Wassenaar Zoo

Founded in 1937, closed in 1985

Mr Pieter Louman opened in 1937 the gates of his zoo "Dierenpark Wassenaar".  Altough a car-handler he owned a large, famous, collection of tropical birds. Soon after the opening of the zoo more animals were bought. Some of them came from the cloesd zoo of The Hague, like some birds of prey and an elephant.

In the early years, the bird collection was the major atraction of the zoo. In 1961 a large building, the Louise Hall, of 120 meters was build with many bird houses. The birds could live in a more natural enviroment, which results in a better breeding. Another large birdhouse was added to the Louise Hall, called the Paradise Hall. This was a large hall where the visitors could walk between the birds.

Interseting was the buying of the old gate of Rotterdam Zoo. This fence was partly placed at the entrance of the park, and partly in the Paradise Hall, to separate the room of the birds from the restaurant. The beautiful iron cast gate now stands in the car museum of Rosmalen.

The zoo was very succesful in breeding of endangered species. In 1979 the first lowland-gorilla ever in The Netherlands was born, followed in 1982 by the birth of the first bonobo. The zoo was famous for the collection of apes: lowland-gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and orang-utans. Other special breedings were those of the eagle owls and of the kookaburras.

In 1980 four cheetahs were born. The last cheetah (Waku), born in Wassenaar, still lives in Amersfoort Zoo. He lost his brother Wico earlier this year due to suffering of old age and kidney dissease.

In 1982 the zoo got serious financial troubles. As a privat business the zoo was not subsidized. A new masterplan resulted in the founding of Dierenpark Wassenaar Ltd. A new director was installed and Mr and Mrs Louwman handed over the managment.

The masterplan included also the renovation of the park. A new entrance building with an information center, a shop, and some exhibtion rooms was erected. And the building of a "walk" safari was started. The visitors could walk through the continents but this part was never finished.

In 1984, the friends of the zoo raised money to keep the elephants in the park. Altough the large amount of 125,000 guilder (ca 56,000 euros), the new elephant enclosure never was build.

In 1985 the zoo closed their gates. Mr. and Mrs. Louman bought back all the buildings, and started their World Life Breeding Center. With the breeding of endangered species this center became very famous.

For the animals who could not stay in the park a new housing was found in other zoos. The elephants were sent to Amsterdam Zoo and Emmen Zoo.