Warsaw 2009: the Zoo

One thing I really wanted to do in Warsaw was to visit the zoo. It has an interesting history ... it's quite old, it was established in 1928, and it has an impressive collection, about 5,000 specimens of altogether almost 500 species. During the second world war, the then director of the zoo concealed more than two hundred Jews, mostly children, on the premises and saved their lives. What a story. There's a book about that which I really want to read ... I'm keeping an eye out for that.

Getting to the zoo is easy from downtown, just jump on a streetcar - I don't remember which line, but the stop is called Warsaw Zoo :-) - and it takes about 20 minutes to get there.

Anyway ... we were there on a cold and rainy March day, so most of the animals were snuggled up inside. We didn't see a lot of them. :-) But I was mainly there to see the reptile house, so I was happy with our visit anyway. My mother was just there because I was there, so she didn't really care, she mostly just wanted to get it over with. :-D

I took a bunch of pictures, they weren't all that, but here are the best ones.

Welcome to Miejski Ogród Zoologiczny w Warsawie. :-)

The first animals we saw were the flamingos. They were out in the bad weather, looking a bit bedraggled by the rain.

Check out those legs. :-D

Some outdoor scenery. I bet this place looks wonderful in the summer ... when it's also teeming with visitors. The Warsaw Zoo is visited by approximately 600,000 people every year. About ten of them while we were there. :-)

The aquarium was pretty good. At least the fish part ... they had some monkeys in one section of it too, but poor things, they didn't look too happy. And it reeked, too. Poor little critters. :-(

I found Nemo! :-D

Seahorses. I love seahorses, they're completely fascinating creatures.

zomg elephants!!1

The elephants were kind of wrestling with each other and seemed to be bickering over a hole in the ground. I don't know what that was about. :-) But I got some wonderful shots of them. I was so thrilled to see them ... even though I am quite sceptical of the whole elephants in zoos thing. But that's a story for another blog post.

A lama out in the rain.

Goats staying out of the rain.

We got to see the penguins at feeding time. :-) Hoomin! U has fudz??

Please donate to your local zoo!! :-)