The summer holidays have started and this week, on Local Matters, we check out what to do in Luxembourg with your children. Yesterday, we went to the Sunflower creche and had a look at their summer activities. And today, I am going to show you around at one of my favourite spots in Esch. Only a 15 minutes walk away from the train station, we are already in the middle of nature, of the woods. You better take the elevator and then the path to the right, so you can avoid the temptation of the giant playground for now, and head straight up the hill through the park towards the zoo. Although we are surrounded by the woods, it is not quiet at all up here. Children insist on feeding the goats and pheasants, small parrots and lots of other birds sing and scream in the aviary. The loudest one among them is the peacock.
“His name is Jules. And he is trying to impress the female peacocks”, Anne Meyers explains. She is responsible for the zoo. We are sitting on the small balcony of the treehouse café, right above the aviary.
“The treehouse café has been built in the same style as our holiday flats in the treehouse. It is designed to a meeting point where visitors can get information, but also just relax, away from the everyday stress.
In the treehouse café, people get a hot chocolate, lemonades and some cake. You get there over a wooden food bridge. The whole construction is built out of coulourful wooden planks, with small turrets. It is connected to the holiday flats where families sleep right above the aviary in the trees. After waking up, say good morning to the giant shaggy highland cattle and climb on the observation tower in the middle of the enclosure for fallow deer and goats.
We almost exclusively have native animals, farm animals such as sheep and goats, cows. We have some deer, red deer, fallow deer and a wild boar. For our farm, we chose the theme threatened species. We have breeds of sheep that are endangered and patout donkeys wich are listed as endangered species as well.
The educational part of keeping animals is important to the responsibles of the zoo in Esch. For several activities, they work together with the forest administration that is responsible for upkeeping the Ellergronn nature reserve and also the zoo alone has a variety of activities for children.
In our opinion, everyone who knows the nature, will protect it in the future. That’s why it is important for us to provide information. We have numerous educational activities for school classes and we also offer a program where people can learn how to keep rodents, before getting a guinea pig or a rabbit at home. You learn how to feed and to take care of them correctly.
The Zoo, the Deierepark in Esch is free and open for everyone all the time. If you go for a visit in the evening though, make sure to respect the animals’ night’s rest.