The 500-Year Oak of Berlin Zoo

Berlin Zoo calls it the eternal oak, and says it has been giving shade for 500 years. If the zoo's figure is right, the tree was already old when the zoo itself opened in 1844, the first in Germany. The zoo also gives it a second name, the Columbus oak, without explaining it. Treat the number as the owner's word rather than a measurement. It is a round figure, no method is given, and nobody has published a girth to check it against. A photograph of the tree on Wikimedia Commons is captioned the same way, about 500 years old. So the honest version is: about 500 years, according to the zoo. There is a second thing we cannot quite close. Berlin's register protects one pedunculate oak inside the zoo, Naturdenkmal 1-52/B, south of the hippo house, listed in 1993 for its distinctiveness and for regional heritage. That is the tree we have mapped. It is the only protected oak the register lists in the grounds, which makes it almost certainly the eternal oak, but no source we have read says in so many words that the two are the same tree. The zoo counts eleven protected natural monuments on its ground in all. You will need a ticket, and our pin comes from the register rather than from a visit, so expect to look around south of the hippo house. If you have stood under it, tell us whether we have the right one.