Dresden Zoo

About this place

Dresden Zoo occupies the southern edge of the Grosser Garten and opened in eighteen sixty-one, which makes it the fourth-oldest zoo in Germany. The landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenne drew the first layout, and the grounds have stayed compact ever since: thirteen hectares holding roughly three thousand animals of about four hundred species, with a clear bias towards Asia. The zoo built its reputation on great apes from the eighteen seventies onward, and in nineteen twenty-seven its keepers produced the first documented record anywhere of an orangutan mother raising her infant in captivity. The war flattened much of the site. The newest building is the circular orangutan house, opened in June twenty twenty-four after three years of work and something near twenty-two million euros, the largest construction project the zoo has ever run. Aldabra giant tortoises now share it and can be seen year round, along with smooth-coated otters, a binturong and a reticulated python. In practice the visit is shorter than people expect: half a day covers everything without hurrying. The best single building is the Prof-Brandes-Haus, a tropical hall where sloths and free-flying birds move above your head, followed by the dark walkway built to show burrowing animals at eye level. Trams nine and thirteen stop at the gate, or you can arrive on the narrow-gauge park railway from Strassburger Platz. An adult ticket is nineteen euros at the box office and less online or in the winter season.