How many European capitals lack a zoo?
- Thread starter Mr T
- Start date
Does Paris have an actual zoo? I read somewhere that they closed it down to renovate it and sent all of the animals away. Has it reopened?
David, the Vincennes zoo in Paris is closed, but the Menagerie des Jardin des Plantes is open every day. I visited it last year. The menagerie is very important to zoo history since it the second oldest zoo still in existence ( only vienna is older). It opened in 1794. Noted Biologists Cuvier and Buffon actually studied and investigated at the jardin des plantes. You can read the wikipedia article ( the french one is better) and then go the zoochat gallery for a good view of the place. The collection is very good but since the menagerie is a french national heritage site the buildings are very old.
Thanks for the information Carlos. I'll check out the article and gallery.
A relatively recent one called Attica Zoo that I think is privately owned, yes.
ZooChatter Arek has posted some pictures of the Attica Zoo near Athens (in Athens?) in the gallery: Attica Zoological Park Gallery
There was also a recent thread about it in which ANyhuis and Arek discussed and reviewed it.
Attica Zoo is located not in Athens but in small town Spata (suburbs of capital). Some other Balkans capitals are zoo-less: Tirana (Albania), Podgorica (Montenegro) and Pristina (if we count Kosovo as independent country). Also Luxembourg doesn't have a zoo. And Vatican I presume. 
Not to mention Vaduz, Andorra la Vella and San Marino. Monaco does have one. I wasn't sure about Minsk but I checked and they do as do Baku, Tbilisi, Yerevan and Chișinău. Sarajevo has one that was badly damaged in the war of the 1990s.
Valletta and Nicosia are both, I think, without zoos too.
Valletta and Nicosia are both, I think, without zoos too.
Attica Zoo is located not in Athens but in small town Spata (suburbs of capital). Some other Balkans capitals are zoo-less: Tirana (Albania), Podgorica (Montenegro) and Pristina (if we count Kosovo as independent country). Also Luxembourg doesn't have a zoo. And Vatican I presume.
I don't know if the Vatican ever had a full fledged zoo, but in 1514 Pope Leo X had a young Asian elephant bull named Hanno as a pet at the Vatican: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_(elephant)
Does anybody know if there were other species at the Vatican at that time as well? Perhaps that would qualify as a zoo, but it has been closed for 500 years so it probably wouldn't meet the criteria of this thread
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devilfish
Well-Known Member
I remember Baku's zoo closing a few years ago - has a new one been opened?
I don't know if the Vatican ever had a full fledged zoo, but in 1514 Pope Leo X had a young Asian elephant bull named Hanno as a pet at the Vatican: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_(elephant)
Does anybody know if there were other species at the Vatican at that time as well? Perhaps that would qualify as a zoo, but it has been closed for 500 years so it probably wouldn't meet the criteria of this thread
The elephant you mention was given to Pope Leo X by King Manuel I of Portugal.
King Manuel also presented an Indian rhinoceros to Pope Leo X in 1515. Unfortunately the rhinoceros never reached the Vatican as it was drowned when the ship transporting it was caught in a bad storm.
I thought it was threatened with closure and there were discussions about a new zoo but nothing concrete.
This is from summer 2011
Today.Az - Baku zoo in summer - PHOTOS
and a story about buying animal feed in 2012
Azerbaijan Business Center - Baku zoo buys animal feed for 2012
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku_Zoo[/ame]
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
It used to; see attached.
http://www.zoochat.com/683/entrance-gates-old-brussels-zoo-14th-149598/
It would be interesting to know more about this zoo's failure to establish itself, leaving Antwerp to hold the status of Belgium's premier zoo.
From historian's point of view, it's worth noting that the entrance inscription is in French, dating from a time when the majority language of Brussels was Flemish. The same phenomenon can be seen on inscriptions on the older buildings in Antwerp Zoo.
devilfish
Well-Known Member
Thanks - I didn't realise that it was still going.
Though they might not be countries in everyone's eyes, Torshavn (Faroe Islands) and Nuuk (Greenland) don't have zoos.
Though Tirana does have a small and very run-down one, as far as I know. A zoo that guidebooks for Albania doesn't recommend you visiting. Oh, and Nicosia does sort of have a zoo, Melios Pet Park - the largest zoo on Cyprus actually (at least so they claim, haven't been there). However, it's essentially a pet shop with bonus of being zoo-like, so it's not a full-fledged zoo.
I'd actually say Brussels is the most special one, in the sense that Belgium might be the only country in the world with several good zoos scattered around, but none in the capital city.
Though Tirana does have a small and very run-down one, as far as I know. A zoo that guidebooks for Albania doesn't recommend you visiting. Oh, and Nicosia does sort of have a zoo, Melios Pet Park - the largest zoo on Cyprus actually (at least so they claim, haven't been there). However, it's essentially a pet shop with bonus of being zoo-like, so it's not a full-fledged zoo.
I'd actually say Brussels is the most special one, in the sense that Belgium might be the only country in the world with several good zoos scattered around, but none in the capital city.
It's because that after indepedence of Belgium in 1830 (if I good remember) French was the only official language of new state.