|  | The Lausanne Vivarium is an example of what a life of passion can achieve. Ever since his childhood in the 1930s, Jean Garzoni has been interested in the unsung world of reptiles. Self-taught, he began to collect them to the great displeasure of his family. In 1959, he put together a modest exhibition of reptiles at the Escaliers du Marché, then opened his famous Vivarium in Sauvabelin in 1970. By now the entire world knows Jean Garzoni as a field herpetologist. The Lausanne Vivarium, founded in 1992, has the largest collection of venomous snakes in Europe. Living exhibitionsThe Lausanne Vivarium is really more of a zoo than a museum, with its permanent exhibition displaying more than 200 living animals, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, tortoises, turtles, amphibians, scorpions and tarantulas. In addition, temporary exhibitions lasting two to three months focus on the world of chameleons, rattlesnakes or even the strange and feared scorpion, one of the planet’s oldest inhabitants.
To teach visitors – including many school groups – about indigenous reptiles, a covered outdoor learning trail has been created. It introduces visitors to snakes, wall lizards, European pond terrapins and various species of Batrachia. The advantage of this path is that it reconstructs the actual living conditions of native reptiles, particularly with the changing of seasons and hibernation periods. It is also a sort of refuge and home for a number of abandoned or injured indigenous animals that the Vivarium welcomes year after year. |
