News zoo

At last much-longed-for warm days have come! Not only Kharkov citizen enjoy nice weather. Zoo inhabitants are also quite excited. The air is full of voices of birds. Blue-tits, chaffinches and starlings play the first part in the show. Fussy jackdaws pinch at old winter hair of deer and Asiatic wild asses for their nests.

13-14 April in Kharkov Zoo there was the first Ukrainian forum of Rabbit Keepers. Not only Ukrainian experts but also specialists from Russia, Bielorussia and Slovakia took part in the revival of rabbit husbandry in Ukraine.

13 April there was a volunteer clean-up in support of “Green Spring 2013” event in Kharkov Zoo. 43 persons participated in the event, 25 of them are representatives of “Young Regions” Party, 18 persons – Zoo staff members. They cleaned the central path of the Zoo, flowerbeds and territory adjoining to the administration office. After clean-up the volunteers dug up the flowerbeds and planted first flowers.

In general, people wish "to help" homeless dogs and cats - animals that have become numerous throughout the planet due to people themselves. But at present not pets but wild animals need our attention in the first place. They have been deprived of their natural habitat, they are poisoned and killed, their environment is peing polluted - these are just some of the factors that put many wild animals into "threatened" and "protection-needed" position.

13-14 April 2013 in Kharkov there will be the first International Forum of Rabbit Keepers. Members from Ukraine, Russia, Bielorussia and Slovakia will come to discuss the renewal of rabbit husbandry in Ukraine.

Winter has been quite long this year. The birds who have come for spring were suddenly met by frost and snow. A group of Young Biologists of Kharkov Zoo (Xenia Birkel, Svetlana Belyayeva, Yelena Rodenko, Olivia Al-Moudi, Alexey Parfilov) together with their teacher A.S. Gukasova went to "Slobozhansky" National Nature Reserve in order to help white storks and grey herons. The birds had flown to fishing ponds situated in flood plain of Merla river in the suburbs of Krasnokutsk. About 20 storks and 10 herons have been searching for fish. But the river was covered with ice and birds had no food, that's why young biologists have brought about 5 kilos of frozen fish which they scattered on the river bank. Birds appeared not too timid and let people come quite near them.

On the eve of the 1st April the specialists of the Department of Primates have proposed an unusual idea – to make a tradition of “Monkey Event” in Kharkov Zoo. Many of us consider monkeys as funny and cheerful. In Kharkov Zoo there are many popular events dedicated to tigers, leopards, migrating birds. Even fresh-water turtles have their own event – “Tortilla Tortoise Day”!

 Spring is a wonderful time. We always associate it with birds migration. In the beginning of March in the suburbs of the city one could meet larks, thrushes and starlings. Notwithstanding the late snowfalls many people have seen big flocks of migrating geese and swans. Storks and herons have flown to the ponds. Frost has deprived them of food. Volunteers, Young Biologists among them, have arrived for help. They fed fish to hungry birds.

This event is organized to unite all people on our planet to protect the environment. It was in the XXth century that Earth Protection Day was first celebrated. It was in that time that people saw the high level of science development could threaten the human existence in the forthcoming centuries. Human population can really be destroyed due not to global war but to pollution of environment and exhaustion of natural resources. With such a prospective in mind, one wishes to think about this problem properly. People have always been thinking that the Earth is perennial and human population will live on it forever. In reality, the main threat to life is in human population itself.