Wolfgang Nehring (animal keeper)

Wolfgang Nehring (born February 4, 1949 in Bergisch Gladbach ; † May 2016 ) was a German zoo keeper at the Krefeld Zoo , who became known throughout Germany for his animal training with sea lions and elephants.

Career

Wolfgang Nehring did an apprenticeship as a zoo keeper in Cologne Zoo , which he started in 1963. Then he worked as an assistant for an elephant number in a circus. He then went abroad and worked for a short time at Holiday on Ice . Then he worked in the UK for three years . There he worked with dolphins, sea lions, bears and chimpanzees. In the following years he traveled with a dolphin show. On January 2, 1973 he started his job at the Krefeld Zoo.

When keeping animals, he practiced free or direct contact with the animals, which was still common at the time. He took on the role of the alpha animal among the elephants . Many children, but also adults, rode elephants through the zoo over the years or attended his performances with his elephant cow Rhena at the annual summer festivals in the Kastanienhof children's home. With the audience games, Nehring contributed to the Krefeld zoo becoming known beyond the city limits. In addition to the elephants, he also looked after monkeys and sea lions at the Krefeld Zoo.

During a short break in the feed kitchen of the elephant house, Nehring told the following about dealing with animals in 2003:

“Regardless of what animal you are dealing with, the most important thing is respect. You must respect the animals, and you must respect the animals. Respect, not fear or fear. I don't want to break an animal's will or work against it. Rather, it is about showing the animal who is the master. In a determining, but also in a caring sense. You will hardly see a pack or herd-leading animal in nature that exploits its position of power. Leadership is always associated with care and trust. "

In November 2010 the zoo switched from free to protected contact due to new guidelines for the welfare of elephants. Protected contact means doing without chains, allowing the animals more freedom of movement between the indoor and outdoor enclosures, and occupying them no longer through drill and dressage, but rather through branches or hanging delicacies. Furthermore, Nehring was no longer allowed to enter the enclosure of his elephants in the presence of the animals, which he found difficult to cope with. Nehring therefore rejected the new regulations. As a result, he was sent into partial retirement in 2012 . Without the switch from keeping elephants to protected contact, the Krefeld Zoo would otherwise have risked its operating permit.

Trivia

He lost four fingers on his left hand while working with a collar bear in the UK in the early 1970s .

In 1981 he raised the California sea lion bull Markus in Krefeld Zoo, who was born there and was not adopted by his mother. It was the third animal of its kind raised in Europe.

Wolfgang Nehring was one of the most experienced zoo elephant trainers ( Mahut ) worldwide. In this context he took care of a. around the following elephants:

• Bernhardine : The Asian elephant cow was the first in the Netherlands and the first elephant to be born in the second generation of the zoo worldwide. It was named after the father of the Dutch Queen Beatrix , Prince Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld . Due to problems with elephant keepers, she was separated from her mother at an early age and came to the Krefeld Zoo in December 1985. There she was in Nehring's care for eight months.
• A young African elephant that was a gift from Tanzania to the youngest son of the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah , Prince Abdul Wakeel
• Mumtas, Rhena, Zita and Yheeto : four Indian elephant cows in the Krefeld Zoo
• Duala : an African elephant cow in the Krefeld Zoo.

When his elephant cow Rhena was still a baby, he took her on a trip to the Sonnenhof restaurant in Krefeld . It was a bet with its owner whether the animal would fit through the door.

In 1986 he performed at an elephant show in Singapore .

From 2006 to 2008, Nehring also looked after the rhinoceros bull Davu , the first live-born black rhinoceros in North Rhine-Westphalia, as a large animal keeper . Until he moved to the Czech Republic , Davu was an attraction at the Krefeld Zoo.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Elephant trainer Wolfgang Nehring has died , Westdeutsche Zeitung, May 27, 2016
2. ↑ ^{a b} Zoo Krefeld: Mourning the zoo keeper Wolfgang Nehring , rp-online.de, May 27, 2016
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jens Voss: Krefeld's "Mahut" Wolfgang Nehring is dead , rp-online.de, May 28, 2016
4. ↑ ^{a b} Guest appearance by Wolfgang Nehring at a show in 1982 , youtube.com, December 5, 2014
5. ↑ Wolfgang Nehring with his elephants 1978 and 1979 , youtube.com, April 25, 2014
6. ↑ Wolfgang Nehring with his elephants in the Krefeld Zoo in July 2009 , youtube.com, September 4, 2009
7. ↑ Happiness and misery of the elephants, extra-tip-tönisvorst.de
8. ^ Andrée Wagner: The most important thing is respect , July 2003, p. 24
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Dornbusch, T: New housing facilities for elephants in the Krefeld Zoo . In: Elefanten in Zoo und Circus, (Ed.): The elephant magazine . No. 17/2010.
10. ^ California sea lion Markus , youtube.com, November 14, 2014
11. ^ State Museum of Ethnology, Munich: Mensch und Elefant , Pinguin-Verlag, 1994, p. 130
12. ↑ Martin van Wees: Bernhardine - a difficult elephant, in: Elefanten in Zoo und Circus, No. 1, March 2002
13. ↑ Wolfgang Nehring at an elephant show in Singapore in 1986 , youtube.com, April 14, 2014
14. ^ Sweet Baby Animals in the Zoo , Westdeutsche Zeitung, February 12, 2008