Krakow Zoo and Las Wolski Park
Our first full day in Krakow. We had looked around the Old Town the previous afternoon and I'd had a walk around the Planty. Two members of the family wanted to visit Auschwitz, which is 60 km west of Krakow and an hour's drive by car, or 90 minutes by bus. It wouldn't have been suitable for the two youngest members, Frances and Ailsa, and I was quite happy to take them somewhere more suited to children. That didn't include a long walk in the sun! So, we decided to go to the zoo.
It meant that Maggie had her first go at driving the hire car. We found our way back onto the main ring road (beyond the inner ring which encircled the Old Town) and drove in an anticlockwise direction before turning right (west) just after passing the National Museum. I think it was signposted for the zoo. There were signs further along the road anyway - we drove past Park Blonia and after a while we had to turn left, off the road which they would return to on the way to Auschwitz.
Then a narrow road led through some housing and we had to take another turning up through woodland before we reached a wider section with a checkpoint and an official checking vehicles. This seemed to be the entrance to the zoo, although there was no sign of zoo buildings! Close by to the side was a large car park - virtually empty.
Maggie and Catriona dropped us off near the checkpoint and headed back down the road.
Ailsa (in the pushchair), Frances and I set off past the checkpoint and up a path behind. There wasn't a sign for the zoo but I assumed it would be a short distance beyond the checkpoint. I should have looked more carefully at the map board just behind the checkpoint. Another family group headed up in front of us.
In fact, we had about 20 minutes' walk on a stony track beside the dual-carriageway road, which had very little traffic apart from the occasional bus and a couple of guys going up and down training on their bikes! It was sunny and warm, and hard work pushing the pushchair on an uneven surface. To the right the bank sloped down beneath the canopy of trees.
I was wondering if we'd gone in completely the wrong direction, when we finally saw a building across the road to the left, and then reached a junction. When we got there, we could see one road turning left into a car park with another road continuing straight on. Also up to the left were a couple more buildings, and then we could make out the entrance gate for the zoo. At last!
So, if you're going up there in a hire car like us, or going by bus, you should arrive at the zoo car park and not have to walk up that hill (with or without a pushchair).
A walk around Krakow Zoo
We went to the ticket gate and bought tickets and then began our tour of the zoo. It was just as you might imagine - lots of enclosures with various exotic animals, and a number of buildings where you walk around in the dark looking at much smaller living things in illuminated boxes built into the walls. Snakes and frogs and turtles and that sort of thing.
Ailsa gazed in amazement at seeing real elephants, she hissed at the snakes and laughed at the baboons chasing each other round their concrete and glass house. There were wolves prowling around another glazed space, birds of different shapes and sizes from all around the world, bison taking life very easily, and camels seeming to be in conversation with each other. There wasn't as much in terms of water-based animals, but we saw the sea-lion swimming around in a pool beside the main path.
It wasn't busy, so it was all very relaxing. We were glad of the shade from the trees on a warm sunny day.
After an hour and a half looking around it was time for some lunch. The woman at the turnstile nodded when I asked if we'd be able to get back in again, and we went through to the cafe just outside. Lunch was plagued by wasps attracted by Frances' pizza and chips and juice, and my kebab. Ailsa nibbled bits of both. I was amazed at the size of the hot dogs which some other customers were eating - they looked over a foot long, maybe 35cm.
Lunch finished (or what we could manage), we went back through the gate and went further through to see the various big cats - the proud lions, the tigers, and the snow leopards. It's always sad to see such fine animals living in confined spaces, but that is the nature of zoos.
Eventually we reached the "mini-zoo" in the far corner, and this was the highlight of the visit. Feathery chickens wandered by and the children could get close to the fluffy rabbits and guinea pigs. Then they disturbed the dozy donkeys and threw chopped carrots to the greedy goats. I was able to take it easy whilst Frances took Ailsa to fetch more carrots.
After that we crossed over to the play area nearby where there were swings and a slide, an under-cover playhouse and a bouncy castle.
Time for me to get a cup of tea whilst the children were having fun.
But all good things come to an end - we had spent the best part of the day in the zoo and now it was time to make our way back down to the checkpoint where we had been dropped off. This time we found one of the hiking trails through the woods, running parallel to the road but below it. It was much more pleasant and the track was fine for the pushchair. Tall broadleaf trees rose on all sides and we were able to find our way easily through to the checkpoint.
I had another look at the map-board fixed to the wall and could see the extensive network of trails through the woods of Las Wolski park. We hadn't been able to see much of them but clearly it would be possible to have a good day's visit combining the zoo with a couple of hours' hiking through the woods - or just enjoying the woods. The car park near the checkpoint was presumably there for those visiting the woods rather than the zoo.
More information about the Zoo
At the ticket gate I bought a leaflet with a plan of the zoo. It was mainly in Polish, including some information about Las Wolski park, and there was this interesting information about the zoo in English:
The Krakowski Ogrod Zoologiczny (Cracos Zoological Garden) was opened to visitors on 6th July 1929.
The Zoo is located on a Jurassic plateau at 345m above sea level, in the middle of a woodland park known as the Las Wolski or Park Miejski, which covers an area of nearly 500 hectares 10 kilometres to the west of the city centre. The highest point in the Las Wolski, the Pilsudski Independence Mound, affords a magnificent panoramic view of the city and the picturesque surroundings of Jurassic hills.
When it was first opened, Cracow Zoo, which was then referred to by its historical Polish name, "Zwierzyniec" (Menagerie), had an area of 4 hectares and 111 animals belonging to 37 species. By 2008 its surface area has grown to 20 hectares, and there are now nearly 1500 animals in the zoo, representing about 260 species.
Cracow Zoo's most interesting animals include: the visitors' favourites Citta and Baby, the Indian elephants; a herd of pygmy hippopotamuses, which are threatened with extinction; a herd of Przewalski horses, which are no longer found in the wild, Pere David's deer; and a number of rare species of antelope, such as the addax, the bongo, the leachwe and the common waterbuck. Other amazing animals to be found in the zoo are: the barasingha, the South American tapir, Chapman's zebra and the South American sea lion.
Cracow Zoo has had several successes in animal breeding that have reached the global scale of achievement, such as the hand-rearing of the Andean condor chicks and the maned wolf. We have also had litters from snow leopards, Chinese leopards, ground cuscus, fennec foxes, black mangabeys, chimpanzees, white-handed gibbons, common marmosets, and sand cats.
We are also pround of the hatches we have had of a number of parrot species, such as the white cockatoo, the blue-and-yellow macaw, and the grey parrot, which is an exceptional achievement.
In our Reptile House you can see a number of interesting species of lizards, turtles and snakes. We have also had hatchings from our reticulated pythons, tiger pythons, the Philippine sail-finned water dragon and the veiled chameleon. Our colleaction also includes dwarf Caimans, amphibians, exotic fish and invertebrates.
The Director of Cracow Zoo is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA). We are a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). Importantly, our Zoo is a contributor to the work being done in animal breeding by several dozen international commissions in order to save the species now threatened with extinction.
Contributed by Andrew Llanwarne - September 2008
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