Budapest Zoo

Budapest Zoo – Beach season with the hippos

May marks the start of the beach season for the hippopotamuses: Tücsök and Jusztina can use the outdoor swimming pool again. Although the inside one is at their disposal too, in the nice weather they prefer the outdoor pool, which opened in 1932.

Our Zoo has been keeping hippos since 1893. Since 1912, our hippopotamuses have their home at the southwest end of the Elephant House, where an interior barn, divided into several stalls, and a paddock are at their disposal. Of course, most of both their internal and external area is occupied by a swimming pool. The large outdoor pool was built in 1932, while the, indoor one in its current form dates from 1999.

In the winter the hippos of course use the stalls and pool indoors; this is often filled up with the pleasantly warm waters from the Széchenyi Baths. However, with the advent of spring, the animals spend more and more time in the paddock as well. The outdoor pool is usually filled with water on May Day: the beaches of Budapest have traditionally filled their pools by this time.

Currently the pool is only three-quarters filled up because the weather is still somewhat volatile, and the indoor pool is also full of water, so the animals can decide as they please, in which pool’s water they will wallow in.

Budapest Zoo: The rare gazelle drinks from bottle

Together with the recently born newcomer there are seven such gazelles in Budapest.

​The group of mhor gazelles in the Budapest Zoo has grown again. The newcomer was born on 7th March, and since it requires artificial nurturing, the gazelle’s nurturers feed the animal from baby bottles. With a little luck, visitors will be able to see the newborn even during the feeding.

The zoo of the Hungarian capital city is engaged in nurturing mhor gazelles since 2008, and since 2009 the reproduction of these animals is regular. Together with the recently born baby gazelle there are already seven living in Budapest. The animals will be shown in the Savanna complex of the Zoo, they will share its runway with the giraffes and antelopes. The newcomer has got a separate place in the Savanna complex, where the visitors can have an ideal view on the animal.

In the 1970’s more than ten thousand Dama gazelles were living in their natural habitat, however during the last decades these animals have completely gone extinct and disappeared from Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, as well as from the south, from Nigeria. Thus only five smaller, but isolated populations remained on the territories of Mali, Niger and Chad, and also a few animals have been artificially resettled in Senegal. Those populations living in natural habitat count altogether approximately 300 animals.

Photo: Zoltán Bagosi, budapest.hu

Budapest Zoo: Yet another Giraffe Calf

A second giraffe birth has just taken place at Budapest Zoo. On March 25, The Budapest giraffe herd gained another member.

Our female called Sandra gave birth to a living giraffe in the early afternoon. Her keepers knew that the birth was due but expected the calving to happen later. Furthermore, giraffes usually have their calves at night. As such, it was with some surprise that, while the rest of the herd was out in their enclosure before the eyes of the general public, Sandra began calving, and the infant’s nose and two front hooves also emerged. Of course, the animals were quickly ushered into the barn by the keepers, and at the same time, in accordance with the established tradition, Sandra was led away to the stall used as a “delivery room”.

If one considers all the giraffe births at our Zoo since 1868, the newcomer born on Wednesday was the thirty-first such giraffe calf in Budapest. Including her, nine animals currently make up the capital’s herd of giraffes.

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The birthday gift of Asha, the 2-year-old elephant

Hundreds of people celebrated together with the star of the Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden, who got a cake for her second birthday.

Asha was born on February 14, 2013, and her caretakers held a celebration on Saturday. The gift was a special cake, made according to the taste of elephants.

According szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, the ”layers” of the cake was baked from oat, bran and flour in Telek Bakery in Galgahévíz. The ”cream” was made from hay, vegetables and tropical fruits. In addition, a large figure of number two (made from bread dough) was placed on the top of the cake.

Asha shared the large cake with his parents, Angele (13) and Assam (14). At first, they just carefully picked at the cake, then Angele turned it over, so to speak, ”sliced” it to the family.

Many visitors were curious about the celebration of Asha: hundreds of people surrounded the enclosure of the elephants at 11:00.

The birth of Asha was a great event, as before that, no elephant baby had been born in Budapest for more than 50 years. At birth, she weighed about 70-80 kg, but she has grown to 940 kg since then. This fits her age, but Asha is still very small compared to adult elephants. Her mother, Angele, who counts as a very fragile and slender lady, weighs 2,7 tons. The father, Assam is close to 4,5 tons.

based on article of szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu
translated by Vivien Pásztai

Photo: www.zoobudapest.com

Baby zebra in Budapest Zoo

The Budapest Zoo is engaged in nurturing zebras since 1894.

​The baby zebra is the first new-born of the year 2015 in the Budapest Zoo. The striped newcomer was born at the early morning of Sunday. Since the mother, Romy, fears for her cub very much, they still get full rest. Therefore the audience will have the chance to see them only a few days later.

The Budapest Zoo is engaged in nurturing zebras since 1894, though over the passed 120 years there had been times when no so-called ‘tiger-horses’ were kept in the zoo. During the last few years there was no growth in their population, since the breeders, which arrived to the Zoo in 2010 and 2012, have had to reach reproductive age. And thus ten years have passed in all since the last newcomer was born.

Photo: MTI

Giant Otters in the Budapest Zoo

​From September on the visitors of Budapest Zoo can observe a new, special species, which was never seen there before. On September 10th rare giant otters have arrived to the Zoo. There are three of them, and they have received their own place behind the Palm house (Pálmaház).

The leaders of the city follow a concept of systematic development, where the prior aim is to preserve the values of the past and to introduce modern professional guidelines through presenting the nature with a scientific approach, said Deputy Mayor Tamás Szentes during the inauguration ceremony. This year’s number of visitors is expected to exceed one million again, and with that the institution will not only keep its first place among the most popular cultural and touristic sites in Hungary, but it will also be able to further develop, added the Deputy Mayor.

The giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) ranges across South-America, its native habitat is especially Brasil, and no wonder why it has got this name. These animals can even weigh 30 kilograms, their total body length from nose to the end of the tail can even exceed two meters. The Zoo was planning to introduce this interesting and rare species for years, the living place of the animals had been created after a significant reconstruction of existing premises, which were built in 2000. The total cost of the works reached approximately HUF 36 million, HUF 30 million of which was provided by the Municipality of the City of Budapest.

Photo:  budapest.hu- Mihaly Majtenyi

The Zoo Fights for Orphaned Orangutan Cub’s Life

The youngest orangutan cub of the Budapest Zoo, born only four weeks ago, is now nurtured by the co-workers of the Zoo. The reason for it is that Jambi, the mother, sadly has died a few days after the birth of the cub. The nurturers and the veterinaries now struggle to stabilize the condition of the cub and reassure that it starts to gain on weight, budapest.hu reports.

The budapest.hu said, when breeding and nurturing orangutan cubs at modern zoos engaged in keeping organutans, the aim is to ensure that the mother breeds and raises them. Artificial nurturing may only come up if, just in this very case, there is no other option. The nurturers and the veterinaries now struggle to stabilize the condition of the animal, and help it start gaining on weight. It requires entire tranquility and rest, and because of that only those fellow workers of the zoo may visit the cub, who have a crucial role as nurturers and veterinaries over this period. Fortunately the cub eats as expected, thus the professionals are optimistic.

According to the offical site of Budapest: Jambi, the mother, died at 15. She was born on the Zoo of Chester, and had lived in the Budapest Zoo since March 2007. Previously, over the passed seven years she gave life to one cub. On 4th April 2010 Moira was born, as healthy cub full of life, being one of the visitor’s favorite up to this day.

Photo: Zoltán Bagosi – budapest.hu

Budapest Zoo: Life-Saver Bear Became the Star of the Internet – VIDEO

Amazing video: bear filmed saving crow from drowning at Budapest Zoo, hvg.hu reports.

Who said bears and birds can’t be friends? What an unlikely friendship! A crow found an unlikely saviour in a bear, when it ended up in a pond in its enclosure. This gentle bear named Vali at the Budapest Zoo shocked onlookers when she saved the black hooded crow from drowing. The bear decided to intervene and yank the struggling bird out of the water and back onto dry land.

Here is where you might be expecting a turn toward the macabre, assuming that the carnivorous bear would be keen on helping herself to some fresh meat.In an unexpected twist, the bear dropped the crow onto land and went on her merry way, eating vegetables in her path instead.

The crow looked a little puzzled after its rescue, managing to get back to its feet and staring in disbelief as the bear didn’t chase it down but sloped off to eat an apple. Soon after that,it managed to flip itself over on its feet and appeared to be staring at Vali in surprise that she ‘saved’ it.

Was it the crow’s lucky day? Or is this the kindest bear we’ve seen??

The footage was filmed by visitor Aleksander Medveš and posted online earlier this summer.

based on article of hvg.hu
by GAnina

Photo: YouTube