Pécs Zoo 3.83

Pécs Zoo & Aquarium-Terrarium is one of the smallest Hungarian zoos. It was established in 1960 in the Mecsek mountain above the city, and was originally known as Mecsek Cultural Park. A now-closed amusement park, established in 1961 was also on the site, linked to the zoo by a 570 m light railway.The aquarium-terrarium is separate from the zoo, in the inner city located within the mediaeval cellar system. It was built in 1985, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the zoo.The zoo has approximately 100,000 visitors annually.HistoryHistory of the zooThe zoo was built in 1959-1961, with labour contributed by high school and university students, as well as other labourers of various types through the socialist voluntary labour scheme. (It took altogether 45,367 labour hours according to the memorial plaque near the entrance. The construction started in April 1959, and had been finished in 1961, although the zoo phase had been opened on 19 August 1960.) The location was chosen to locate the zoo within the natural surroundings of the Mecsek hills, outside the urban landscape.Originally, there were a tiny terrarium and aquarium, and also cougars, lions, tigers, leopard, black panther, Eurasian lynx, bears, and wolves as well. Later, the aquarium and the terrarium moved to the city, and because of the tiny cages, many animals had to be moved to other zoos (in the early 2000s the lions' cages have been renovated, and the lynxes stayed only).Besides the obsolete circumstances, the zoo endangered the water system for the city, so in the 2000s, there were a number of plans to move or close the zoo.