Almost 100,000 more people than in the previous year visited the Frankfurt Zoo in 2021.

This was announced by the city as the sponsor of the zoo on Tuesday.

With 475,687 visitors, however, the number is still well below the level reached before the pandemic began.

In peak years like 2019, almost 900,000 visitors passed through the turnstiles on Bernhard-Grzimek-Allee.

The start of the year was initially completely quiet for the zoo, as it was closed to visitors until March 8th in lockdown.

Many regulations such as access restrictions and booking time slots were only lifted over the course of the summer.

Daniel Meuren

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The pandemic is obviously a greater burden for the Frankfurt Zoo than, for example, for the Opel Zoo in Kronberg.

A visitor record was recently reported there in the annual balance sheet.

580,000 tickets were sold in the Taunus, where the lockdown lasted just as long as in Frankfurt.

Due to its larger size, the Opel Zoo has other requirements in terms of admission and corona requirements.

Hardly any short-time work, costs constant

It has not yet been decided what consequences the loss of income will have for the urgently needed upcoming construction work.

However, when zoo veterinarian Christina Geiger was appointed director, Hartwig, head of the cultural department, recently indicated that the losses could at least not remain entirely without consequences.

Especially since the zoo, unlike other cultural institutions, had hardly any savings on the cost side.

After all, the nursing staff had to be there for the animals just as they were in normal times.

For example, only a few zoo employees could be sent on short-time work.

The founding of the Friends of the Zoo in Frankfurt, which funded a house for naked mole rats last year, brought some relief.

The nature conservation euro was introduced in spring under the zoo director Miguel Casares, who has meanwhile returned to his native Spain.

Visitors can voluntarily donate one euro with their entry, which goes directly to six nature conservation projects that the zoo supports.

In fact, a large proportion of guests use this option.

Last year, the city also approved funds for the planning of a new restaurant, which is to be built at a central location in the zoo.

This area has been idle for years, there is only a food truck on the terrace in front of the Zoogesellschaftshaus.

Construction work is in preparation for the conversion of the Löwen outdoor area.

4000 animals live in the zoo

The zoo was also able to look forward to an increase in animal sponsorships.

In addition to the FAZ, which sponsored the black howler monkey Tambo, almost 500 other new sponsors have decided to support the zoo.

There are now a total of 4034 sponsorships at Frankfurt Zoo, with the meerkats being the most popular.

“336,992 euros in donations from animal sponsorships.

That's enormous, and I would like to thank you very much for it," says zoo director Christina Geiger, who officially took over her new job on Tuesday (see interview).

"We can really use this support, because in many places in the zoo we can use it to make large and small improvements in animal husbandry."

The zoo also determined an important number during an "inventory" at the end of the year.

Around 4,000 animals of 467 species live in the zoo.

Several thousand invertebrates, i.e. insects, spiders, corals, sea anemones and many more, are practically impossible to count and are therefore not recorded individually.

However, several hundred spectacled leaf noses are missing from the statistics.

The zoo is said to have dispensed with the bat census last year due to the pandemic.

Remarkable births of some highly endangered species included bonobos, orangutans, aardvarks, tamanduas and aye-ayes.

The Education and Mediation department also had to continue to adapt its work to the circumstances of the corona pandemic in 2021.

Only 120 booked tours took place.

Out of necessity, the zoo entered the terrain of virtual programs such as video chats for seniors and a format for the youth club.

A total of 54 hours of time came together last year.

17 episodes of "Hinter dem Zoo geht's weiter" of the joint nature conservation podcast by the zoo and the Frankfurt Zoological Society were also among the innovations in times of the pandemic.