Photos of Zoo d'Amnéville
About Zoo d'Amnéville
Zoo d'Amnéville is home to a sprawling collection of animals sitting inside the Cité des loisirs, a leisure complex that also holds an indoor ski slope, an aquarium and a casino. The zoo's layout is grouped by continent, and the collection runs from an African reserve with elephants and rhinos to an Arctic zone with polar bears. You'll want to make sure you have a long lens in your kit. Most of what works here is tight, so having a 200mm and up gets you past fencing if you shoot close to the barrier with the aperture wide open. The free flight bird presentations are the easiest action to shoot, since the birds take the same lines over the arena each time. Plan to get there early so you can sit high and toward the back to be able to put the sky behind them rather than heads. Following the feeding schedules lets you have a reliable estimate of when each animal will be in set areas within their habitats, so make sure to pause and pick up the day's schedule at the entrance. Patience and pausing in each section is going to be key to capturing animals, waiting in one spot to them to come beats wandering and possibly missing animals completely. You will need a ticket, and booking online saves a lot of time waiting in line during the summer. Shows and feedings run through the warmer half of the year, roughly April to November, and the hours shrink in winter. Ideally try to arrive early in the day when the animals are usually at their most active, before the heat of the day pushes them all into their shady resting areas. (Amnéville, Grand Est, France)
