A visit to the Craiova Zoo
The Craiova Zoo, located in Nicolae Romanescu Park, was inaugurated in 1906 and is one of the oldest in the country. At first it was just a zoological point with a few local fauna: foxes, badgers, deers. There were only a couple of animal pens around the Park Ranger’s House, and at the edge of the main alley by the lake there were several cages housing foxes and badgers.
“In our country, the caves arranged in 1906 in Liberty Park can be considered the oldest exposition of wild animals kept in captivity. There, bears and wolves were presented to the public. These constructions remained until 1959, when they were destroyed and the existing animals were transferred to the Băneasa Zoo. The oldest concentration of captive wild animals that could be considered a zoo is the one created in 1929 in Sibiu at the initiative and under the aegis of the Electric Power Plant … The problem of establishing a zoo in the country’s capital was first put in 1933, when Grigore Antipa, the founder of the museum that bears his name, was tasked by the city’s administration to study the possibility of setting up this social-cultural and scientific objective … In 1955 the Bucharest Zoo was established as a service of the City Household Section of the Capital’s Popular Council” – Mihail COCIU – “The zoo – A living museum”
In the 60s the zoo was populated with lions, monkeys and ostriches. After 1989, llamas, jaguars and African ostriches were brought.
According to the inventory of species and specimens, the zoo currently houses 39 species represented by 244 birds and animals (herbivores, omnivores and carnivores).
In 2014-2015, the whole area of the zoo, the outdoor pens, as well as the buildings where the animals are housed, were rehabilitated. Inside the pens, the zoo employees constructed gazebos and aviaries, in order to reproduce the habitat as much as possible.
The public access to the zoo is free of charge.
Photos: raadpflcraiova.ro, cvlpress.ro, gds.ro, facebook.com/raadpfl
Text: raadpflcraiova.ro
