Special days in the Mykolaiv Zoo in Ukraine

4.10.2024 – Source: Mykolaiv Zoo

The decision to celebrate World Animal Protection Day was taken at an International Congress in Florence in 1931. This exact date was not chosen by chance: 4 October marks the day of commemoration of the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi, who is the patron saint of animals. According to legends, the saint could communicate with the animal world.

This day, animal protection communities organize events and campaigns all over the world to draw attention to the real problems facing the animal world and the environment. Today we celebrate together with the animals in the Mykolaiv Zoo in Ukraine.

A proud mama cougar with her kids

We are joining in the celebration of this important date, which once again reminds humanity of the fragility and vulnerability of the animal world that we must preserve for posterity.

Nikolaiv Zoo, in cooperation with other zoos around the world, contributes to the conservation of wild animals by keeping and successfully breeding them. We breed pink pelicans, white-tailed eagles, pumas, servals, many species of monkeys and more.

Beautiful Zefirka

In addition, zoos are an important cell in environmental education. When visiting us, observing the animals, interacting with them, our visitors realise how beautiful, harmonious they are, just how much we need them! Perhaps it is thanks to animals that we can continue to be human!

The 1st of October was the International Day of the Raccoon.

Celebrating this day is a good reason to tell about representatives of the raccoon family living in Nikolaiv Zoo – the own raccoons, coatis and kinkazu.

In the Nikolaiv Zoo, one can see these interesting, clever and agile animals in 2 enclosures of the predator department, in one of which live raccoons Lialka, Lobotryas and Milano, and in the other – live three young males, three brothers, born in our zoo.

And recently, a young female raccoon named Izzy was handed over to the zoo. Izzy was born in May 2022 in a kennel in the Chernihiv region. And a few days later, the kennel was destroyed during the bombing. One of our servicemen dismantling the rubble found a small, still blind, raccoon in a destroyed building. He took the baby with him, raised it from a bottle, bred it. Izzy lived in scaffolding for a while, and then in the family of his rescuer. But a raccoon is still a wild animal. As Izzy became sexually mature, her gentle and hand-matching, temperament got worse and started biting and running away from the house, so the decision was made to move her to the zoo. After quarantine, Izzy is planned to be placed in a group with our young male.

In addition to raccoons, you can see their relatives in our zoo.

Our zoo is home to coatis – inhabitants of South America. Agile and intelligent, like their striped raccoon relatives, the coatis are characterised by a long, striped tail which the animals use as a means of mutual signalling, and an elongated snout through which the animals use to break up the forest floor in search of food.

Both raccoons and coatis are omnivorous animals. At the zoo they eat porridge with minced meat, fish, eggs (raw eggs raccoons open and drink the contents), a range of vegetables and fruits (they love bananas, grapes, melons and watermelons).

In our zoo there is a pair of Batong and Bun, and a young female called Rubinka. There is natural soil in the muzzle, green dense plantings. Animals are regularly offered toys, such as balls, a children’s scooter, which the carriers are happy to climb on, or a plastic cone from a set of children’s cubes, which the carrier Bullen drags everywhere.

Mykolaiv Zoo is now home to a couple of kinkazhu Alya and Vitaly, their daughter Baika (so named for the animal’s very soft, ‘Baikove’ fur), and a baby born in the summer of this year. The sex of the baby is yet to be determined, as caring mum Alya, just seeing the staff, grabs the baby, wraps her paws, hisses at people – won’t let her look at her baby!

Honey bears are fed at the zoo with live food (small chrysanthemums and crickets), boiled chicken, boiled and raw eggs, sweet fruit, drizzle of honey syrup.

Mykolaiv Zoo

May the war be over soon!!!