The Sarajevo Zoo

Why it is necessary to begin a walking/exercise program: Slasticarne -- sweet shops filled with pastries and candy -- cane be found in nearly every block of Sarajevo


Miranda and I put into action this weekend (4/29/06) our plan to walk at least three days a week. Her mother Donna came along as we trudged to the Sarajevo Zoo.

Beside the burning of the National Library, the savaging of the zoo was probably the most publicized atrocity of the seige of Sarajevo. The zoo was the front line, just some 100 yards from the Bosnian-Serb line. A zookeeper was killed. The animals were run off, eaten or killed. A bear survived the longest, according to accounts, by eating his cage mates. The lion starved to death.

I brought $30 to cover our admission. The price was 20 cents each. I keep forgetting how much cheaper everything is here.

The zoo is on a pretty piece of land surrounded by hills with a terraced stream running all through it. Workers were out with mowers so the perfume of cut grass was sharp and though it drizzled a little, plenty of families were there with their children. The plantings, the playground, a little train in a circle and a cafe tucked under a giant red fiberglass mushroom were charming. This time of year with trees in bloom and dandelions wild it is especially nice, but the zoo has not come back.

The most exciting animal in the place was a big porcupine. Kids were feeding it cookies and i watched for a while to see if they got sprayed with a barrage of spines. There were also two kangaroos, wallabys, geese, ducks, horses, llamas, oxen, goats, pheasants, antelopy things, and a zebra. A big bear was caged in an awful metal box; he has gotten attention from international animal rights people and from a local man who has offered to pay for construction of a better habitat. The view here is that Bosnia has more pressing problems than animal rights. But it was depressing.

So was the grassless muddy compound where the ponies were, the mark of shells on the pathway, the young trees obviously replacements for wood cut during the seige.