Wroclaw Zoo 2008 - A sad Polar Bear exhibit

September 2008

A sad Polar Bear exhibit. Not the smallest I have seen but totally empty, not even a branch in there.

What are the best exhibits at Wroclaw Zoo? I've heard that it is perhaps Poland's #1 zoo, but glancing through the photos here at ZooChat is a little disheartening as there are definitely some disappointing enclosures at this zoo.

There are disappointing enclosures at every single zoo, even Woodland Park Zoo and Disney's Animal Kingdom. As in most zoos, the big cats and the bears have maybe the worst exhibits, although the tigers had received new exhibits at the time of my visit and at least the Brown Bears have had a new exhibit at Wroclaw since I was there. I also think the exhibit above is no longer in use and Wroclaw no longer has Polar Bears.

Ungulate enclosures are maybe the strongest bit at Wroclaw, almost all are spacious and green, like the Savannah, even if I assume you have seen the photo of the Zebra paddock, which was an exception if I remember correctly.

And the Terrarium/Reptile House is fantastic. Really nice displays for the most part, and a range of species to die for.

(and just thought - this photo would have been taken the exact same day I was there - good ol' Zoohistorica!)

My other contender for best Polish zoo (of the ones I've done) would be Warsaw, which I really enjoyed. New Poznan is good but I was a little underwhelmed (small mammal collection aside!) - would like to go back now the elephant house is open though.

Overall the standard of the zoos I did in Poland was much higher than I (perhaps naively) expected.


EDIT: for the record, the other Polish zoos I've done are Lodz, Krakow, Katowice-Chorzow, Old Poznan and Opole. Old Poznan is very clearly in decline, but has the occasional very nice exhibit. Otherwise all were highly enjoyable and no better or worse on average than most European countries.