Description of the attraction
One of the most famous inhabitants of the Belgrade Zoo is an alligator named Muja, who has lived there since 1937, almost from the very beginning. Muya has been recognized as the oldest alligator in the world. Moreover, Muya survived the bombing of Belgrade during the Second World War, during which many animals died or escaped from destroyed cages and were shot. Belgrade was bombed first by the Nazis in 1941, and then by the Allied troops in 1944. In addition, the zoo was bombed in 1999, when the war in Kosovo was going on, and Yugoslavia was shaken by NATO air strikes.
In the capital of Serbia, the zoological park is located in the city center, next to the oldest park in Europe, Kalemegdan. This is the historical part of the city, there is also the Belgrade Fortress, one of the main cultural and historical monuments of the capital. The fortress stands in the place where the Via Militaris road passed in Roman times.
The zoo was founded by the mayor of Belgrade named Vlada Ilic in 1936. Initially, its area was about three hectares, then it was increased by about 4, 5 times and was equal to 14 hectares. After the Second World War, the area was reduced by half, and the zoo is still in this size.
The first inhabitants of this zoological park were large predators (lions, bears, wolves, leopards), birds (parrots, pheasants, pelicans, peacocks and others), as well as antelopes, buffaloes, roe deer, deer. Currently, you can see representatives of 270 species here, and in total about two thousand individuals live in it.
Two animals of the Belgrade Zoo have even been honored with the installation of monuments. One of them is dedicated to the monkey Sami, and the other to Gabi, a German shepherd who was able to stop a female jaguar who escaped from the cage.
Another feature of the Belgrade Zoo is the large number of albino animals, whose feathers or hair are white. The decision to collect such animals under his auspices was made by the current director Vuk Bojovich, who has been managing the zoo since 1986. The reason for the interest in animals with white color, he explained simply: because Belgrade is translated as "white city".
