Sunday 23rd November 2025

The Zoo

There was a covering of snow when we woke this morning, however, we decided to stick with our plan and go to the zoo.

As soon as we entered we heard the roar of a lion and we quickly walked over to his enclosure.  It seemed a little peculiar to see a lion in the  snow, his mate was in an enclosure a few metres away.  She had recently given birth to cubs, which we assumed were inside.

The two big cats appeared to be quite content out in the snow roaring to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The South African Sable Antelope is the most aggressive of the antelope species and will even attack a lion. A herd of them appeared to be undeterred by the weather conditions.

The herd of fallow deer had their greyish winter coats so their white spots which are quite clear in the summer months  were  almost invisible.

 

 

There were some huge hairy Bactrian camels at the rear of a field. They too had their winter coats.  These animals are extremely versatile and can easily adapt  to both extremely hot and cold temperatures.

After patiently waiting in the orang -utan house for a while, we were rewarded with the family of three making an appearance for a few minutes. The baby Sumatran orang-utan was born at the zoo in 2023.

This was a fantastic achievement for the zoo and the global fight against extinction. The largest tree dwelling mammals in the world are now classed as critically endangered.

 

 

Dave and I had great fun with the chimpanzees, Dave was putting his hand flat on the window and one of the chimps was mirroring his action. When Dave put his palm higher, lower or put his hand into a fist, the chimp again mimicked him placing his hand in the same place on the other side of the glass.

Both of us were pleasantly surprised at how many birds and animals were outside and not hidden away, keeping warm in their enclosed shelters.

However, two creatures that prefer the colder climate are the red crowned cranes and the red panda. A few red crowned cranes were in a wooded area with a pond, a couple of them were walking across the frozen pond.  Close by a cute red panda which was sat on a branch of a tree posed for a photograph.

 

 

 

 

 

The Golden Taksin is an animal we don’t recall seeing before. This one has a mate which has a darker colour.

This animal is also well suited to the inclement weather.  It originates from a mountainous area in China, It has two coats in winter and it’s body secretes a sort of oil that makes it’s coat waterproof! Nature is so amazing!

The birdlife in the zoo (that we spotted today) includes Peach Golden Pheasants, Temmincks Tragopans (a type of pheasant), red billed blue magpies and a snowy owl.

Eurasian wolves roam the mountainous areas of Slovakia, therefore these at the zoo are very at home in their large award winning enclosure.  We watched them for quite sometime patrolling their territory.

 

 

 

 

 

Another two seemingly content animals in this cold weather  were the European Bisons, Europe’s largest wild animal and the mouflon.  The mouflon is a wild sheep native to Cyprus, various other areas of Europe and Iran.

 

 

 

 

 

Giraffes and zebras were also roaming around in their outside enclosures.  There are also three other cats at the zoo, the jaguar, Geoffroy’s cat and the lynx, however although we went to their enclosures a couple of times, we didn’t spot them.

We did however see the orang-utan family for a second time.  When we popped back into their ‘house’, there was no sign of them but once again, we agreed to wait a while. The whole family appeared again, Mengala the female was born in 1996 at Budapest zoo. Her partner Filip was born in 2000 at Hodonin Zoo (Czech Republic) and as I mentioned earlier Baby Cahya was born in 2023.

It was a joy to watch them. The male baby was playing and climbing the ropes and all three interacting with each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filip was also interacting with his audience through the glass window. A couple with two young children were also watching the orang-utan family when Filip came and sat next to the window. He sat for a while covering himself with straw and occasionally looking up at us.

Then, like Dave had done with the chimpanzee, the man put his hand on the window Filip put his hand up too.  A few seconds later, the man did it again and Filip gave him the finger. The man, his family and ourselves fell about laughing.

Unable to resist having one more look in the chimpanzee house, we saw one of the young ones asleep on a bed of straw.

He was using a piece of sacking that he had been carrying around earlier as a blanket.

 

Both of us thoroughly enjoyed our time at the zoo even though we didn’t have thick furry coats like most of the animals!

As we weren’t sure where to get the bus back to the city centre or how long we would have to wait, we flagged down a passing taxi.

The taxi dropped us off in a square which we hadn’t seen before, yet it was just a few metres from where we had walked numerous times.

The square is home to the National Theatre. Like in other areas of the city, workmen were busy assembling wooden huts for the much anticipated Christmas market.

 

 

 

 

 

Passing by the Pheasant Pub, we popped in for a bite to eat for lunch.  Traditional soups with spiced sausage were just what we needed to warm us up.

After our late lunch, we wandered around some of the interesting historic centre again before heading back to the hotel.

Around 8pm, we had our final walk around the capital city’s old town before going for dinner.. Some of the buildings were now illuminated and this added to the atmosphere.

We ate in a small cosy restaurant, it was rather like sitting in someone’s dining room. As in all the places we have been in, English music was playing, unfortunately we haven’t heard Slovakian music anywhere.

One evening, we listened to 80’s music played from a television with the accompanying videos playing.

However, this evening much older music is playing, one artist sounded like Mario Lanza, another was Frank Sinatra and the music continued from this era.

Once we had ordered, while waiting for our meal. Dave booked our transport to take us to Vienna tomorrow.  There is always constant research to do, to find out how to get here or there and the easiest, best, most economical or quickest way to travel.

I’m not sure if we would have chosen to visit Bratislava if it hadn’t have been for the Andre Rieu concert on Dave’s birthday.  But we both agree that it is an interesting capital city to see. Its historic old town is easily walkable. It’s close proximity to other Slovakian cities and Vienna plus an excellent public transport service are also bonuses.

 

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