Poland's Best Zoos

ANyhuis

ANyhuis

Well-Known Member
Hello my Polish friends (or anyone else who has seen the nation's zoos):
I'm just thinking of future European trips, and wondering: What are the best zoos in Poland? Can you give us a short description of them? And most important, would you say any of Poland's zoos could qualify as one of Europe's best 25-50 zoos? Thanks!
 
I've only been to Wroclaw Zoo, and i have to say that i'd say it would scrape "just" into the top 50 of Europe.

But in my opinion, it has a truly unique atmosphere that you will not find anywhere else. It has the grandeur, the old unique eastern European buildings, and the collection to match Antwerp or Artis Amsterdam but they are all dilapidated. Not completely into ruins, but it's just all not very well taken care for.

Everything still smells like the richness of the better old days. The view onto the Hala Ludowa ( [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hala_Ludowa[/ame] ) really adds to the experience.

Worth a visit!

(and a few others must be worth a visit as well...)
 
Poznan and Wroclaw are the best, perhaps within top 50. Also, Warsaw has a very good zoo.

Some people found a small zoo in Opole to be very good. Big cities with zoos are also Lodz and Gdansk, but these are less spectacular collections.
 
Well I'm a patriot so I'd suggest Lodz Zoo. To be honest I'd say, due to facility shortages, the collection hes been diminishing here lastly. Definitely worth seeing though. Among my personal favorites is the Gdansk Zoo. Next to a very comprehensive collection, everything they have is rather herds than specimens. What more they have a couple of interesting new buildings, clever zoo architecture. The Zoo area is about 150 (!!!) hectares and includes a large forest located on old post-glacial hills. I personally met there a herd of deer loose. A unique natural water filtering system can be seen on a stream that powers all the ponds. The administration building is located in an old post-German sanatorium in timber framing, there is also an old water mill in the perimeter. Ask for observation tower called "Pachołek" located on a hill next to the zoo - the entrance is free and you get a stunning panorama of the post-glacier landscape, Gdańsk city and bay.
Greetz!
 
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I only know Gdansk Zoo, but I liked it. There were some small and bigger mammals I hadn't seen before. On their webpage they state the area was 136 hectares, but I have hurried through all accessible area in about 3 h (never 136 ha, rather 15-20 ha). So most of it must be unused.
 
All the area is accessible. And indeed pretty a lot is unused. Or it is used by a vast woods which surround the main exhibit. Still the used area is bigger than you claim. 136 ha all together - that is right!
 
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Where do you think Krakow Zoo stands in the rankings? (Not been there but visiting later this year).
 
I can you recommend few of them. Wroclaw - the biggest collection of animals, changing almost day by day. New director has a brilliant ideas and he's changing the zoo last 4 years, this year he'll start with construction of Africarium-Oceanarium. At the moment I can you recommend completely new House of Madagascar and some more.
The other great one is zoo in Opole (about 70 km from Wroclaw). It's small but after flood in 1997 rearranged and it looks really great.
The third one is the one in Gdansk, big and well planned, still developing with interesting collection of animals.
Something interesting will be zoo in Zamosc, last year and this as well under reconstruction. In few years I think it'd be great.
 
In my opinion the best is Wroclaw Zoo: the biggest and most various collection, some rarities among mammals, birds and reptiles, good breeding results, a lot of new pavillons and enclosures opened in last years, very good perpectives for nearer and further future.
Second place for Poznan New Zoo (but from april to september only, in colder months you couldn't see a lot of animals - there are only two houses with access for visitors). Good collection of mammals (ungulates, small carnivores, rodents) and birds (pheasants, owls, birds of prey) - among them some rarities, big and nice South America enclosure, very good night house and new, big elephant house.
Third place for Warszawa Zoo and Opole Zoo. Warszawa have big collection and some good or new pavillons: free-flight aviary (the only one in Poland), elephant house, ape house, hippo house with underwater viewing.
Opole have good collection of south american monkeys and lemurs, new pool for sea lions with underwater viewing, fine savannah enclosure, nice insect house. Zoo looks very pretty, really nice place.
Next are Krakow Zoo, Gdansk Zoo and Plock Zoo. Krakow Zoo is nice located in forest on outskirts of the city. Good collection of ungulates, small carnivores and waterbirds, small night house, new enclosures for big cats.
Plock Zoo have various collection: south american monkeys, reptiles, fish.
Gdansk Zoo have very nice location, big possibilities and good plans for future.
Next are Lodz Zoo and Chorzow Zoo (also knows as Katowice Zoo - it lies between these cities). Both zoos have some interesting species (Chorzów has biggest collection of antelopes in Poland) but have poor financial support from local authorities - almost all zoos in Poland are municipal properties.
Other zoos: Torun, Bydgoszcz, Zamosc, Swierkocin, Borysew are rather local attractions.
 
I go to Warsaw zoo almost every yearwhen I visit Poland and when I first went I was pretty shocked but over the past few years the new exhibits they are building are fantastic, the leopard and chimpanzee ones specifically. However some of the big cats are still in awful cages and the reptile house has always been awful with what I personally percieve as a low level of care (I have spoken to keepers/shop workers there a few times about injured/sick reptiles and they have fobbed me off). In short warsaw zoo needs a lot of work to catch up with modern zoo standards but to me it seems it is getting there slowly but surely.

I went to Krakow Zoo about 5 years ago and thought it was pretty bad, there was an elephant there constantly showing abnormal behaviours whilst being housed on its own, and I found out that it died about a week after I was there. Also most of the enclosures dont prevent the public from getting right up next to the animals, I remember specifically that you could go right up to the bison (I also remember they smelt like Zubrowka!) which is risky for humans and animals. A lot of the enclosures were dirty and in disrepair.

Last year I went to Katowice's zoo which had some really awful bits (the brown hyena) and some alright bits. I dont think I could bring myself to visit there again.

If you are looking at all european zoos then Germany and the Netherlands are said to have the best.

If you're after photos from any of the zoos let me know!
 
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