Meet Pablo, the adorable tiger cub and the newest member of Budapest Zoo

Visitors to Budapest Zoo can now meet Pablo, a young tiger cub rescued during a police drug raid, who has begun a new chapter of his life at the capital’s famous zoo.

The cub is temporarily housed in the Zoo’s India House, where he will remain until his permanent relocation later in the spring.

Pablo was confiscated by Hungarian police during a raid on a property in Tiszafüred last November. Officers discovered the three-month-old tiger while carrying out a drugs-related investigation at a private residence. The 40-year-old man detained at the scene is now facing charges linked to environmental damage and the illegal keeping of a dangerous animal.

forrás: Facebook

Under Hungarian law, private individuals are strictly prohibited from owning tigers. Following his rescue, Pablo was transferred to Budapest Zoo in early December. At the time, he weighed just nine kilograms and was found to be in good health. Since then, zoo veterinarians have provided him with all necessary vaccinations and medical checks.

The cub has grown rapidly and now weighs around 15 kilograms. Pablo made his first public appearance during a press event at the Zoo. Keepers noted that the young tiger appeared visibly nervous in his unfamiliar surroundings, reacting sensitively to sudden noises, much like a domestic cat. However, after some initial hesitation, he began to explore his indoor enclosure, gradually gaining confidence as he searched for food placed throughout the space.

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Public access to the India House opened later that morning, drawing large crowds eager to catch a glimpse of the zoo’s newest resident. The cub’s name, Pablo, was chosen through a community vote, further increasing public interest in his story.

Pablo will remain in Budapest until approximately March, after completing his quarantine period. He is then expected to move to the Veresegyház Bear Sanctuary, where he will have more space suited to his long-term needs. Meanwhile, genetic tests are still underway to determine which tiger subspecies he belongs to.

Budapest Zoo officials hope Pablo’s case will raise awareness about the dangers and illegality of keeping exotic wild animals as pets, while also highlighting the importance of proper wildlife protection and rescue efforts in Hungary.

source: DailyNewsHungary

Besides indigenous species the zoo also had several different species of monkeys and parrots, as well as camels and kangaroos, some of them donated to the Zoo by Emperor Franz Joseph and transferred from the Schönbrunn Zoo. There were, however, no lions, tigers or elephants at that time. The first giraffe arrived two years later with the help of Queen Elizabeth, better known as Sisi. Not much later, the first Lion house was opened in 1876 with lions and tigers as well. An elephant, a hippopotamus and a rhinoceros were also added to the collection, but a brown bear called Kristóf is said to have enjoyed the greatest popularity.

In the beginning the zoo housed only animals but in 1872 the construction of the botanical garden started. In the late19th century circus performances were also held here, with artists such as tightrope dancers, fire eaters, sword swallowers performing. It’s even stranger for us now, but a few African and Indian families were also moved to the zoo for a while to join the animals from their region performing live shows. Still, interest in the zoo waned and finally the company operating the zoo went bankrupt in 1907. The government took over and between 1909 and 1912 the zoo was closed for reconstruction. Most of the emblematic historic buildings of the park were constructed at that time. These artistically designed animal houses, like the award-winning Eastern-style Elephant House, replaced the original buildings. Some of them, like the Crocodile House, the Buffalo House, and the Giraffe House have recently been reconstructed. The main gate with the elephants was also erected in 1912, ornamented with world-famous Zsolnay Porcelain ceramics and mosaics, which were made at the factory of Miksa Róth, a great figure of applied arts. Besides the animal houses, a 34-metre tall Great Rock was constructed from reinforced concrete with trenches separating the visitors from the animals. Unfortunately, development was interrupted by the First World War. The Second World War brought about even more catastrophic consequences as the zoo was almost entirely destroyed with only 15 animals surviving.

It was reopened with only a few dozen animals and dilapidated buildings and there was major modernization and development under way in the 1950s and 1960s. The historic buildings with their astonishing architecture were restored to their original splendour between 2003 and 2007. Each of them is a protected historical monument now. The zoo also made history in 2007 with Layla, the first rhinoceros ever to be born with artificial insemination. Since then other developments have taken place, like a Magic Mountain, which was built inside the Great Rock and the Madagascar House. There is also a playground for children, with a huge whale to climb, which spurts water on them every few minutes.

The territory of the zoo has also been expanded recently, incorporating the area of the former amusement park. The zoo continues to develop with a fairy-tale park and a Biodome under construction. The Biodome, which will be even bigger than the famous Palm House will look like a hill covered with grass and will have large glass surfaces on the top to let the sunshine in. It will be the home of several animals and plants species.

There are more than eight hundred species and eight thousand animals in the park. Samu the alligator, who is more than 70 years old, is the oldest, living here since 1952 and Assam the elephant is the heaviest.  With so many things to see and enjoy – including plenty of leisure activities and exciting events – it’s no wonder that the zoo has nearly one million visitors a year.

During the summer, for example, there are special night events, when, after opening hours, professional guided tours take the visitors around the zoo to discover the otherwise hidden life of the zoo behind the bars and glass walls. Zoo camps offer schoolchildren the opportunity to get to know the behind the scenes life of the place in summer. The kids can feed the animals, can clean their living spaces and with the unforgettable experience they earn, the otherwise dry and boring school material they have to learn about animals during the school year comes alive and gets a new meaning.   Concerts are also held in the garden in the summer and in winter Santa Claus pays a visit, distributing gifts to children. If you want to support the well-being of your favourite zoo animal you can symbolically adopt it and receive an exclusive certificate about becoming its proud parent.

At the birthday celebration of the zoo, the bell of the zoo, which used to signal closing time, was sounded again and the confectioners of the famed Gundel restaurant just adjacent to the zoo prepared a special birthday cake with the oldest building, the Owl Castle decorating it. A special stamp block was issued by the Hungarian Post and silver and brass commemorative coins by the National Bank for the event. You can join in the celebration and pay a visit to the zoo on a beautiful autumn day if you will. 

by István Dezsényi and Ágnes Salánki 

Asha, the two and a half year old elephant calf, does not look down on the pleasures of football…

It is always key that suitable activities and opportunities to play are provided to zoo animals. Environmental enrichment is really all about this: in one of its forms, animals are given different toys to play with. In our zoo, elephants are given, among other things, special balls that can withstand their weight and physical strength.

Asha, the small elephant born in February 2013, is particularly fond of this special elephant-proof ball and so attentive visitors are often rewarded with scenes of golden-footed Asha performing exciting footballing feats. We have recorded some frames of these as well.

This Asian Elephant was born early in the morning on Valentine’s Day at Zoo Budapest, after a 22-month gestation in 2013. The mother is then 12-year-old Angele, and her father is named Assam. A public vote was held on the zoo’s website to name the baby elephant. The choices all began with the letter A, to mirror her parent’s names. They were: Asha, Anita, Angyalka, Amelie, Aishwarya, Aurora. The winning moniker was Asha.

Budapest Zoo considered this a very important event, as this was the first Elephant birth there since 1961.

source: zoobudapest.com

Can you match the words with their definition?

Key:

1. d.

2. a.

3. e.

4. c.

5. b.

“To ensure that nothing disturbs the peace and quite of the animals, we closed off the Elephant House from the outside world almost hermetically. Hence, the public may not view yet the animals living here, and even among the staff of the Zoo, only keepers and veterinarians specifically assigned to care for the elephants may enter the restricted area,” announced a Budapest Zoo spokesperson.

If the baby is feeding with reassuring frequency and the mother’s behavior remains normal, the public will be allowed to visit the Elephant House. Depending on the development of the elephant baby, competent staff of the Zoo will determine when the elephants will be displayed again.

The newly born Valentine’s Day calf already suckles milk from its mother’s breast in the Budapest Zoo. This is very important since the baby did not succeed at first and could only get the essential milk with human help. In the first 24 hours the baby did not find its mother’s breasts at all, therefore caregivers and veterinarians milked the elephant mom called Angele and fed the baby elephant with the extracted milk. Since then such feeding happened more times and fortunately it turned out that the baby can be called to the nursing bottle.

The fate of the little elephant has been followed by many in recent days. People have asked information about its condition and hoped that everything would turn out ok. The Zoo still asks for the patience of the visitors: the Elephant House remains closed as long as calm environment is required for the mom and her baby.

In the history of the Budapest Zoo and Botanic Garden five elephant calves were born, the last one on May 10 in 1961. Since then in the past half century, however not a single Asian elephant was born in Hungary until now.

source: www.budapest.hu

joyous – örömteljes
uncertain – bizonytalan
to nurture – táplálni, szoptatni, gondozni
keeper – ápoló
to monitor – megfigyelni, felügyelni
to feed – etetni, táplálkozni
to look after – törődni, valaki gondját viselni
properly – megfelelően
offspring – utód
to be considered – tartani valaminek
experienced – tapasztalt
spotlight – reflektorfény
to ensure – biztosítani
to disturb – zavarni
to close off – lezárni
hence – ennélfogva, ezért
assigned – illetékes, felhatalmazott
restricted area – korlátozott/tiltott terület/övezet
reassuring – megnyugtató
frequency – gyakoriság
behavior – viselkedés
to remain – maradni
to allow – (meg)engedni
depending on – valamitől függően
competent – hozzáértő, alkalmas
to determine – meghatározni, eldönteni
to display – kiállítani, bemutatni
newly born – újszülött
calf – borjú
to suckle – szopni, szoptatni
breast – mell
to succeed – sikerül valamit csinálni, sikeresnek lenni
caregiver – gondviselő
to milk – fejni
to extract – megszerezni, kivonni
fortunately – szerencsére
to turn out – kiderülni
nursing bottle – cumisüveg
fate – sors
in recent days – a napokban
condition – állapot
patience – türelem
calm – nyugodt
environment – környezet
required – szükséges
not a single – egyetlen sem

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