Aachen - Massacre in penguin land! A fox broke in the Aachen zoo into the enclosure. Bloody record: 13 dead animals.
The Aachen zoo Wednesday morning: 19 glasses penguins waddle through the snow-covered enclosure, looking around searchingly. The 19 are survivors of a terrible night.
"A fox has climbed the wall, it has bitten the stretched nylon net. Then he's up on the penguins," said zoo chief Wolfram Graf Rudolf (47).
The Fox addressed a massacre among the mostly young animals: scattered throughout the area were killed the next morning the Jackass Penguin.
One even pulled the fox's head off. "Nena" and "Adi", which the Zoochef reared in person at home - dead, the respected "Kaptain Hook, 24 years old, one-eyed senior in an enclosure - assassinated.
"The surviving penguins are suffering greatly. Many have lost their partners," said Graf Rudolf.
With the fox attack is the conservation program in Penguin Park hit hard. Graf Rudolf: "These were selected, among genetically unrelated animals from different zoos." Eventually, some of Aachen representatives of endangered species should have been wild.
The search for the four-legged offenders remained inconclusive. The night of Thursday, spent the remaining penguins in the penguin house protected.
And: If the fox to come back again, he gets a decent blow. "We will insure the net with power wires," says the zoo chief.
The value of the killed Jackass Penguin (also the symbol of the park) can not be gauged. The sad Graf: "There has always ripped a huge hole in our hearts."
