SLOVAKIA'S second-largest city, Košice, now boasts a small colony of lemurs. They are resident at the city’s zoo, after having been borrowed from a partner organisation in time for the summer season. The zoo is an especially popular local destination during holidays for families with children.
“We have some new babies, including Cameroon dwarf goats, moufflon, and Hungarian steppe cattle, and gradually other species are also starting to breed - they have been waiting for the warmer weather to come,” Štefan Kollár, the director of the zoo, told the TASR newswire.
He added that antelopes, fallow deer, ponies and Hutsul horses are also expecting young. Attendants at the zoo are also said to be looking forward to a “happy family event” involving a pair of lynx, who have ideal conditions for breeding.
Košice Zoo, which is just outside the city in Kavečany, has been rebuilding and adapting its buildings for new arrivals, Kollár said, and has also been enhancing visitor services.
The zoo’s lionesses have been provided with a new climbing frame, for example. Obesity is a problem among captive big cats, which do not get to expend the energy they normally would through hunting. The wild hogs have more space too, and better paddocks for the deer, wolves and other animals are being prepared.