To be honest – I don’t really like zoos. But that day, while walking in the evening in Belgrade, I was thinking to go to shoot a failed subway, studying the map and see a zoo which was located right next to the fortress, where I spent the first half of the day. As a result, it was decided to go for a walk and relax, because I had a long trip by train Belgrade-Bar.

I’ll be honest, looking at before – I’m not sorry that took the time to visit the zoo. It is huge and beautiful. There are a few of the hundreds species of animals, including very exotic ones. And to spend time here – is a pleasure! Therefore, I invite you, my dear readers, to go with me to a fascinating walk through the Belgrade zoo!

You meet a kangaroo at the entrance. And you are immediately amazed at how everything is arranged in this zoo. For example – there are an aviary with kangaroos and hundreds of birds, with ponds and a landscape which appropriate to their habitat. Once you understand that from this zoo is unlikely to be the animals in a panic run, as it repeatedly did in Kiev.

There are several types of aviaries for animals, depending on their danger to others. For example peacocks just walk around the paths, some other birds – is behind the glass. Photographing through the glass, as you can see, is not very convenient, so the quality of the photo is slightly worse.

It was impossible not to take a picture of the ostrich. For any Ukrainian this bird has a sacred meaning, which able to cheer up with one memory. This is due to the zoo in the residence of Yanukovych, the former President. I have a report from this place, so I advise you to look.

A huge variety of animals! You just look at that iguana! Or look at the next one…

By the way, look at the pheasants that walk around the territory and allow you to take pictures with them as soon as they want. The main thing is that the camera lens was interested them stronger… or any other subject.

They fly very beautiful, but I could not catch the moment and capture it on your camera, and therefore I left these abortive attempts.

At the same time I saw the flamingo near me. I saw them live on the salt lakes near Larnaca, but from a distance and they could not be photographed well by me. It is interesting that they are much brighter than those which I have seen in Cyprus here.

There are a lot of predators. But to make the photo with them much more difficult, as I know the reaction of the same tigers and realize that the lens from the camera may be inside the aviary so quickly that I will not have time to react.

Although to be honest, I almost did not watch the lions, tigers and bears. Except that the Bengal tigers, which have not seen live yet, except in the zoo a long time ago. And to watch the lions, that go somewhere at the bottom of the paddock after you talked with them very-very closely (the story about how I found the tigers and lions in the middle of the steppe will be in the next few days), it is rather boring.

I was trying to photograph this panther for about 10 minutes, but nothing happened. It tossed and turned in its paddock, something worried it. This photo – is the most decent.

I was impressed by the care of the aviaries and animals. It was said – needs to be rain so and so twice a day? Okay, the staff is standing, watering their aviaries with a special pistol. The aviaries are very spacious. The staff cleaned regularly them. Why can’t the staff take the same care in our zoos?

But the heat makes itself felt. Therefore, some animals go into their homes, which closed from the common eye. Some fall and sleep right on the spot, as, for example, this raccoon.

There is something more interesting from the observations. There are birds in many aviaries in addition to the animals: all kinds of parrots, etc. So, images of flying birds printed on the glass of the aviaries (similar to a glass of anti-noise walls along the roads in the EU), in order the birds do not crash into it.

There is also a kind of monument to those or other animals, who at one time lived in a zoo: and monkeys, and wolves, and panthers…

Here is a cheerful elephant, which, contrary to the prohibition, is fed by visitors. One of the main attractions is to try to feed it with popcorn from your hands despite the huge ditch which separating the animal and the audience. The elephant is fun – it stretches the trunk and grabs food straight from the hands. But people obviously haven’t seen different programs of National Geographic about what are doing these animals with their trunk before they take food from the hands.

But this dachshund was running and was clearly outraged by the injustice – that is why all the animals are photographed, and there is no attention for it? I decided to make it happy and took a picture with her =)

For those who enjoy a variety of lizards, scorpions and creeping reptiles, there is a small building where you can see several species of snakes.

But in my opinion, the only thing you can see in these areas – it is a nice chameleon, who stared thoughtfully at me and my camera.

 

For those who like me went to the pavilion to the snakes just out of curiosity and nothing amazing find here, there is just behind the exit – a great therapy in the form of a couple of pretty seals that frolicked in the pond. Just mi-mi-mi! I stood watching them for 20 minutes, no less!

And you do not get tired amazed at how large an area is, how to take care of it. For a pair of swans and a dozen turtles – there is a pond.

There are a lot of such animals, about which I had no information before:

Or those… about which I have read/heard, but seen only on pictures (as, for example, this White-backed vulture).

And there are just lovely creations:

There are animals many times greater than was able to see and even more to fit into one my article. The zoo was founded in 1936 and it is successfully developing today. Today it has over 2,000 animals and more than 270 species. The land area is 7 hectares.

I strongly recommend to everyone who will be in Belgrade – be sure to visit the zoo. If you go with children – it is not even discussed! Choose the afternoon or simply not a hot day and be prepared to spend at least 4 hours here!

Information for tourists:

Price and time of work:

The zoo is open daily from 08:00. The ticket sales end at 18:30 and works it until the last visitor will not leave the territory.

The ticket price: 400 Serbian dinar for adult (over 15 years old), the ticket for child (from 3 to 15 years old) – 300 dinars.

How to get to the Belgrade zoo?

The zoo is located in the heart of the city, in the fortress. Below is a map with a marked zoo.