Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park, Zoo in Asakita-ku, Hiroshima, Japan
Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park is a large facility spread across roughly 50 hectares with more than 170 animal species, including giraffes, lions, rhinoceroses, and elephants. The grounds are divided into sections displaying animals from Africa and other regions of the world.
Hiroshima City Asa Zoological Park opened on September 1, 1971, as Japan's 62nd zoo. The site in Asa-cho was chosen in 1966, and construction began in 1968. In 1979 it became the first zoo in the world to breed Japanese giant salamanders, and in 1998 a chimpanzee gave birth via artificial insemination, a world first. The West Garden opened in 1985.
The zoo's name comes from Asa, the former town in Asakita-ku where it was built. Volunteers from the community explain the animals to visitors with humour, and since 2003 the summer Night Safari has kept the grounds open in the evening. The 2001 Peechiku Park lets children touch animals.
The park lies in Asa-cho, Asakita-ku, reached by bus from Astramline Kamiyasu Station to the Asa Zoological Park stop, or about 40 minutes by car from central Hiroshima via Route 54. The grounds cover 51.4 hectares, with 25.6 hectares used for animal displays, so allow time to walk between the east and west gardens.
The zoo bred black rhinoceroses so successfully that the female Hana gave birth to ten calves, a world record. It also achieved the world's first captive spawning of the Japanese giant salamander in 1979 and received the Koga Prize for this research in 1988.
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