Almaty Zoo (Almaty Zoo)

Almaty Zoo is located to the east of the city of Almaty. It's one of the oldest zoos in Kazakhstan (now over 75 years old), so you'll feel the signature tradition through the layout and design of the zoo.

Almaty Zoo was initiated and proposed to be built by a zoology research group, the Kazakhstan branch of the SSR Academy of Sciences, led by Professor AA Byalynitskiy-Biruli. He is a zoologist, member of the SSR Academy of Sciences, author of numerous scientific publications, and has participated in several expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic regions. At the first meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Central Executive Committee of the Kazakhstan SSR (KazCEC), held on January 25, 1936, the delegates acknowledged that "with regard to the cultural development of Kazakhstan, it is necessary to build a zoo in the city of Alma-Ata, an institution that will play a great scientific and cultural significance for the entire region ... "

The first animals of Almaty Zoo were star deer, a pair of wolves, young fox, argali, saiga, antelope. To surprise Almaty residents right from the first days of opening, the zookeeper negotiated with Moscow Zoo about buying rare animals here to bring back to Almaty such as bison and antelope. nilgau, hyena, jackal. Later some species such as polar bears, reindeer, pandas were sent from Leningrad Zoo; wildebeest and antelope from the Askania-Nova reserve. By its founding in 1937, the zoo had an animal collection that included 70 species.

In 1961, Almaty Zoo began accepting the first Indian elephants. The baby elephants named Dubas and Palma became a gift to the residents of Almaty from Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru when he visited Almaty with his daughter in 1955. Later, the pair were gave birth to 5 elephants, including an elephant named Batyr who is extremely famous for "speaking" his name with the help of a funny trunk. Later, the zoo received some other famous inhabitants such as the hippo Yulka and Sputnik with very good fertility; In total, the couple gave birth to 10 hippos and they went to zoos and circuses all over the country of Kazakhtan.

By 1966, an animal circus performance area was established within the zoo's premises. Before performing the animals were trained with a carefully studied taming method based on Academician IP Pavlova's teaching on reflexes, making domesticated animals not through pain and suffering. fear, but with love and affection. The zoo has a climactic performance of a tiger jumping through a hoop attached to the horns of an Argali.

Today, Almaty Zoo covers an area of 21 hectares, with a diverse and unique collection of Kazakhstan's wildlife, especially deer, wild sheep, wolves, beavers, golden eagles and other species.

In addition, there are a number of animals from further afield including polar bears, tigers, jaguars, Persian leopards, elephants, zebras, yaks, deer, American hares, vultures, horned crows, snake, crocodile. In total there are more than 350 species and about 6,000 different animals.

The zoo is very popular with locals, especially during the holidays. Opening hours: Daily, 10:00 AM 05.00 PM in winter and 09: 00 AM-07:00 PM in summer.