How Avifauna started ...

The footage shows the early days of the Bird Park Avifauna. The park seems to have been part of the Van der Valk group since time immemorial. Nonetheless it was a different entrepreneurial family (Van den Brink) that founded the park in 1950. In this brief historical documentary founder Gerard van den Brink looks back on the early years. The toco toucan (Ramphastos toco) that was used to adorn the posters of the initial opening of the park in 1950 as a logo for their family business, was adopted as a logo by the Van der Valk concern when it took over business. This logo that has identified the Van der Valk hotels and restaurants ever since, and is therefore familiar to every Dutchman. But why did they adopt the toco toucan as a logo? Valk in the family name Van der Valk translates into falcon, which would be a more obvious choice to symbolise the chain of hotels and restaurants. As a matter of fact the family was indeed looking for a symbol for the family business, but right after th