Yerevan Zoo

The Yerevan Zoo, also known as the Zoological Garden of Yerevan (Armenian: Երևանի կենդաբանական այգի (Yerevani kendabanakan aygi)), is a 35-hectare (86-acre) zoo established in 1940 in Yerevan, Armenia.

Yerevan Zoo
Zoo logo
Yerevan Zoo general view
40°11′45.47″N 44°33′1.85″E
Date opened	1940 [1]
Location	Yerevan, Armenia
Land area	35 hectares (86 acres)
No. of animals	3000+[2]
No. of species	300[2]
Director	Edmond Ghazaryan
Website	zoo.am

Animals

At present the zoo is home to about 3000 individuals representing 300 species. Species representing the South Caucasus and Armenia include

• Syrian brown bears
• Bezoar goats
• vipers
• Armenian mouflon
• Red Deer and black vultures.

Other species at the zoo from around the world include

Carnivora

• African lions (including a white lion),
• Siberian tigers
• Leopards
• Meerkats
• Jaguars
• Interior Alaskan wolves,
• Moon Bears
• Jungle cats
• Caucasian lynxs
• Spotted hyenas
• Nile crocodiles

Artiodactyls

• Alpacas
• Llamas
• Barbary sheep
• Red deers
• Spotted deer
• Père David's deer
• Bactrian Camels

Odd-toed ungulates

• Zebras
• Przewalski’s Horses
• Shetland Ponys

Hippopotamuses

• Hippos

Two-incisor marsupials

• Kangaroos

Proboscis

• Indian elephant named Hrantik.^[2][3]

Primates

• Mandrills
• Hamadryas baboons
• Saimiri boliviensiss
• Ring-tailed lemurs

Reptiles

• Adult python
• Yellow anaconda
• Asian Rock Python

Conservation

The zoo in 2016

Since Armenia is a biodiversity hot spot, the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) has leased and taken over management of about 839 hectares (2,070 acres) near the Khosrov reserve, which until recently had been unprotected and at risk of poaching, illegal logging, and overgrazing. The Yerevan Zoo is cooperating with the FPWC to use this land for wildlife rehabilitation and the reintroducing critically endangered species of the area into the wild.^[4]

Education

The entrance to the zoo

In 2012 the zoo, in cooperation with the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), the municipality of Yerevan, and the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, will open a zoo school. The main purpose of this school will be to teach schoolchildren the importance of biodiversity in Armenia and around the world, and it will use the zoo as an interactive classroom.^[5]

The future

In April 2011 the Director of the FPWC took over control of the zoo to help change what the zoo itself describes as "unbearable conditions". The zoo will be partnering with the Artis Zoo (among others) to upgrade and renovate the zoo to modern standards.^[6] Current plans call for the zoo to be expanded to about 50 hectares (120 acres), with construction of the first phase completed in May 2015.^[7][8] The second phase is due to be completed in 2017.

Gallery

• Mammals
• 
  Camels
• 
• 
  Lama
• 
  Dears
• 
  European fallow deer
• 
  Asian elephant named Grant
• 
  Lemur
• 
  Lions in old zagon
• 
  African lions in new zagon
• 
  Tiger
• 
  Siberian tiger
• 
  Brown bear
• 
  Siberian ibex

• Birds
• 
  Indian peafowl
• 
  Silver pheasant
• 
  Emu
• 
  Mute swan
• 
  White stork

• Reptiles
• 
  Nile crocodile
• 
  Eryx jaculus