Teberda Nature Reserve Zoo (Teberda)

The Teberda Nature Reserve Zoo, often simply called the Teberda zoo, is an open-enclosure animal park run by the Teberda National Park administration in the centre of the resort town of Teberda, Karachayevsky District, Karachay-Cherkessia. It keeps animals of the North Caucasus, and one ticket also covers the reserve's nature museum.

What to see

There are no cages here: the animals live in spacious enclosures spread over about eight hectares on the left bank of the Teberda River. The park holds around twenty species and more than fifty animals. Each enclosure has a sign with the animal's name, its habits and habitat. The enclosures for predators and birds are on the lower terrace, and almost all of them have pools.

Residents include bears, wolves, a lynx, a wildcat, foxes, jackals, wild boar, raccoons, red and sika deer, yaks, goats, Caucasian tur, vultures, ducks and geese. Tur are the most numerous, while the European bison usually makes the strongest impression. The grounds are clean and well kept.

Bags of feed (carrots, apples, cabbage) are sold at the entrance, and visitors may hand-feed the herbivores. Allow about an hour and a half to two hours for the zoo and the museum.

Wildlife of the Teberda Reserve

The Teberda Nature Reserve was founded in 1935 and became a state high-mountain reserve in 1936. From the mid-20th century it worked on acclimatising species, bringing in the Altai squirrel and sika deer among others. In 1997 it became a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and in 2021 it was reorganised as Teberda National Park.

The park is home to more than forty mammal species, many of them in Russia's Red Data Book. Its pride is the European bison, present here since the late 1960s. In the 2010s, together with WWF Russia, the herd was reinforced with animals from the Oka and Prioksko-Terrasny reserves, and calves have been born regularly since; 2020 was a record year with seven calves. The enclosures of the Teberda zoo are the easiest place to see these rare animals up close.

Getting there

Teberda lies on the road from Cherkessk to Dombay: about 180 km by car from Mineralnye Vody and about 135 km from Kislovodsk; the bus from Dombay takes about half an hour. The zoo is in the national park's administration grounds on Baduksky Lane. The ticket office is at the main gate before the bridge over the Teberda, and there is parking in the town centre.

Good to know

Entry is paid; one ticket covers the zoo and the nature museum. The park is open daily, according to guidebooks from 9 am to 6 pm; check hours and prices with the park administration. Short national park trails start nearby, for example to the Shumka waterfall.