Baghdad Zoo, Zoo in Al Zawra'a Gardens, Baghdad, Iraq

Baghdad Zoo covers 200 acres (81 ha) in the Al-Zawraa Park area, alongside Al Zawra'a Dream Park and Zawra'a Tower. It opened in 1971 under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and held 650 animals before the 2003 invasion; after reopening on 20 July 2003 with 86 animals, it now houses about 1,070. The photograph shows a tiger in a pool behind a low wall capped with pale square tiles, with white spray around its body and a rough-barked tree trunk to the left.

Baghdad Zoo opened in 1971 under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, with small confinement spaces that were later judged inhumane. UN sanctions after the first Gulf War restricted food, medicines and vaccines, and Saddam Hussein closed the zoo for renovations in spring 2002. During the 2003 invasion, of 650 to 700 animals only 35 survived by the eighth day; the zoo reopened on 20 July 2003 with 86 animals, including all 19 surviving lions.

The zoo reopened on 20 July 2003 with 86 animals, among them all 19 surviving lions, and most of these were gathered from menageries at the Hussein family palaces and private zoos around Baghdad. Its rescue is told in Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence's book Babylon's Ark, and the escaped lions inspired Brian K. Vaughan's graphic novel Pride of Baghdad.

The zoo occupies 200 acres (81 ha) in the Al-Zawraa Park area, beside the Al Zawra'a Dream Park and Zawra'a Tower, so allow hours to walk the grounds. It reopened to the public on July 20, 2003, after US Army engineers carried out renovations. Visitors should check current opening arrangements locally, since the site's access has changed repeatedly since 2003.

The tiger in the photograph recalls Mandor, a 20-year-old Siberian tiger owned personally by Uday Hussein, found starving and thirsty in its cage in 2003. A later Bengal tiger at the zoo mauled Sergeant Keith Mitchell's arm in September 2003, an incident that inspired the play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.