Ogród Zoologiczny w Opolu

Opole Zoo began in the 1930s on Bolko Island, initially as a small private menagerie. In 1936 it opened to the public and received municipal funding. The following decades brought wartime destruction, rebuilding and a reopening on 22 July 1953.

Another turning point was the 1997 flood, which devastated the zoo. Reconstruction began the following year and changed its layout and animal facilities. New developments followed: a giraffe house in 2002, a gorilla enclosure in 2005 and a sea lion pool in 2007. Another giraffe house and an amphibian pavilion opened in 2011.

Today's walk leads between very different ways of finding food, moving and communicating. A sea lion detects water movement with sensitive whiskers, an anteater gathers insects with a sticky tongue, and an okapi leaves scent trails along forest paths. Alongside herbivores live big cats: cheetahs, Amur tigers and Angolan lions. Their bodies reveal different adaptations to hunting.

The zoo carries out breeding, conservation and educational work, and takes part in European programmes for threatened species. Watching the animals goes hand in hand with learning about their natural habitats. The ring-tailed lemur's Madagascar, the okapi's forest and the tiger's cold homeland are distant places whose differences can be seen in the bodies and behaviour of the zoo's residents.