Annual inventory at the zoo
Campaigns | 10 January 2024
As we start the new year, we look back on the old one and look forward to an exciting year at the zoo in 2024. Exciting, because this year we will be completing the largest construction project in the zoo’s history: the orangutan house, which we expect to open in June. Thanks to a huge number of supporters, we have been able to collect around 2.2 million Euros in donations for this passion project. The Friends of Dresden Zoo Association has raised a further 650,000 Euros, which will also go towards the new orangutan house.
The obligatory animal inventory, where we count all animal residents of the zoo, revealed that around 1,074 animals from 203 species were living at the zoo on the reporting date of 31st December 2023. These include 60 species of mammals, 80 species of birds, 22 species of reptiles, 7 species of amphibians, 18 species of fish and 16 species of invertebrates. These figures are almost identical to the previous year. New since 2023 are red howler monkeys, tufted deer, African openbills and black-headed duck, which the zoo acquired for the first time. We were very proud of our koalas’ first successful attempt at breeding. Mum Eerin’s koala joey was christened Janali. Other new arrivals we were delighted to welcome included tamanduas, sloths, great white pelicans and spotted nutcrackers.
The first birth of 2024 was a naked mole rat on 1st January. We hope that the tufted deer and long-tailed gorals will also produce offspring this year.
At today’s press event, the Humboldt penguins were counted during their daily feed. Zoo Supervisory Board Chair and Mayor of Culture Annekatrin Klepsch helped zookeeper Kerstin Kunadt take the inventory. A total of 21 penguins, 14 females and 7 males, currently live at the facility. Of the four penguins that hatched last year, three were successfully reared. We would be delighted to be able to welcome more offspring this year. After the penguin count, our Bactrian camel cow Manila was measured. The two-year-old female came to Dresden in October 2023 and lives here with cow Inka, youngster Farah and bull Sammy. Youngster Manila is not yet fully grown and currently measures 1.60 metres in height. Female Bactrian camels can grow up to 1.80 metres.
In economic terms, we saw significant cost increases last year with regard to energy, animal feed and personnel. We attracted a reasonable and satisfactory number of visitors, with 794,041 people coming through the doors; around 37,400 more visitors to the zoo than the previous year. We are very pleased with this increase, especially since the construction site for the new orangutan house led to some restrictions.