Travel Tips

Burgers Zoo started (1913) with a small birdpark in 's-Heerenberg, about 20 kilometres East of Arnhem. Johan Burgers, owner and founder moved to a larger parcel in Arnhem and begun his Zoo in 1923. Since then this animalgarden has been changing constantly and the park I knew as a child is almost unreckognisable. Especially since Anton van Hooff is director, the park emphasises the livingenvironment of the animals as much as the animals itself. Therefor Arnhem can be called one of the few places on earth to have besides a mediocre seaclimat forest and riverlands (the Dutch habitat), also a tropical rainforest, an American desert, a African savana, a Mangrove-forest. Yes, even a tropical rainforest and coralreefs belong to the landscape of Arnhem ... hum, hum, okay ... it's all to be admired in Burgers Zoo.

Burgers Zoo is now-a-days in the shade of the amazing attractions like Desert, Bush and Ocean. Still, it's a part that should never be left behind as it is most intresting and also funny. Who would have been to a Zoo and didn't see the elephants, monkeys and tigres? Well, here they are, besides an enormous collection of birds (from parrots to flamingo's and from fazants to condors. Also intresting is the little mangrove-hall. This was the second that was triggered by the idea of building animal-habitats in stead of the more traditional cages where the animals were kept. The chimpansee-group in Burgers is most famous, as they have been a researchmodel for several decades now. Furthermore one can see the camels, lama's, walibi's, wolfs, several cats as tigres, jaguar/ panther and ocelot. Not to forget at the entrance the pinguins and elephants. Some further the hippo's, tapirs and a whole bunch of monkeys (also Urang Utans) that are also in the back of the park with the Gorilla's as highlight.

Stretching out over several hectares there's Burgers Safari. The waterhole and feedingplaces are kept near the places where the public walks over boardwalks through the terrain, therefor not disturbing the animals too much. Safari was the first savana-like park on mainland Europe (1968) and created a more natural habitat for zebra's, rhinoceros, giraf, wildebeest (now a more Dutch word in animal kingdom you won't find), emoe and more. On the other hand there are also seperat quarters for the lions and leopards. All animals live in a quite wide environment, which is of course better then a cage. In the first years one was allowed to drive the car through the safari, but in the late 80-ies a new set-up was made with the boardwalks. I can still remember the old way ... when my fathers car was dented by an angry emoe (-:

A worldpremiere was Burgers Bush. In 1988 a huge hall was constructed (1,5 hectare!) and in it slowly a tropical rainforest was growing. I remember it as how it was at the start, small plants and lots of open space. Now the plants have grown in an amazing speed and cover practically all space that is available. Through small paths one has to move through the jungle and ... watch very carefully around and discover the animals that are living here. Okay, on busy days I steer clear from Burgers and having a family-year-card I can go as often as I like. In the silent eveninghours the Bush comes to life. Birds come out of their hidingplaces and show their magnificent colours, while flying fron treetop to treetop. Also the reptiles show themselves. Sounds (other then the shouting of children) fill your ears and you truely believe that you're in the Amazone-forest.

Burgers bush has it's large restaurant with a terrace high above the ground (looking over the jungle). But I want to point out to the other features that Bush offers. The Sarawak-indians house, the little sawa's (Indonesian rice-terraces), the bassin where the manatee's live (the seacows). The amazing waterfall that is also there for a reason (automatic moisturing of the air). The cayman-pool and the part where the funny ardvarks are (descended from the Dutch word "aardvarken" which means "earth-pig"). There is a place where otters roam around (you can find them by following the smell (boah!). Bush's jungle is full of life and ... there are plans to extend it and make it even bigger then it is today!

From the Bush one goes through a mining-shaft towards Burgers Desert (1992). In the tunnel one can see an exposition about stones and also some night animal quarters. Then it becomes light and you'll enter the North American desert. It starts with a pueblo, a little village in Mexican style where one can take a drink before crossing the desert (-:
It is amazing how the desert can be in colours when the cacti blossom and the normally so dry bushes suddenly spring flowers.

Animals that one can find here are several birds, among which the funny roadrunner (beep-beep). Sadly there's no coyote to create hilarious circumstances. There are however some lynxes as well as Karakara's (now there's a name that you don't see every day - it's a bird of pray). Furthermore there are some reptiles (lizards, gekko's and (rattle)snakes) as well as larger mamals: capricorns.
In a corner one also finds the remains of a Tiranosaurus Rex, as simulating the escavating places in the deserts in this part of the world.

In 1996 Burgers Zoo started a daring project to bring the Ocean to Arnhem (no, it has nothing to do with dikebreaches!). The project took until 2001, when this magnificent part was opened to public.
It consists of 11 bassins with a total content of over 8 million litres of seawater. The largest bassin is protected by the largest window in the world, a 100 square metres and 35 centimeters thick.
For keeping the water clean there are 10 km in piping and a pumping capacity of 1.050 m3 per hour. They are able to produce an equavilant of 57.000 litres seawater.

These are just numbers but the beauty of the oceanworld is that what we are amazed about. From the coralreefs to the deepsea, we are eye to eye to one of the most tranquile worlds on this earth (and now also slowly destroyed by mankind!). Especially in the large room (see first picture) one can sit for hours and only enjoy the light shimmering blue through the water.

Come and have a look ... or visit for more information:
http://www.burgerszoo.nl/