ZAGREB, 1 March 2022 - Osijek City authorities have proposed to the Kyiv Zoo that its animals could be transferred to and accepted in the Osijek Zoo, the mayor of the eastern Croatian city, Ivan Radić, said on Tuesday.

Radić held a meeting with the "Lesja Ukrajinka" association of ethnic Ukrainians in eastern Croatia and they visited the reception centre the city has prepared for Ukrainian refugees.

There are three families with 16 members in the centre already and they have been registered to be assigned refugee status. They are currently being accommodated with their friends in Osijek's suburb of Tenja and in Vukovar-Srijem County.

Earlier in the day, another family with three children also arrived in Osijek, and once they are registered they will travel to Požega to be accommodated with their friends.

Osijek residents have expressed their willingness to accept refugees, and hotels and hostels have also made their capacities available for the reception of refugees, the mayor said.

Representatives of the Osijek Public Transport company (GPP) are in contact with the Red Cross to send the company's vehicles to the border to transport Ukrainian refugees to Osijek, if necessary.

Ukrainians will be able to use Osijek public transport services free of charge.

We want the war to end and we wish Ukrainians outside their homeland to be able to return to their homes as soon as possible, said Radić.

The head of the association, Oksana Martinjuk, thanked the local authorities for their great support and aid.

ZAGREB, 5 Nov 2021- Zagreb will get its first facility for the accommodation and care of wild animal species within the Shelter for Abandoned Animals "Dumovec", and its realisation was made possible under the EU project "Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre -- Modernisation of the Zagreb Zoo Phase III".

The total value of the project amounts to about HRK 22.7 million (€3 million), and of that HRK 6 million (€800,000) is co-financed by the EU. The project is implemented from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2023.

Taking care of injured, exhausted or confiscated animals of protected species will finally be done at a special facility, a recovery centre that will consists of specialised areas of more than 1,300 square metres.

The ground for will be for taking care of abandoned dogs, and the first floor will be for injured and exhausted wild animals from Zagreb, strictly protected species from the entire Croatia and those seized in cross-border traffic.

"The facility will house a modern quarantine and veterinary clinic, a vehicle adapted for the transport of animals will be purchased, as well as equipment for animal control service and equipment for marking animals that are released in the wild," said project manager Davorka Maljković.

Ida Partl from the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development said that the Ministry coordinated the operation of 11 recovery centres in Croatia and that six more project would be financed from the cohesion funds.

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ZAGREB, 3 March 2021 - World Wildlife Day, observed on 3 March, is this year dedicated to forest ecosystems and the related species.  

Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Tomislav Ćorić has said that the survival and wellbeing of people depend on forests and that everyone is responsible for their preservation.

"In Croatia forests cover around 45% of the land territory, and they are natural to a large extent. The species in as many as 95% of forests in the country are natural and autochthonous, which is rare not only in Europe but globally as well," the minister said, pointing to the great importance of forests and warning against their unsustainable use.

He recalled that in order to stop global deforestation, the European Commission in 2019 published the communication "Stepping up EU Action to Protect and Restore the World's Forests", and that as part of its strategy for the preservation of biodiversity in the period until 2030, the EC had prepared an ambitious plan to restore nature, including a plan to put 10% of land areas under strict protection, as part of which all the remaining primeval forests in Europe will be mapped and protected.

In 2021, a special EU strategy for forests will be put forward, in line with the EU's biodiversity and climate neutrality ambitions, and it will include an action plan for the planting of at least three billion new trees in the EU in the period until 2030, in line with ecological criteria.

Zagreb ZOO: Red list contains more than 15,200 animal species

Zagreb ZOO traditionally marks World Wildlife Day to raise public awareness of the importance of preserving plant and animal species.

It warns that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species currently contains more than 15,200 animal species, including 38 species that have become extinct in nature and that survive exclusively thanks to human care.

Two of those species can be seen at Zagreb ZOO - the scimitar oryx and the Socorro dove, the zoo has said.

August 23, 2020 - The head of the third descendant of a Belgian-French pair of kangaroos peeked out of its mother's pouch at the Zagreb Zoo!

As Večernji.hr reports, four-year-old Skibo and his partner who is one year his junior at the Zoo have been in love since day one. Thanks to that, they had two sons and their latest joey whose gender is still unknown. Their eldest son is already one year and three months old, the middle son is eleven months old, and their youngest offspring about four months old.

"Every new baby makes us happy, but when a pair of animals in a zoo manages to raise several generations of babies, it is a great success for all who take care of them. Our swamp wallabies share their habitat with red-necked wallabies and emu and together with them the magnificent fauna of distant Australia. It is important for us that our visitors, after being delighted with them, feel the need to contribute to the preservation of all animal species with which we share the planet," said Damir Skok, director of the Zoo.

Wetland wallabies who otherwise live in the wild inhabit forests, wetlands, and other areas of the east coast of Australia, rich in vegetation.

They love living in the shade of trees and shrubs on a substrate rich in young trees, grass, ferns, and other low-lying vegetation. There are about eighty types of plants on their menu - from leaves and seeds to mushrooms and algae. In zoos, original Australian food is successfully replaced by buds, grass, and vegetables. The marsh wallaby is about 70 centimeters tall and weighs between 15 and 20 kilograms. His fur is mostly dark brown, and many swamp wallabies have yellowish streaks on their cheeks.

This little kangaroo reaches sexual maturity between the ages of 15 and 18 months, and joeys are just one centimeter in size when they're born. They enter their mother's pouch, where they spend the next nine months. It is an interesting fact that marsh wallabies mate throughout the year and that in females, most often while one cub is developing in the pouch, a new fetus grows in the uterus.

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