Stephanie – QT blogger: You have already read Stephanie’s blog on Hyvölän talo in Finland and now Stephanie shares another gem she came across on her travels – Ähtäri Zoo, Finland. Stephanie spent two weeks in a town called Virrat in Finland. It was a college programme with students from across the EU and it was an amazing experience.
While in Finland, I spent a few days discovering some gems near to Virrat. Ähtäri Zoo was one of these locations which I just had to share you all of you. A 60-hectare (150-acre) zoo in Ähtäri which was opened in 1971 and believe it or not it is the second largest zoo in Finland.One of the reasons I enjoyed exploring this zoo was that the main aim of the zoo is to create natural living conditions for the animals. It is great to see the animals in natural living conditions. I was definitely not disappointed and had a great day out. As I walked around the zoo, I could see people enjoying the animals while they were in natural environments. Another great feature which I noticed was that the zoo tries to increase knowledge of the species and nature and shares educational information with the public throughout the zoo.
Walking around, it is clear that the bears are probably the most popular animals in the zoo, Santeri and his mate Santra. It was great to see that these bears have been living at the zoo since it opened. Other animals at the zoo include snow leopards, wolves, bears, wolverines, lynx, foxes, otters, beavers, European bison, wild boar, roe deer, fallow deer, reindeer, white-tailed deer, snowy owls, eagle owls, and waterfowl. A complete mixture and something for everyone.
