On the way one passes (and indeed can see from inside the zoo) the towering but broken tower of the 19th century Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtiniskirche. It was bombed but unlike almost everything else in the City was neither demolished nor restored. Its a rather effective memorial.
The zoo entrance is attractively flanked by a pair of elephants.
But behind the façade there are apparently more species than any other zoo in the world (together with the adjoining aquarium). Yes it is vast. I spent all day there.
By and large the animals are in attractive surroundings too. The only catch from my viewpoint was the sheer number of small children. I know you may think, of course its a zoo what do you expect. But it was midweek and not a holiday. But still there was a plague of ankle-biters (that is the correct collective noun for small children isn't it - a plague - like a murmur of starlings or a troop of baboons?). There were whole school parties (shouldn't they be learning long division?) and indeed kndergarten parties. Some were so tiny they were being hauled along in little wagons. I think at the least you shouldn't be allowed in unless you can manage self-propulsion. Its not their presence I object to, just the sheer noise of constant high-pitched chatter and squealing.
Anyway, back to the animal world. Thousands of critters, so I felt it was my duty to photograph them all, or at least as many as could easily be captured. Caged animals are a problem, unless you like photos of bars, so the big game predators are largely missing from this collection. (Given the size of the big cats I prefer them to err on the side of caution.) The zoo has a surprisingly large bird population too, but they are also hard to capture on film, as although one can get right up top the cage, the mesh tends to be finer. But well, just settle down for some animal photos. A lot of photos. Really, a lot.
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