04-08-2025
‘Baboon massacre': German zoo feeds culled primates to the lions
After shooting dead 12 Guinea baboons last Tuesday to alleviate overcrowding, Nuremberg Zoo faces fresh controversy as visitors were shocked to see the primates' carcasses being fed to the lions.
Local media reported that the headless, limbless cadavers were served to the big cats in full view of the public. 'They were presented like on a butcher's bench, it was really awful,' one female visitor told the Nürnberger Nachrichten. The zoo's management said the feeding times were clearly signposted and visitors could have avoided them. The heads had been removed so that the brains could be examined for research purposes.
More than 300 complaints have been lodged against the cull, which the zoo insisted was inevitable, after it had spent years trying and failing to find alternative accommodation for the primates and to control their population through contraception.
Animal rights campaigners claimed the zoo had violated the Animal Welfare Act by culling the nine adult female and three adult male baboons without good reason.
The zoo said that the cull, in which the animals were anaesthetised and then shot, was agreed after consulting veterinary and environmental authorities, as well as the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.
In recent weeks protesters had chained themselves to the primate enclosure and stuck themselves to the ground outside the zoo. About 250 people marched through the city in July demonstrating against the culling. Some campaigners say they are planning to set up a protest camp outside the zoo.
'Our impression is that the baboon massacre is intended to set a precedent in order to make killing socially acceptable and extend it to other animal species. We must not allow this to happen,' the animal rights group Peta said.
The zoo insisted that the reduction in the size of the group was unavoidable because the 43 baboons had far exceeded the enclosure's capacity of 25. The overcrowding had led to conflicts between inmates, leaving several injured.
• How the killing of one cantankerous catfish is dividing Germany
Nuremberg Zoo said: 'The zoo is aware that this decision is difficult for many people to understand and that it has caused irritation, concern and anger. For the zoo itself, its employees and everyone involved in the decision-making process, it is the most difficult path to take. Without exception, it has affected everyone deeply.'
While other German zoos defended Nuremberg's course of action, they said they had managed their primate population by sterilising the animals, or finding alternative accommodation.
The German Animal Welfare Association said the killing of supposedly surplus animals has become a common practice in zoos in recent years, but that the killing of primates due to overcrowding was a new development. Anna Ritzinger, an animal rights activist, said: 'Primates are very similar to us, which is why it affects so many people.'
• German zoo frees tiny lynx that kept trying to escape
Aalborg Zoo in Denmark has appealed to the public to donate unwanted domestic pets to help feed its predators. 'Chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs make up an important part of the diet of our predators — especially in the European lynx, which needs whole prey, which is reminiscent of what it would naturally hunt in the wild,' the zoo said on its Facebook page.
'If you have a healthy animal that has to leave here for various reasons, feel free to donate it to us. The animals are gently euthanised by trained staff and are afterwards used as fodder.'
So far in 2025, 137 rabbits have been donated to the zoo. Many of the donated animals are old or injured. The zoo has also asked for donations of horses.
'There are also many who lose interest in their pets, and then we can help people out of a dilemma,' explained Henrik Vesterskov Johansen, director of Aalborg Zoo.
