Germany: Osnabrück Zoo Celebrates the Opening of Its New “Water Worlds”

After more than a year of construction, Osnabrück Zoo is now celebrating the opening of its new “Water Worlds” animal experience area, which is now home to California sea lions, seals, Humboldt penguins and pink pelicans. A Nordic coastal landscape with dunes, a rocky coastline, Nordic fishermen’s houses, a pier and a lighthouse has been created on an area of some 5,000 square meters, into which generous animal enclosures are integrated. The visitor and animal areas blend together so that guests can observe animal life particularly well. The new “Water Worlds” area, designed by the dan pearlman experience architects led by Kieran Stanley, also integrates a playground with, among other play attractions, a pirate ship and a low ropes course, as well as a restaurant with a view of the North Sea pier.

To mark the opening of the new area, zoo visitors can look forward to a varied special program of entertainment and information this weekend. A total of 7.7 million euros was invested in the realization of this major project – an amount that was subsidized by funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERFE) with 2.8 million euros. In addition, visitors can also look forward to discovering the other zoo areas in which continuous investments are being made. Only last year, the new lion enclosure “Mapungubwe” was completed and the “Tetra-Aquarium” was extensively modernized. (eap)