Michael Köck European tour update: 3

Michael Köck European tour update 3: Nuremberg, Germany – Stuttgart, Germany

On 11 September, I took the bus from Leipzig to Nuremberg and arrived at the zoo around noon. Director Dag Encke left an ongoing meeting to say hello and scheduled our meeting an hour later, so I had some time to visit the zoo. Nuremberg is one of only few zoos in Europe that house manatees and even dolphins. Though an hour seems a long time, I didn’t get further than seeing these animals, partly due to a heavy rain shower that rolled in.

The meeting itself was awesome! Plan G was – again – well received and several possibilities of supporting this conservation plan through the zoo were evaluated. We found a possible way to combine Goodeid conservation with the zoo’s work on Ambystoma dumerilii, the Lake Patzcuaro salamander endemic to the Pátzcuaro lake drainage.

We also discussed several support possibilities through the zoo and with organisations associated with zoos, some of which were already approached by me, others scheduled for next year.

I spent the night in Prague and visited Plzeň Zoo on 12 September, which is about one hour west of Prague. This zoo has built a house for endangered fish species, including Goodeids, so it was of course worth a visit. Curator Tomaš Peš picked me up at the train station, brought me to the zoo and showed me the exhibition. I was really impressed to see threatened fish from all continents in one room, but even more impressed that the zoo drew attention to the cooperation between hobbyists and zoos – an important relationship in conservation that I have been talking about for years.

After lunch with Tomaš, director Jiří Trávníček and his son – both of them experts in Mexican reptiles, especially rattle snakes – I presented Plan G to them and other representatives of the zoo. Already during the presentation, I was offered financial support for Plan G for this and the coming year, so Plzeň Zoo joined the Goodeid conservation alliance!

The next day I proceeded to Zoo Hellabrunn in Munich. Thanks to curator Eric Diener, who became a dear friend on this trip, I was allowed to sleep in the zoo for three nights. The wish in Munich to display Goodeids and contribute to their conservation is high, so we discussed several possible approaches, including linking Goodeid conservation with that of an Ambystoma species. A few days later I received an encouraging email from Eric, saying that Zoo Hellabrunn wants to support Plan G, initially for three years with €5,000 to €10,000 annually, focusing on a reintroduction project or a project related to reforestation.

After enjoying a weekend off in Munich, I visited Zoo Hellbrunn. Though the name sounds very similar to Munich Zoo Hellabrunn, this zoo is located in Salzburg, the Austrian city that many people connect with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Sound of Music. I met Lisa Sernow, the responsible curator and Mario Katzinger, who is responsible for everything related to South and Central America. We talked about Plan G and its dimensions, with the result that the aquarium in the so-called South America house will be changed into a Goodeid tank to create awareness and collect donation from visitors. The zoo is also willing to directly support Plan G.

So, six days, four zoos, one hundred per cent support – what else can be asked for! After another day in Salzburg, due to severe flooding in Austria which had caused all train and bus connections to be canceled, I finally arrived in Vienna to spend a few days with my family and take a well-deserved vacation.

Then on 22 September, I was on the bus again to meet a dear friend in Stuttgart and prepare more meetings for the Monday, starting with the Zoo in Karlsruhe that has its own conservation foundation, the “Artenschutzstiftung”. The meeting there and a few more in Switzerland and France will be part of the Travel Report number four, so stay tuned!