Vrnjci Zoo

Vrnjci Zoo is a 3.5-hectare zoological garden in Vrnjci, four kilometres from the centre of Vrnjačka Banja, on the main road towards Kraljevo. It is home to more than 120 species from almost every continent, and the collection is regularly extended with new species and new arrivals.

The zoo grew out of a private bird collection that Dragan Srećković began in 2006. Extended onto the neighbouring plots, with aviaries, barns, lakes and paths built, it became a zoo, and it has held official zoo status since 2019. Some of the animals came through cooperation with the zoos in Palić, Košice and Kecskemét.

The mammals include Grant’s zebra, the eland, the lechwe, the wildebeest, a dromedary, llamas, alpacas, guanacos, Bennett’s wallaby, the serval, meerkats and coatis, and among the primates ring-tailed lemurs and Japanese macaques. Birds are represented by about 90 species, among them the emu, the greater rhea, cranes, the scarlet and the sacred ibis, peafowl, many pheasant species, black swans and macaws. The terrarium holds pythons, a corn snake, a bearded dragon, tortoises and a tarantula, and the aquarium cichlids from Lake Malawi and fish from the Amazon. Many more species live in the zoo besides these, and the list changes as new animals arrive.

Visitors may feed the fallow deer, mouflons, pygmy goats, mini sheep and ponies, only with the food available for a token sum next to the ticket office; no other animals may be fed. On Wednesdays and Saturdays there is public feeding, when the staff feed the zebras, alpacas and camel, or the kangaroos, goats and mouflons, on the timetable on this page. The first session starts at 10:30.

The zoo is open every day from 8:00 to 19:00. At the entrance are the car park, the ticket office and a souvenir shop with soft toys, children’s books and souvenirs with the zoo’s motifs, and inside the zoo a visitor toilet, two lakes with laid-out paths and a children’s playground. By the entrance is also the air-conditioned Životinjsko carstvo playground, open until 21:00.

For kindergarten and school groups the zoo runs educational visits with a guide, workshops and lessons in an outdoor classroom. A guided tour costs an extra 3,000 dinars and is booked a few days in advance, and for groups of more than ten the ticket is 400 dinars per person. The adoption programme lets you support a chosen animal for a year, from 5,000 dinars for individuals; the adopter receives a plaque with their name by the animal’s enclosure and free entry for that year.

The zoo is about ten minutes’ drive from Vrnjačka Banja, which makes the spa a practical base for this trip. BanjaGo lists places to stay in Vrnjačka Banja and other places for kids.