La Focale de Soultz

The village animals

Meet the animals and see how they live

The Écomusée d'Alsace is home to over 60 animals, including horses, donkeys, cows and oxen, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese and turkeys. Go and say hello to them and learn about the role they played in a traditional Alsatian village!

The spring bonus – Spring is the season when you can see the baby lambs, piglets and goats jumping around in their enclosures.

Draught animals

Donkeys, horses and oxen are used for hauling heavy loads and/or carts and they provide the indispensable muscle for working in the fields and for heavy jobs around the village. At the Écomusée d’Alsace, they also play their part in village activities, such as transporting fodder and milk and pulling the carriage.

Emmanuelle Roller

The Comtois draught horse

Steeve Josch

The donkeys

The Vosgian cow

A schoolgirl meets a donkey

Severine Meyer

A ride on a horse

The farmyard animals

The Sternenberg farm is home to many animals, including turkeys, Alsace chickens, 2 majestic peacocks and some geese. The animals live in the farmyard and make excellent security guards!

The geese of the Sternenberg farm

When the peacock shows its train

An Alsace chicken

A goose strolling through the village

Raphaël Schmitt

A gaggle of geese

The farm animals

The farm animals live in the village all year round and you’ll come across sheep, goats, rabbits and pigs either in their enclosures or gambolling in the fields! Used to living alongside people, they get on well with young and old visitors alike.

Steeve Josch

Hansi, the village Billy-goat

Gascon pigs

Steeve Josch

Myrtille the goat

Steeve Josch

Sheep in their home

Steeve Josch

Pumba, the pig

Storks

Like many villages in Alsace, the Écomusée d’Alsace is home to storks from February through to August. The couples form at spring and settle on roofs in the museum’s 40 nests, which make it the biggest stork colony in the region.

La Focale de Soultz

Storks in spring

Marc Solari

A stork and its young

A stork couple

Matthias Rhein