Close to 200,000 of those visitors were foreigners, Gajdos said.

Most arrived from neighbouring Slovakia and Romania, but a number also arrived from countries in Western Europe, he added.

The zoo gave Ukrainian refugees and children free admittance during the year.

Gajdos said the election of the zoo’s zoological deputy director, Endre Papp, as president of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), is an acknowledgment of the Nyiregyhaza Zoo’s professional standing.

He noted that the zoo adopted two animals removed from zoos in Ukraine because of the war: a lioness and a marmoset.