Let's travel together #320 - Schönbrunn Zoo (The World´s Oldest Zoo...

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Crazy how time flies. While in 2024 I barely had any trips, I ended up digging in my folders of memories from the past years.

The funny thing is, from one year to another, this activity has become less and less a habit and more like a passion that I get to enjoy a lot more rarely. Either way, it will still remain one of my most enjoyed activities and perhaps one that contributed a lot of what I am these days, how I write in English because this blog and the 700+ posts written in almost 7 years did bring their contribution, as well as my knowledge when it comes to history, geography, or culture from more countries.

Yes, I've never been that kid to fully take my information from school, because this is outdated in most cases, but rather invest a bit of my time while travelling, to read about the places I visit and store the important information somewhere inside my brain.

And while there is not really much information to get when walking away from a Zoo, today is different because Schönbrunn Zoo which is located in Vienna, is well known as being the world's oldest zoo.

Yet at the same time, I've never been a fan of visiting Zoos because they always seem like a bunch of cages of different sizes for various animals, but I'm happy to see that things evolved with the passage of time and we can see Zoos that do invest a lot into creating a habitat as close as possible to that animal that is living inside the four walls, fences, or glass walls.

Anyway, as soon as we had a quick stop Schönbrunn Palace and Café Gloriette, we thought there was no chance not to stop by the Zoo as well.

Normally, if I had to pick what to visit between a Zoo and the interior of a palace, then the answer would come pretty quickly for the 2nd option. But while it was quite crowded in the palace because of a Christmas Market that was happening in front of it, I picked the other option, especially since I knew this was going to be a zoo way different from anything seen so far, where experience and professionalism should be at its home.

If not even the world's oldest Zoo know how to take care of the animals, then what expectations I can have from the other Zoos out there?

Anyway, there was the option to purchase your tickets online but since my girls and I had our trip off-season we thought there was not going to be a long queue on the tickets cabin and, in fact, there was no other person on there when we arrived. Plus, I've always enjoyed collecting tickets from my trips and these were way too lovely to miss getting in real life.

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As soon as you pass the ticket office, you will be welcomed with some benches, some sort of cafe and a house from where you can get souvenirs, but everything seemed pretty desolate which could be both because of travelling off-season but also because of being a fairly cold day to spend it outside a warm blanket.

But none of these aspects was ever too important to me, or the people I was travelling with, as I do enjoy less crowded places and when I get to be there around the people that mean something to me, then it's the big jackpot for me. Having the sun contribute to my pictures was never a must.

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I know that I have already mentioned a couple of times already that the Schönbrunn Zoo is different from anything you will see in this world. And perhaps you will still hear me mention it a few more times by the end of this post.

One of the aspects that makes it unique from what I've seen so far, is that, the people owning this place have never paid attention to using the space available to bring in as many animals as possible, without paying attention to people or animals' needs as well.

In fact, the distance between the entrance and the animals, is quite big, speaking of a small area of domestic animals that everyone is used to (chicken, cows, goats, etc), then an area with informative panels and some details about what you can see further, and then some smaller panels showing you the trail that should be followed, the adventure beginning only after you cross a long and beautiful wooden bridge.

Once we crossed the bridge, we got to make our first buddies, which were monkeys and other species of goats that are not too common, at least in my country.

However, both monkeys and goats are usually never missing from most Zoos, which made me think that even the arrangement of the places dedicated to the animals was done smartly, to keep the rare species only at the end of the journey.

Coincidence or not, we still enjoyed seeing these, which really seemed like being happy for the little world arranged for them. Plus, the habitat was quite similar on both the goats and the monkeys, so might as well be everything arranged based on the needs the animals come up with.

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From here, we got in some sort of natural tunnel which was a path done in between the stones, but where the space was smartly arranged with aquariums to present the underwater world.

There were, actually, more such tunnels, which would make you take a break from the rest of the animals and remember about the fish and other species living in the water too. Even though I loved the way this was arranged making you not be able to avoid it but only get through it and take note of some of the species you can kill through a simple action like throwing some trash in the water, no matter if it only happens once.

However, as much as I appreciated all of these, the aquariums were the least interesting part for me from what I've seen at Schönbrunn Zoo just because in one of the earlier days I had a stop at the aquarium too and already have seen most of that world presented on there.

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A unique thing instead, and which I absolutely loved, was the little jungle arranged inside the Zoo.

There is no need to mention that getting to walk into a real jungle is quite rare, especially on the part of the globe I'm coming from. However, being able to arrange one within a vast world as it was created in the Schönbrunn Zoo sounds like the next level to me.

There was, this sort of building which would take you again through all kinds of aquariums either with fish, insects or snakes, but which was going to end up with a very interesting gate that already convinced us we would step into a completely different world. And that's exactly what happened.

Even the 'gate' was smartly created so the temperature inside the improvised jungle wouldn't be affected too easily, as well as keep the humidity level optimal. Inside that place, we could forget about cages but speak of some suspended floor on top of snakes, crocodiles, or any other dangerous animals, while we would get surrounded by lots of birds, bats, monkeys, and obviously jungle-specific plants too.

Even taking pictures turned into a complete challenge as the devices started to act weird or have the lens constantly misty because of stepping from 0°C to, maybe, 35°C in a blink. But we took everything as it was and focused more on the experience rather than taking lots of pictures. And it was amazing.

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Being a suspended floor and having lots of plants under, made it quite hard to observe all the animals resting down there. However, if you intend to visit Schönbrunn Zoo and worry about missing some of the species from that part of the Zoo, do keep in mind that alligators and huge turtles can still be observed further on.

In fact, just like the natural tunnels, there are plenty of other natural habitats created at the bottom of some sort of buildings but which were obviously arranged for the animals' needs. The difference is, that those places are a lot smaller than the tropical environment, and this makes the animals unable to hide from the tourists so easily.

Still within such buildings, I've ended up seeing more species of monkeys and birds, but also koalas, raccoons, sloths (which I absolutely love!), giraffes, hippos, anteaters and capybaras which for some reason was a thing on the internet back in 2022 when I had my trip in Vienna.

So even if I absolutely love monkeys and birds, as I love all the animals out there. In fact, I really enjoyed staying a few meters away from the other animals mentioned so far which I've never seen before.

Still not very happy for the hippos and giraffes which seemed like being in a way too small place for their needs, but I was happy not seeing them in the nasty wind of December that was outside. And perhaps that's temporary until the good weather conditions are back out there.

Some of these tunnels and buildings I kept mentioning were also home to research, science, and all kinds of information but also plenty of exhibitions with either bones and other parts of animals, or insects.

While I am pretty used to the bones exhibitions as I've seen plenty of them during caves explorations in my country that used to come with specific sections to show remains of the animals that once lived inside, the part with insects was next level to me.

Plenty of weird-looking ones, and plenty of large insects that suddenly didn't seem like insects anymore but proper animals. And no, I've never been a fan of insects if you've been wondering. I am not the kind of girl who screams and runs away if she sees a spider, but I'm not enjoying being around one either.

Oh, and I almost forgot, all these areas with information are not just to write down something about the animals nearby, but because, Schönbrunn Zoo serves for a couple of years already as a source of knowledge for many people. That's why, many tours with students and kids of all ages are frequently organized, to learn and see an animal behind the little screen or the random images seen on the internet that don't offer much information about them anyway.

Along with all the tunnels and buildings already covered so far, I've also got to see a park for kids, statues that did bring joy to our faces too, lots of benches and resting places, but also an interesting construction known as Desert House that you can see in my last pic from above.

From what I understood this is supposed to work as a botanical garden where rare species of plants can be observed and even walked through as a tourist, but it was completely empty during my visit.

It might be because it was December, or simply for visiting the Zoo off-season. Either way, it still looked interesting even just from the outside. But let's get back to the animals, shall we?

Another first came from both the unique aquariums used in this part of the Zoo, as well as the animals calling them home. Such as I've managed to finally see 3 species of penguins, those from the 1st and 3rd picture being really large ones, and seals that I've always found so adorable.

For some reason, I've always imagined seals either as old grannies or sleepy kids because of their face which seems tired but still happy all the time.

There was even some sort of aquarium under that stone where people could watch the seals swim, rotate, and even play around. Not sure how I didn't take a picture of it but I know for sure that I captured it on my GoPro for the video that I'll create with the overall trip in Vienna.

Some more animals that I've seen and caught my attention were the elephants, flamingos, polar bears, cheetahs and Rudolph the reindeer which made me realize how close we are to Christmas already.

Not even the lion which is pretty much in all Zoos didn't manage to pass by unnoticed, because it was one of the most beautiful, big and hopefully healthy lions seen so far. But based on how it looked, he seemed like doing more than fine which always brings a smile to my face.

A few more common species of animals were spotted by the end of the visit as well, but I had to take a picture of them as well. In fact, all animals deserve people's appreciation and admiration. It's crazy how some species might seem so common for some tourists, but yet one of the rarest animals observed by others.

This is the beauty of getting to walk in a place that will, more or less, take you on all the continents of the globe by simply seeing species from those parts of the world here and there.

And speaking of species, Schönbrunn Zoo is known for having over 700 species of animals that sum up around 8,500 unique specimens. On a side note, Schönbrunn Zoo not only that is known as the world's oldest zoo, but it also earned the title of the best Zoo in Europe for more than 6 times, which brings another smile to my face thinking of the animals that are in good hands inside there.

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And last but not least, I couldn't have this post come to an end before sharing a selfie with the whole partners on this trip, as well as a batch of pictures with wolves that represent my inner spirit animal. If you know my gamer side then you might remember my nickname as wolfie for already more than 10 years.

I was really surprised to see that these had their names placed on a plate just in front of the space reserved for them, which, by the way, was huge. I did know that wolf packs live in families and most likely any wolf pack has some grannies, aunties and cousins along with the usual siblings and parents, but never imagined that they would have a name given.

And lucky me, those were really playful and all together during my visit. And oh my gosh how beautiful they are!

Schönbrunn Zoo is located just next to Schönbrunn Palace and the main entrance is known as „Hietzinger Tor“.

This can be reached either by car, the Zoo coming with its own parking lot, but also by feet or by public transport where we remember U4 on the Station Hietzing with the subway, 10, 52, 60 for the tramway routes and 51A, 56A, 56B, 58A for the busses.

Other places I've seen during my stay in Vienna:

more coming soon...

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences. At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe. Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also abording other topics as well, like game reviews, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 700+ blog posts. Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, editing, cooking, and doing various sports activities.}

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Let's travel together #320 - Schönbrunn Zoo (The World´s Oldest Zoo)