Torun – Zoo and Botanical Gardens

This is the entrance to the zoo and botanical gardens, with the ticket desk located in the hut at the back of the above photograph. However, there was no-one selling tickets and a group of four youngsters in front of me looked bemused and walked in. My first reaction was that a snake had clearly escaped and eaten the staff member, but I’ve been told not to be sensationalist about snakes as apparently they’re misunderstood. Not by me they’re bloody well not….. Anyway, I digress. I had a think and if a snake had eaten a staff member, I assume that it’d be full, so I felt safe.

Signage at the zoo, which is small, but was quite busy with around thirty people milling around. All probably confused they didn’t have to pay to get in. There was a staff member looking after some of the animals, so I assumed that they didn’t have anyone to collect payment at the front desk and it made more sense to stay open than just to close the gates and disappoint visitors.

The site has been a botanical gardens since the late nineteenth century, although they weren’t always particularly well maintained. The site didn’t become until a zoo until 1965, when Arnbert Sadecki started to introduce a variety of species. It’s all quite a basic set-up, but it’s inexpensive for parents to bring children and it all looked fairly well looked after.

The snowy owl, very sweet. And below are some more animals in the zoo….