The Verband der Zoologischen Gärten ("Association of Zoological Gardens"; VdZ), until 2014 Verband Deutscher Zoodirektoren (German Federation of Zoo Directors, VDZ), is the leading association of scientifically managed zoological gardens in German-speaking countries.
[1] Zoological gardens in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Estonia, and Spain belong to the VdZ as institutional members.
It is composed as follows (as of 2016): At the 2016 annual conference in the Euregiozoo zoo in Aachen, the association adopted a new mission statement.
Thereafter, overall numbers continued to rise, notably as a result of the total renewal of the zoos in Gelsenkirchen, Hanover and Leipzig, which saw massive growth, the opening of the tropical aquarium Hagenbeck in 2007, the Darwineum in Rostock in 2012 and the growing popularity of the borderline Zoos of Aachen and Nordhornin the neighboring country Holland.
Most of the zoos in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were also able to benefit from the growing popularity of the state as a holiday destination and others, such As Dresden, Heidelberg, Neuwied and Osnabrück paid off investments in new facilities.
In 2014, 52 of the 53 German member zoos (the Aquazoo Düsseldorf was closed due to renovation) recorded around 33.4 million admissions.
[12] With the participation of VdZ zoos, 400 scientific studies on animal biological and nature conservation relevant topics are published annually.