PAIRI DAIZA - ANIMAL PARK, Belgium

The actual animal Park had once been an abbey which was founded  in 1148. It had to be completely rebuilt in the 18th century. Later it was sold to the Counts of Val de Beaulieu, who built a large château on the site and whose property it remained until 1993 when Eric Domb bought the property to realize his dream to set up a zoo here, the present Pairi Daiza. The property of  55-hectare (140-acre) land became a zoo and botanical garden located in Brugelette in the province of Hainaut in Belgium. It is home to over 4,000 animals.

In 2009, the zoo opened the 4-hectare (9.9-acre) "Kingdom of Ganesha," an Indonesian themed garden. It also changed its name from Paradisio to Pairi Daiza, which means "walled garden" or "orchard protected by walls"—the oldest name for paradise.

Pairi Daiza, or the "The Gardens of the World", made it possible to me to travel on my feet making a tour of  5 continents !

We stayed there from 11 am til 5.30 pm and still hadn't seen everything or all animals ! Therefore I can only show you what I have seen and give you an idea of how the park looks like.


The map of the domaine





An overview on the castle and the ancient abbey



The entrance



The farm of the abbey






Today a "Brasserie"



The old houses part of the abbey are now occupied by the zoo personal.





We are still in Europe



Friendly free running around animals greeted us and also wanted to be fed of course.



There was a very huge enclosure for all kind of birds. You could walk inside but had to pay attention to your heads !



A little further were owls which I always find so funny to watch.



Flamengos and ducks enjoyed the pond



These little critters ran around free and jumped on the heads or shoulders of the visitors, very much to their fun ! Just when I said to my friend "pay attention" a little one had jumped into her purse ! We made Hi5 and it took off !





Besides a zoo, the park is also a botanical garden with special trees and plants. Here you can see the roots of the tree above coming out of the earth !



These trunks were all petrified and looked beautiful in the sunshine



Sometimes you got the impression to walk through a jungle !



Then we entered the Kingdom of Ganesha. The whole area smelled of incence.







This was a temple













We really felt in another world.





There were Indian elephants, their defenses are smaller than the African elephants.

And then we arrived at the big attraction of the park ! White tigers ! A couple ! The zoo hopes that they will have little once ! 








They were so beautiful ! Unfortunately it was siesta time, so they didn't move very much with a full stomach !

Suddenly we arrived in Africa



and had some Belgian fries !



The lions were laying around lazily





In the various enclosures huts were standing and the animals walking around. There was even a wreck of an airplane !



I had never seen such cheeful Girafes in my life ! they were running around in circles and played together ! That was so funny to see !



I forgot the name of these cute little critter, which sometimes just sat around like humans !



There were also hyenas, and buffalos



a beautiful lion with a impressive mane



A not very polite monkey and a like a little bear looking animal.



The rhinos needed a solid fence !



For a while we watched these funny animals, they lay in a row to take a sunbath



A lonly buffalo



This hypo family was so cute ! There was mum and dad and the little one safely in the middle





We arrived in China



where the most important attraction of the park was ! Two giant Pandas, lent by the Chinese government. To give Hao Hao and Xing Hui a home, Pairi Daiza build a Sichuan mountain, a bamboo forest and a cave with amethysts.



I don't know who it was Hao Hao or Xing Hui, but I could only see a round big shadow with a little nose.



Her partner (I guess this is a he) was more demonstrative and amused the visitors by rolling around and showing his very personal parts.



I was really lucky to catch this moment !






And then we saw the biggest opal of the world ! Even raw it looked beautiful !

We had a wonderful day and I can only recommend this place ! It is a kingdom for animals and visitors are only coming on the second place. Sometimes you couldn't see an animal because the enclosures are so big. Everything is done for their well being ! And that's what I appreciated so much.


If you want to read more about the history of this very special zoo it's here in Wikipedia

link to Pairi Daiza Website