Salzburg Zoo, Modern zoo in Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg Zoo covers 14 hectares within the historic park of Hellbrunn Palace, bordering Anif. It keeps about 1,500 animals of 150 species and is laid out as a geozoo by continents, with the northern section devoted to Eurasia along the slope of Hellbrunn Hill.
A 1421 document names a "Peunt pey dem Tirgarten", a noble hunting enclosure; by 1459 it belonged to Petrus Erlacher. From 1612 Archbishop Markus Sittikus built Schloss Hellbrunn with its large hunting park around the Hellbrunner Berg. The game stock was shot by a French general in December 1800, ending the princely hunt. The zoo opened on 29 April 1961 as "Alpenzoo Hellbrunn".
The zoo serves as a place where visitors encounter animals from different continents and learn about their natural habitats in an educational setting. The enclosures reflect how these species actually live in the wild, connecting people directly to the animal world.
The zoo is open daily with varying closing times depending on the season. Wear comfortable shoes for walking the grounds and plan for several hours to see the different sections at a relaxed pace.
The zoo's griffon vulture colony was founded in 1966 by Heinrich Windischbauer and still exists today. The female Gundula, bred at Innsbruck's Alpine Zoo and brought to Salzburg in 1979, was a visitor favourite until her death in November 2018 at the age of 39.
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