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Zoosafari - having fun in Puglia - Fasano

Updated at: 25-03-2024

In the list of things to do during your holiday in Puglia 2022, if you are looking for a little fun, there is a visit to the Fasano Safari Zoo; a place suitable for people of all ages.

The Zoo of Fasano also known as Zoo Safari, Zoo Fasano or Fasanolandia is an important tourist attraction located in Fasano, in the province of Brindisi . It is a complex consisting of a large zoo and an amusement park called Fasanolandia. The area of ​​the Fasano zoo extends for 30 hectares and is home to 200 different species of animals, which can be observed by crossing a path by car, like a real safari! We see below all the useful information for your visit to the Zoo Safari in Fasano.

Zoo Safari Fasano, Fasanolandia Zoo Fasano

The Fasano Zoo is characterized by a single large park, divided into two thematic areas:

• Fasanolandia

The Zoo Safari is the area used as a car route, which allows animals to be visited.

Fasanolandia is a real amusement park with rides and attractions

Where is Fasanolandia located?

Fasanolandia is located in Fasano, in the structure that already houses the Zoo Safari of Fasano.

A visit to the Zoo Safari of Fasano and Fasanolandia is certainly to be included in the places to visit in Puglia if you are on holiday in the areas of Brindisi.

The Fasano Zoo and Fasanolandia are suitable places for families with children and organized groups.

Zoo Fasano what to see

The Fasano safari zoo is one of the largest wildlife parks in Europe, with a large area and more than two hundred species of animals.

How much does the ticket for the Fasano zoo cost?

Zoo fasano price:.

The ticket for the Fasano Zoo costs 28 €. The prices of the fasanolandia zoo vary according to age. There are discounted prices for groups.

The ticket for the Fasano zoo offers the possibility to access the safari by car, to visit the reptile area, to visit the lake of the great mammals and to take the little train that will take you to the monkey village. The driving safari experience is definitely not to be missed!

There are also various rates depending on what you choose to see. You can choose to buy the entrance ticket only for the Fasano Zoo or only for the fasanolandia amusement park. You can buy your ticket for the fasanolandia zoosafari directly at the entrance.

The visit to the zoo lasts about an hour. However, the visit time may vary depending on the turnout. On holidays you will find a greater turnout and therefore the visiting time will get longer.

When does the Fasano safari zoo open?

Here are the opening and closing times of the Fasano zoo: the zoosafari is open every day starting at 9.30. The last possibility of entry is at 3.00 pm.

Our advice is to arrive in the morning. So you can enjoy an exciting safari and during lunch time you can choose one of the many places to eat. After seeing the animals you can have fun with the many rides in the park.

How to get to the Fasano zoosafari?

It is possible to reach the Fasano zoo by car or by train.

Traveling by car, just follow the signs for zoo Fasano.

Through the Bari - Lecce route you will arrive at the Fasano railway station. From here, you will have to reach the town center by bus. The park is a couple of kilometers from the city center. If you arrive at the Zoosafari di Fasano by public transport, you can take advantage of the pedestrian area to see the many animals.

Zoo Safari during the holidays

A peculiarity of the zoosafari is that during the holidays the Fasano zoo organizes the theme day. You will find the park decorated depending on the party in progress. Themed shows are organized during halloween. During Christmas the park is filled with decorations.

Visit the Zoosafari of Fasano

This is how the visit to the Fasano Zoo takes place:

Inside the Fasano zoosafari you can drive through an area passing among the animals, like a real safari. A journey immersed in nature. You will be able to meet giraffes, elephants, zebras and many others. You will see the animals up close, from your car. You will pass among the tigers and lions.

Moving on to the pedestrian visit you will observe chimpanzees, lemurs and other animal species. A small train, the Metrozoo, will take you to observe the lake of the great mammals. In this part of the park you will see polar bears, brown bears, rhinos and hippos.

The Fasano Zoo ticket includes a visit to the area dedicated to reptiles. A tropical room where in various display cases you will see snakes and alligators.

For a small extra cost you can visit the Sealion aquarium. Here you will discover the world of penguins and sea lions.

After the tour at the Zoosafari in Fasano, you can head to the amusement park. Fasanolandia offers mechanical attractions for both adults and families and children. An area where you will also find exhibitions, museums and dining areas. You can also stop and watch one of the many organized shows.

The Fasano zoo and fasanolandia offer many paths among the animals and lots of fun.

What are you waiting for? Visit the safari zoo of Fasano and fasanolandia if you are looking for a day full of fun!

Zoo Safari of Fasano

A large wildlife park close to the sea

The second-largest wildlife park in Europe is located just a few kilometres from Brindisi and a stone’s throw from some of Puglia ’s most beautiful coastal resorts, such as Polignano a Mare and Monopoli. We’re talking about the fantastic Zoosafari Fasanolandia in Fasano , a zoo and amusement park covering more than 30 hectares that catapults visitors into a natural oasis where you can admire over 1,700 animals belonging to 200 different species. 

The history of the park begins in 1973 as just a zoo, the true heart of the Zoosafari . In the years that followed, it was decided to offer visitors even more, with adrenaline-pumping attractions and rides for the whole family in the area that goes by the name of Fasanolandia . However, the main attraction remains the zoo, which you can explore in your own car, following a circuit along which you can admire zebras and lions, Asian elephants and tigers, as well as giraffes, rhinoceroses and antelopes up close. 

The Monkey Village lets you observe more than 300 baboons in full freedom on board a small train, while the large permanent ornithological exhibition gives you the opportunity to observe exotic birds and large birds of prey first hand.

Zoo Safari di Fasano, Strada Zoo Safari, 72015 Contrada Sant'Elia, Fasano BR, Italia

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Zoosafari - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

• Sun - Sat 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
• (0.27 km) Masseria Borgo Ritella
• (0.30 km) Park Hotel Sant'Elia
• (1.14 km) Bed & Breakfast AMATI
• (1.24 km) Masseria Don Sante
• (0.83 km) Miramonti Hotel
• (0.27 km) La Piccola Oasi
• (0.33 km) Masseria pedali
• (1.32 km) Silve
• (0.39 km) Self Service Safari
• (1.34 km) Ardecuore - Trattoria Contemporanea
• (0.25 km) Fasanolandia
• (0.51 km) Sante Benessere
• (1.73 km) The Bikes
• (10.20 km) AllWays Puglia
• (10.38 km) Quad Experience and Emotion

One of the biggest Zoo Safaris in Italy

Fasanolandia

Animals free to roam around, adventure and fun

Fasano owes its noteriety to its Zoo Safari, one of the biggest wildlife parks in Europe and the biggest in Italy for number of specimens.  The zoo safari is less than ten minutes by car from Almapetra Trulli Resort. It has been a wildlife park since 1973, and it can provide entertainment for all the family, thanks also to “Fasanolandia” the area of the park dedicated to fun, with 20 attractions to entertain young and old, for an unforgettable day.

The Archaeological Park of Egnazia is another important attraction in the town of Fasano.  Made up of numerous finds from the ancient city of Gnathia, the Archaeological Park of Egnazia is on the ancient route between Bari and Brindisi.

The visit to the old farms in the area is not to be missed. We particularly recommend “The Sant’Angelo de’Graecis Farm”, which offers you the chance to  emerge yourself in the history of the Fasano area, thanks to the Museum of Olive Oil.

NATURE SPORT AND RELAXATION

For golf lovers, the San Domenico Golf club is situated in Savelletri. It is an 18 hole golf course, with a splendid view over the crystal clear blue of the Adriatic Sea.

For those who prefer relaxation to sport, also in the local area, the well equipped Thermal Centre of Torre Canne is recommended.

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Zoo safari fasano.

Zoo Safari Fasano born as a wildlife Park and over the years has diversified its offerings by also focusing on mechanical attractions located in an area that is now in effect become a new park ( Fasanolandia ) and which is described in another tab of this site.

The visit to the Safari Park commits one to three hours ( including pedestrian wildlife departments ) and can also be done individually , without access to the park Fasanolandia . In view of southern Italy is truly one of the best , while presenting some limitations (including organizational ) , especially in the peak days .

Efforts in recent years have been remarkable , and although we can not indicate it as a must-visit park for users of the Centre-North and tourists ( who have the opportunity to visit good facilities at home ) , you have the option to spend , if combined with a visit to Fasanolandia , a whole day of fun for the whole family . Even in 2014 are especially designed 3 different types of ticket, the first is the fauna (the park safari park ) , which is inclusive of all departments animals, visited in part with your vehicle , partly on foot and toy trains ; the second ticket instead provides a less structured and is dedicated exclusively to the amusement park ( Fasanolandia ), the third type of ticket allows access to only Dolphinarium .

Of course this year the exhibitions, museums and educational courses , which are located in the ‘ pedestrian area common to both the zoological park that amusement , you can visit freely with all three types of ticket.

FOR MORE INFO PHONE ZOO SAFARI Fasano : 080 441 4455 1

THE BUSINESS OF ANIMAL PARK ZOOSAFARI INCLUDES:

• Circuit Safari with your vehicle ( even more than the car campers and buses ) to the discovery of lions, tigers, elephants , giraffes , zebras , antelopes and many other animals in absolute freedom Village monkeys ( with train)
• Metrozoo ( train on rails for viewing from above)
• Lake of the Big Mammals ( to meet polar bears, brown bears , rhinos , hippos and seals)
• Zoological pedestrian paths Puppets Entertainment Tropical Hall ( aquarium, reptile , vivarium and shows butterflies )
• Ornithological Exhibition ( live exotic birds , birds of prey from large to small Australian diamonds )
• Nature Trail ( Puglia in Miniature Botanical Trail )
• Exhibitions and Museums

Price 22,00 Euro per adult individual visitors

Reduced price Euro 19,50 for children from 4 to 10 years and by 1.40 meters tall ( free admission for children less than 4 years and less than one meter in height)

Price 15,00 Euro for groups and school bus of at least 29 paying persons 2 )

THE BUSINESS OF AMUSEMENT PARK FASANOLANDIA INCLUDES:

• Pedestrian entrance to Fasanolandia 6 attractions in choice ( between rides and 4D cinema )
• Nature Trail ( Puglia in Miniature and Botanical Trail )

Price 8,00 Euro for individual visitors ( FULL )

Price 5,00 Euro for groups and school bus of at least 29 paying persons

Price 5,00 Euro for holders of coupons

DELFINARIO – ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE WITH DOLPHINS

Prices for single input Bal dolphins (if not in possession of a ticket or Zoosafari Fasanolandia ) :

Adults : 12,00 Euro Children ( from 1m to 1.20m)

10,00 Euro School groups : € 8.00 Prices for ticket holders Zoosafari or Fasanolandia

Adults : 10,00 Euro Children ( from 1m to 1.20m)

Euro 8,00 Groups and schools

6,00 Euro Free admission for children under one meter tall.

Magnets On The Fridge

Self-planning vacationers exploring the world

Zoosafari Fasano – a drive-through zoo in South-Italy

We have stopped our car and ostriches are circling us. They are knocking on the windshield with very awaiting looks on their faces. Their beaks look quite intimidating and they are staring us. Can they crack our car window? They seem to be expecting some food, but we don’t have anything to give them … so we decide to take selfies with them instead.

How we got here?

We were on our way from Torre Santa Sabina to Alberobello when we saw a Zoosafari Fasano sign. The sign itself didn’t give away much- there were only a name “Zoosafari” and distance. But it caught our attention.

We couldn’t find much information from the Internet, but enough to be interested. We had never been in this kind of zoo. Ticket costs 25€ for adult and 21€ for children and will include also a visit to a regular zoo, to monkey ride and to a tropical house, but it still seemed to be a lot. But it really was worth it! It is a quite unique experience- basically, you will drive through the zoo with your own car.

Driving trough Zoosafari Fasano

The whole zoo is separated into two main parts. The safari section for driving and regular zoo. Safari part was a really cool and up-close experience. Animals there looked friendly, happy, playful and very used to the vehicles passing by. They came close and were very interested in us. Ok- not exactly us. They probably expected to get some food.

Animals are separated with fences between different areas. Lions, tigers, and bears have their own dedicated areas where it is forbidden to open a window. But to be honest- it even didn’t came to our minds to open car windows in the lion cage. Double gates are between those areas which are manually operated. You have to drive through the first gate and wait until that closes. After that man in the booth opens the next one and you can move on.

All other animals are kept less strictly separated. Must be based on which ones get along each other naturally. Basically, they live freely – so don’t be surprised if you will find goats sleeping on the road or an ostrich knocking to the window. You can let down your window and pet the animals if you want.

We hoped to see lions up close and around the car, but unfortunately, they were relaxing on the grass. Far away from the road and not interested of us, which was a pity. They were just watching us from the distance. Same with bears and tigers. We caught them after feeding probably.

Regular zoo

After you will finish with the safari part, you can park your car outside of the park and go visit the pedestrian zoo. We used the parking lot on the left after exiting safari. Parking did cost around 3€ in 2018.

The regular zoo is also separated into different areas and it also features a theme park which altogether makes up “Fasanolandia” park. Some of the examples are monkeys cage, tropical house, dolphinarium and the lake for the large mammals like sea lions. They also provide dolphins, penguins and sea lions shows for visitors at various times each day. This is at extra cost.

People in the cage

In Zoosafari Fasano you can swap position with animals. You have the possibility to go inside of the monkey cage- but for that, you have to get on to the train and into the cage. This was a really unique experience- some monkeys were riding with us on the top of the train and checking us out through the metal grid. Others were just having their normal life- grooming, eating or taking care of the babies.

Questions we had before going to Zoosafari Fasano

We had many questions before going to the zoo safari. It was not quite clear for us how the exact visit will look like, is there a time limit for driving etc. Here are some of the questions answered.

Is there room to let other drivers pass you?

Yes. The roads are quite wide so you don’t have to worry about that. Driving is done in one direction – no oncoming traffic either. Even a tour bus was able to pass us. After we saw how this tour bus rushed through the safari, we were glad that we were there with our own car. It left us the liberty to decide how much time we wanted to spend looking at the specific animals. Bus variant must be pretty boring for visitor.

How fast I have to drive through the zoo safari?

There is no strict time limit so you don’t have to rush through the zoo. Also, there is no speed limit nor time restrictions as we did understand. But the recommended maximum time was about 90 minutes. It’s plenty of time to look at the animals and take the selfies. We were totally able to keep our own pace and take as long as we wanted.

Since we visited Zoosafari Fasano in the middle of the week in April, there were not many other cars around. When we looked this place up in Google Maps we saw that it can be worse. But at the same time, you can see some cars and buses passing the row. Google maps link here .

How can I get a ticket? Should we park our car first or should we drive directly to the ticket office?

You can drive directly to the ticket office at the main entrance, purchase your ticket, and then drive directly to the safari. After you have finished the safari road, you can park your car, and walk to the pedestrian zoo. A parking lot will cost 3€ and it has a nice shadow on the top.

Can I feed the animals?

Obviously, animals are used to get snacks from visitors since they gather around cars. We wonder if people would not give them food- would the experience actually be less attractive and animals would not come close? At the first gate, there was a sign that states that it’s forbidden to give food to the animals.

Was worth it!

Our overall experience was great and we were pleased. It might be due to it’s our first time visiting such zoo. Janar usually doesn’t like zoos because of animals seem to be not happy in them. It’s not the case in Z oosafari Fasano- especially in safari part. We would totally recommend visiting this- although it could get pretty pricey for families.

The home page of the Zoosafari Fasano is http://www.zoosafari.it/

PS: If you are looking for a place where to have lunch and you wouldn’t mind driving a few kilometers, then we would recommend Ristorante La Grande Quercia . It is 4 km (10 minutes) drive from Zoosafari Fasano. We read some really good reviews about their pizza, but unfortunately, they are serving pizzas only in the evenings. But the pasta we tried was also really good! And the best part is, that it seemed to be a real authentic Italian restaurant where also the locals will eat.

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Percorribile in auto, in bus e in camper

Area safari.

Tutti pronti? Inizia l’avventura! Superato l’ingresso l’adrenalina sale: pochi metri e si dischiude un vero incanto della natura. Qui i piccoli potranno incontrare tutti gli animali di cui hanno conoscenza attraverso i racconti. Ecco lì un gruppo di tigri sonnecchiare all’ombra di un carrubo, il cammello dall’andatura dondolante, il potente ruggito del leone. Oh, guarda, le altissime giraffe, le zebre e le gazzelle, gli struzzi dagli occhi curiosi e i pigri orsi. E poi, all’improvviso gli imponenti elefanti e i massicci rinoceronti. Che meraviglia…

Orario di apertura dell'area Safari

• Marzo (ven, sab e dom) 10:00 - 14:00 (ultimo ingresso)
• Aprile - Settembre (tutti i giorni) 9:30 - 15:00 (ultimo ingresso)
• Per gli altri mesi consultare il calendario

Faq principali

Avvisi importanti.

Non uscire dalle auto

Non dare da mangiare agli animali

Non fermarsi durante il tragitto

In caso di problemi con l'auto restate in macchina

Gli amici animali

Fenicottero, zebra di grant, elefante asiatico, elefante africano, orso dal collare, rinoceronte, asino somalo, gazzella di mohrr.

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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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