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Košice Zoological Garden (other names: ZOO Košice, Košická zoologická záhrada) is the largest zoo in Slovakia, spread over an area of 288 ha in the natural environment of Montenegro in the town of Kavečany. Of the total area, almost 75 ha are accessible to visitors. The second DinoPark in Slovakia, opened on June 1, 2013, covers an area of almost 5 hectares.

Košice Zoo

Košice Zoological Garden (other names: ZOO Košice, Košická zoologická záhrada) is the largest zoo in Slovakia, spread over an area of 288 ha in the natural environment of Montenegro in the town of Kavečany. Of the total area, almost 75 ha are accessible to visitors. The second DinoPark in Slovakia, opened on June 1, 2013, covers an area of almost 5 hectares.

The beginnings of the idea of building a zoo in Košice date back to the first half of the seventies of the last century. The construction of the zoo began in 1979, but the zoo was opened to the public only in 1986 - then on an area of 7 hectares with 23 species of animals, mainly the original Carpathian fauna. At present, more than 240 species of animals live here, numbering about a thousand, including the largest aviary in Slovakia and the largest area of the brown bear in the zoo of Central Europe. In 2002, a unique breeding success was achieved, when bear bears were born here, which were entered in the world Guinness Book of Records. Two of them still live in the Košice zoo.

As the only zoo in Slovakia, it has built a botanical nature trail (2011), to which the Bird Trail (2012), the Bee Trail (2013) and the Geological Trail (2015) comparing the Carpathian Mountains and the Altai Mountains in Central Asia were gradually added. The sidewalk includes an area of almost one hectare, the only area of Siberian ibex in Slovakia and interactive elements with a geological-paleontological theme. The zoo breeds a relatively large collection of breeds of domestic animals, among which the most valuable are Hucul horses, which were in the past included in the gene pool of Slovakia.

In the beginning, the zoo was built mainly as a city Youth Building in Action Z. Its original focus on predominantly Eurasian fauna has gradually changed and today the zoo is being built as a universal zoo of a larger type with a representation of fauna from all continents.

The ZOO is accessible from Košice by public transport to the final stops of the ZOO. The average annual traffic is at the level of two hundred thousand visitors a year.

ZOO Košice is an active member of WAZA (World Association of Zoos and Aquariums), EAZA (European Union of Zoos and Aquariums), EARAZA (Eurasian Association of Zoos and Aquariums), UCSZOO (Union of Czech and Slovak Zoos), ISIS (International Species Information System) and other international conservation organizations.

The zoo is involved in the international conservation of biodiversity in various programs. In cooperation with WWF and the Krkonoše National Park, she participated in the repatriation of the Carpathian lynx (Lynx lynx carpathicus) to the wild in France and the Czech Republic in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1991 and 2011, it provided three Przewalski's horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) bred here for repatriation into the wild in Mongolia, which joined the newly formed herds of wild horses in the Kchomi-Tal and Takhin-Tal NPs.

Director of the Košice Zoo Mgr. Erich Kočner has been the President of the Union of Czech and Slovak Zoos (20 member zoos) since 2016. Mgr. Miroslav Bobek, long-term director of the Prague Zoo.

Updated on: 1.10.2021
Source: ZOO Košice

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Košice Zoo
Košice-Kavečany
Region: Košický
District: Košice I
Area: Abov
 48.78610878, 21.20451683

Košice-Kavečany

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