Berlin Zoo-book Leiben

While bumbling around the interwebs researching vintage photos of hippos last week, I discovered Leszoosdanslemonde - roughly translated, it appears to be a catalogued portal to information about zoological parks all around the world (and there are a LOT of zoos on the planet). Since I can't read French, my exploration of the site was limited to the visual, but along with an expansive gallery of contemporary zoo animal photography, there are heaps of images in an archive containing old photos, postcards, and guidebook images sorted by continent > country > zoo. Many zoos have only one to a handful of images to their page, but for a choice few of the older, more successful/popular world zoos, great collections of scanned images are included - some at lovely large size (for the web). When I clicked onto the Berlin Zoo page I audibly gasped in awe at a series of images (5 of them here) spanning over 30 years of annual Berlin Zoo guidebook covers, all illustrated by the same artist (with the exception of the Indian elephant cover at lower right, which matches the style perfectly, but appears to have a distinctly different signature). Unfortunately, the primary artist's signature is illegible to me, and I couldn't find any more info by searching for history of the guidebooks themselves... if, by chance, someone reading this can shed some light on the identity of this illustrator, please comment or contact me - I simply can't take my eyes off these paintings... the mark-making is so beautifully expressive, while maintaining admirably tight anatomy - they have a handsome 60s/70s illustration style that I really gravitate to  - and the COLOR...! Wunderbar!!


The 150 year-old Berlin Zoo is the oldest zoo in Germany and contains more animal species than any other zoo in the world (close to 1,500) - roughly 16,000 individuals in total. Admission to this already popular tourist attraction jumped 30% in 2007, after Knut - the world's most photographed polar bear - was born and his story circled the globe. Rejected by his mum, Knut was hand-reared by dedicated keepers and instantly became the most celebrated animal in Germany - he even had a Vanity Fair cover all to himself, shot by Annie Leibovitz.