Latest news
News from Sihlwald and Langenberg
The 2025 annual report is here!
Review of a successful year
The Wildnispark Zurich Foundation can look back on a successful year. The "25 years of the wild Sihlwald" anniversary brought a lot of attention to the only park of national importance in the canton of Zurich. Other highlights included the release of a lynx into the wild in Germany, the reintroduction of a Przewalski's stallion in Kazakhstan and the reintroduction of stone crayfish in the Sihlwald. The foundation also made an important contribution to the promotion of biodiversity in the Sihl Valley with ecological enhancement measures.
Last year, the Wildnispark Zurich Foundation had many reasons to celebrate. For example, the "25 years of wild Sihlwald" anniversary. For a quarter of a century, the Sihlwald has been allowed to transform itself back into a wilderness. The former commercial forest is now the largest natural forest reserve on the Central Plateau and a park of national importance - a milestone in the history of wilderness in Switzerland.
Missing female lynx reappears - with offspring
Vreni is alive!
Great joy at Wildnispark Zurich: Vreni, the female lynx released into the wild in the Thuringian Forest in August 2024, has had offspring. The joy is all the greater because the female lynx was long thought to be missing.
Wild lynx populations in Western and Central Europe are under severe pressure. The individual populations are sometimes very small and poorly interconnected, which threatens to genetically deplete the populations. Targeted reintroductions help to connect and strengthen the populations.
Sihlbrugg Station bridge closed
The bridge over the Sihl near Sihlbrugg Station will be closed from April 27 to October 2, 2026, due to necessary renovation work. No detour is posted. The Sihl can be crossed at Sihlwald and at Sihlbrugg (village).
We are committed to the conservation of European bison in the wild
The Wildnis magazine is here!
Our "Wildnis" magazine is now available again at Langenberg Wildlife Park and the Sihlwald Nature Discovery Park Visitor Center.
Renovation of the ibex plant
A new home for the King of the Alps
Joy reigns! The renovation of the ibex enclosure has been completed. The herd can now climb around on the newly renovated rocks again.
The ibex enclosure in Wildnispark Zurich is over 75 years old. As the structure is getting a bit long in the tooth, it has had to be renovated in recent months. Some of the striking rocks had become crumbly, and the flooring and fence also had to be replaced. In principle, however, the facility was retained in its current form, as both its size and design have proven their worth.
The beaver conquers the Sihl
Beaver: From the wilderness park to Biberbrugg?
Around 520 beavers live in 165 territories in the canton of Zurich, according to the latest beaver monitoring. The population is growing, mainly in the southern part of the canton. There are new beaver territories along the Sihl and Limmat rivers, for example.
200 years ago, the beaver disappeared from Switzerland due to intensive hunting. Thanks to reintroduction projects between 1956 and 1977, the population has developed well again. Today, almost 5,000 animals live in Switzerland.
Good News
Three lynxes have arrived safely in Germany.
Wildnispark Zurich has been involved in lynx reintroduction projects in Germany since 2024. Now the cubs born in spring 2025 have been brought to the coordination enclosure in the wild cat village of Hütscheroda
On Wednesday, February 4, the lynx trio born in spring 2025 arrived safe and sound in the wild cat village of Hütscheroda in Germany. There, the two females and the male will spend a few months in a special, so-called coordination enclosure.
Our 2026 event program is online!
The 2026 annual program offers wild herb and mushroom courses, family excursions, zoo brunches, discovery tours in the Sihlwald forest and behind the scenes at Langenberg Zoo and much more.
Sika deer
New breeding bull arrives
A new breeding bull from the Czech Republic was recently integrated into the herd of sika deer at Wildnispark Zurich
The sika herd is complete again! After thirty days in quarantine, a new breeding bull was recently integrated into the sika deer herd at Wildnispark Zurich. The bull originally comes from Ostrava Zoo in the Czech Republic and is two and a half years old. This means he is already fully grown; sika deer become sexually mature at 18 months.
Happy brown bear!
The oldest animal in Wildnispark Zurich is thirty years old!
A special birthday at Langenberg Wildlife Park: the male brown bear turns thirty in January. The exact date of birth is not known, as female bears give birth to their cubs hidden in a cave.
At the beginning of January, the oldest animal in Wildnispark Zurich turned thirty years old. The male brown bear was born at Langenberg Wildlife Park in 1996. He shares the enclosure with a female, who is also 25 years old and originally comes from Denmark. In the wild, brown bears can live between twenty and thirty years, although the average life expectancy is only around six years due to high cub mortality. In zoos, they sometimes reach an age of over 35 years.
