For once it is not the zoo’s newborns who are in the spotlight but rather the early blooming flowers and foliage that are brightening up the grey of winter and offering a welcome source of food to the insects.

Early blooming flowers at Basel Zoo

The grassy area in front of the vivarium is a special feast for the eyes during the early part of the year with a sea of colourful crocuses welcoming visitors to the zoo. As you make your way towards the monkey house, you won’t be able to miss the plant-filled islands and verges with their large flowers and leaves in two completely different shades of green or the large flower heads of the hellebores, surrounded by lots of white-green calyxes. A little later in the year, the floor around the storks’ nests and in the nutria enclosure becomes a vibrant green as these enclosures and the surrounding verges are strewn with wild garlic. It’s enough to make you jealous of the little herbivores! In the shady part of the zoo, you will find hordes of corydalises with beautiful purple flowers.

Why these early blooming flowers make the most of the cold start to the year

These plants, as well as many others, belong to the group of early blooming flowers. They have a short vegetation season and therefore make the most of the time they have before the leaves appear on the trees. Once this happens, the light-loving but low-growing early blooming plants no longer get enough light to grow. They therefore use the first few months of the year to do this instead. Geophytes are particularly well suited to the conditions present in the early part of the year. They have underground storage organs, such as tubers and onions, in which they store reserves to help them survive the rest of the year underground and quickly sprout during the spring. Some early blooming flowers can also store mucus in their cells to use as a type of antifreeze or mineral supply to prevent their cells from freezing and bursting.

Early blooming flowers as a food source

Early blooming flowers are an important source of pollen and nectar for bumblebees, bees and early butterflies. They are also important for humans as food and medicine. Before they bloom, the leaves of the lesser celandine are a good source of vitamin C and wild garlic doesn’t only taste great but is also an anti-inflammatory and can be used to kick start your metabolism after the winter.

There are also plenty of other colourful early blooming flowers that you can discover around the zoo on your way from one animal enclosure to the next. But please just admire them, don’t pick them!

When a male stickleback starts getting spring fever, his eyes will turn blue and his breast red . Visitors can currently observe this wonderful transformation in the vivarium at Basel Zoo.

It is mating season for the sticklebacks. The usually rather unassuming males of the species now have their red breasts and blue eyes on show.

Single fathers

Male sticklebacks build tube-like nests out of plant matter, artfully binding them together using renal secretions. They use their zig-zag mating dance to attract females, preferably those with swollen bellies full of eggs, and lead them to the nest. Once won over by the male, a female slips into the nest and lays her eggs. Her part in the reproductive process is now complete and the male banishes her from the nest. He then fertilises the eggs and proceeds to entice in the next female. Females lay their eggs in multiple nests.

Among sticklebacks, it is the male’s job to take care of the brood, which means fanning, cleaning and protecting the eggs. When the young sticklebacks hatch after about a week, their father will still look after them for a little while longer. Sticklebacks got their name from the spines that adorn their dorsal and ventral fins. Basel Zoo is home to the three-spined stickleback, which grows to between five and seven centimetres long. It is native to northern Asia, Europe and North America, and is not endangered.

At home in both fresh and salt water

The three-spined stickleback can be found in fresh, brackish and salt water. Some populations remain solely in fresh water while others migrate with the seasons and swim up into rivers to spawn. Some populations also spawn close to the coast in salt water. The three-spined stickleback was originally a saltwater fish, but it has now migrated to live in areas of fresh water.

It belongs to the order of gasterosteiformes, which also includes sea horses and pipefish. The nine species in the stickleback family are predators, measure in at between 5 and 20 centimetres, and can only be found in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere. They feed on small crustaceans, aquatic insects, worms and fry.