Skånes djurpark

Skånes djurpark
I’ve known about this park my whole life while living in Sweden, but I never actually visited until now. I’d mostly heard pretty average things, so my expectations weren’t very high. Honestly, it turned out better than I expected.

In many ways it reminded me of wildlife parks in Germany, with large, natural-looking enclosures and a relaxed layout. Some enclosures might even be too big though, because we didn’t see quite a few of the animals 😉

From a species perspective, some of the more interesting species or subspecies here include Greenland musk ox, North European red deer, Scandinavian red fox, and European golden eagle.

That said, there were also some strange things. A few areas felt run-down or were completely closed off, even parts that didn’t seem that old. There used to be a path around one of the lakes where you could see water birds, beavers, otters, owls, and raccoon dogs, but that whole section is now blocked. There’s a broken wooden ramp and everything is overgrown. We also came across random concrete walls and old enclosures in the woods. One of them was apparently built only about 14 years ago, which feels pretty recent for something that’s already abandoned.

Looking at older photos online makes this even more noticeable, seeing how nice some of these areas once were compared to how they look now.

The “Owl Forest” walk-through aviary was locked and completely empty, which was disappointing. A few other enclosures were empty as well. The old terrarium building now only houses rats, mice, and isopods, which was a bit of a letdown.

Overall, it’s a nice park, but I don’t think it’s worth the full entrance price (around 34 euros online or about 40 at the gate). If you book well in advance, tickets can drop to roughly 18 to 22 euros, which feels much more reasonable for what you get. The price probably makes more sense if you’re visiting with children, since there’s a small water play area with slides, a dinosaur trail with animatronic dinosaurs, and Shaun the Sheep Land.

For me, it was an interesting first visit and better than expected in terms of layout and atmosphere, but held back by closed areas and empty exhibits. Worth seeing once, especially at a discounted ticket price.