The past couple of weeks have been so much fun and Germany is absolutely amazing. We have spent time in both Hanover and Berlin and they were both amazing cities.
Our first stop in Hanover was to have a tour of the Hanover Zoo. After visiting several zoos throughout the program its pretty obvious that the Germans have a very different mindset when designing their zoos. They try to get the guest in as much contact with the animals as possible. For instance, guests can go into the sea gull enclosure and one of the birds has become so acclimated to people over the years that she'll walk up to guests and let them touch her. Also, all of the peacocks in the zoo are free roaming and can go into any exhibit or path that they wish.
The barriers to some of the other enclosures are still very minimal compared to zoos in the States. Our guide openly admitted that the gazelles could easily jump over the barrier into the guest area but they haven't so far and the zoo isn't too worried about it. The mindset seems to be that if a guest does something stupid they deserve the consequences whereas in the U.S. we try to do everything we can to make sure the idiots don't have the opportunity to do something stupid.
Our guide did say that this does cause some problems for their animals because guests will often try to feed the animals whatever they brought to the zoo. Since the barriers are so minimal it's pretty easy for something to be tossed into the enclosure for the animal to eat. The worst consequence of this happened several years ago when one of the zoo's hippos ate a tennis ball someone threw into the enclosure. Unfortunately the zoo didn't know about it or catch it in time and the hippo ended up being euthanized because the impaction caused by the tennis ball destroyed the intestines. I would think that this would be enough of a reason to make more significant barriers between the animals and guests but our guide says that out if the millions of visitors only small fraction try to give things to the animals. For the zoo it seems that it's better for the people that behave to get a more intimate experience since there usually aren't too many problems.
The other strange thing was that the zoo allowed the guests to bring their dogs into the zoo. This isn't all that surprising since Germans can take their dogs just about anywhere but it's still a little shocking. He dogs are required to be on leash the entire time, which is good because I could see some problems occurring if a dog found one of the free ranging peacocks.
Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with the veterinarians at the zoo, which was a little disappointing, but I'm still glad we were able to visit. Each time I visit a zoo here it is obvious that the U.S. and the Germans handle their zoos a little differently and I can't decide which I like more. It seems like the German zoos give the guest a better experience but I don't know if that is necessarily good for the animals.
Hanover is also the first city that we have visited that actually has a veterinary school. We spent some time at their cattle clinic, which handles mostly dairy cattle. The school really wants there to be cases for the students to learn from and they do some pretty cool things to accomplish this. First, the school has drivers and trucks that will go up to 200km to pick up cattle that need treatment from the farm...at no charge to the client. This makes it incredibly easy for a farmer to send their sick cattle to the vet rather than put it off until they have time. The school also sponsors all lab work costs that are done at the school so that clients are t discouraged from pursuing further diagnostics and if the clinicians convince the owner to keep the cow at the clinic longer because it's an interesting case they won't charge for their services. It's really important for the school to have cases so that the students can learn and these are definitely ways to help keep the case load up. The clinic has seen some hardship due to some financial trouble in Germany and the case load has gone from about 1500 cases a year to about 1200.
Our group had some free time one evening and went on a self-led walking tour of the city. Hanover was beautiful, especially the “new” city hall. By new, I mean it was built in the early 1900s, but thats still pretty new considering how old the city is. I really enjoy spending the time to look around the old part of these German towns because there is so much history everywhere!
The next part of the program took us to Berlin, which is the city I was most excited to visit! Our first night was a bike tour around town and honestly, Berlin is a little on the ugly side. This is mainly because it was pretty much leveled during the second world war and everything that was built afterwards doesn’t stand up against the less damaged areas of Germany. Due to Berlin’s role in the war, the entire city is full of history and the tour was a nice way to see the highlights.
Another big cultural experience we had in Berlin was visiting one of the concentration camps used during the war. This was an experience that I will likely never forget. It was such a powerful place to be in knowing all that happened within the walls of the camp. A lot of the buildings had been destroyed after the war, but those that were left held exhibits showing the conditions of the camp. Looking through these exhibits and being in the place where it actually happened made me extremely uncomfortable. Its hard to describe the feeling I had knowing I was in a place that held the bodies of thousands of murdered people and knowing all of the other horrible things they had to endure. This experience left a lasting impression on me and makes me grateful for the place and conditions I live in today.
Some of the veterinary related activities we did in Berlin were visiting another equine reproduction clinic, touring the anatomy department of the Berlin vet school, and touring a wildlife research institute. My favorite was probably the wildlife institute because they gave us a really great presentation about all of the work they are doing to help promote conservation and environmental stability. The institute also has one of the world’s most expensive CT scanners and it was really amazing seeing how that worked. Its also cool to see the institute giving back to the community because they are funded with tax dollars. They offer low cost CT scans whenever it is not being used for research and I think that its a great way to give back to the taxpayers that fund them. They also took us outside to practice shooting with a blow gun, which is typically used to tranquilize wild animals before they are examined. Let me just say that its not as easy as it looks. We weren’t particularly good at it, although toward the end a few of us managed to hit the target.
Berlin was a lot of fun and now we are all not the train on our way to Büsum to see some of the North Sea area. It looks like we are going to get to do some pretty cool stuff with marine mammals, which I am really looking forward to. Coming on this program is one of the best decisions I have ever made and I can’t wait to see what else I get to do!
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