sa coma safari park zoo

Safari Zoo Mallorca

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Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

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SAFARI ZOO MALLORCA: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

• Sun - Sat 09:30 - 18:30
• (0.13 mi) Playsol Apartments
• (0.44 mi) HSM Club Torre Blanca
• (0.36 mi) Globales Apartotel Bouganvilla
• (1.01 mi) CM Mallorca Palace
• (0.30 mi) Villa Pomeres con Piscina - 6+_+ 2 Bebés
• (0.85 mi) Tomeu Caldentey Cuiner
• (0.82 mi) JJs Restaurant and Bar
• (0.51 mi) Hermanos Jimenez
• (1.17 mi) Pizzería Grill Llevant
• (0.77 mi) taste of india

Ob in Ihrem eigenen PKW

oder mit dem Safari Zug

Erleben Sie die Tiere,

wie auf einer Safari...

Giraffen, Elefanten, Krokodile

und viele Tiere mehr!

• Safari Tour
• Schulbesuche
• Transfer zum Zoo
• So finden Sie uns

Hola Safari Zoo Fans!

Endlich haben wir wieder geöffnet! Selbstverständlich haben wir die nötigen Vorkehrungen für die gültigen Hygieneanforderungen getroffen, für ein sorgenfreies Safari-Erlebnis.

Ganzjährig geöffnet!

Der Safari Zoo ist eine gelungene Mischung aus Safari- und Freizeitpark . Das Safariland mit dem großen Tier-Freigehege gibt mehr als 600 Tieren ein Zuhause und den Besuchern die Möglichkeit, wilde Tiere in freier Wildbahn zu erleben.

Der Safari Zoo auf Mallorca bietet in einer herrlichen und einzigartigen Landschaft Spaß und Vergnügen für die ganze Familie! Restaurant und mehrere tolle Spielplätze für Kinder lassen keinen Wunsch offen.

Glückliche Eltern und strahlende Kinderaugen lassen das Ganze zu einem besonderen Erlebnis werden.

Koordinaten: 39.581783, 3.362508

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Safari Zoo Mallorca

Tours and Tickets

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Also popular with travellers

Safari Zoo Mallorca - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• Sun - Sat 9:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
• (0.21 km) Playsol Apartments
• (0.71 km) HSM Club Torre Blanca
• (0.57 km) Globales Apartotel Bouganvilla
• (1.62 km) CM Mallorca Palace
• (0.48 km) Villa Pomeres con Piscina - 6+_+ 2 Bebés
• (1.36 km) Tomeu Caldentey Cuiner
• (1.31 km) JJs Restaurant and Bar
• (0.82 km) Hermanos Jimenez
• (1.88 km) Pizzería Grill Llevant
• (1.23 km) taste of india

• Instagram X Mallorca

The Safari Zoo is a wildlife park and leisure park, situated on the east coast. The Safari Zoo is located in Sa Coma, between Son Servera and Porto Cristo.  It is open throughout the year and there are over 600 animals on the park. You will find a good range of animals such as monkeys, elephants, gazelles, zebras, giraffes, hippos, lions, tigers, various types of birds. There are Mini-Zoo where a childrens can walk alongside the smaller animals such as pigs, goats or chickens.

You can drive-round the 3km safari park by yourself or you can take the ‘safari-train’ around the park, which leaves at regular intervals during the day. When driving around the park, the animals are free to run around. The monkeys can be a bit cheeky,  try to get inside a car. Keep your windows up! This is a great day out for the family. There is children’s playpark, cafeteria  and a small souvenir shop where you can buy a nice soft animal.

For more information, check www.safari-zoo.com/mallorca

Instagram #safarizoomallorca

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Safari Zoo Mallorca

Tours and Tickets

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Also popular with travellers

Safari Zoo Mallorca - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• Sun - Sat 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM
• (0.21 km) Playsol Apartments
• (0.71 km) HSM Club Torre Blanca
• (0.57 km) Globales Apartotel Bouganvilla
• (1.62 km) CM Mallorca Palace
• (0.48 km) Villa Pomeres con Piscina - 6+_+ 2 Bebés
• (1.36 km) Tomeu Caldentey Cuiner
• (1.31 km) JJs Restaurant and Bar
• (0.82 km) Hermanos Jimenez
• (1.88 km) Pizzería Grill Llevant
• (1.23 km) taste of india

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Good hour! - Safari Zoo Mallorca

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• Safari Zoo Mallorca

Great half day out for anyone looking for something different to do. 4 stars because a bit pricey... read more

I would advise not to go it’s not worth the money there’s barely any animals in the safari and the... read more

I got the ‘free’ safari bus from sa comba. You need to pay for your enterance getting on the bus - cash only. You then get dropped off in the car park and get on the safari train that takes you through the safari park. There was plenty to see and you get quite close to the animals - the no lies jump all over the train! There’s then a small part to walk around with a couple of lions, elephant and birds. There was a cafe and museum but these were both closed when I visited. The only downfall was the bus from Sa Comba - I was told by the driver that the return bus was at 12:15 and 3. I waited from 11:50 and although the bus came, it said it would be back in 20 minutes. When it came back he said he was only going to Cala Millor and Sa Comba was at 3! I got a taxi in the end (which was only 5euro but was annoyed that I’d wasted a good few hours when he could have just said in the first place!

Zoo is awful- poorly looking animals kept in tiny unclean enclosures. Rats everywhere. Just felt sorry for all the animals. Not a blade of grass in sight for the animals that need it. Crocodile kept in an enclosure too small like most of the other animals. Cost, £50 for 2 adults and a 3yo. Safari is on scrubland

We were staying in a hotel just a 5 min walk away but because of the busy ride decided to walk to the free bus stop. Caught the bus with no issues and had to buy our tickets on the bus (cash only) which was also fine. We got taken round the safari on a wee tractor train thing and my boys (3&5) loved it! They saw so many animals and the monkeys were a particular highlight clambering all over the bus! Also saw zebras running around like mad! When we got to the zoo my youngest son instantly went to the playground and it was brilliant. Lots of equipment for his age and all very safe and on sand which is great! My older son saw the ponies! €6 for 15 mins which is plenty for a wee guy and you can walk the pony anywhere you like! There’s loads of animals to see and I didn’t think any looked unkept or malnourished. There were staff going around feeding them and a new lion enclosure is underway. The cafe is pants though. Well - the coffee shop which was all that was open. €2.50 for a Lidl ice lolly…. And €2.50 for a Fanta?!? Terrible selection too - toastie, chips or hot dog… but apart from that we had a great time. Also couldn’t be bothered waiting on the bus so braved crossing the road for our 5 min walk home

If I could leave a 0 Star I would bus transfer is a joke driver very unpleasant. He did not bother to go to our stop so ended up 5km away from where we were meant to be dropped off bus driver did not care at all that we we had no idea where we wer or how to get back. Ended up having a to get a taxi back to our hotel along with a lovely woman and her young child who had also been stranded with us.The zoo is terrible the animals have no where near enough space or food. Laws really need to be changed here and this place closed down its cruelty to animals.

Safari experience was nice but once finished and you get to see other animals up close they looked weak, under fed, the donkey bless them was eating his own manure which is a sign of malnutrition with lack of food and water which was obvious to see and small enclosures . I didn’t see one staff worker on site looking after the animals other than the one driver of the safari bus. I don’t think this place is fit to run a zoo and I think it needs to be properly surveyed for cruelty to animals . All kids obviously love it but they don’t understand they are just happy to see the animals. I’d close this place down

Not highly recommended. Baboons, a few different types of antelope, and one or two others on the 20 minute "safari" and then a zoo which you could walk the whole thing in well under an hour. Animals looked in good condition in contrast to what others have reported but 1 elephant, 1 rhino and 1 giraffe is not how they should be living whatever the rights and wrongs of keeping animals in captivity. Would I say €19 was good value? - No, but if it goes a small way to giving the animals a better life then money well spent. The free safari bus seems a bit hit and miss and didn't turn up at all the day we waited for it but having realised how close it was to our hotel in Sa Coma we walked it.

You can either visit the large savannah area in your own car or on the safari train that leaves every forty-five minutes. The route is the same no matter when you leave: a three-kilometre dusty path that takes you through flocks of animals, open fields of grass, and loads of trees. The safari train brings you up close and personal with the animals, even allowing you to feed the antelopes.

There are around 600 animals on the savannah. Aside from multiple kinds of antelopes, there are also gazelles, zebras, ostriches, rhinos, hippos, wildebeests, Watusi cattle, flamingos, and beautiful giraffes. There are also plenty of monkeys and it’s recommended that you close your windows, as they aren’t shy!

Moreover, it’s not unusual for two-three zebras to bring the cars to a complete stop by taking up the entire road. On the Safari Zoo savannah, the animals set the pace – besides, there’s something unique about being held up behind a zebra or a bearded wildebeest.

Once you have made your way through the savannah, you arrive at a lovely little zoo, where you’ll find elephants, llamas, lemurs, parrots, and various kinds of monkeys. The children will probably find it most entertaining to go behind the fencing where they can meet the black pot-bellied pigs, goats and geese. There’s also an option to take a short pony ride.

Once you’re in the zoo, you can head for the cafeteria for a drink, ice cream, or simple meal. You’ll also find a playground and a souvenir shop in the vicinity.

Learn more about hours and prices on Safari Zoo’s website . This website also provides the departure times for the safari train and tells you when the free shuttle bus will pick up guests from Sa Coma and Cala Millor .

Zafiro Hotels - 14 popular hotels in Mallorca Get the best price on the 2024 holiday

Safari Zoo video (official video)

Map of Safari Zoo The map below shows the path that runs through the savannah. Southeast of the park, you can see the holiday town of Sa Coma .

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Safari Zoo Mallorca

Enjoy a day out at the Safari Zoo in Sa Coma with the Cheeky Chimps!

The Safari Zoo in Sa Coma is situated on the MA4023 between Son Servera and Porto Cristo. You can easily reach the Zoo if you are staying in one of the nearby resorts such as Sa Coma, S'Illot, Cala Millor, Cala Bona, Porto Cristo (Novo) and Cala Anguila.

The Safari Zoo is a great day out for all the family. You have the option to drive around the park, or you can use a purpose built Zoo Train which operates a couple of times a day.

In the grounds there is a super Mini-Zoo, Children's Playpark and Cafeteria.

The Mini-Zoo has a good range of Animals, Monkeys, Gazelles, Zebras, Giraffes, Hippos, Lions, Tigers plus various Birds and Reptiles. The Children love the Mini-Zoo where they can walk alongside small tame animals such as pigs, goats, and chickens.

The Childrens Playpark is a great stop for young kids to have a run around. Beside the park is a gift-shop where you can buy a souvenir to take home.

As you go around the Zoo, you will see most animals roaming around freely. The monkeys can be a little cheeky at times, jumping onto cars or even trying to get inside. Keep your windows up at this point or you might have an unexpected visitor!

Safari Zoo Prices and Opening Times

A free Zoo transfer bus operates to and from Cala Millor, Sa Coma and S'Illot daily.

19.00 euros adults/12.00 euros children up to 12 years (under 3 free)

Opening Times

1000-1700 (1600 during Winter)

Contact Zoo

Tel 0034 971 810 909

Check all information on the Safari Zoo by visiting the safari zoo website including details of the free transfers plus the Zoo train option.

A trip to the Safari Zoo is well worth the visit and can be combined with other nearby things to do.

Find local Island bus options to take you to the Zoo.

You might also be interested in:

Find all the top ideas for a day out in Mallorca

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Safari Zoo Mallorca

Top ways to experience nearby attractions

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Also popular with travellers

Safari Zoo Mallorca - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024) - Tripadvisor

• Sun - Sat 9:30 AM - 6:30 PM
• (0.21 km) Playsol Apartments
• (0.71 km) HSM Club Torre Blanca
• (0.57 km) Globales Apartotel Bouganvilla
• (1.62 km) CM Mallorca Palace
• (0.48 km) Villa Pomeres con Piscina - 6+_+ 2 Bebés
• (1.36 km) Tomeu Caldentey Cuiner
• (1.31 km) JJs Restaurant and Bar
• (0.82 km) Hermanos Jimenez
• (1.88 km) Pizzería Grill Llevant
• (1.23 km) taste of india

© Safari Zoo

Safari Zoo, Cala Millor

Lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, and playgrounds for the children

Safari Zoo is a wildlife park and leisure park on the east coast that is open throughout the year. There are over 600 animals on the park, a restaurant and several playgrounds for children.

You can drive-round the 3km safari park to see giraffes, zebra and monkeys plus a 'baby zoo' with young elephants and reptiles born at the zoo. Or if you are without a car, you can take the 'safari-train' around the park, which leaves at regular intervals during the day.

Arrive early to see the animals feeding. Open from April to September - daily from 09:30 to 18:30; and from October to March - daily from 10:00 to 16:00. Tickets are €19 for adults and €12 for children (up to 12 years). Special group prices are available on request.

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Start Exploring

Are you looking for the perfect base for your upcoming holiday? Then look no further than the stunning island of Sa Coma!

Sa Coma is a delightful resort set behind a glittering white sandy beach. It’s an awesome place for beach getaways, family breaks in the sun, and romantic couples’ escapes. But what activities does Sa Coma offer? Are there many hotels available? Read along to find out more about this fascinating and picturesque island.

What Is Sa Coma Like?

Sa Coma is a beach resort located in northeast Mallorca. Boasting a stunning blue flag beach and many leisure activities, it’s no wonder, so many families choose it as their holiday base. In north Sa Coma sits Cala Millor, and in the south, you’ll find Porto Cristo – a beautiful fishing village.

Sa Coma is a small resort part of the municipality of Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, ideal for both holidaying couples and families. There are plenty of beautiful beaches for sun lovers to choose from – Play de Sa Coma and one in Cala Millor, and another in S’Illot. The marinas in Porto Cristo and Cala Bona are also worth a visit.

History & Culture Of Sa Coma

In the 1980s, Sa Coma was created as a residential development and tourist resort. In 1985, the headland that adjoins Sa Coma, Sa Punta de n’Amer, was given the title of an official nature reserve.

There, you can discover the defensive tower, Es Castell, which was built in the 17th century. This incredible tower offers not only amazing sea views but also has its own museum. A ring of these towers can be found all over Mallorca, and they were used as warning systems and defences against pirate attacks!

Beaches In Sa Coma

The Sa Coma beach is one of the top 20 Mallorcan beaches and is nearly a kilometre long, with clear water that’s quite shallow. If there are easterly winds, there may be waves, but the lifeguards watch the beach and its sunbathers.

This sandy beach also has many sunbeds and umbrellas, as well as toilets and showers too. Behind the beach, you’ll find a promenade that’s perfect for an evening stroll as it stretches to Cala Moreya, south of the town of S’Illot.

The 4-star Hipotels Mediterraneo Club is situated next to the Sa Coma beach and offers lots of activities for the whole family.

You can visit some amazing beaches to the south of the island. The beautiful bay of Cala Varques has two sandy beaches that are ideal for diving and swimming. Keep in mind there is a short walk from the car park to the beach, so try to pack light!

Things To Do In Sa Coma

The area of Sa Coma is great for bike rides. You’ll find mountain routes to the San Salvador and Cura monasteries as well as easier coastal routes. There’s also a bike station where you can rent bikes between March and November.

Visit a typical Mallorcan village

If you want to explore the island more, there’s a traditional 16-century Mallorcan village you can visit, Sant Llorenç des Cardassar. Here you can admire the impressive architecture, learn about the village’s rich history, and take part in excursions.

Horse riding

Near Sa Coma beach, you’ll find a horse riding school where you can book lessons or take a trek into Punta de n’Amer.

Watersports

If your family enjoys waterparks, you can take a bus ride to the Alcudia Waterpark. Or, you can arrange a trip there with a tour operator in one of the Sa Coma hotels. While you’re there, you could pay a visit to the Alcudia resort too.

If you prefer, you could visit waterparks in the south – Western Waterpark or Aqualand. You can either travel by bus or car or organise a trip with a ticket office.

Safari zoo park

If you’re staying in Sa Coma, don’t forget to visit the Safari zoo park. Although this is a fun day out, be on the lookout for monkeys jumping onto your car! If you’d prefer not to risk your car getting jumped on, you can hop on the safari train that goes around the park itself with stopping points.

There’s also a train that operates in the resort, picking up tourists who are visiting the safari park.

Golf Paradis

Golf Paradis is a mini golf course with 36 holes, set in tropical gardens, cascading water, and children’s boat rides. There’s a windmill where you can get refreshments, and a big lagoon-style pool with different water slides called La Reserva. Your entrance fee includes food.

Talaiot Na Pol

If you’re a culture vulture, check out the Talaiot Na Pol. These are ancient buildings made from stone that were used for a variety of things and are very common in Menorca and Mallorca.

In S’Illot, there’s a well-preserved Talaiot settlement. This ancient wonder is considered an important archaeological site in the Balearic Islands.

Visit Punta de n’Amer

Why not take a stroll along the Punta de n’Amer, the lush peninsula that sits north of Sa Coma? Walk along the sandy footpaths and take in the endless ocean views from the craggy coastline.

Visit Palma

The capital of Majorca, Palma, is just an hour’s drive away and is super easy to get to. This fantastic city is a destination you can enjoy all year round. Whether you’re visiting in the winter months or enjoying a summer holiday, there’s always something to do.

Shop the designer stores, sample the many food markets and pay a visit to the enormous Gothic cathedral. There are also plenty of things to do for the kids, such as the Palma Aquarium.

This is an amazing experience for kids and adults alike. Learn about the sealife and their habitats, as well as the protection and preservation work the aquarium has done ever since it was founded in 2007.

Hotels In Sa Coma

The hotels on offer in Sa Coma are mainly 3 and 4-star establishments, 5-star family-friendly hotels, and apartment complexes. If you’re looking for a high-end holiday experience, you’ll find a good selection of luxury villa rentals in the area.

Restaurants In Sa Coma

Because Sa Coma is a smaller resort and the hotels make up a large part of the dining scene, you won’t find many restaurants there. But, you will find a few eateries offering traditional Spanish cuisine.

Nightlife In Sa Coma

The Sa Coma nighttime entertainment mainly happens in hotels, but you can find entertainment in other places, such as bars and clubs. But, if you want to experience some Mallorcan nightlife, head to Cala Millor or Manacor for some more exciting evenings.

Events In Sa Coma

The Smooth Jazz Festival is an amazing cultural event held every May in Sa Coma. It’s here you can enjoy a week of live jazz, funk, and soul music. Then in July, the festival of the patron saint is held, with plenty of local food, a parade of giants, and bands playing music. There are also many smaller, local events that can be found on the Sa Coma official website.

Shopping In Sa Coma

Groceries and holiday essentials can be purchased in Sa Coma. You’ll find two pharmacies, one on Avenida De Las Palmeras and the other next to the Hotel Mediterranea Blau. There’s also a big Eroski hypermarket where you can do your holiday food shopping and even buy electrical goods.

Sa Coma has a weekly market which is on from 7 pm on Wednesdays in the summer months. You could also visit the market in the nearby town of Son Servera every Friday morning. Here you can buy everything from leather goods and sunglasses to local produce such as cheese and sausages.

But, if you’d like some luxury retail therapy, take a trip to the larger resort of Cala Millor, known for its bigger shopping scene.

How To Get To Sa Coma

The island of Sa Coma is just one hour away from Palma airport if you go by car. You can also hire a car, take a local bus, or take a taxi to the island, which also takes just one hour.

Surrounding Areas Of Sa Coma

If you’d like to venture outside of Sa Coma, a trip to the Caves of Drach in Porto Cristo is essential.

You can purchase tickets for the caves from ticket offices, or you can book a tour operator in your hotel. Of course, you can buy tickets at the door too.

For the golfers, there are two courses just outside Sa Coma. The Pula Golf Club at the Pula Golf Resort, which also has a 4-star hotel, is 10km away from the island. A course slightly nearer to the island is Club de Golf Son Servera which is 9km away.

Sa Coma Map

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Select a Zoo

Reviews — zoos in europe, his­tory description, his­tory documentary.

Dur­ing the sec­ond half of the nine­teenth cen­tury the first menageries in Moscow were estab­lished as enter­tain­ment facil­i­ties. The first was founded in 1855 by two French­men (names unknown), while the Kreuzberg fam­ily owned a pri­vate menagerie that opened its door to the pub­lic in 1862 . Together these ani­mal col­lec­tions formed the heart of the Moscow Zoo­log­i­cal Gar­den founded by the Soci­ety for Acclima­ti­za­tion of Plants and Ani­mals, which was estab­lished by pro­fes­sors of the Moscow State Uni­ver­sity. The ini­tial idea for such a zoo­log­i­cal gar­den came in 1857 , but it took the Soci­ety, includ­ing one of its found­ing fathers pro­fes­sor Ana­toly P. Bog­danov, until 1863 to be able to buy prop­erty for the future zoo. The Zoo was opened to vis­i­tors on 13 Feb­ru­ary 1864 at the loca­tion where it still exists until this very day. On open­ing day 287 ani­mals were on dis­play, of which 134 were domes­tic ani­mals, while the oth­ers were exotic spec­i­mens such as tigers, lions, jaguar, leop­ard and rhino.

In those days it was an unique exper­i­ment to cre­ate “a liv­ing museum out­doors,” as pro­fes­sor Bog­danov said, in such severe cli­matic con­di­tions of cen­tral Rus­sia. The pri­mary pur­pose of the Zoo­log­i­cal Gar­den accord­ing to the mem­bers of the Soci­ety was:

to col­lect alive spec­i­mens of higher ver­te­brates ( firstly — the ani­mals of Russ­ian fauna) for sci­en­tific observations;

to estab­lish a col­lec­tion of typ­i­cal ani­mals that could serve edu­ca­tional pur­poses, i.e. dis­tri­b­u­tion of zoo­log­i­cal knowl­edge among the wide pub­lic communities;

to carry out sci­en­tific exper­i­ments and obser­va­tions of impor­tant ani­mals, espe­cially domes­tic ani­mals of Russ­ian breeds.

The Zoo was financed by the entrance fees and pri­vate dona­tions, includ­ing con­tri­bu­tions by mem­bers of the impe­r­ial fam­ily. In the first years the annual num­ber of vis­i­tors grew up to ten thou­sands. Nev­er­the­less, the incomes did not cover the expenses and the Moscow City Coun­cil refused to give finan­cial sup­port. So, the Zoo went into pri­vate hands of the Ryabinins’ fam­ily in 1874 . They trans­formed the Zoo into an amuse­ment park and in three years time ruined the place. In 1878 the Zoo was run by the Soci­ety for Acclima­ti­za­tion of Plants and Ani­mals again, includ­ing fund rais­ing activ­i­ties. This time the Soci­ety was able to man­age the Zoo suc­cess­fully, and even to buy a num­ber of ani­mals. But in the tur­moil of the Rev­o­lu­tion of 1905 the Zoo was severely dam­aged: the build­ings were ruined, the library was set on fire, many ani­mals per­ished. So, for the sec­ond time the Soci­ety was forced to turn over the Zoo to pri­vate owners.

Then in 1914 World War I broke out. For the Zoo this meant that in the autumn of 1914 the only build­ing that remain to this day was trans­formed from the director’s premises to a hos­pi­tal for wounded WWI sol­diers. The WWI impact com­pounded Russia’s suf­fer­ing from a num­ber of eco­nomic and social prob­lems, which resulted first in the 1917 Feb­ru­ary rev­o­lu­tion fol­lowed by the Octo­ber rev­o­lu­tion. In the after­math of the Great Octo­ber Social­ist Rev­o­lu­tion of 1917 and the fall of the Russ­ian Empire, the Soci­ety ceased to exist, and in 1919 the Zoo­log­i­cal Gar­den was declared national prop­erty and trans­ferred under the respon­si­bil­ity of the min­istry of Cul­ture of the com­mu­nist Moscow par­lia­ment, the Mossovet. In 1922 it was trans­ferred to the author­ity of Moscow City Coun­cil and since then it has been sup­ported by the City Author­i­ties. Con­struc­tion work began on the Zoo grounds. The Zoo­log­i­cal Gar­den premises almost dou­bled in size with the estab­lish­ment of the ‘New’ ter­ri­tory on the oppo­site side of Bol­shaya Gruzin­skaya street. New exhibits, which fol­lowed the prin­ci­ple of Carl Hagenbeck’s bar-​less enclo­sure design were estab­lished. One of the most inter­est­ing exhibits of the Zoo called ‘Ani­mal Island’ still exists. It was a high stony rock sur­rounded by a deep water ditch that sep­a­rated the vis­i­tors from bears, tigers, lions and other large preda­tors on the ‘Island’. The total size at the time was nearly 18 hectares.

In 1926 the Zoo­log­i­cal Gar­den was renamed ‘Zoo­log­i­cal Park’. At that time the range of activ­i­ties extended, the ani­mal col­lec­tion increased con­sid­er­ably with expe­di­tions col­lect­ing wildlife in Cen­tral Asia, the Far East and the Cau­ca­sus. New depart­ments were estab­lished, focussed on for instance sci­en­tific research, edu­ca­tion, vet­eri­nary sci­ence and nutri­tion. In those same years Moscow Zoo was the first zoo in the world where edu­ca­tional activ­i­ties were the main priority.

In 1924 the Zoo had estab­lished the Young Biol­o­gists Club that gath­ered like-​minded young peo­ple that joined in real sci­en­tific research. Many of them became a Zoo employee. The Club was founded by Petr Man­teifel, who also was the pio­neer father of the sci­ence called ‘zoo biol­ogy’. Man­teifel and his young biol­o­gists dis­cov­ered a way of arti­fi­cial breed­ing sables (Martes zibel­lina), which were on the verge of extinc­tion due to man’s insa­tiable pur­suit for its expen­sive fur. In the 1930 s dur­ing Stalin’s great purge many mem­bers of the Young Biol­o­gists Club were arrested accused of spread­ing anti-​soviet pro­pa­ganda and liberal-​minded ideas and hav­ing con­tact with Ger­man col­leagues at Berlin zoo, some were even exe­cuted as for­eign spies. The Club was con­sid­ered a non-​governmental organ­i­sa­tion beyond the direct con­trol of the author­i­ties, which in fact was partly true because the Club was a real democ­racy, with mem­ber­ship avail­able to all.

Although many ani­mals were evac­u­ated and many of the zoo staff were called to arms at the begin­ning of World War II the Zoo was kept open. Of the 750 employ­ees at autumn 1941 only 220 remained on the staff, most of them women. Get­ting enough food for the ani­mals was a con­stant chal­lenge, for instance car­casses of killed horse at the bat­tle­field around Moscow were brought to the zoo. More than six mil­lion peo­ple vis­ited the Zoo from 1941 to 1945 to enjoy the sights of ani­mals that had remained.

At wartime the sci­en­tific work pro­ceeded, per­haps even more intense than before or after the war. The sci­en­tific staff worked espe­cially on devel­op­ment of antibi­otics. But the most impor­tant mis­sion of the Zoo dur­ing the war was to give peo­ple hope. It pro­duced the illu­sion of a peace­ful life until peo­ple sur­vived through the des­per­a­tion of the war with the Red Army sol­diers as the most fre­quent vis­i­tors of the Zoo. Which were given the plea­sure of watch­ing new­born off­spring even dur­ing the war.

Dur­ing the soviet union period ( 1922 − 1991 ) not many highly ranked peo­ple cared about the zoo — no soviet leader had any inter­est in it. The city encroached on the zoo premises, while the zoo needed addi­tional space for the ever expand­ing zoo pop­u­la­tion of ani­mals. Because the breed­ing results were still excellent.

The Zoo lived up to the goal it had set for itself and made edu­ca­tional activ­i­ties the main pri­or­ity. Zoo staff dis­trib­uted knowl­edge in the field of nat­ural his­tory and tried to raise the pub­lic aware­ness and con­cern about the neces­sity for wildlife con­ser­va­tion. The zoo assisted school­child­ren and stu­dents with study­ing biol­ogy, actively par­tic­i­pated in sci­en­tific research, and actively con­tributed to sci­en­tific pub­li­ca­tions. So, the Zoo became one of the larger sci­en­tific insti­tu­tions in Moscow. And of course it still was the favourite recre­ational place for Moscow cit­i­zens and those who vis­ited the city.

As off 1974 when Igos Sos­novsky retired as direc­tor and his suc­ces­sor Vladimir Spit­syn took over Moscow Zoo became part of the inter­na­tional zoo com­mu­nity again. Sos­novsky as a WWII vet­eran hadn’t been able to brush aside the fear of repres­sion and avoided all inter­na­tional con­tacts for some rea­son. Spit­syn restored all inter­na­tional activ­i­ties from before the war and the Zoo became mem­ber of many Euro­pean and Inter­na­tional Breed­ing Pro­grammes in which it exchanged its rare and endan­gered ani­mals, shared expe­ri­ence and information.

Although already in the 1970 s improve­ment of all zoo facil­i­ties was needed and ideas of a new zoo in another region of Moscow were launched, noth­ing hap­pened due to local eco­nom­i­cal and social prob­lems. By the end of the 1980 s the Zoo’s con­di­tion became alarm­ing. Facil­i­ties were dete­ri­o­rat­ing, enclo­sures were dilap­i­dated and tech­ni­cal equip­ment needed to be replaced as well. And while a few improve­ments had been achieved — such as a par­tial ren­o­va­tion of the main entrance, the mon­key house and lion house — urgent mea­sures were still needed.

Then, in 1992 the new Moscow gov­ern­ment made a deci­sion to start the most ambi­tious recon­struc­tion project in Moscow Zoo’s his­tory with the first stage of the project to be com­pleted by 1997 , when the 850 th anniver­sary of the City would be cel­e­brated. Ana­toly A. Andreev who had been involved in the Zoo’s design and archi­tec­ture since the 1970 s headed the team of archi­tects. The project’s ren­o­va­tion objec­tives were focussed at (a) preser­va­tion or par­tial ren­o­va­tion of the his­tor­i­cally valu­able build­ings and exist­ing pools, (b) reduc­tion of the noise from the sur­round­ing streets, © con­nec­tion of the Old and the New ter­ri­tory via a foot­bridge, and (d) expan­sion of the Old ter­ri­tory by incor­po­rat­ing adja­cent areas and buildings.

Besides the preser­va­tion and ren­o­va­tion of almost all impor­tant zoo con­struc­tions, includ­ing the ones that actu­ally were dilap­i­dated, many new enclo­sures and facil­i­ties were built. Already in 1993 the foot­bridge that con­nected the Old and New ter­ri­tory was com­pleted. It allowed vis­i­tors to avoid cross­ing the busy B. Gruzin­skaya street with its heavy traf­fic. In 1993 other con­struc­tions were com­pleted as well, such as an enclo­sure for large birds of prey and a com­plex of enclo­sures for feline species, includ­ing leop­ards, Pal­las’ cats and lynx. Next, the Hagenbeck-​style ‘Ani­mal Island’, one of the most remark­able exhibits in the New ter­ri­tory, was ren­o­vated. The his­toric appear­ance with enclo­sures that resem­bled the nat­ural habi­tats of Amur tiger, striped hyena, African wild dog and Asian black bear was pre­served. Later they intro­duced Asian lions in one of the enclo­sures around the large rock in the cen­tre of the ‘island’. Dur­ing the ren­o­va­tion they cre­ated the Exo­tar­ium, which held sev­eral aquar­i­ums, inside the rock on the sec­ond floor.

The fol­low­ing years many more enclo­sures were ren­o­vated, besides the new research and vet­eri­nar­ian facil­i­ties that were put into oper­a­tion in 1994 . In 1996 , the main entrance itself (fea­tur­ing a small arti­fi­cial water­fall) was recon­structed. The same year the old, dilap­i­dated ele­phant com­plex was demol­ished and a new ele­phant house was erected at the same spot, while the inhab­i­tants (four African ele­phants and four Asian ele­phants) were tem­porar­ily moved to a a for­mer tram depot that was com­pletely ren­o­vated and spe­cially equipped. A new children’s zoo was opened in the New ter­ri­tory, includ­ing a children’s the­atre that organ­ises shows with edu­ca­tional ele­ments. And besides sev­eral aviaries, a pavil­ion for water birds was built on the shore of the large pond in the New territory.

Although in those days 4 addi­tional hectares of space was added to the for­mer exist­ing 18 hectares, the Zoo still lacked space to cre­ate favourable con­di­tions for their species to breed. And its loca­tion in the cen­tre of Moscow didn’t con­tribute to the favourable breed­ing con­di­tions they wanted of course. There­fore, the 200 hectares area near the city of Voloko­lamsk (about 100 km from Moscow) that was given to the Zoo in 1996 for the estab­lish­ment of a breed­ing sta­tion was very much wel­comed (see also Breed­ing Cen­tre ).

The first major stage of the gen­eral recon­struc­tion of the Moscow zoo rep­re­sents a unique event. Not only over 50 facil­i­ties have been ren­o­vated ( 90 % of all exist­ing facil­i­ties) and newly built, but it was achieved in such a short period of time. But main­te­nance and small and larger refur­bish­ment is ongo­ing busi­ness in a zoo. So, i n 2002 , the Moscow City Gov­ern­ment and the City Coun­cil allo­cated the nec­es­sary funds to start con­struc­tion of a new pavil­ion for the Asian ele­phants. In 2003 the three ele­phants could move house already, and in spring 2009 , the first new­born ele­phant calf was welcomed.

The Moscow Zoo­log­i­cal Park has come a long way from the small zoo­log­i­cal gar­den it was to the large insti­tu­tion of sci­en­tific research, edu­ca­tion, con­ser­va­tion and recre­ation it is today. And due to the dynam­ics of the stan­dards used in the zoo com­mu­nity regard­ing ani­mal health and wel­fare, Moscow Zoo is con­stantly improv­ing its facil­i­ties, also dur­ing 2014 cel­e­brat­ing its 150 th anniversary.

(Source: Moscow Zoo web­site; Zoo with a Human Face, to the 150 th anniver­sary of the Moscow Zoo — a doc­u­men­tary by Darya Vio­lina and Sergei Pavlovsky, 2014 ; Zoo and Aquar­ium His­tory by Ver­non N. Kisling, Jr., 2001 ; Wikipedia)

An account of 150 years of his­tory of the Moscow Zoo

(A doc­u­men­tary by Darya Vio­lina and Sergei Pavlovsky)

The his­tory of Moscow Zoo shown through the per­spec­tive of the lives of the peo­ple who have been impor­tant to the Zoo’s devel­op­ment and con­tin­u­ous progress over those many years since 1864 . Thou­sands of pho­tographs, hun­dreds of chron­i­cles, accounts and rec­ol­lec­tions that have pre­served the story that began so long ago, against all odds, and lasts unin­ter­rupted to this day. A doc­u­men­tary about those who have devoted their lives to serv­ing a noble and reward­ing cause, those who have started from scratch, those who main­tained that work and about those who revive the Zoo as off today.

(Source: sdpavlovskiy YouTube channel)

20 . 06 . 2014

Finally, Moscow Zoo is paid a visit. I have been look­ing for­ward to this for quite some time. It has been on my to-​do list since I learnt about the large col­lec­tion of feline species on dis­play at the Zoo. So, I am here on this sunny day in June to sat­isfy my curios­ity, in the year they cel­e­brate the Zoo’s 150 th anniversary.

I am enter­ing as one of the 1 , 5 mil­lion pay­ing atten­dance yearly. Which is not even half of the total num­ber of vis­i­tors a year. This is about 4 mil­lion, because there are spe­cific cat­e­gories (e.g. dis­abled, pen­sion­ers, chil­dren, stu­dents, etc.) for whom the admis­sion is free.

OLD TER­RI­TORY

I turn left after the main entrance to visit the large preda­tor sec­tion of the Old ter­ri­tory. Not that only here you will find preda­tors, but the great­est part of their preda­tor col­lec­tion is grouped in this sec­tion. I will come back to the group­ing of Moscow Zoo’s ani­mal col­lec­tion later. After hav­ing walked along a fence that blocks most of the views on the work in progress at the lake I arrive at what they call here the ‘trop­i­cal cats’ sec­tion: Ben­gal tiger (unfor­tu­nately the genet­i­cally aber­rant ver­sion — a white tiger), jaguar and chee­tah. Both the tiger and the jaguar have their indoor enclo­sures in the same house built at the perime­ter of the premises. The chee­tahs have their shel­ter for the night and bad weather in their out­door pad­dock, so that can­not be vis­ited. The tiger and the jaguar how­ever have inter­est­ing hous­ing that serves the needs for both the cats and the vis­i­tors. The lat­ter are pleased with Asian and South Amer­i­can (Inca) orna­ments to make sure they under­stand the geo­graph­i­cal ori­gin of the species. While the walls have murals rep­re­sent­ing the species’ orig­i­nal habi­tat … Machu Pichu for the jaguar. The ani­mals them­selves have var­i­ous enrich­ment fea­tures at their dis­posal, includ­ing high level obser­va­tion posts, in rather small exhibits. The out­door facil­i­ties for these two species are acces­si­ble from the indoors. It has nat­ural veg­e­ta­tion, but not a lot. Like­wise there are not a lot of options to shel­ter from extreme weather or loud crowds. Although the cats have access to sev­eral rest­ing posts at dif­fer­ent lev­els, these enclo­sures can do with some improve­ments — at least more veg­e­ta­tion — to make them bet­ter fit for pur­pose, in my opin­ion. The enor­mous expo­sure of the cats is also due to the fact that they use win­dows to sep­a­rate ani­mal from man along almost the total length of the enclosures.

When I walk the few steps to the entrance of the Bear House, which is like the jaguar and tiger indoor enclo­sure built at the edge of the Zoo grounds, I pass in between the Pal­las’ cat exhibit and a sec­ond jaguar exhibit. The Pal­las’ cat has a flat grassy area with three large trees, some shrubs and a poten­tial pond (when filled with water) avail­able in its out­door enclo­sure. Win­dows all around and a wire mesh roof pre­vent the cat from flee­ing this scenery that doesn’t resem­ble the cat’s orig­i­nal Himalyan habi­tat. Across the foot­path there’s a jaguar enclo­sure that’s more inter­est­ing than the one directly neigh­bour­ing the tiger. This one has a small stream and loads of veg­e­ta­tion and a mul­ti­level rest­ing plat­form. Still the ani­mal is quite exposed.

The Bear House pro­vides a nice and secluded area where three adja­cent bear enclo­sures houses sloth bear and spec­ta­cled bear. As a vis­i­tor you walk via a roofed cor­ri­dor more or less in the dark along the enclo­sures hav­ing good views on the exhibit via man-​sized win­dows. The enclo­sures have a dry shal­low moat at the visitor’s side, but I don’t think this with­hold the bears from com­ing close to the win­dows. The enclo­sures are small but almost com­pletely filled with enrich­ment fea­tures includ­ing var­i­ous plat­forms, a tree trunk struc­ture, rub­ber ham­mocks and nat­ural veg­e­ta­tion. Con­sid­er­ing the design I think these enclo­sures offer peace and quiet for the bears, unless peo­ple start bang­ing the win­dows of course.

In slightly larger enclo­sures they keep Amur leop­ard, snow leop­ard and cougar ( Puma con­color ). At all of these felid species enclo­sures the dis­tance between the pub­lic bar­rier and the fence does allow con­tact when peo­ple lean far forward.

Fur­ther along the foot­path around the cor­ner the arc­tic fox and the dhole are housed in enclo­sures that have a sim­i­lar inte­rior design as those for the felids. Despite the fact that these species live under dif­fer­ent nat­ural cir­cum­stances in the wild (for­est and tun­dra habi­tat respectively).

When I walk back to have a look at the large birds of prey aviary I can­not pre­vent myself to have a brief look at the giraffe enclo­sure as well. It’s obvi­ously a relic of the past that is not fit for pur­pose any­more. Still they have one retic­u­lated giraffe on dis­play at a sad­den­ing small area. It loves to be fed by the pub­lic that doesn’t care about the warn­ing not to feed the ani­mals. On the other side of the build­ing a sim­i­lar piti­ful sit­u­a­tion for the sin­gle white-​tailed gnu can be seen.

One of the most extra­or­di­nary group of species brought together on dis­play can be found right after the row of preda­tor enclo­sures. The maned wolf from South Amer­ica has the red-​necked wal­laby and emu from Aus­tralia as neigh­bour. But also in the same area the African wild dog is on dis­play as well as white-​tailed gnu (Africa) and kiang (Asia) in the row of sta­bles along the rim of the premises.

The rac­coon exhibit is worth men­tion­ing con­sid­er­ing the afore­men­tioned acci­dent risks. It has a very typ­i­cal enclo­sure design with elec­tri­cal wire on top of win­dows sur­round­ing the entire exhibit. The elec­tri­cal wire is within reach of the pub­lic. So, there are numer­ous warn­ing signs! But why they installed elec­tri­cal wire on top of win­dows that are unclimbable for rac­coons? To keep out the pub­lic perhaps?

In the bird house, in the far end cor­ner from the main entrance, birds from all geo­graph­i­cal regions are grouped together, includ­ing Hum­boldt pen­guin and African pen­guin. The house con­sists of two part with one part half empty, and has also very com­mon species on dis­play, such as wild turkey, com­mon pheas­ant and Euro­pean hedge­hog. Out­side this build­ing sev­eral aviaries com­prise a large array of par­rot species (South Amer­ica and Australia).

Pro­ceed­ing with my tour around the Old ter­ri­tory I have a look at the Asian ele­phant house and its sur­round­ing grounds. The fancy steel with blue details of the ele­phant house doesn’t appeal to me, but that is just a mat­ter of taste. It is def­i­nitely the most mod­ern exhibit in the Zoo I’ve seen yet, in style and in size, with a nice pool at the visitor’s side.

I skip the rep­tile house to save some time, and money too, because an addi­tional fee com­plies. So I walk straight to another mod­ern enclo­sure — the bar-​less and moated wolf exhibit. Although it has a Hagenbeck-​style design, the space avail­able for the wolves is ridicu­lously small. The wolves will never be able to cross the water-​filled moat and climb the wall and thus break out, still there is impres­sive elec­tri­cal wiring in place on top of the wall. Again, prob­a­bly to keep out the public.

Mak­ing my way to the foot­bridge that con­nects the Old and New ter­ri­tory I pass along a very old-​fashioned row of enclo­sures built in a semi­cir­cle in front of the 16 metres high sculp­ture by Zurab Tsereteli called ‘Tree of Fairy Tales’, 1996 . The enclo­sures house sev­eral species of mustel­idae (sable, Euro­pean pole­cat, stone marten), as well as African wild cats. Then fol­lowed by sev­eral aviaries again. At this point I am really lost regard­ing the way they group the Zoo’s ani­mal collection.

NEW TER­RI­TORY

Pro­ceed­ing clock­wise I find the doors of the Trop­i­cal House closed for ren­o­va­tion. So, no but­ter­flies for me this time. But in one of the two spa­cious aviaries around this house I dis­cover sev­eral ducks, such as the man­darin duck and the black-​bellied whistling duck, together with the com­mon kestrel ( Falco tin­nun­cu­lus ), though nei­ther rare nor endangered.

Then a rather spe­cial exhibit appears, the Ani­mal Island, which was devel­oped in the 1920 s as one of the first Hagenbeck-​style enclo­sures in the New ter­ri­tory. Although it took some ren­o­va­tion activ­i­ties it still exists to this very day. In the cen­tre of this moated area they have erected a fake ruined fortress, which serves as the back­ground for the species in the sur­round­ing exhibits. These bar-​less exhibits have a more mod­ern appear­ance but it isn’t nec­es­sar­ily an improve­ment for the ani­mals. For instance the Asian black bear has a bare envi­ron­ment with minor enrich­ment avail­able and no veg­e­ta­tion, but the brown bear is even worse off in a sim­i­lar enclo­sure but next to noth­ing of enrich­ment fea­tures. The tun­dra wolf ( Canis lupus alba ) and the striped hyena have a lit­tle bet­ter place at their dis­posal, but the Asian lions have by far the best enclo­sure. They have sev­eral rest­ing plat­forms, trees and a stream that ends in the moat. Again to save time I skip an exhibit. This time the Exo­tar­ium with its aquar­i­ums that has been cre­ated inside the ruined fortress and by the way requires an addi­tional fee to get in.

One of the rare areas in Moscow Zoo where you find mixed-​species exhibits is called ‘Fauna of the Savan­nah’. It has a South Amer­i­can sec­tion with capy­bara vicuna and gua­naco, and — very impor­tantly — a large pool at the dis­posal of the largest rodent on earth. Though absolutely not endan­gered, these water-​loving capy­baras should have access to water at all times, in my opin­ion. The real savan­nah area with African species has sev­eral enclo­sures. A mixed species exhibit with sable ante­lope and dikdik. And Grevy’s zebra together with ostrich and giraffe. Also this time there’s only one giraffe in the pad­dock. The loca­tion of the meerkat enclo­sure is well cho­sen, because when they sit on top of one of their hills they can watch the other ani­mals. Although it is the largest and prob­a­bly the most mod­ern facil­ity at the Moscow Zoo I still think it is dis­ap­point­ingly mediocre com­pared to other zoos I have seen in Europe and North America.

Before I go to the pri­mate sec­tion I buy myself an ice cream and walk along the horse sta­bles on the east­ern edge of the New ter­ri­tory premises. Look­ing for an answer to the ques­tion “why are there horse sta­bles at this place?” The ques­tion still waits for an answer.

At Moscow Zoo they keep both Suma­tran as Bornean orang­utans, which is quite unusual. The out­doors for the five indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing 2 young, of the Suma­tran species looks impres­sive due to the enor­mously high rock face at the rear. The wall looks extra impres­sive because it is rather close to the view­ing win­dows. Unfor­tu­nately, the exhibit lacks trees and veg­e­ta­tion other than grass while the enrich­ment is scant and I don’t see puz­zle feed­ers. The Bornean orang­utans have a sim­i­lar out­door enclo­sure, but it is sug­gested that olive baboons ( Papio anu­bis ) are on dis­play here as well. It could be that they alter­nate in the same out­door enclo­sure, but this is not very clear.

The west­ern low­land goril­las also have a sim­i­lar out­door enclo­sure design due to which the ani­mals are enor­mously exposed to the inquis­i­tive pub­lic. Con­sid­er­ing the num­ber of young­sters Moscow Zoo appears to be hav­ing good results breed­ing orang­utans and gorillas.

Indoors, all the great ape exhibits have much enrich­ment and jungle-​like murals, but the agile gib­bon has even more enrich­ment inside. I haven’t seen a spe­cific out­door enclo­sure for the agile gib­bon but it could be pos­si­ble that it alter­nates with the Suma­tran orang­utans. Only this enclo­sure lacks high trees or other options for the gib­bon to brachi­ate, which is its nat­ural behav­iour in the canopy of the gibbon’s native habi­tat, the rain­forests of south­east Asia.

The ter­rar­ium build­ing, located behind the Pri­mate House, is beau­ti­fully dec­o­rated with lit­tle mosaic tiles. They have the usual row of exhibits, but in this case espe­cially the larger rep­tiles and tor­toises (python, croc­o­diles, alli­ga­tor, tor­toise) are kept. And out­side they have two giant tor­toise species, the Aldabra and the Gala­pa­gos tortoise.

On my return to the exit I pass the exhibits of a few of the many preda­tor species they have on dis­play at Moscow Zoo. The polar bear is pro­vided with a big heap of arti­fi­cial ice, but that’s about it when it comes to enrich­ment, though there are some plas­tic drums to play with. The enclo­sure as such is the pro­to­type of polar bear enclo­sures world­wide, rear wall of cement and large bricks, con­crete floor, large and deep water-​filled moat. Unfor­tu­nately, again here the annoy­ing reflect­ing win­dows. The yellow-​throated marten I do not see, and the same counts for the Eurasian otter in its large elon­gated out­door exhibit with a shal­low pool along the whole length. It must be great to see the sub­merged otters swim in this pool.

Con­clu­sion There are sev­eral ways to group a col­lec­tion of ani­mals which can sup­port a zoo’s edu­ca­tional efforts. Of course, some peo­ple just come to the zoo to be enter­tained, but when an indi­vid­ual is ready to learn some things the worst thing you can do is con­fuse him or her. And to be fairly hon­est, con­fus­ing it is. Some­times they group the col­lec­tion accord­ing their tax­o­nomic tree, which is the case with the felids, the bird species and the pri­mates. Then again they have decided to present the col­lec­tion by geo­graph­i­cal ori­gin, like in the ‘Fauna of the Savan­nah’, or accord­ing orig­i­nal habi­tat like the mountain-​dwelling tur and mark­hor. And at some point they just make a mess of the group­ing, for instance in the area with the maned wolf, the red-​necked wal­laby and oth­ers. In the end it seems the Zoo just want to have on dis­play as many species as pos­si­ble, because all species that live in herds they keep them in small num­bers. I do under­stand that it is not easy, requires tough deci­sions and cer­tainly is not cheap to rearrange your entire col­lec­tion, espe­cially when it is that huge as it is here at Moscow Zoo. Any­way, fur­ther ren­o­va­tion is fore­seen and prob­a­bly some rethink­ing as well.

I hope that they get rid of all these win­dows they have at so many exhibits. For some sit­u­a­tions it is inevitable I under­stand, but I sin­cerely hope they will return to the orig­i­nal Hagen­beck idea of bar-​less enclo­sures, tak­ing into account mod­ern hus­bandry stan­dards of course. As the posi­tion of the sun makes it some­times hard to get even the slight­est glimpse of the ani­mals due to the reflec­tions in the win­dows. And last but not least they have the ten­dency to have win­dows all around or at more than 50 per­cent of the perime­ter of an enclo­sure. Most of the time lead­ing to more expo­sure of the ani­mals to the pub­lic and pos­si­ble unrest.

Suma­tran orang­utan young­sters at Moscow Zoo

Just another day at the zoo for these orang­utans ( Pongo abelii ) — noth­ing much excit­ing going on in this safe and secure envi­ron­ment. But wouldn’t it be nice to see them swing­ing and romp­ing in the forests of Sumatra.….

Rac­coons at Moscow Zoo

Rac­coons are known for their habit to clean their food in the water before eat­ing it. It seems they also want to have a clean ball before play­ing with it.

Breed­ing Centre

Infor­ma­tion and education, zoo details, breed­ing farm.

The Moscow Zoo has always been try­ing to cre­ate the most favourable con­di­tions for their ani­mals to ful­fil their basic needs. Not only for ani­mal health and wel­fare pur­poses but also to breed the ani­mals suc­cess­fully. These spe­cific breed­ing con­di­tions could not be achieved due to its loca­tion in the City cen­tre and the lack of space. In 1996 the Zoo came into pos­ses­sion of an area of 200 hectares near the city of Voloko­lamsk (about 100 km from Moscow). In this pic­turesque hilly area of the for­mer quar­ries of the Sychovo min­ing fac­tory, with streams, springs and arti­fi­cial ponds bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties were avail­able for breed­ing var­i­ous — pre­dom­i­nantly rare — species of animals.

The main goals of the Breed­ing Cen­tre, besides main­tain­ing rare and endan­gered species of ani­mals, are estab­lish­ing breed­ing pairs and groups and devel­op­ing new hus­bandry meth­ods. Since exces­sive dis­tur­bance is likely to have adverse effect on the breed­ing efforts, the actual Breed­ing Cen­tre is not open to the public.

The con­struc­tion of the Breed­ing Cen­tre started in March 1996 . The first inhab­i­tants of the Cen­tre were birds of prey and water­fowl and they have been suc­cess­fully breed­ing birds ever since. The col­lec­tion of water­fowl has grown notably since the begin­ning. Apart from the numer­ous mal­lards and ruddy shel­ducks, the inhab­i­tants of the ponds include pin­tails, pochards, tufted ducks and black geese of the genus Branta. Bewick’s swans are thriv­ing, rais­ing their chicks every year. Japan­ese, white-​naped and Siber­ian cranes are also breed­ing suc­cess­fully and many other species, includ­ing par­rots. The breed­ing cen­tre for birds of prey is con­tin­u­ously expand­ing, with Himalayan grif­fon vul­tures, golden eagles, impe­r­ial eagles, Steller’s sea eagles, and black vul­tures among its most promi­nent inhab­i­tants. Reg­u­lar breed­ing has also been achieved in saker fal­cons ( Falco cher­rug ).

They keep car­niv­o­rous mam­mals as well at the Breed­ing Cen­tre. These include endan­gered species such as Amur leop­ard, Pal­las’ cat, chee­tah, Amur tiger, dhole, wolver­ine, and yellow-​throated marten. Of these species the Amur leop­ard is listed Crit­i­cally Endan­gered accord­ing the IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species™ , with about 45 indi­vid­u­als left in the wild. The Zoo’s track record says they have pro­duced off­spring from Pal­las’ cat, dhole, yellow-​throated marten, and Amur tiger.

For the ungu­lates that are kept at the Cen­tre the envi­ron­ment is almost ideal. There are bac­trian camels as well as kiangs, Saiga antelopes, blue sheep and vicu­nas. Hoofed ani­mals orig­i­nat­ing from moun­tain­ous areas have large pad­docks at their dis­posal that are sit­u­ated on the slopes of the sur­round­ing hills, more or less sim­i­lar to their nat­ural habitat.

Besides the more rare and endan­gered species the Cen­tre also has an inter­est­ing col­lec­tion of domes­tic hens, a horse sta­ble and a dog-​breeding cen­tre, mainly for the breed­ing of Cen­tral Asian sheep dogs. Fur­ther­more, there is a small quail farm and a poul­try farm with layer hens.

More­over a sub­sidiary farm in Loto­shino houses some cat­tle, smaller live­stock, and the main herd of bac­trian camels and yaks. The area of the sub­sidiary farm is about 51 hectares and it com­prises hay­fields, pas­tures, a sheep­fold and an api­ary. Most impor­tantly it pro­vides the Moscow Zoo with eco­log­i­cal feed for its animals.

The Breed­ing Centre’s col­lec­tion com­prises 10 species of car­ni­vores, 6 species of ungu­lates, 74 species of birds and a great num­ber of domes­tic ani­mals, but the col­lec­tion is expand­ing con­stantly. Although it is still closed to vis­i­tors, the Zoo’s goal is to open part of the farm (as they call the Breed­ing Cen­tre them­selves) to out­side vis­i­tors soon. They plan to cre­ate an addi­tional safari park at the loca­tion of the Breed­ing Centre.

(Source: Moscow Zoo web­site; Zoo with a Human Face, to the 150 th anniver­sary of the Moscow Zoo — a doc­u­men­tary by Darya Vio­lina and Sergei Pavlovsky, 2014 )

Infor­ma­tion pan­els and Edu­ca­tion at the Zoo

First thing to be noticed of course is that the infor­ma­tion on the pan­els around Moscow Zoo is given in the Russ­ian lan­guage. And no other lan­guage. This is not unex­pected as most of the infor­ma­tion pro­vided in Moscow is only in Russ­ian. For­tu­nately, the name of the species on dis­play is given in Eng­lish as well, together with its sci­en­tific name. As far as I can tell and under­stand no infor­ma­tion is pro­vided on the species con­ser­va­tion sta­tus (or IUCN Red List sta­tus). On the new revamped web­site this infor­ma­tion is avail­able but only in Russ­ian and no icons or logos are used, so you have to rely on machine trans­la­tion ser­vices. The pan­els show geo­graphic maps of the species dis­tri­b­u­tion and some­times the IUCN sta­tus and if the species is part of EEP /​ESB, as well. But this is not done con­sis­tently, and I am not sure how reli­able the infor­ma­tion is. Nev­er­the­less I have been able to find on the inter­net a list of species that rep­re­sent the Moscow Zoo con­tri­bu­tion to the Euro­pean Endan­gered species Pro­grammes (EEPs).

There is also a zoo school that is pri­mar­ily focussed on chil­dren, and I assume that the Young Biol­o­gists Club still exist. Fore­most because it has been very suc­cess­fully deliv­er­ing a range of impor­tant staff mem­bers over the years.

• Direc­tions

direc­tions to Moscow Zoo

Address : B. Gruzin­skaya 1 123242 Moscow Rus­sia

pub­lic transport

The metro sys­tem can be quite intim­i­dat­ing for for­eign­ers because of the lan­guage issue, but I can assure you it is the best way of nav­i­gat­ing the city. The metro sta­tions are the most beau­ti­ful I’ve ever seen and buy­ing tick­ets can be done using sign lan­guage (see the tri­pad­vi­sor web­site how it is done). When you are not able to deci­pher the Cyril­lic alpha­bet on the fly it is best to pre­pare your metro trip before­hand and make sure that you know how many stops you have to travel from the depar­ture sta­tion to your des­ti­na­tion, includ­ing trans­fer sta­tions. Another way of travel sup­port is the Art-​Lebedev metro map , which has the names of the sta­tions both in Russ­ian and Eng­lish men­tioned. The most fancy way how­ever is by using the Russ­ian metro app on your smart­phone. The Yandex.Metro app — pro­vides a bilin­gual metro map which can even build con­nec­tion routes for you and esti­mate travel times.

Moscow Zoo’s main entrance is con­ve­niently located right across from the Krasno­pres­nen­skaya metro sta­tion on the Brown Cir­cu­lar line (no. 5 ). Also the Bar­rikad­naya metro sta­tion is rather close to the main entrance, Pur­ple line (no. 7 ).

by bicy­cle

As men­tioned already Moscow is a very large city. So, it really depends on how close you already are to the Zoo if cycling could be an option. The obvi­ous chal­lenge is the traf­fic which has grown dra­mat­i­cally in recent years — the cen­tre of Moscow is a non-​stop traf­fic jam. Fur­ther­more the poor dri­ving habits of Moscow motorists are noto­ri­ous, from road rage to rear-​ending. In addi­tion, knee-​deep snow and the grimy slush that inevitably fol­lows dur­ing the long and fear­some win­ters doesn’t make cycling in Moscow a very attrac­tive mode of trans­port. Nev­er­the­less the City Coun­cil tries to make the city more bike-​friendly with a bike rental scheme like in many major cities around the world. I decided to use the metro.

There is no ded­i­cated park­ing avail­able at the Zoo, but if you really want to drive your­self you can get direc­tions below by pro­vid­ing your point of departure.

From : --  Choose source      -- Moscow Zoo or

Down­load the zoo map here .

Goal: 7000 tigers in the wild

“ Tiger map” ( CC BY 2 . 5 ) by Sander­son et al., 2006 .

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