JAKARTA - Building and managing a zoo for up to 25 years is certainly not an easy thing. Many sweet and bitter memories that must be passed. This is how Tibor Toth, owner of a mini zoo in Hungary, felt.
About 400 animals of various kinds are in his zoo which is located in the city of Felsolajos, Hungary. Every day, Toth interacts with animals in his zoo.
Tibor Toth played every day with Mohini and Begum, the white Bengal tiger whom he regularly fed and drank milk. Even so with other animals.
According to Toth, the idea to establish this zoo was inspired by Austrian-born naturalist Joy Adamson. In the book 'Born Free', it is told how Friederike Victoria 'Joy' Adamson and her husband raise a lion cub to train it before being released back into nature.
The COVID-19 pandemic has suffered a devastating blow to these animal gardens. Before the pandemic, in a year the zoo was visited by around 100 thousand visitors from Hungary and abroad.
However, the zoo was forced to close over the past year due to the pandemic, forcing it to drain its savings to care for the zoo's animals.
"The pandemic that is coming really shakes us. We often wake up without knowing what will happen the next day. And we thought, this is the end after 25 years," he told Reuters.
Over the years, Toth has raised 43 big cats, from lions to white tigers. They have been bottle-fed and love human company.
In 2014, white lion cubs Nala and Mombasa arrived at the zoo in dire conditions. With good care, they have grown well and are healthy.
So far, Toth admits that he is still alive. But he admits he has compiled a price list for the animals, and made a list of zoos he will contact if all else fails.
"If I close the zoo, then I close my own life. This is my life, my dream, my passion," he concluded.
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