Jonas Öberg

I've just uploaded some pictures from the 2008 season premiere of the Kolmården Zoo outside of Norrköping, Sweden, where I went about a week ago. My spontaneous opinion is that the zoo is going slightly too far in their attempts to be more attractive, with last years new Tiger World and this years new Marine World. According to the zoo, Marine World should make you feel as if you've been transported to Key West. And it certainly does that: it's somewhat annoying, since we're not in Key West at all, but in a forest in Sweden!

Still, the zoo is clearly worth a visit, and it is still far better than most zoos I've ever visited, and gives much more room than any other zoo to let the animals roam freely in their natural terrain.

A clear improvement over last year is the new dolphin show, which has been coreographed by Swedish celebrity Markoolio. The new show is focusing much more on encouraging the visitors to learn more about dolphins and goes to great length to teach the audience about the mammals.

However, the show is not well suitable for foreign tourists, since all content is in Swedish, and it's also gotten more of a theater performance feeling to it, where the focus has been taken away from the dolphins again, and put on the music of Markoolio.