The boiler that heated the elephant house in the Odesa Zoo failed

The solid fuel boiler that heated the elephant sanctuary, the administrative building and a dozen other animal facilities, and now the city council plans to allocate UAH 5 million to replace it.

This was reported by Anastasia Bolshedvorova, a deputy of the Odesa City Council.

According to her, the boiler broke down at the end of the heating season.

"Together with a group of experts, we tried for a long time to see the year of manufacture on the boiler door," the deputy emphasized.

In his turn, the zoo director Ihor Belyakov said that the boiler was very important for the zoo's work and it was the largest in the zoo.

"It was used to supply heat to the elephant house, to the room for keepers, and to the winter room for parrots. It was a very important boiler and the largest in the zoo," the director said.

In May, Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov ordered the creation of a working group to inspect the conditions and places of keeping animals in the Odesa Zoological Park of national importance. This was preceded by demands from the deputies caused by a lack of understanding of what was happening in the zoo.

In December 2024, Anastasia Bolshedvorova stated that she had sent a request to the zoo management about the causes of the animals' deaths, and some of the results surprised her. In particular, information about a squirrel that died from a fall. The very fact of the squirrel's strange death caused the deputy's distrust, and the mayor's joking suggestion that she go and investigate this fact and the assumption that the squirrel committed suicide caused almost hysterical l aughter among the deputies. In response, zoo director Igor Belyakov said that the squirrel died as a result of an accident.

On September 23, 2022, the Odesa Zoo celebrated its 100th anniversary .

As explained by the Odesa City Hall, before the full-scale invasion, the city had a targeted program to restore the zoo. The first stage of its implementation was the relocation of the entrance group from the roadway to Preobrazhenskyi Park. However, the war halted further work, including the construction of modern, spacious enclosures.

Кирило Бойко