Zoo

The Avifauna bird park proudly welcomed a new resident. A baby kiwi recently hatched at the zoo. This is the first time ever that a kiwi is born in the Netherlands. Only 16 zoos around the world have a breeding program for kiwis. And Avifauna in Alphen aan den Rijn is the only zoo where a kiwi hatched this year, the zoo announced on Thursday.

Visiting a Dutch zoo is increasingly expensive, but they are also increasingly popular. Over the past five years ticket prices increased by an average of 17 percent, and visitor numbers at zoos in the Netherlands increased by 11 percent in four years, RTL Nieuws reports based on its own research.

The broadcaster compared the current ticket prices of all zoos affiliated with the Dutch association of zoos NVD to the prices from 2012. On average the ticket price for an adult increased by 3 euros, with outliers of 5 or even 9 euros. 

Baby elephant Sanuk, born at the Artis zoo in Amsterdam on Sunday, explored outside for the first time on Thursday afternoon, the zoo said on Twitter.

The baby Asian elephant stayed close to mother Thong Tai and hid under her belly from the rain, a spokesperson for the zoo said to news wire ANP. After some time outside, the mother and calf went back to their enclosure.

With a thumbs up from Artis Zoo Director Haig Balian, demolition of one of the oldest structures at the Amsterdam institution began. The old animal cages that houses the big cats stood since the zoo's creation in 1838.

A hungry lion found itself with its head stuck in a feeding barrel at the Dierenrijk zoo in Nuenen, Noord Brabant over the weekend. The startled African lion panicked as it could not see its cage anymore and started running around desperately in effort to get the barrel off, AD writes.

The Netherlands' baby twin polar bears had their first outing this Thursday.

An apparently clairvoyant meerkat from the Dierenpark zoo in Amersfoort has predicted correctly the outcomes of all of the matches The Netherlands have played thus far in the World Cup.

A giraffe has been pictured saying a touching last farewell to a zoo co-worker, who was dying of cancer.

What happened to the hamadryas baboons in Emmen Zoo, is anyone's guess. The large group of hysterical monkeys is already a couple of days upset. "They have eaten a little more this Wednesday morning, but afterwards all of them hurried into the trees and high up the rock," says biologist Wijbren Landman of the zoo in Emmen.