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Hanover (dpa) - If you are looking for an original Christmas present on the fly, you can grab the fat sand rat.
The Hanover Zoo offers a sponsorship for the sociable rodent from 15 euros.
The black and white patterned domino cockroach is available from 10 euros, a stately reindeer from 50 euros.
The new donation sponsorships are intended to strengthen the bond with the zoo visitors during the corona-related closure.
"The demand is currently increasing, for which we are very grateful," says Julia Zwehl, who also looks after the longstanding sponsorship sponsorships.
Sponsors in Hanover have to raise at least 300 euros for a patented animal.
Around 190 animals from polar bears to elephants have been awarded in this area - the CDU in Lower Saxony, for example, gave Angela Merkel the glasses penguin Helmut in 2002.
The almost two meter tall soccer player Per Mertesacker took on the sponsorship of a giraffe in 2013.
Around half of the sponsors are companies.
Nationwide there are around 600 to 800 zoos and animal parks that had to close for months because of the pandemic.
They are under severe financial pressure - after all, the animals still have to be fed and cared for.
According to estimates by the Association of Zoological Gardens (VdZ), around half of the zoos have set up sponsorships.
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VdZ spokesman Sebastian Scholze cannot say how much they take in as a result.
You have to remember that organizing the sponsorships also means a lot of additional work, he says.
The willingness of zoo visitors to donate in the pandemic is enormous and has recently increased.
The zoos are particularly happy when they win prominent supporters.
In October, moderator Thomas Gottschalk had the idea to sponsor coati Thommy at the Karlsruhe Zoo.
Godfather and godmother are united by the distinctive olfactory organ - Gottschalk once played in the film “Die Supernasen”.
Green politician Renate Künast has chosen a great bustard in the Berlin zoo - and is also promoting the resettlement of flightless birds in Brandenburg.
The most popular patent animals at Hanover Zoo are penguins and meerkats.
The penguins are also particularly popular at the Zoo am Meer in Bremerhaven, where sponsorships are available from 50 euros.
But there are also buyers for less attractive representatives.
Julia Zwehl reports that a visitor has taken the marabou, which are considered to be the ugliest birds in Africa, to her heart: "Sometimes funny comments come in like:" Skunk goes well with my husband! "
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Hannover Zoo counted just over a million visitors in 2019.
An increase was expected for this year because of the first polar bear baby in the Alaskan landscape.
But in spring the zoo had to close for 49 days due to corona, now the gates have been closed again since November 2nd.
According to zoo spokeswoman Yvonne Riedelt, only around 654,000 visitors were counted this year: "We especially missed the school classes."
Donation sponsorships at Hannover Zoo
Association of the Corona Zoological Gardens