Marcus
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- Sep 2, 2010
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Hello everybody,
I just wanted to tell you about my visit at the Zoo of Cologne last year. While many Zoos in the USA start projects which deal with the amphian crisis and try to breed rare species, German zoos often just present their few amphibians and put a display next to them or a hand-out. Most of the time you have the feeling that they just wanted to show the banner of the amphibian-ark-project. But the Zoo of cologne is an exception. In the basement of the fish-, amphibian- and reptile-house they started some realy interesting breeding projects for amphibians. They arranged various rooms for this project and they even have one for Andrias davidianus. Of course the rooms aren't accessible for everyone but I was lucky and got there with my professor who is interested in amphibians as much as I am. So first we saw the room where they are breeding several frog species (for example Hyla cinerae which are quite common in German terraria but only very few people breed them. And in order to make imports superfluous they breed them in large numbers. Futhermore they also breed Long-nosed Horn Frogs for the pet trade and also published a book about breeding them). But they also breed Tylototriton shanjing and keep Tyl. asperrimus as well as Neurergus kaiseri in this room. Tylototriton shanjing is also in the show. The curator of this zoo division is also in the vietnamese amphibian breeding projects in which Tylototriton vietnamensis is embedded.
Amphibian breeding room
Tyl. shanjing in the show
But the highlight was the breeding room for Andrias davidianus! They keep several adults from the one breeding in Germany some years ago. Of course, the aim is to breed them in the future. So here is a picture of an adult salamander and here are the tanks in which they are kept. The giant aquaria belong to the cooling-system of the tanks. In the tank type of the first picture the pairs are kept but they are seperated by a heavy grid. I hope, I get to know when the giant salamanders are going to reproduce.
Another highlight was a single hellbender which is kept behind the show aquaria. It's a little bit sad, that it is the only animal in the zoo. It seems a little bit lost between the othe aquaria.
Adult Andrias
Breeding Tanks for Andrias pairs
Tank for single Andrias
Lonesome hellbender...
And finally, a show for native amphibians was established in 2008 in which Triturus cristatus is shown.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Greetings,
Marcus
I just wanted to tell you about my visit at the Zoo of Cologne last year. While many Zoos in the USA start projects which deal with the amphian crisis and try to breed rare species, German zoos often just present their few amphibians and put a display next to them or a hand-out. Most of the time you have the feeling that they just wanted to show the banner of the amphibian-ark-project. But the Zoo of cologne is an exception. In the basement of the fish-, amphibian- and reptile-house they started some realy interesting breeding projects for amphibians. They arranged various rooms for this project and they even have one for Andrias davidianus. Of course the rooms aren't accessible for everyone but I was lucky and got there with my professor who is interested in amphibians as much as I am. So first we saw the room where they are breeding several frog species (for example Hyla cinerae which are quite common in German terraria but only very few people breed them. And in order to make imports superfluous they breed them in large numbers. Futhermore they also breed Long-nosed Horn Frogs for the pet trade and also published a book about breeding them). But they also breed Tylototriton shanjing and keep Tyl. asperrimus as well as Neurergus kaiseri in this room. Tylototriton shanjing is also in the show. The curator of this zoo division is also in the vietnamese amphibian breeding projects in which Tylototriton vietnamensis is embedded.
Amphibian breeding room
Tyl. shanjing in the show
But the highlight was the breeding room for Andrias davidianus! They keep several adults from the one breeding in Germany some years ago. Of course, the aim is to breed them in the future. So here is a picture of an adult salamander and here are the tanks in which they are kept. The giant aquaria belong to the cooling-system of the tanks. In the tank type of the first picture the pairs are kept but they are seperated by a heavy grid. I hope, I get to know when the giant salamanders are going to reproduce.
Another highlight was a single hellbender which is kept behind the show aquaria. It's a little bit sad, that it is the only animal in the zoo. It seems a little bit lost between the othe aquaria.
Adult Andrias
Breeding Tanks for Andrias pairs
Tank for single Andrias
Lonesome hellbender...
And finally, a show for native amphibians was established in 2008 in which Triturus cristatus is shown.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
Greetings,
Marcus
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Did you got some Neurergus kaiseri photos from that zoo?