Chapultepec Zoo, Zoo in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, Mexico
Zoológico de Chapultepec is a wildlife care facility inside one of the largest park complexes in the city and houses around 2000 animals across roughly 13 hectares (33 acres). The areas are organized by climate zones and habitats including temperate forests, deserts and tropics with species from five continents.
Biologist Alfonso Luis Herrera founded the facility in 1924 as a refuge for native animals and species from other parts of the world. Over the following decades the grounds were expanded and redesigned several times to meet modern standards of animal care.
The facility takes its name from the hill and forest that means Grasshopper Hill in the Nahuatl language and has been a retreat for the city for centuries. Today families come here on weekends to spend the day in the green and see animals from around the world.
The entrance is near the Auditorio metro station on Line 7, and admission is free on all days of the year. Go early in the morning when animals are more active and fewer visitors are around.
In 1980 the first panda cub outside China was born here, a milestone in the international breeding of this species. Since then several more cubs have been born, making the facility a reference point for panda programs worldwide.
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