Landau, July 2, 2025. It was not the first time that Sphenisco's annual general meeting
was held in high midsummer temperatures. However, on Saturday, June 28, 2025, temperatures had already exceeded 30 degrees Celsius by the time the event began.
Fans and air conditioning were busy fighting them in the zoo school room. The situation was completely different for our Chilean partners Nancy Duman and Alejandro Simeone, who joined the meeting via video conference. They were freezing in the Chilean winter at chilling 6 degrees.
Activities in Europe
Landau 27 August 2024 - a perfect anniversary. The best (zoo) weather, lots of political celebrities including Prime Minister Alexander Schweitzer and Lord Mayor Dr. Dominik Geißler and a record-breaking attendance of visitors. They all celebrated the 120th anniversary of the Landau Zoo. The celebration began with a reception, which was musically shaped by the United Concert Band under the direction of Thomas Winter. Zoo director Dr. Jens-Ove Heckel welcomed and thanked everybody, actually everbody of the zoo's long-standing companions, supporters and partners. That was challenging, but clearly demonstrated the zoo's incredibly large and wide network.
Landau 27th March 2024. One year ago, Gabriele Knauf, the founder and long-standing chairwoman of Sphenisco, passed away. She had been campaigning for Humboldt penguins and the protection of their habitat since 1994. Together with her husband, she initiated the association Sphenisco-Schutz des Humboldt-Pinguins e.V. in 2008 and managed the organisation until her death.
WWF and Rostock Zoo draw attention to invisible traps on the seabed
Rostock January 21, 2022.
At Rostock Zoo a new outdoor exhibition was opened together with representatives of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) at and even in the penguin basin. The purpose of the initiative "Ghost Nets - Danger for Animals and Humans is to draw attention to the considerable dangers posed by ghost nets in our oceans. The exhibition, a collaboration project between WWF and Rostock Zoo, is on display until March.
Landau November 7, 2021.
Sphenisco is taking part in the "Make room with heart" campaign. This is a non-profit initiative that supports social projects around the world by reselling old clothes. In the current voting, the 100 non-profit organizations with the most votes will each receive 500 euros.
Landau 13 October 2021.
The proponents of the mining and port projects "Cruz grande" and "Dominga" are strongly on the defensive due to the revelations of the last weeks (see reports on www.sphenisco.org). The chances are good to finally push through the long overdue marine protected area for the valuable ecosystem "Archipel Humboldt". The association "Save the Rainforest" has put the petition " Humboldt penguins finally need protection!" online.
... or a different kind of members meeting (once again)
Magdeburg 22th of July 2021.
The title already gives a hint: Pandemic and general assembly are not compatible! Also one „beak length“ distance, as I like to call it as a hobby penguinologist in reference to a well-known penguin researcher, is not a hundred per cent safety from a virus that has been influencing the lifes of all people in all countries for more than one and a half year.
Landau, 6 May, 2021.
In the summer of 2020, research was done at the Landau Zoo on behalf of SPHENISCO concerning "Bycatch avoidance of penguins in the set net fishery off Chile". Prof. Culik, Kiel, searched in cooperation with the University of Landau for a warning signal that can prevent (Humboldt) penguins from swimming into the fishermen's set nets and dying as unwanted "bycatch" (see also How to strike the right tone on this page). The German Press Agency (dpa) covered the research work broadly. All over Germany daily newspapers as well as several radio and television stations reported on this subject.
Landau 27 January 2021.
On 1 March, the Frankfurt Zoo will also introduce the Nature Conservation Euro. Like a growing number of German zoos (note 1), the Frankfurt Zoo is promoting the fact that visitors can contribute to the conservation of endangered species and their habitats with a small donation. Under the motto "Make your visit to the zoo more valuable", many small donations are to be bundled into a greater financial support for the protection of species. "You can become part of a big whole with little effort," Christof Schenck, Managing Director of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (ZGF), said, praising the initiative.
Sphenisco e.V.
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