I’ve not much experience photographing animals since I seldom have the chance, but when I was in Bremerhaven (on the way to Norway), the local zoo was close to my hotel and thus I visited. I did not manage to take photos of all the species – they are often under water, in the retirement areas, or just too fast to catch on camera –, but I got a collection of ok-ish photos of some of them.
The Zoo am Meer (Zoo by the Sea) in Bremerhaven, situated at the Weser estuary close to the North Sea, is a rather small zoo, with a basis ground of only 8,600 m2 that by the clever mountain-like architecture was expanded to 11,800 m2, and focusses – mostly – on animals from the polar regions. The zoo is part of the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
In this post I will tell you about the history of the zoo and some of the animals (in those cases I found information on the website or got it from the zoo keepers). The post turned out longer than I thought and is all over the place, mixing history and information about the animals and zoo technology – I hope you won’t get confused.
The first animal I met was a polar fox. Fenja joined the zoo in in July 2022 as nubile fox maiden, so to speak. She’s quite the model girl and knows how to look cute – she stood up and walked to the other side of the enclosure where I could photograph her again (with some twigs in the foreground). Her mate Milan, with a darker fur like frosted graphite, was not ready to remain standing in a good spot for a photo.
The history of the zoo began with an aquarium.
By the early 20th century, Bremerhaven had developed into one of the main harbours for freight and passengers in Germany. In 1897, the at the time largest chamber lock in the world and a new turning bassin had been built. Bremerhaven became a port for large-scale shipping; the Imperial Ports II and III, the Imperial Dock II (Kaiserhafen, all named for Emperor Wilhelm II) and the connecting port were constructed – they can still be seen during a harbour cruise. The municipality depended on fishing and shipping, though, and that meant the Lloyd company.
Thus the landing stage for the steamships of the Northern German Lloyd not only got a luxurious waiting hall with a fish food hall and restaurant for the passengers, but also an aquarium displaying fishes that could be found in the North Sea as additional attraction.
Once the city council decided on the new project, they got zoologist and teacher Dr. Heinrich Lübben as consultant for everything that had to do with the aquarium, technical equipment, budget, picking the staff etc. The aquarium in the cellar of the waiting hall opened in August 1913; Lübben became the first director.
Lübben had ideas that went beyond an aquarium; he wanted to show animals as well, but he had to wait until after WW1. A wadden sea beach with some birds, and a bassin for seals were the first concept. It could be realised in 1921; two seals were caught in the wild – not unusual at the time.
After more years of financial strain for the town of Bremerhaven, the Tiergrotten (Animal Grottos) – called thus due to the artificial rock formations which housed the animals – were finally opened in 1928. Lübben wanted to concentrate on animals from the polar regions: The grottos showed polar bears, sea lions, seals, gannets, and later penguins as well. But the zoo also took in animals as gift, or confiscated from incoming ships, like chimpanzees and monkeys which had been sailors’ pets. This list of the first animals also included indigenous fauna like badgers and foxes.
20 year old Lara joined the zoo mid-July. The other she bear, Valeska, had finally told her grown up twin cubs to get a job and move out of the basement (they went to Brno in Czechia). Lara was introduced to keep Valeska company, but by early September when I visited, both ladies still kept to separate parts of the enclosure.
No boyfriend for Valeska after the male bear Lloyd had moved out in 2022, since her bloodline is already well represented in zoos worldwide, therefore she’s not supposed to breed again (she got several cubs over the years).
The polar bear breeding program became one of Bremerhaven’s main successes already in the 1930/40ies – which is the more remarkable since no one had any experience with breeding polar bears in captivity, and the first enclosures were not species appropriate and much smaller than the space they got now.
One idea that helped was to sound-insulate the breeding cave with thick planks, and make sure the keepers would only whisper when near mommy bear. Polar bears turned out to be very sensitive to disturbances and sometimes refused to care for their cubs.
Humboldt penguins are a highly endangered species with only 20,000 exemplars remaining in the wild.
The group was gathering in expectation of some juicy fish distributed by the keepers. Hand feeding has the advantage that the keepers can control the amount of food each animal gets and take a look at them as well.
The first pengiuns in the zoo were African penguins (breeding successes included), another species that is now endangered. I could not find information why the zoo changed to Humboldt penguins; one reason may be that African penguins prefer warmer water, while the modern bassins at the Weser estuary are filled with cold water, thus extra heating would have been required to keep African penguins. There are also world wide breeding programs that decide which zoo may be the best fit for a particular species or animal.
Cormorants are not endangered, but the zoo also shows some animals – including most of the fishes, the seals and more – that are just part of the arctic fauna. They had reindeer in the early years, for example.
The cormorants share an enclosure with the northern gannet and some other birds.
The northern gannet was another early breeding success. The German name is Basstölpel (ʹTölpelʹ meaning someone clumsy, the ʹBassʹ part refers to the Bass Rock in Scotland, one of the main colonies of gannets).
Northern gannets are the largest and most northern species in the gannet family. They were endangered because they’ve been hunted for meat and their eggs collected, but since the hunt has been forbidden, the population has been increasing again since the 1990ies. But there is a new danger: Fishing nets. The birds get entangled in the plastic wires, or bring them to build their nests.
The keas got their own place, though. They are an endangered species. They were killed by New Zealand farmers who – mistakenly – thought they were killing sheep until the 1970ies. It is now forbidden, but still happens now and then. Another problem are introduced predators not part of the original New Zealandian fauna like rats and cats which will steal the eggs and chicks of the ground breeding keas.
South African fur seals (called Seebären, ʹsea bearsʹ in German) are protected by the Washington Convention.
The water in the bassins for the various seals is exchanged every spring, and the underwater windows get a swipe down as well. 2.7 million litres of water are pumped into the Weser river The water is clean because the zoo today got one one of the most powerful seawater treatment plants in Europe; a total of 3.5 million litres of salt water can be filtered every hour. When the bassins are empty, the technical equipment like pumps, shut-off valves and pipe connections, is checked and repaired if needed. Afterwards, the bassins are filled again to ¾ with tap water, added to this is 27% brine until a seawater salt concentration of 3.5% is reached. The animals stay in the stables during the process.
The zoo soon became popular with the inhabitants of Bremerhaven. But the first grottos left a lot to be desired; there were no water bassins – except for the seals that were kept in a fenced-in area near the harbour – and winter shelters; the room for the keepers had no heating etc. More money than the admission fees was needed. Heinrich Lübben was successfully advertising for donations, but then double bad luck hit the fledging zoo: Lübben died unexpectedly, and the Great Depression struck.
The new director, Dr. Otto Stocker, had his work cut out after the Great Depression. The infrastructure of the zoo was in a bad shape – which makes me wonder what mediocre materials had been used in 1928 – and the zoo was somewhat short of animals. Stocker got that sorted out and achieved his goal to have many different species living in natural groups with adult and young animals. That was a different way to present them compared to the single (or nursing mother) ʹpresentationʹ in cages that had been the standard.
Stocker and his successor Hermann Junker had considerable success in breeding several of the species, especially polar bears and seals, so the zoo became known in the professional world.
During WW2, Bremerhaven was a main target for Allied bomb attacks because of the harbour. The zoo was damaged during those attacks, and a number of animals killed, or died in cause of the stress (an ice bear killed her cubs) or malnutrition (several seals); fresh herring was hard to come by. There was also a problem to get materials to repair the damaged enclosures, and the office building went up in flames, with many papers like breeding registers been lost.
Fortunately, the allied soldiers became very fond of the zoo and its inhabitants (among them the only sea lions and penguins to survive in German zoos). The military administration organized building materials like concrete, bricks, timber, roofing felt, and – most important – fresh fish for the seals and penguins, so the Animal Grottos could be opened to the delighted Bremerhaven citizens already in July 1945.
Junker who had guided the zoo and the aquarium through the difficult times of war and post-war, retired in 1953. His successor was Dr. Kurt Ehlers who brought the zoo back to an internationally acknowledged level. One of his successes was not only the breeding of seals and polar bears, but the raising of abandoned baby seals (called Heuler in German). The poor little things often died until he got the idea to replace the rearing milk with herring fillets and extra vitamins. I suppose the nursing milk avaliable in the 1960ies was not rich enough for baby seals – seal milk contains 45% fat (cow milk has less than 4%). Today, there is a station caring for baby seals in nearby Friedrichskoog.
On Februar 16th/17th 1962, the great North Sea flood hit Bremerhaven. Gusts of up to 200 km/h pushed the water into the German Bight, flooding the dykes along the coast and surging up the rivers of Weser and Elbe – the flood hit Hamburg 100 km inland especially hard. The coastal land is rich in grazing, so many animals – cattle, sheep, horses – died, and 347 people (most of them in Hamburg, the settlements near the coast mostly evacuated in time). 60,000 people were unhomed.
The brick flood wall protecting the zoo was destroyed and parts of the zoo flooded, so many animals that could not swim well, like monkeys and raccoons, died in the flood. Nevertheless, director Ehlers and main keeper Bartmann and his wife managed to save several animals, risking their own lives. Bremerhaven itself got off rather well thanks to not only the fire fighters, police and volunteers, but also the US Army stationed there who all joined efforts to strengthen and repair the dykes with sandbags.
The Animal Grottos were renamed Zoo by the Sea in 1984, but the inhabitants of Bremerhaven called their Zoo ʹTiergrottenʹ still for a long time. They were not the only visitors; since the 1960ies, more and more guests came from Germany and soon from abroad as well.
But despite ongoing repairs and attempts to change the enclosures to better fit the requirements of the animals, it became clear that the zoo needed a general overhaul. By they 1990ies, the technology (like the water filtering system) was old-fashioned, the building structure derelict, and the enclosures and bassins too small. The new directress, Dr. Heike Kück, would have to supervise a complete rebuilding of the zoo.
The municipal property company of Bremerhaven bought the ground of the zoo (and an additional piece of land), so the financial strain was divided between the company and the zoo, with a subsidy by the EU. After the usual discussions about budgets, architectural plans, ideas (an idea from an US company to turn the zoo into a part of an entertainment park was fortunately not accepted), responsibilies and whatnot, the complete reconstruction of the zoo started in January 2001, first on the additional bit of land. Already in November 2002, the chimpanzees, polar bears, polar foxes and all species of seals could move into their new enclosures. The next step took place from March 2003 (the animals were put in preliminary quarters either within the zoo or in other zoos), and in March 2024, the entire zoo was reopened for the public.
Some of the cutest inahbitants: Two young Asian small clawed otters, another species protected by the Washington Convention.
I was lucky since they had joined but a few days before my visit. The prior couple had to be taken down due to illness within a few months of each other at the age of 18/19 – much older than they would ever get in the wild. But it was always clear that the zoo would take in new otters; they’re very popular.
The zoo today (by January 2025) houses 1,164 animals of 109 species. Most of them are fishes, though; there are only 13 species of mammals in the zoo (plus birds, turtles, snakes, and a green iguana). I didn’t manage to takes photos of all the species, though (too fast, hiding, reflections in the glass windows esp. in the aquarium, etc.).
The visitor number for 2024 was 305,113, a good average. 70% of the zoo's running costs are covered by admission fees and the sale of souvenirs in the zoo shop. The zoo receives the remaining 30% as institutional funding from the city of Bremerhaven. Additionally, legacies and sponsorships are used to finance educational and research work to increase the zoo's attractiveness, such as new enclosures.
The otters and the Russian red squirrel – which suffers the same fate as the European red squirrel in Great Britain, being replaced by the larger grey squirrel in its habitat – were added to the zoo after the rebuilt. Other than European red squirrels, the Russian variant changes to a whitish winter fur.
There are two mountain lions, Makiri and Yakawi, but I don’t know who’s who on the photos.
The modern enclosures are much larger, imitating the natural habitats of the animals, with glass fences wherever possible, and windows to watch them under water. Most enclosures have several spots – sometimes high enough to offer an overview – where you can watch the animals. They also got places to hide from the public, and all enclosures have outdoor and indoor spaces, though on a warm September afternoon, most of the animals were outdoors.
There are no public performances, except for the feeding of seals and penguins that can be watched. Some animals learn a few tricks, but that serves to mentally stimulate them and to make it easier for the vet to get close without sedating the animal.
There are programs teaching about species protection, biodiversity, and the dangers of environmental destruction, many of them specially aimed for kids. The zoo also offers guided tours with different thematic focal points.
During the rebuilding of the zoo, the aquarium that had started everything had to go, and the zoo was reopened in 2004 without an aquarium. But visitors missed it – a zoo with a focus on Nordic and water loving animals should have an aquarium.
There was another argument in favour: Due to the focus of the zoo on Polar regions, there are no warmhouses and spots for the visitors to get out of cold and wet weather, thus the visitor numbers decreased in winter. An aquarium would offer a sheltered spot.
Conditions were good: There was an empty area of 325 m/2 beneath the polar bear enclosure, access to natural sea water, and modern filter technology avaliable (see above).
Thus, in 2013, a new aquarium world opened, specialising on the marine life of the North Sea, and the visitors numbers during winter increased, as it was hoped. The light and colours in the hall give you an impression of walking under water yourself.
There are 9 aquariums with a water volume ranging from 1,000 to 100,000 litres. The shell is 24 cm waterproof concrete, the acrylic glass panes are up to 90 mm thick, the largest measures 4.40 x 1.75 metres. Add to that the various light spots and reflections, and it’s photographer’s hell, though the underwater landscapes and fish and other critters are pretty to watch.
Besides a lot of different fish (among others: eel, rudd, gobio, stickleback, mullet, goldsinny wrasse, dragonet, catshark, thornback ray, Atlantic wolffish, sea robin - but don't ask me who's who, lol), you’ll also find crabs, lobster, mussels, sea urchins, starfish, sponges, corals and other creatures that live in the North Sea. Though you won’t find some of the larger fish that eat smaller fish, like cod, for obvious reasons.
Seagrass meadows are some of the most productive marine habitats. They filter pathogens and sediments from the water, and fix large quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. They also offer a home for a large number of small animal species. Unfortunately, they are in decline in many regions.
There are several examples of non-indigenous fish – including seahorses – in the various bassins to give an image of the North Sea as it is now, with species moving in either because the water gets warmer, or because they traveled with ships – often as larvae – and like the North Sea.
Chimpanzees have always been part of the zoo. Several members of the current group were taken in after confiscations in the 1980ies (one was caught when the mother was shot and ended up a ship mascot); they had been brought up in contact with humans and did not display proper chimpanzee behaviour, though the chimpanzees in Bremerhaven eventually developed into a functioning group. It was considered moving them to some place specialising in primates when the zoo was renovated in 2004, but that would have proven a lot of emotional stress for the chimpanzees, so it was decided to keep them.
This West African species is endangered, and the bloodline of the zoo is a rare one since it goes back directly to chimpanzees captured in the wild.
That tail is too long to fit on the photo.
Monkeys also have been part of the zoo since its beginning. They usually came as gifts, former sailors’ pets and ship monkeys kept for good luck.
The zoo continues to breed some non-polar animals since every zoo participating in breeding programs expands the genetic stock of animals that are, or may soon be, counted as endangered species. The emperor tamarins live at the Amazonas where the rainforest is decreasing rapidly; they are not yet endangered but their habitat is getting smaller every day.
The latest addition to the park is a sloth called Horst who joined just a few days before my visit. He was born in the Weltvogelpark Walsrode (World Bird’s Park Walsrode) that has kept sloths for years. He shares the Amazonian rainforest habitat with the tamarins, like he would in the wild.
One reason to keep those roommates of tamarins, turtles, a green iguana, and a sloth may be the plans to build a Biodiversity Center (see below) that would focus on the Amazonian rain forest; the animals could then be moved to a habitat there.
The Zoo am Meer is part of the Havenwelten quarter in Bremerhaven, situated around the remains of the Old Harbour (1830) and New Harbour (1852) – both are no longer used as habours for large ships, though the New Harbour has a marina. The Havenwelten include several museums: The Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum (German Maritime Museum), the Deutsches Auswandrerhaus (German Emigration Center – Bremerhaven was a main port for ships going to America) and the Klimahaus Bremerhaven (Climate House).
There are plans for another educational center, a "Biodom Bremerhaven" focussing on biodiversity and its challenges by example of the Amazonian rain forest. The center is intended to be connected to the zoo. But what exists until now are some pretty plans and models, with only vague ideas about the financing (planned: 48 million €, if you have something to spare *grin*).
Sources
Zoo Website
80 Jahre Zoo am Meer
Ein schöner und interessanter Zoobeitrag. Ich habe bisher nur wenig über den Zoo in Bremerhaven gewusst. Nun bin ich wieder ein bisschen klüger geworden.
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