Yukon Bay - the call of the wild in Hannover!

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At Hannover Adventure Zoo five theme worlds - Zambezi, Jungle Palace, Gorilla Mountain, Meyer’s Farm and Mollywoop – already fascinate more than a million guests a year. Now the sixth world, Yukon Bay, is being completed. Here, polar bears, sealions, penguins, polar foxes, wolves and caribou will be at home in a wild Alaskan gorge and a bustling harbour.

Urgent action needed
Yukon Bay is Hannover Adventure Zoo’s solution to the problem of the old polar bear, sealion and penguin enclosures, which are not good enough for the animals and also ecologically and economically unsustainable. They were built in the middle of the last century and no longer meet EU directives on animal welfare and keeping. The new enclosures at Yukon Bay will provide a much larger habitat, built to the latest standards.

Old and new
The present polar bear enclosure measures 700 m²; at Yukon Bay there will be 3,500 m². Today the sea lions only have 132 m² to swim in; at Yukon Bay they will play in 1,050 m². The penguins will move from a 59-m² pool to a 430-m² basin.

Saving Water
Ecologically and economically the old facilities are a disaster: the dilapidated sealion enclosure, for example, does not have a cyclic water treatment system. Every day about 370 cubic metres of water are pumped out to soak into the ground in the Eilenriede city woodland – almost 136,000 cubic meters a year.

Water costs now:
53,800 Euro a year.
Water costs in the future:
24,337 Euro a year.

Even though the sealion enclosure at Yukon Bay will be five times the size of the facilities today, water costs will be halved!
The amount of water in the Yukon Bay enclosures for polar bears, sea lions and penguins will double to 3,000 cubic metres, but annually only 20,000 cubic metres will be consumed.

Alaskan adventure
Alaska is the last great wilderness challenge. This vast country on the edge of the Arctic grips the imagination with its countless rivers, mountains, unspoilt beaches, treeless tundra and impenetrable forests. Large areas of the 1.5-million km² territory have never been explored. Bizarre iceberg forms materialise just off the coast. Caribou herds wander the uncharted backwoods, and wolves and huge bears roam the forests.

Yukon Bay – the plans
The Yukon Bay Alaskan landscape will be built on 22,000 m² between Zambezi and Jungle Palace. On the banks of the Yukon River visitors will watch wolves, caribou, polar bears, sea lions and polar foxes, and visit ‘the northernmost penguin zoo’ in Yukon Bay harbour.

The vision …

Gold rush
A visit to Yukon Bay is a journey through harsh wilderness. The atmosphere of the gold rush comes alive again, and adventure calls. Like the gold miners of the 19th century, zoo visitors traverse the forests, rocky landscapes, gorges and caves of Alaska to reach Yukon Bay harbour.

Wolves and caribou
An old mine shaft is the entrance to the fifth theme world. Pit props creak, water roars and from time to time an animal cry can be heard. The tunnel mouth opens onto the tundra where caribou graze, closely watched by a wolf pack just across the gorge. The path continues through a deserted gold mine with crumbling walls. Panorama windows separate people and animals.

Sealions
Beyond the forest lies Yukon Bay harbour: the large harbour basin, warehouses, wooden sheds in old-time Alaskan style, a pontoon barge with a freight crane and a boat anchored by the pier. On one side pilings surround the dock, on the other side rocks form a natural barrier. Here sealions disport themselves, swimming in the basin or sunning themselves on the pier. Every day the sealion show is held in the dock areas, strewn with cargo, fishing nets and fish traps.

Penguins in Alaska
Further along the dock lies a foundered ship. A resourceful penguin enthusiast has seized this opportunity to build ‘the northernmost penguin zoo’ on the stranded vessel. The penguins have taken over the entire ship, hopping from deck to deck and swimming in the waterlogged hull.

Polar bears
From the steel pontoon you can see out across the bay to the polar bears’ world behind the old ship. Harsh tundra separates their territory from the harbour. They swim in the chilly water or doze on mossy rocks. Polar bear mothers raise their cubs in cosy dens close by.

Underwater world
Unforgettable glimpses of the underwater life of polar bears can be had from the boat repair workshop. You enter the hull through a hole in the ship’s side. To port, penguins play in the old shipwreck; just above the visitors’ heads they ‘fly’ through transparent pipes. The portholes on the right offer a stunning view of polar bears swimming in the bay alongside the ship.

Expense and success
To build the theme world Yukon Bay as planned will cost 22 million Euro. ”We have to modernise animal keeping in these out-of-date facilities”, says Zoo Director Klaus-Michael Machens. According to his philosophy, “Only what people know, will they love; only what they love, will they protect.” He wants to enthuse his visitors for Arctic animals in a setting close to their natural environment.