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Wildpark Schwarze Berge – Game Park on the Outskirts of Hamburg

Photo Album

• Game Park “Wildpark Schwarze Berge”

Official Website

• Wildpark Schwarze Berge [www.wildpark-schwarze-berge.de]
  

How to get there?

Am Wildpark 1
21224 Rosengarten

Opening Times

Nov to Mar 9:00 – 17:00 hrs
Apr to Oct 8:00 – 18:00 hrs

Admission

Adults € 7.50, Children € 5.50 (as of Jan 2009)

The game park “Wildpark Schwarze Berge” is situated at the outskirts of Hamburg. It is open all year round and a nice destination for a day’s excursion at any time of the year. On an attractively laid out forest landscape and park scenery with mountains, valleys, ponds and a small lake, one can experience the European animal world in its natural surroundings very closely.

[10 April 2004] — Easter is near at hand and I feel like going for a vast Saturday walk. To shift the walk to the game park seems to be a good idea! Strolling around and getting some fresh air while watching animals … that sounds good to me.

For our guidance I buy a site plan at the ticket counter. Then we take off. Our walk through the 50 hectare (123 acres) game park area lasts easily three hours – determined by the many stops I make to take pictures. At the entrance we turn right and walk past the donkeys to the Scottish highland cattle. In front of their enclosure some children have gathered taking pictures of the calves.

We pass the lynx enclosure. Obviously the lynxes don’t fell like posing for the photographers. The lynx family has preferred to withdraw to take a little nap. So we go on to the craftsman’s hall. Some craftsmen like wood carver, potters and the like offer their works for sale. In the back of the hall a fireplace is located that invites to prepare your own barbecue (which you may either bring from home or buy at the kiosk in the hall).

Our next stop is at the bat house. We enter the darkened interior. Some visitors try to lure the free-flying bats with food. The bats seem to be fond of fruits. To get them they fly directly on the visitors’ hands. To my big surprise the bats are gentle and can be petted. The animals’ coat feels very warm and fluffy. To stroke a bat is a fantastic experience that I’ll never forget.

Outside again we go through a gate leading to the fallow deer enclosure. Inside I creep up cautiously to the calves to take some close-up pictures. But it’s not that easy to approach the extremely timid animals at close range. I’m lucky my camera has a zoom lens!

At the neighbouring wild boar enclosure offsprings were born, too. The cute little wild boars trudge cheerfully through the mud. Their dirty paws look as if they wore mushy little boots.

Our walk leads us further to the elk enclosure, where the animals lay lazily in the spring sun. Finally we reach the Elbblick tower. From above you should have a nice view over the game park. However, I’m too lazy to climb up all the wooden stairs. In the charcoal burner’s hut at the foot of the Elbblick tower there is another spot to have a barbecue. Here too, a kiosk is located where you can buy all utensils to do so.

But it’s not the smell of grilled sausages that attracts my attention. What is that? In front of the charcoal burner’s hut is a dendrophone – some kind of xylophone made from branches of different types of trees. If you hit a branch with the mallet, you’ll get a specific tone depending on the type of tree the branch derived from. Learnt something new again!

We head for the bisons valley. In front of it we climb on a raised stand to have a better view on the animals. Then we pass the deer valley and the eagle-owl enclosure and reach the nutria pond. The lively small nutrias are really fascinating. The small rodents are really fond of the fodder that we’ve got from the vending machine. The instant one visitor bends down at the fence of their enclosure and starts rattling the fodder box, they come running to the fence, line up and sit up and beg. Just like organ pipes!

We proceed to the enclosure of the European wolves. It is not so easy to get the wolves on camera, as they are constantly on the move. Past the owls we saunter to our last destination, the “stroking enclosure” where we have a lot of fun. A little white nanny goat is completely taken with a fodder box. Its cardboard seems to be particularly tasty. On the way to the exit we finally reach the white stork and black stork enclosure where our walk ends. Quite exhausted we return to our car.

To sum up: The game park Schwarze Berge offers the perfect background for a wonderful walk. Recommendable!