Lainzer Tiergarten

Another week come and [almost] gone here in Vienna. This week, Eric and I finally made it out to the Lainzer Tiergarten. We didn't have any big trips or tests to worry about and it was quite relaxing to just have a few days to just spend peacefully in Vienna. The Tiergarten was the perfect choice. It's a great wildlife preserve out it the 23rd district of Vienna (out it the country). It's so beautiful out there and it was really nice to get out of the city for a while. We also picked the perfect day head out because it started snowing at noon today and it's suppsed to snow for the rest of the weekend! We discovered some fun, new animals.

There was the Damwild (or Fallow Deer, in English)

and the Mufflon (aka: Mouflon)

and even European Bison.

Aparently, the Mouflon is a kind of wild sheep or “goat antelopes." We learned that it is thought to be one of the two ancestors of modern sheep breeds! They were pretty cool, but not nearly as friendly as the Fallow Deer. In fact, one of the deer came right up to the fence and after a little sniffing, one of them let me pet him!


He was terribly cute! Then two adorable little kids with their grandma came over and we all pet/fed the deer.

The little girl was just darling! She looked about three and she kept picking "mitten-fulls" of grass and then she would hold it out to me and say "Bitte, bitte!" (Asking me to feed it to the deer). [Note: Fallow Deer prefer clover to grass; just in case you were wondering.]


Right now is getting to the end of the "Rut season" for Fallow Deer and we got to watch a few chases. One of the males was being rather territorial and would chase off all the other males. He chased one poor female all around the field (and was joined by two other males), until she had the sense to go back to her group of girlfriends - then the guys left her alone. Sounds just like humans! I think the best part was the lady's explanation to her grandchildren of what the deer were doing and saying. "Er sagt, 'Ich liebe dich, ich leibe dich'!" It was quite fun.

After thoroughly enjoying the deer and the sheep, we went looking for the wild boar that they apparently have in the park. Unfortunately, the only other animals that we saw were European Bison, or as Eric would say, "Sissy French Buffalo". It wasn't nearly as exciting as frolicking boar would have been, but I guess that just means that we'll have to go back in the snow and look for them again!

**This sad little pile of snow is all that is left from the snow that we got last Sunday. Hopefully next time I got to the park there will be a little more snow than this!**