Miskolc Zoo and Culture Park

The Miskolc Zoo and Cultural Park is Hungary’s zoo with the oldest historical roots; its predecessor, the royal game park, was founded here by King Louis the Great in 1355. The current zoo opened on August 20, 1983, under the name Miskolc City Wildlife Park. It is located in the Csanyik Valley in Miskolc, right next to the Bükk National Park.

The park, built in just over a hundred days through community work, initially displayed only the native wildlife of the Bükk region in large enclosures fenced off from the forest. Visitors could walk along the fences and observe deer, red deer, and wild boars emerging from the trees.

In 1993, development began at the zoo, which has since undergone significant transformation. The wildlife park now showcases not only the fauna of the Bükk and Zemplén Mountains on its 21.2-hectare area, but primarily exotic animals: Bactrian camel, various lemurs from Madagascar, emu, kulan, white-tailed porcupine, North American tree porcupine, colobus monkey, peccary, patas monkey, Indian antelope, agouti, mara, guanaco, marmoset, greater hairy armadillo, tropical arthropods, fish and reptiles, various species of parrots, and many predators such as meerkats, brown bears, wolves, lynx, Bengal tigers, and leopards. The farmstead area of the park also introduces visitors to traditional Hungarian domestic animals (Hungarian Grey cattle, Hungarian Pied cattle, Mangalica pigs, Racka sheep, buffalo, etc.). As of early 2014, the zoo housed about 700 animals of 130 species.

In line with its founding mission, the presentation of native Hungarian species still plays a significant role. One of the zoo’s most popular inhabitants is the brown bear. In the aviaries for birds of prey live common buzzards, steppe eagles, and snowy owls. Most of the birds living in the bird lake area are also part of the native fauna. All the large wild animals native to Hungary are displayed in spacious, naturalistic enclosures separated from visitors only by dry moats: red deer, fallow deer, wild boars, and mouflons. Nearby are Hungary’s large carnivores: lynx, wildcats, and wolves.