Peanuts, bears and betrayal: a tragic story of the Tilburgs Zoo

A special animal park dweller can still be admired to this day, because he managed to escape during the closure in 1973: the Siberian land squirrel. But it is also the tragic story of owner Van Dijk, who saw his park perish ‘by the municipality’.

Strangely enough, the history of the animal park starts in Arnhem. Johan Burgers opened there in 1923. His daughter Johanna falls for the charms of Johan van Glabbeek from Tilburg and Pa gives her the perfect wedding gift in his eyes: a zoo. This opens the gates on the Bredaseweg in 1932.

However, that is not without a struggle. Tilburger Cornelis van Dijk aim at the end of the 19th century a company On in the trade of birds, especially canaries. Together with his sons, he knows how to build a large international empire and expands with exotic animals.

The animal lovers dream of their own animal park, buy a large piece of land in what is now popularly called the bishop neighborhood and submit a building application at the municipality. But to their great sorrow it is refused. Tilburg has more faith in the Burgers family and opts for that plan.

The Van Dijk family is patient and awaits a new chance to achieve their dream. It comes in 1946 when they get the opportunity to rent the park. They grab them with both hands and eight years later the park will definitely enter their hands. They are expanding it considerably over the years. In the sixties it covers about ten hectares.

Visitors come to the park en masse and love the peanuts peanuts that can be purchased for a dime per bag. The bears do like porridge and soon know how to shed their food together by showing tricks.

Often they have worked so many peanuts in that they ignore their normal food. In the restaurant, where stuck in neat packs are served tasty snacks and children live in the playground.

The zoo runs like a Tierelier and Van Dijk wants to tackle things bigger. He goes to the municipality with plans for a real Safaripark, but again gets the lid on the nose. Tilburg itself goes on the PLACE and, together with neighboring municipality of Hilvarenbeek, founded Leeuwenpark Beekse Bergen, the later Safaripark Beekse Bergen. And that heralds the downfall of the Tilburgs Zoo.

The family business has to deal with more and more opposition. Animal activists no longer find the trade in exotic animals of this time and receive the support of governments. Internationally, the rules become so strict that the sale is ultimately made impossible.

In 1973, director H. van Dijk decided to close the park. In a big one, controversial interview With De Volkskrant, he does not hide his frustration about how the municipality was dealt with with the zoo. The Bredaseweg has been diverted, so that the number of people passing by has fallen drastically.

But the death blow in his eyes is Beekse Bergen that is also being promoted firmly. “36 signposts were set to the Safari Park. I got two in front of my park. So small that you had to look for it,” Van Dijk told the newspaper. “What they build with one hand, they break down with the other.”

The municipality responds with a short Submitted communication In the Volkskrant in which she says she regrets the closure and it is fine that the animal park has not had to dock ‘amusing tax’ for years. “The Tilburg animal park is a private, commercial enterprise, annex animal trade, the owner of which, without any pressure of anyone, has offered the land entirely to the Catholic University of Applied Sciences.”

In August that year the park closes and all animals will be removed. A crate with Siberian land cracks falls and breaks open. The animals escape and settle in the Oude Waranda. They still flourish there, in the only place in the Netherlands where this exotic can be found.

In the video below, more information about the Siberian land squirrels: