Zoo in Wrocław

It is hard to believe that it has already been three years since we have visited Wrocław. Today I will take you into the famous Wrocław's zoo that is located just on the other side of the street facing the Centennial Hall.

In the open air you can find animals coming from all continents. The brown bears live in Europe, Asia and North America. They are a protected species, with two hundred thousand teddies left.

African rhinoceros is not only protected. It is also endangered because humans hunt it for its horn.As if they could not mind their own noses.

Another inhabitant of Africa, though probably less known, is Okapi. Looks like a child of love between a giraffe and a zebra.

Asian elephants eat up to 120 kilograms of food per day. They were of course busy eating when  arrived.

Luckily they took a short break to greet us.

Though obviously giraffes are of course present as well.

As you know giraffes love to eat leaves from top branches of the trees. Since in a zoo they cannot move around from tree to another and it is not possible to plant new trees next to them all the time, the zookeepers found a workaround by tying large branches to the fence.

South America is represented by nandu, not to be confused with an ostrich. Have you noticed that there are two of them on the picture?

Nandu's feathers melt with the trunks of the trees. Just like camels are becoming invisible in a large sandy desert.

Actually they are pretty much of the same colour as the king of the animals. But lions do not melt that easily into the grass. Even if they seem to be melting indeed.

I mentioned more than once that the very idea of zoos does not appeal to me too much. Each time I wonder how would humans feel if the roles were reversed. This feeling is particularly strong when I see in a zoo monkeys and apes. Maybe the baboons do not look too familiar (though I have met a few humans who seemed surprisingly close to them).

But a chimpanzee looks very human.

Just look at the food next to the cages of the chimpanzees. If I would tell you that the picture comes from a fancy vegan restaurant, I am sure you woule believe me.

Because we are all a big family - humans and animals alike. We need to respect each other and remember that we share more than what divides us.