Snow-white scenery, sub-zero temperatures, and tranquility welcomed us at the Budakeszi Wildlife Park upon our recent visit, where life doesn’t stop even despite the cruelly cold winter weather. In fact, the park’s proud wild-boar parents even welcomed new additions to their family last week: Károly and Karolina delighted visitors with five adorable stripe-backed piglets, who further increase the cuteness factor that makes an adventure to this park so appealing, even during wintertime.

At the Budakeszi Wildlife Park – located just outside of Budapest’s city limits, on the other side of the Buda Hills – almost 250 native and exotic wild animals live on a nature preserve spread across nearly 30 hectares. We visited this natural woodland habitat last week, when snowfall and sunbeams made the scenery all the more spectacular. Surrounded by such a mesmerizing environment, we even forgot about being cold.

We always wondered how animals cope with the cold underneath their fur; even though they get lots of straw to warm up and bigger portions for meals, they still eat less than normal in the winter; however, at Budakeszi, only the dormice hibernate, and even they interrupt their extended sleeping session at snack time. Hence, in the winter the caretakers have to regularly check and replace the animals’ drinking water, as it often freezes over.

Many charming animals live at this park, such as Mucika the golden jackal, Don Corleone the Western Jackdaw (who got his name by often saying “Apa, apa!”, meaning “Daddy daddy!”), and the cheeky fallow deer who tried to chew on our bags and coats straight away in the petting zoo. Here are some of the residents in pictures:

We surprised the hibernating dormice, who got up that day anyway to grab something to eat.

Hubert, the eldest of the lynxes, is the Methuselah here at the age of 22. He wasn’t too keen on getting up to say hello.

On the other hand, Csabi was a bit more active.

The wolves were the most energetic of all; Andzsin, Bajir, and Ulán patrolled their area the whole time like sharks.

Their neighbor is Móric, the young brown bear who has lived alone since the death of his mate last year. We had to wait quite some time for him to come out of his snug shelter; in the end, the idea of a nice lunch tempted him to come outside.

Currently the biggest stars of the wildlife park are the baby wild boars, the piglets of Károly and Karolina.Stikli the raccoon just wouldn’t come off the roof, but Dagi showed us a few tricks:

Raccoon dogs are easily mistaken for regular raccoons. Berci and Marci seem to be inseparable.

This is Mucika, the golden jackal, the favorite of several regular visitors.

Contrary to our initial assumptions, the park is really popular during the winter, too; however, the animals are even more lively during the spring. Embarking on a trip here is truly a therapeutic session.