The Vienna Zoo is located at the Schönbrunn Palace. It was founded in 1752 and it is the oldest zoo in the world. Since it is at Schönbrunn, I think that it is also the only zoo that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
I do know for sure that Vienna is one of the few zoos in the world to have Giant Pandas. In Europe, the only zoos which have them are in Vienna, Berlin and Madrid. Recently, an agreement was reached between Scotland and China so the United Kingdom will be the fourth place in Europe with the prized animals.
When a new panda is born in captivity it has two years to be weaned off of its mother before it must be sent to China's research and breeding center. In 2010, the male panda, Fu Hu was born in Vienna. He was conceived through natural mating. Yesterday was a quick trip to Vienna to see Fu Hu before he leaves for China this year.
Besides, the Giant Pandas, the Vienna Zoo has all of the usual suspects.
You can see monkeys, elephants, penguins, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, plus lions and tigers and bears (oh my!).
But the panda exhibit was the best part of the zoo.
Atlanta also has pandas but in 13 years I never made it once to the Atlanta Zoo. Maybe I'll check it out in September when I'm back home for a week.
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The Schönbrunn Zoo Vienna may be the oldest in the world, but was also voted as the best zoo in Europe during the years 2009 and 2010, it is always worth it:
ReplyDeletehttp://austriadaily.com/vienna/enjoy-the-wildlife-at-the-viennas-schonbrunn-zoo