Zoo Braunschweig

Start with raccoons and skunks, then use the plan to choose the Urwaldhaus and dwarf-mongoose area. Add the nearby sand-and-water play or the entrance playground, and finish before the children run out of energy.

The entrance area has an accessible toilet and baby-changing room.

Visit the entrance animals, lemurs and tiger, then take a break around the petting courtyard. Continue to the otters and cheetahs, leaving time for smaller birds, the mouse house and dwarf mongooses before returning to the entrance.

Discuss your preferred animal houses and any mobility needs with the zoo before visiting.

In the Urwaldhaus, look for one bird near the ground and another higher up. Compare where they spend their time, then use the labels to learn their names.

Draw a quick outline of each kind of porcupine. Where is it resting, and what makes its silhouette different? The North American species can climb; Indian crested porcupines usually rest in ground-level shelters.

Download the zoo’s Zoorätsel before leaving home, or ask for it at the ticket desk. Choose a few questions and let children find the relevant signs themselves.

Spend longer in the Urwaldhaus and dwarf-mongoose house, try the mouse house, then take a café break. There are outdoor stretches between them, so this works best for passing showers.

Begin with the enclosure beside the entrance. Raccoons often rest by day, so a quiet first look and a later return can work better than waiting for constant movement.

Look for the striped skunks sharing the entrance enclosure with raccoons. Compare how the two animals search the ground, keeping hands well away from the mesh.

Look low in the shared camel enclosure. These mostly nocturnal rodents may be resting; the afternoon keeper feeding offers another reason to return.

Scan branches and resting places as well as the ground. This porcupine is a climber; compare its shape with the Indian crested porcupines elsewhere in the zoo.

Pause long enough to see whether the lemurs gather together or move separately. Their daytime group life gives children more to watch than a single quick photograph.

Try both the indoor and outdoor viewing areas. These small, daytime-active mammals live in groups; see how many different behaviours you can notice without tapping or calling.

Watch both the water and the bank. Look for a change between swimming and moving on land, and return later if the animals stay out of view.

Take time over the birds in the Urwaldhaus rather than rushing through. Find the Bali myna on the enclosure label, then compare it with the pigeons and partridges sharing the house.

Look for the long neck feathers that give this pigeon its distinctive outline. Leave room for birds to move away as you watch from the visitor area.

Search near the floor: these birds spend much of their time on the ground. If a male is visible, look for its reddish crest.

Look for the Siberian tiger without expecting it to move on cue. Its thick coat is an adaptation to cold climates; on a winter visit, compare that coat with the cheetahs’.

Founder Walter Siebenhaar kept an animal collection at his shoe shop before opening the Stöckheim zoo to visitors in 1965.

Porcupine quills are modified hairs. The North American porcupine is adapted to life in trees, while the Indian crested porcupine spends the day in sheltered ground-level spaces.

Toilets are shown by the entrance and on the petting-courtyard side. The accessible toilet and baby-changing room are marked at the entrance. The snack bar may close early in very poor weather.