Off to the forest

The wildlife park with its striking old trees is one of the city's most popular leisure activities. The 112-hectare recreational forest attracts numerous visitors at any time of the year with its wildlife population. From the very beginning, the focus was on hunting, game, historical forms of silviculture (herding forest, sniping technique) and forest aesthetics, and not, as in many other forests, purely yield-oriented timber production. As a result, old tree populations have been able to develop, which today make a decisive contribution to the fact that forest images of rare beauty and expressiveness can be admired in the zoo. In addition to fallow deer, the zoo is now home mainly to wild boars and roe deer. Since 1997, the former wild horse enclosure has been home to 10 to 20 red deer. The zoo is also the habitat of numerous bird species and rare bats. A special highlight, especially for young visitors and families, is the Tiergarten Festival, which takes place every year on the second weekend in October. In this way, the forestry company thanks the children for collecting acorns and chestnuts, which are fed to the animals in winter. The zoo is open to visitors daily from 7 a.m. until nightfall.