After 87 years, the authorities are moving the Belgrade Zoo, there are many reactions

Photo: Beozoovrt.rs

The Belgrade zoo, which has been located at the foot of the Kalemegdan fortress since its foundation in 1936, will be moved to the Ada Ciganlija site on the Sava River, Serbian media reports.

As announced by the administration of the City of Belgrade, the first person of the Serbian capital, Aleksandar Sapic, tomorrow with his collaborators Marko Stojcic and Robert Djukic, he will visit Ada Ciganlija, i.e. Ada Safari, where the Zoo will be located in the future.

For now, it is not yet known what will be on the site of today's Zoo, known as the "Garden of Good Hope" under the Belgrade fortress.

It was opened on July 12, 1936 and is the largest and oldest zoo in Serbia. It was founded by the then mayor, an industrialist Vlada Ilic, on St. Peter's Day.

The first inhabitants of the garden were: lions, leopards, white and brown bears, wolves, macaques and mangabey monkeys, antelopes, buffaloes, zebu, mouflons, deer, roe deer, storks, cranes, peacocks, pheasants, owls, pelicans and parrots.

During the Second World War, the zoo was hit during the Nazi bombing of Belgrade in April 1941, when, according to the director at the time, Aleksandar Krstic, people from the surrounding buildings who hid in the garden, thinking that it would not be target of the attack. Three years later, the zoo was also bombed by the Allies – Americans and British.

The Serbian sculptor is credited with the current image of the Belgrade Zoo Vuk Bojovic, who was director for 28 years – from 1986, until his death in September 2014.

In the Serbian media and on social networks, there are many reactions, mostly negative, to the move of the city authorities with the relocation of the Zoo. Some of the comments are that the authorities, in extending the construction expansion, are sacrificing a cult place in the city and many decades of tradition. Other comments, on the other hand, welcome the relocation, stating that the current space is very cramped and unsuitable for many of the animals.

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