Tiergarten Kleve

Keep the plan to red pandas, the Outback and prairie dogs, with one play stop. If one area holds everyone’s attention, stay longer and skip a second circuit.

Choose a keeper session that matches your interests, see the camels and smaller mammals around it, then allow a longer playground break. Leave time to revisit an enclosure where an animal was resting earlier.

Look through the old telescopes to find animal silhouettes, then lift the information flaps to discover what they represent. Some depict extinct animals such as the thylacine: these are educational silhouettes, while the wallabies are the living residents.

After looking for red pandas in the branches, let children try the playground’s logs, ropes and climbing tubes. Younger children have their own area with a sand crane, rocking panda and small slides.

Pick a few favourite enclosures and take a covered snack-bar break if it is open. From November to February, the snack bar normally opens Friday to Sunday and on public and school holidays; bring your own provisions if you need a reliable lunch plan.

Look up into the branches for a resting animal and its long tail. If the view is empty, try again later rather than making noise to draw it out.

Follow the visitor circuit slowly and look for the reddish nape that gives this wallaby its English name. Give animals crossing the path plenty of space.

Watch the entrances to the burrows and look for greeting behaviour between animals. Despite the name, black-tailed prairie dogs are rodents; their calls inspired the comparison with dogs.

Look at the two humps and, if a camel is walking, watch how the legs on one side move together. The humps store fat, which supplies energy when food is scarce.

Spend a little time comparing roles within the group. You may catch one standing upright to watch its surroundings while others investigate or dig in the ground.

Watch the forepaws as closely as the swimming. These otters use their dexterous fingers to search for and handle food, including shellfish and crustaceans.

Use the enclosure label to identify these small primates, then look for the conservation story behind them. The zoo supports protection work for their wild relatives around Manaus in Brazil.

Look among the branches as well as at ground level. Kleve calls these climbing porcupines Ursons or Baumstachler; they share the North American enclosure with skunks.

The red pandas and pied tamarins connect Kleve with conservation projects overseas. The zoo supports the Red Panda Network and a Brazilian project working to protect pied tamarins and their habitat around Manaus.

Handcarts can be hired at the ticket desk subject to availability and cannot be reserved. Return them before the desk closes; check the hire charge and deposit before setting off.