zoo also attracted around 100,000 visitors per year, the expansion could be continued quickly.
The first zoo only existed until April 22, 1944. Like many other zoos, the park sank in the hail of bombs from World War II . The zoo co-founders Gustav Handtke and Adolf Göttker, who were in the facility at the time of the attack and were able to escape into a ditch, are also eyewitnesses of the bombing. They later reported that although the zoo was littered with bombs, there were only injuries and no deaths to complain about. Handtke himself was one of the injured; a heavy lump of clay broke his leg. The soldiers from the neighboring Südenschützenhof finally helped with the rescue work. The surviving animals were temporarily housed with a farmer in Uentrop. Edible animals such as deer or wild boar were slaughtered and distributed.
The Hammer population took care of the dismantling of the remaining stables and enclosures by cannibalizing the remaining material in order to make makeshift repairs to their damaged or destroyed houses.
Zoo founder Vogel died as a soldier in World War II.
New beginning after the Second World War
On March 28, 1949, the Animal and Plant Garden Association was re-established. Handtke and Göttker took part again. By the end of the year the new association already had 800 members.
166 bombs and 17 air mines fell on the zoo area during the war. Therefore, the bomb craters first had to be filled up and the paths repaired. Volunteers met every evening to do the necessary work alone with a pick and shovel.
In 1950 the reconstruction of the facilities and the animal population began. This second zoo only focused on the zoological area and renounced the botanical focus. The zoo was officially reopened on May 13, 1951 (Pentecost Sunday).
The zoo was initially able to show an upward trend. In 1957 the club was on the verge of bankruptcy. Finally, donations and a grant from the city ensured the survival of the zoo, which was expanded in the following years.
1977 was the animal shelter the city Hamm set up at the zoo. Two years later, together with the city, the sponsoring association tackled the natural history museum. Dr. Günter Rinsche , then Lord Mayor of the city of Hamm, which recently became a major city, laid the foundation stone on September 24, 1979. The ensemble of buildings thus created in the center of the park was opened to the public on March 23, 1982. The entire project had swallowed 1.4 million DM, for which the city took over the capital service.
The zoo café was opened on April 10, 1986.
From the association through the Lebenshilfe to the urban daughter
After 71 years of existence, the Tierpark Hamm e. V. to be dissolved on December 18, 2004 for economic reasons. In order to be able to maintain the zoo as a leisure facility popular with the citizens of the city, it was transferred to a gGmbH on January 1, 2005 . At that time, Lebenshilfe Hamm ensured the operation of the zoo as the main shareholder, which pursued the goal of continuing to run the zoo as an integrative company.
Natural History Museum
The natural history museum in the zoo was created, among other things, out of the consideration that a small zoo like Hamm would not be able to keep all or even the most important local animal species in a species-appropriate manner. In order to still be able to show the local fauna and their habitats for educational purposes, the three halls of the museum have been equipped with a permanent exhibition of corresponding preparations. There is also a geological collection and an extensive collection of insect preparations. The premises are used for conferences as well as training and further education. The Natural History Museum is currently (2014) and probably closed forever, the exhibition dismantled.
Animals
On January 1, 2014, the Hamm Zoo held a total of 539 animals from 86 species (for comparison: at the beginning of 2011 a total of 800 animals from 125 species).
A rarity is the keeping of the four-horned goat , a livestock breed that is one of the rare domestic animal breeds in the Alpine region and is otherwise only kept in the Bad Pyrmont and Gotha Zoo in Germany .
Fossa from Madagascar are also rarely seen in German zoological gardens . They inhabit different forest types, both rain and dry forests , and can also be found in tree-lined savannah areas. The zoo plans to participate in the conservation breeding of the species endangered by large-scale clearing in Madagascar.
In February 2015 the female Sri Lankan leopard “Shankiri” died after an emergency operation because of a suspected tumor. It was the last Sri Lankan leopard in German zoos - there are only about 60 specimens in zoos and 300–600 animals in the wild. Hamm had thus taken part in the European breeding program, but there were no offspring.
Attitude focus narrow nose monkeys ( mandrill , baboon (Mixed Breed form), Crab-eating Macaque , patas monkey etc.), ungulates ( eland , nilgau , Blackbuck , Zebra , water Bock etc.) and pets ( Yak , camel , alpaca , four-horn sheep , -ziege etc.).
In August 2008, five Siberian tigers were born in Hamm Zoo. The parent animals Shakira and Eyk were on loan from the Nadermann Zoo in Delbrück . The pregnancy of the tigress remained hidden until the early morning hours of August 15, 2008, when she was born. The Siberian tiger is considered to be critically endangered. The last large-scale census (2005) revealed an estimated 431 to 529 specimens, including 334 to 417 adults and 97 to 112 juveniles, according to the WWF. The five young tigers that were born in Hamm thus make an important contribution to the preservation of the species in zoological gardens and animal parks.
After the tigers were born, in September 2008 the city asked citizens to propose names for the young tigers. A jury, which also included Mayor Thomas Hunsteger-Petermann , selected five winning names from the multitude of proposals . The tigers were then baptized Kira, Hammlet, Shiva, Shaki and Taiga. All tigers grew up in the Hamm Zoo. In February 2009 Shiva, Shaki and Taiga were sold to a zoo in Canada. The mayor's adoption took place on February 26, 2009. Only Kira, Hammlet and the tiger mother Shakira stayed in the zoo on Grünstraße.
Problem and future
Due to a longer phase of scarcity of resources from the end of the 1990s until the zoo was taken over by Lebenshilfe Hamm e. V. some important renovation work and basic maintenance work could not be carried out. It is only thanks to the employees' own initiative that the enclosures and facilities of the zoo have been kept in an orderly condition and in some cases have been decisively improved.
Another problem with the park is the nature of the soil associated with the location. Since the park was largely built on former marshland and drainage etc. were dispensed with during the reconstruction years , a layer of mud develops on the surface of the hoofed animal enclosures after several days of rainfall. This situation has been counteracted in recent years by adding drainage ditches.
After the park was taken over by Lebenshilfe, a significant increase in investment in the zoo has become noticeable in recent years. Basic infrastructural work was carried out. This includes the laying of new water and power lines as well as the renaturation of the animal park pond, which was completed in 2008.
The entrance area could also be renewed. In December 2009 the foundation for the new entrance building was poured. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on Wednesday, February 17, 2010. Due to the harsh winter, the completion of the new entrance area was delayed until the end of April 2010. Around 270,000 euros were invested in the new building. In addition to three ticket counters, it includes a souvenir shop and a disabled toilet. The playground could also be renovated.
Furthermore, a complete master plan for the redesign and reorganization of the zoo within the next ten years in terms of landscape, architecture and animal population was drawn up under the theme of the zoo in 2017 . Among other things, the purchase of penguins, hippos and seals is planned. It is to be implemented by Kay Dobencker, who took up his post as the new managing director of the zoo on January 3, 2011 and is responsible for all matters relating to animal care. With regard to the financing issues, Dobecker, whose establishment was accompanied by a public debate, has to come to an agreement with Markus Jütte, managing director for the commercial area. As things stand at present, however, it will not be possible to fully implement the "master plan".
The zoo team has many plans for the future to make the zoo more attractive for visitors, for example by relocating zoological rarities. In the rear part of the park, diagonally opposite the enclosure for the red-faced macaque, a previously unused area of 230 m 2 has been converted into a meerkat enclosure .
For the future, the zoo plans to create themed areas such as those in the "Zoom" adventure world in Gelsenkirchen . The animals should also be relocated in such a way that animals that share a habitat in nature also live together in the zoo. Another big concern is the renovation of the enclosures with the help of donations. A stronger focus is also to be placed on breeding, although this approach has received a major setback with the death of the Sri Lankan leopard male Negombo.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Tierpark Hamm gGmbH Hamm on the website of the Association of Zoological Gardens, accessed on April 26, 2015.
- ↑ a b Anneliese Beeck, Hamm under the swastika. 1930-1945. Westfälischer Anzeiger publishing company. Hamm 2007. ISBN 978-3-924966-33-1 .
- ↑ a b c Hans-Karl Dotter, Anneliese Beeck, Streiflichter from our city. Hammer weekly calendar 1991. The Westfälische Anzeiger was there. Review of 25 years of city history , Hamm 1991.
- ↑ Natural history museum in the zoo is history . Article, Westfälischer Anzeiger Hamm, from January 28, 2015
- ↑ Current positions four-horned goat. In: Website zoo animal list. February 1, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015 .
- ^ Mourning in the zoo: Leopard "Shankiri" dead. In: Website Westfälischer Anzeiger. February 20, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015 .
- ↑ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0616_050616_siberiantiger.html
- ^ Website of the city of Hamm - Tiger trio leaves the zoo. ( Memento from June 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Video Tiger farewell. ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Model of the "Master Plan 2017", viewed on January 10, 2011 in the Natural History Museum in Hamm.
- ↑ http://www.hammtv.de/Tierpark-Chef-Kay-Dobenecker-im-HammTV-Interview_00007728.html
- ↑ Westfälischer Anzeiger of February 5, 2011.
- ^ City gazette for Hamm and Bönen from February 16, 2011.
