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Rabat Zoo
Zoological park in Rabat From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Rabat Zoo (Arabic: حَدِيْقَة ٱلْحَيْوَانَات بِٱلرِّبَاط, romanized: Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaywānāt bir-Ribāṭ ("Zoological Garden in Rabat"), ٱلْحَدِيْقَة ٱلْوَطَنِيَّة لِلْحَيْوَانَات بِٱلرِّبَاط ("The National Park for Animals in Rabat"); French: Jardin Zoologique de Rabat), formerly known as "Temara Zoo", is a zoological park near Rabat in Morocco that was established in 1973. The first enclosures were built to house lions that were previously kept in the royal palace. These lions, believed to be descendants of the now-extinct Barbary lion, form the ancestral line of the zoo’s current lion population.[1][2]
The Rabat Zoo focuses on a diverse range of African wild species, and more specifically, Moroccan animals with symbolic species such as the Atlas lion, desert gazelles, and the bald ibis, which have their last wild settlements in Morocco. The enclosures for these animal species were built in a manner similar to their natural habitats, with the goal of recreating the original living conditions and providing these animals with a natural expressive environment that aligns with their behaviors in the wild, avoiding the creation of artificial external ecosystems.
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The zoo works to establish viable populations of endangered animals in the long term, allowing for the strengthening of the animal collection and, consequently, the reintroduction of certain groups into their original natural habitats. It reportedly houses over 1,800 animals representing nearly 180 species and works on more than 22 conservation programs for rare and endangered endemic species. Eight of these species are the subject of a reintroduction program to reintegrate them into their natural habitat, including five species extinct in the wild in Morocco.[3]
In the first quarter of 2024, more than 70 animals of Moroccan and African endemic species were reportedly born at the zoo. In a statement, the zoo indicated that "these species are classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered, critically endangered as is the case for the addax, or endangered for the bald ibis, or vulnerable such as the Barbary sheep and Dorcas gazelles."[3]
Lions
Given that the Barbary lion is extinct in the wilderness, importance has been given to finding possible Barbary lions or descendants of the Barbary lion in captivity. So far, tests indicate the lions of the zoo are not pure Barbary lions, but descendants of the original Barbary lion.[4][5] This is partly as members of the Moroccan royal family had kept lions that were captured from the Atlas Mountains.[1]
As of November 2024, the zoo maintained a group of 33 Barbary lions, comprising 17 males and 16 females ranging in age from 26 years to a few months, and has recorded approximately 18 births since its opening in 2012.[6]
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