Dresden Zoo, Zoo in Dresden, Germany
Dresden Zoo covers about 13 hectares on the southern edge of the Großer Garten, a large park in the city centre. It was laid out by landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné, with buildings by Carl Adolph Canzler, and keeps around 1,030 animals of 205 species, including 79 bird and 61 mammal species. The grounds are divided into sections such as the Africa House, opened in 1999 and renovated in 2018, and a new orangutan house opened in 2024.
Dresden Zoo opened on 9 May 1861 after two years of construction, on land provided by King Johann from the royal Großer Garten. It was initiated by the Dresden Association for Chicken Breeding, with landscaping by Peter Joseph Lenné and buildings by Carl Adolph Canzler. First director Albin Schoepf built it with his son Adolph; from 1910 to 1934 Gustav Brandes reorganized it from a pure animal show into more naturalistic keeping.
The zoo's name appears on the entrance building as "ZOO GASTRONOMIE", marking the shop and restaurant area by the main gate. Since 1968 a zoo school has run educational programmes for visiting classes. The zoo keeps crown lemurs, which only one other German zoo, Erfurt, exhibits.
The grounds are open daily and you can easily spend half a day or a full day there depending on how much time you want to spend with each animal type. A visit is best in the early morning or late afternoon, when many animals are more active and fewer visitors are present.
In 1927 Dresden Zoo drew worldwide attention when, for the first time, the growth of an orangutan and its natural rearing by its mother were observed and documented. The zoo had kept great apes since 1873. A new orangutan house opened on 18 June 2024.
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