Slovakia has a lot of smaller private animal parks of different quality, majority of them without zoo licence. Now, one of them asked for it and is under review of authorities.
Eko Park is a new private amusement park on bank of a lake 2 km south of town Piešťany in western Slovakia (20 minutes on highway from Bratislava) consisting of two parts. First is childrens playground area, second is a petting and bird animal park. You can buy a ticket for each of them separatedly. The areal has also a beautiful hotel, a restaurant and buffets, parking lot is free. The park is rather small but should double its area dedicated to animals within next 2 years.
The owner runs a successfull construction company and as a hobby is one of largest private bird breeders in Slovakia. This leads to a weird mix of common domestic animals you would expect in a petting zoo (rabbits, sheep, alpacas), hardy exotics (zebras, wallabies, pelicans) and rarer bird species you would not expect at such a place (black cackatoos, Asian pied starling, green-billed toucan). It also has a small group of Greater flamingos, crowned pigeons, crowned and Amur cranes, Bali stars, Steller's sea eagle and a lot of parrots including lories, south African oryxes, blackbuck, local owl species, hybrid falcons, touracos, ornamental ducks, swans, suricatas, sloths, cattas. It has no reptiles/amhibians/fish with exception of few tortoises. Its website announces 180 animals alltogether but it looks like underestimation. At least in bird department, it looks like "surplus" and juvenile birds from his private collection get into/out of show frequently depending on space.
Some photos from ekopark, more photos and their FB site.
Some photos from private bird garden of the owner (not accessible). There he keeps toucans and parrots. He owns another closed areal neaby, where he has softbills including at least 2 species of birds of paradise, but I don´t know any public pics I could link here.
This place doesn´t look like a collection you need to travel to visit. But if you have small children and are in vinicity of Bratislava, it might be worth a half-day trip.
Eko Park is a new private amusement park on bank of a lake 2 km south of town Piešťany in western Slovakia (20 minutes on highway from Bratislava) consisting of two parts. First is childrens playground area, second is a petting and bird animal park. You can buy a ticket for each of them separatedly. The areal has also a beautiful hotel, a restaurant and buffets, parking lot is free. The park is rather small but should double its area dedicated to animals within next 2 years.
The owner runs a successfull construction company and as a hobby is one of largest private bird breeders in Slovakia. This leads to a weird mix of common domestic animals you would expect in a petting zoo (rabbits, sheep, alpacas), hardy exotics (zebras, wallabies, pelicans) and rarer bird species you would not expect at such a place (black cackatoos, Asian pied starling, green-billed toucan). It also has a small group of Greater flamingos, crowned pigeons, crowned and Amur cranes, Bali stars, Steller's sea eagle and a lot of parrots including lories, south African oryxes, blackbuck, local owl species, hybrid falcons, touracos, ornamental ducks, swans, suricatas, sloths, cattas. It has no reptiles/amhibians/fish with exception of few tortoises. Its website announces 180 animals alltogether but it looks like underestimation. At least in bird department, it looks like "surplus" and juvenile birds from his private collection get into/out of show frequently depending on space.
Some photos from ekopark, more photos and their FB site.
Some photos from private bird garden of the owner (not accessible). There he keeps toucans and parrots. He owns another closed areal neaby, where he has softbills including at least 2 species of birds of paradise, but I don´t know any public pics I could link here.
This place doesn´t look like a collection you need to travel to visit. But if you have small children and are in vinicity of Bratislava, it might be worth a half-day trip.
