La Garenne
La Garenne is a small zoo in Switzerland founded in 1965. Its missions are helping animals in need and helping rare animals to reproduce and be reintroduced into the wild. As such, mainly animals naturally present in Europe can be admired in the park.
We took advantage of a drop in temperature and recent snowfall to discover the premise from a new angle: covered in snow and all ponds frozen.
Eurasian eagle-owl (Nikon D850, 1/640 sec at f / 6.3 ISO 5600, 490 mm, Sigma 150-600 mm f/5.0-6.3)
The biggest and most well-known success of the zoo is the part played in an international program for the preservation of the threatened bearded vulture. Out of the 26 individuals born at La Garenne, 13 have been released. Currently, approximately 200 such birds are living in the wild in the Alps.
Bearded vulture (Nikon D850, 1/640 sec at f / 5.6 ISO 640, 290 mm, Sigma 150-600 mm f/5.0-6.3)
Since 25 years, Wolfs are again present in Switzerland with increased media coverage in the last few years. La Garenne has taken up the challenge to educate of the local population on the important role played by wolfs in the Swiss ecosystem and how human activity can benefit from it.
The care centre does tremendous work in healing and releasing back into the wild injured animals. Nevertheless, some patients are too heavily wounded to be able to take care of themselves in the wild. Such is the story of the birds of prey that can be seen at the zoo.
The zoo has well-known animals such as the Starling but also some uncommon and less well-known once such as Nutria.
Irrespective of how good the infrastructures are, a zoo is still limits the freedom of movement of animals. This little guy is looking to get out and climb the next tree. The experience of witnessing wild animals in their habitat, as we did in Botswana, cannot be compared with a visit to the local zoo.
Red squirrel (Nikon D850, 1/640 sec at f / 6.0 ISO 2000, 380 mm, Sigma 150-600 mm f/5.0-6.3)