From the sloth bears in their ravine to the elephants in their temple: your expedition to Asia will take you to a fascinating world of plants and animals.
Anoas and Przewalski’s horses roam the area, tigers prowl through the Taiga and multicoloured birds fly over the heads of visitors. Sometimes the sound of chattering, snorting and trumpeting seems to engulf you, while at other times there is an eerie silence while the animals rest.
You will be amazed when you visit our elephant temple Ganesha Mandir. Our Asian pachyderms impressively patrol one of the most modern elephant enclosures inEurope. Depending upon the weather the animals can either be in the ornate temple building, in the extensive outdoor enclosure or in the bathing pools. Weighing as much as five tons these enormous animals love water. In fact, on a regular basis you can watch our elephants swimming underwater through a glass screen in the temple cellar – a unique experience for every visitor! You can get more information about the bathing times in the elephant house.
Observe the largest cats in the world in our Tiger Taiga. The Amur tiger quietly prowls through its boreal forest landscape enclosure. Sometimes the tigers themselves even sit curiously peering through the glass viewing panel, where you can almost feel their breath! There are a number of viewpoints from which you can watch the tigers lazing around or plunging into the water. In fact, they might even swim right past you. There is an information point in the former deer house where you can find an informative exhibition on this majestic and globally threatened animal species.
The Asian aviary is music to your ears: Little egrets, Glossy ibis and White-winged ducks are giving it all they’ve got with you in the middle of it all because our Asian aviary is a walk-in one. You can also visit the second historical aviary from 1928, where you can see the peaceful cohabitation of Griffon vultures and Northern bald ibis. There sound of gaggling and chattering rings through your ears from the surrounding ponds and water pools where about 30 different species of duck can be found.
It’s all action in the sloth bear ravine! The bears can be seen rolling around on the grass and climbing up trees. They share one of their two large outdoor enclosures with Rhesus macaques and are surrounded by artificial rocks and water ditches. Looking at the animals through a crevice in the rocks or from behind the waterfall gives you an insight into the world of these animals close to their natural habitat in India!
In our steppe landscape the Przewalski horses feel very much at home. With deer and muntjak deer in close vicinity it never gets boring. But where does the name of the horses come from? The Russian researcher Przewalski discovered this Mongolian wild horse back in 1879. Sadly, the species became extinct in the wild by 1969. Nowadays, they have been successfully reintroduced in their natural habitat together with individuals that were bred at Zoo Leipzig.
In the small deer house that was built in 1908 these rare cloven-hoofed animals look forward to seeing you. Since 2009 the Visayan warty-hog has been living here that is threatened with extinction on the Philippines. Very little is still known about this species – you can best observe them on your own. Our anoas can also retreat to this deer house, when they are not grazing in their enclosure at the pond. Both species obviously like it here as breeding has been successful on numerous occasions, which is a zoo success story in its own right!
