Zagreb Zoological Garden: Here, and Nowhere Else

The Zagreb Zoological Garden, which celebrated its centennial last year, is not just a place where to see animals from various parts of the world. It has other important tasks such as nature conservation, exploring animal world and informing citizens.

A lot of attention is dedicated to the conservation and familiarisation with endangered and indigenous species. The endemic animals of the Balkan peninsula stand out, such as the Olm, the Balkan Snow Vole, the Balkan Terrapin, the Mountain Yellow-bellied Snake, the Four-lined Snake and the Balkan Whip Snake.

It is widely unknown that the Zagreb Zoo is the only one in the world where to see the Olm, the amphibian that hides in the underground of Dinaric karst. At the zoo, it lives in an enclosure similar to a cave, where conditions are similar to the ones found in nature.

The Zagreb Zoological Garden also used to be the only zoological garden where to see the Balkan Snow Vole, but this is no longer the case. These miraculous rodents, glacial relics, travelled from Zagreb to another two zoological gardens in Europe, the one in the Czeck city of Plzeň and Austrian Innsbruck.

Last year an educational and breeding centre for the Balkan Terrapin was established at the Zoological Garden of the City of Zagreb, with the aim of fulfilling its mission. This is part of the project entitled LIFE for Mauremys - "Mauremys rivulata - Conservation of the Umbrella Species of the Mediterranean Wetlands in Dubrovnik-Neretva County". The centre consists of a facility with an indoor pool and an aquarium and an outdoor living area for turtles with two separate pools. The separate areas enable two populations od adult animals to coexist in the facility and raise their young. This enables monitoring of the genetic material that is transferred when breeding turtles and also strengthens their population in nature.