KOLMÅRDENS DJURPARK

Kolmården's Animal and Nature Park is set in about 500 acres of beautiful woodland just outside Norrkoping in Sweden. The park was founded some thirty years ago to create work for the many unemployed in the area. It proved to be a worthwhile investment as the park is now one of the best.

Let us take you on a tour around the park.

We start off at a familiar setting, the farmyard, with its traditional Swedish farm cattle.
Not far from the farm we find the wood cottage, an oasis created in the Swedish primeval forest.
We continue. and our next stop is an area made especilly for the younger visitors. Here the children can cuddle and play with animals like goats and pigs. A church is also situated nearby and the large church-window gives you a perfect view of the surroundings with a bay and woodland.
Take a short stroll and you can see the show with birds of prey.This attraction is quite new and should not be missed. While you are here you can also take a ride on an elephant.
Now let us walk down the hill to the Oceanum. It has three separate attractions.The first with the Dolphin show, which is Kolmården´s greatest attraction and where you will find the 33 year old dolphin Flip performing with his ladies. The second is a lagoon where the dolphins can be watched as they swim under water and finally, the third, is a deep pool set in the natural rocks and the home of the seals.
We contiue our tour and find ourselves at the tigers where at certain times, you can wath them beeing fed. One meal weighs about six kilos but they are only fed every other day. A bit further away from there is the Aparium and the Kolosseum. In the Aparium there are differnt kinds of apes. One is a gorilla called Iris who they are trying to mate with a gorilla from Stuttgart. Many animal parks all over Europe co-operate with each other in exchanging animals in hope of stopping some species from becoming extinct.
Behind the next door in the Kolosseum we find another proof of this co-operation, the rhinoceros Natala is pregnant and expecting to give birth around Christmas. To end the day we take a tour around the Safari park. There are five different enclosures with animals from all over the world and it is the closeness to them that touches us the most.

By Eva Nylander Lotta Åman