The Afrykarium, that is, an oceanarium featuring Africa's wildlife exclusively, has become Wroclaw's indisputable top attraction and has garnered a number of awards, e.g. for Poland's best tourist attraction and many others. The site has been visited by nearly 1.8 million people, while the Wroclaw Zoo President Radosław Ratajszczak estimates that the figure is likely to reach 2 million by the end of the year, which makes the Wroclaw Zoo one of the five most frequented zoos in Europe.
Afrykarium as a showpiece
"The Afrykarium has changed both the zoo and the city itself." Our visitors later on visit the city and have something to eat. Just the other day we had 700 guests throughout the world who were both delighted with the zoo and the city. Many of them declared they would return to Poland on other occasions," said Radosław Ratajszcak. He admitted that at the beginning only few people had believed the idea would become reality while others said it was simply mad. Challenges also piled up when the facility was completed and animals began to move in. "We had difficulty keeping water quality at the hippo pool because we had no large fish which eat hippo faeces in the wild. Now we have the fish, they shoot up and help us filter the water," said the Zoo President.
The facility, which is fitted out with state-of-the-art technologies, has never failed throughout the year. When a thunderstorm caused a huge black-out in Wielka Wyspa and the half of Wroclaw at the end of July, the zoo could fall back on the emergency power system. "I'm travelling a lot and have to tell you we have nothing to be ashamed of. The Afrykarium is an open project, and it is changing all the time. Our animals are both growing and breeding, we're adding new species, and greenery is proliferating," added the Zoo President.
Afrykarium in facts and figures
- 7 thousand animals and 250 species are now living at the Afrykarium
- 12 million litres of seawater were produced for two largest tanks: the Mozambique Channel and the Red Sea
- 38 filters and 15 reaction tanks were processed 34 billion litres of water over the year
- 1000 hours were spent by divers in the pools, where they cleaned acrylic windows and the underground tunnel
- 8 thousand parameter measurements were taken at the Afrykarium
- 10 thousand square metres are taken up by modern technology, including 2 thousand square metres by ventilation systems
- 2 billion cubic metres of air have been processed by ventilation systems.
A number of attractions were offered to visitors to celebrate the Afrykarium's first birthday. There was a birthday cake and additional attractions for children and adults alike. Drawing competitions, African face painting and African food savouring. Animal feeding demonstrations, meetings with zookeepers and many other events. The celebrations concluded with a game called "Paint Penguins from Antarctica", during which children painted life-size emperor penguin models.
