Category: Serbia

I’ve wittered on already about the alligator, the snakes , the hippos and the lack of space at Belgrade Zoo, but it was an interesting place and only cost around £5 to get in. The ticket desk accepts cards, but a school group had decided to wait just in front of the ticket desk, which meant it was quite a battle to actually get to the kiosk and by that point the staff member had given up selling tickets as there was a school group cluttering up the area. After solving that little conundrum, mainly by standing there looking confused, I was handed a receipt and I was good to go.

I wasn’t entirely convinced that the single wire fence between me and that tiger was absolutely adequate to protect me. There was also ample opportunity for kids to shove their hands through, but what could possibly go wrong there?

Perhaps looking just a bit bored?

It was hard to identify which way up this orangutan was meant to go….

The wolf spent a lot of time prowling around following the same route, although I’m not sure what other options he had.

I think this was the largest enclosure in the zoo. It’s not exactly the sweeping plains of Africa.

A big bird, which I think is a condor.

Aaahhhhh…..

Majestic.

Some wet camels.

Very cute, I think it’s a wallaby.

A happy little soul.

The zebra looked quite perky.

As did the penguin.

Wherever zookeepers put a box, the cats will sit in it. Or they might have just been trying to keep dry under the tree.

It’d make a cute pet (and I think it liked me), but I suspect it might be difficult to manage on flights. The zoo gave the fun fact that cheetahs are the only ones of the big cats that can’t fully retract their claws.

I liked watching the flamingos go sauntering by…..

And that was that, a perfectly entertaining way to spend 90 minutes or so. It was quiet, which wasn’t a surprise give the kids are at school, it was raining and it was a weekday in September.

Zoos have a problem, they can do great good in education, in breeding programmes and conservation efforts. But, they also have to ensure the well-being of the animals they are caring for, and there were some evident problems here. I remember going to a couple of zoos in China and was genuinely shocked by how visitors were feeding the animals any old rubbish they could find out of their bags, with no-one seeming to care. I particularly remember one bear begging for food, it all felt sub-optimal. Anyway, back to Belgrade and these goats (or whatever they are) were minding their own business when a visitor broke off a piece of branch from the hedge and starting feeding the animals. A zookeeper walked by and didn’t say anything, but I suspect this is common as there are signs not to touch the hedge and not to feed the animals.

This lion had it tough too. A series of visitors were banging to get her attention and then taking photos with their flash on. Again, there are signs saying no photos using flash, but they’re ignored. I visited on a rainy weekday in September, I can imagine that some animals must be suffering somewhat if this is repeated multiple times per day.

I was also wondering whether some of these animals had enough space. This was the size of the hippo enclosure, it doesn’t feel ideal for two hippos.

And the parrots didn’t seem overwhelmed with space either. In fairness to the zoo, TripAdvisor marks the zoo as “meets animal welfare guidelines” but the standards for this seem very low.

The zoo was first built in 1936 and there have been numerous efforts recently to progress a project to build a larger zoo on a new site in the city. I suspect they really need the space, they’ve welcoming over 400,000 visitors a year to this site and it’s really not very large. The zoo is getting a lot of negative reviews about their facilities, it seems inevitable that a new zoo will be opened at some stage, no doubt as soon as funding is sorted out.

I don’t like snakes. It’s nothing personal and I don’t want them hurt (well, unless they’re attacking me) but they always look shifty to me. I’m quite content with their natural habitat being behind glass, so this whole zoo arrangement is perfect for me. I can look at them and they can’t attack me, or at least, as long as the zoo-keeper is competent. This is a boa constrictor and they can live for 30 years shuffling around in Central and Southern America. The zoo have a fun fact which is that these snakes have two lungs, one is a small nonfunctional one and the other is large and very functional, all designed by evolution to fit into their bodies.

A Burmese python and apparently (I’m just reading this from the zoo’s display boards, I don’t claim to be a snake expert and that isn’t something I’d want to be really as I’d have to look at them a lot) they can live for 20 years if they get lucky. They were once just in southeastern Asia, but some people in the United States decided they’d make a lovely snake and then some escaped and now they’ve an invasive species to Florida.

A reticulated python and the zoo notes that these are amongst the few snakes that prey on humans. It’s the world’s longest snake and the damn thing can swim, so they have been found some way out in the water.

A corn snake and these are one of the most commonly kept snakes as a pet. I have no idea why someone would want one of these in their house. But, each to their own, I suppose not everyone wants a furry pet they can cuddle.

My two loyal blog readers can pat themselves on the back if they guessed that this was an Honduran Milk Snake. As it looks like a coral snake, lots of predators stay away from it. Reading up on this, I’ve discovered you can keep one of these as a pet, but it must be kept alone otherwise it might eat the other snake.

This Californian Kingsnake is treating its water bowl as something it should sit underneath.

This horrible thing (yes, this is a verbal attack on snakes) is a black-headed Python. I mean, perhaps he’s lovely and I shouldn’t judge, but this one was on manoeuvres and he spent a lot of time eyeing me up as prey I thought.

See? Definitely didn’t like me. These snakes are from northern Australia and can be kept as a snake, but apparently it’s a premium priced one and they don’t come cheap. Personally, I think I’ll save my money for craft beer….

It was all nicely laid out in the zoo’s reptile enclosure, although that’s enough snakes for me for September….