Knut's not Berlin's only polar bear and the Zoo isn't the only zoo. Most visitors don't realise that east of the Tiergarten, in Lichtenberg, home of the Stasi and much ugly DDR housing, lies the Tierpark Zoo, created in 1955 by the Ossies after the Berlin Wall cut off access to the world-famous Zoologischer Garten (home of Knut). It's a microcosm of the reunification of Germany: both zoos are now yoked together under one management, but the eastern side is out-dated, criticised and a drain on dwindling funds, and no one can agree on its future.
This is not Knut
The Knut controversy was only the tip of the ersatz iceberg. The animals are the stars of every local paper: they get born, they die, they're being conserved, they're being jailed. They're a Berlin obsession. I picked up BZ and the front page asked, "Why so many dead zoo babies?" The Tierpark had just lost a giraffe, another Eisbaer cub hadn't made it and two lions were gone-zo.
On a freezing Sunday, with barely any customers, the Tierpark is a strange place to visit. You get lost – sign posts and maps are scant – and ramble along twisty woodland paths between the cages, past a memorial to a labour camp, and contemplate the animals in mutual silence, noting that the tiling indoors looks like an East Berlin subway.
The collection of creatures and the breeding programmes are impressive, but it's not just the décor of the enclosures that's old-fashioned. The elephants' indoor areas are barely large enough for them to turn round in. One of the jaguars was pacing a groove into the floor. The prairie dogs cowered nextdoor to the leopard pen.
It's also A-OK to take your pet dog, so Fido can harass the caged animals like this spaniel, barking at the boar. It lost its nerve at the tiger pavilion though, and shat itself. Which didn't improve the smell.
I did like the dugong tank, where four ponderous sea-cows swim through a soup of lettuce and carrot, and I noticed that the paths, enclosures and woods were covered in rabbit tracks. Rabbit party time! At least one species was having fun at the Tierpark.
TIERPARK ZOO; Am Tierpark 125, Lichtenberg, Berlin.
