Ähtäri Zoo in its 40-ies

Where nature meets you!

I think I'm not mistaken when I say that Ähtäri Zoo (formerly known as Ähtäri Wildlife Park) is the heart of Ähtäri town. The whole town revolves around it, breaths with it and benefits from it. If it hadn't been for Väino Jaakola (a former mayor of Ähtäri) at the beginning of 1970-ies, then the town wouldn't be a tourist attraction today. He had travelled in Scandinavian countries and visited several wildlife parks there and got the idea of creating a similar type of place in Ähtäri: a park for animals with wide open spaces to roam about and less like a typical caged zoo. The first natural wildlife park in Finland Ähtäri Zoo was opened on 17th June 1973 featuring mainly animals found in Finland, but also 3 species not naturally inhabiting Finnish nature:

• European bison -- now roaming in a protected area on the border of Poland and Belarus (Bialowieza Forest which I visited once years ago)
• snow leopard given to the zoo as a gift 30 years ago -- native to the mountain regions of Central Asia
• wild boar -- once common to Finnish forests, now nearly extinct in Finland

Ähtäri Zoo is the second largest zoo in Finland (after Korkeasaari in Helsinki) and among the three largest in Finland (with Ranua Zoo in Lapland), and member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. Ähtäri Zoo has about 65 different species and about 350 animals in total on 60 ha on land. The average visitor rate per year is 150 000 persons of whom 85% visit the zoo in summertime. When in low season the zoo employs 15 persons, then in high season the amount of employees triples to 45.

staff at the zoo shop

visitors on a 3 km trail

Animals

The mascot of the zoo is a bear. You can read about him on his blog (ahtarinsanteri.blogspot.fi). Yes, Santeri the bear writes his blog :) There are two adult bears and two bear cubs at the zoo at the moment. They have a huge "castle", two swimming pools and numerous playground attractions mainly for cubs not to get bored. The latter use their "gym" regularly :) The cubs are extremely sociable and they literally run towards the barrier if they see or hear a visitor approaching their "castle" and start showing off. Never thought they could be such friendly fellows!

mother bear is having her beauty nap...

...while cubs are having fun

bear gym

m-o-m!!! wake up!

This fellow here looks like a small bear, but it isn't. It's a wolverine (Latin: gulo gulo), who lives in Lapland and the eastern part of Finland. Finland and Norway are the only countries in Europe where it lives. It is a very ferocious and strong animal and can kill animals many times bigger than itself. Ughhh, wouldn't like to meet it in the forest :)

small but ferocious gulo gulo

gulo gulo fooling around

The zoo is proud to have some endangered species:

• European mink (FIN: vesikko) which has almost extinct in nature due to a natural enemy in the form of a much more aggressive American mink and due to declines in crayfish numbers, but also hunting for fur (the mink itself is quite small in size, therefore, mink fur coats are very expensive), so don't buy mink fur coats because European minks are critically endangered animals!

Photo: Ähtäri Zoo

• Finnish forest reindeer (FIN: metsäpeura) -- almost like a Santa Claus reindeer only bigger and living in wild nature, not bred like domesticated reindeer. The forest reindeer is a rare and threatened subspecies of reindeer native to Finland and northwestern Russia. Hunting and deforestation have cut down their population.

metsäpeura

lunch for four

• Snow leopard (Latin: unica unica) -- the zoo has a male and a female leopard with a couple of adorable cubs. Ähtäri is lucky to have them as the future of the species depends on estimated 2500 snow leopards (those who are able to reproduce) left in the world. Snow leopards are killed for their beautiful fur. Yes, it's us, human beings who have drastically reduced their population.

antlers are growing bigger and heavier :)

One of the biggest animals in Ähtäri Zoo is the moose, the biggest species in the deer family with huge antlers (on males only). Some of them are very friendly and they even allow you to pet them. However, they can be very protective when they have young calves.

The fastest animal at the zoo seems to be a stoat, a small tough little creature who runs around his cage so fast that you can barely follow it with your eyes. Usain Bolt of the weasels family :)

stoat

And one of the funniest animals in early summer are definitely young striped wild boar piglets. A dozen of piglets running around the cage digging for who knows what and enjoying natural mud baths :)

wild boar mom bathing her kids in mud

However, by far the funniest guys at the zoo are the toads (FIN: rupikonna). I couldn't help but film the remarkable characters:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JnEWEYFnKM

On the trail

A zoo guide's legs for the summer :)

The zoo is nothing without guides (FIN: opas) telling visitors stories of the zoo animals :) Storytelling adds tremendous value to the zoo experience. These guides are busy especially in summertime (about 130 000 visitors, after all). So a bike is of great help here :) It's not easy to walk many 3 km trails a day, but easy with a bike. And what more, can you imagine how much they have to  know because visitors can have gazillion number of questions? Tourists, you know :)

faster, daddy!

Toddlers can travel through all the 3 km trail in a pull trolley. The trolleys are also handy when you've taken a picnic basket with you and you don't want to carry it all the way. There is a barbecue place half-way through the trail with a nice view over Mekkolampi lake. There is also a café (Kaakkolampi lake café) on the 2/3 of the trail, so those who didn't think of a picnic basket can rest their tired feet and get refreshments there (who can resist an ice-cream on a hot sunny day, ay?).

grill your own sausages :)