Olderdissen Animal Park

I went a bit farther afield in my hiking today, having enticed Jay to play a bit of hooky, since the weather has been perfect for the last 3 days, we ended up at the local Tierpark.  Tierpark, literally Animal Park, could be translated as zoo, but this one is full of animals native to Germany or at least Europe, so it was much more of a collection of common animals, rather than exotic ones.

The park is free to all, and is a surprisingly well maintained collection, so there must be substantial government funding.  Their pride and joy are their brown bears -- a male and female pair.  You can barely see the female in the back with her head in the little shed/building, while the male prowls around (he was drying off after a swim)

I learned a lot of animal words, using the pictures as guides, but a lot of them I didn't know the name in English.

These are large deer known as Hirsh.  The bars mess the picture up, but I thought the antlers were pretty impressive.

And swans always make a good picture (and are easy to identify).

What surprised me the most was the number of Germans who bring their dogs to the park.  Can you imagine an American zoo allowing dogs in?  This one even had places to tie your dog up while you used the bathroom or went in the restaurant.  And these were often big dogs, not just terriers and the like.  I didn't see any situations where the dogs disturbed the park animals, but it must happen.