Kyoto City Zoo (京都市動物園)

Kyoto City Zoo is a municipal zoo located in Okazaki, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City. Heian-jingu Shrine, Nanzen-ji Temple, Kyoto Kaikan, and the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art are in its neighborhood. Its has heavily focused on reproduction, and boasts many of Japan's first successes in this field.

Reproduction

Its central focus is on reproduction. Japan's first cases of reproduction: (1) mammals: lion, tiger, western lowland gorilla, lar gibbon, European bison (2) birds: white stork, black-necked swan, Caribbean flamingo, streaked shearwater, plain chachalaca (3) reptiles: Florida python, red-footed tortoise. It has succeeded not only in breeding a single lowland gorilla, but also in being the only institution to have bred three generations of them in Japan as of 2003.

Facilities and Animals

As of 2003

Mammals:
Giraffe ('Kiyomizu' and 'Mirai')
Gravy's zebra
Asian elephant ('Mito')
Hippopotamus ('Tsugumi')
Japanese serow
Llama
Sika deer
Western Lowland gorilla
Borneo Orangutan
Chimpanzee
Lar gibbon (White-handed Gibbon)
Lion-tailed macaque
Mandrill
Ring-tailed lemur
Brown capuchin
Rhesus macaque
Red kangaroo
Parma wallaby
Lion
Tiger
Puma
Jaguar
Panther
California sea lion
Polar bear
Brown bear
Black bear
Lesser panda (Red panda)
Bush dog
Raccoon dog
Japanese squirrel
Red fox
Marten
Badger
Indian flying fox
Lesser bushbaby (Senegal bushbaby)
Slow loris
Flying squirrel
Hedgehog

Birds:
Ostrich
Emu
Greater rhea
Condor
Mountain hawk-eagle
White-tailed sea eagle
European black vulture
Snowy owl
Ural owl
Eagle owl
Humboldt penguin
Common pheasant
Siamese fireback pheasant
Vulturine guinea fowl
Temminck's toragopan
Plain chachalaca
Blue peacock
Caribbean flamingo
Lesser flamingo
Japanese crane
Sarus crane

Big water birds house

Ducks are housed in the 'Sakuragata no ike' (literally cherry blossom shaped pond) covered with a 21 meter dome wire net. It houses and exhibits 120 ducks of approximately 20 species, of which most are native to Japan.

Mallard
Mandarin duck
Shoveler
Wigeon
Pintail
Tufted duck
Smew
European pochard
Teal
Black-tailed gull
Black-headed gull
Black-necked swan
Scarlet macaw
Buffon's macaw
White-throated magpie
Magpie
Scarlet ibis
Waldrapp (Northern bald Ibis)
White ibis
Black-necked stilt

Reptiles and amphibians

Indian python
Green tree python
Milk snake
Japanese mamushi
Common blue-tongued skink
Radiated tortoise
New Guinea snake-necked turtle
Surinam toad
Broad-nosed caiman
Giant salamander

Otogi no Kuni (literally fairy land, this facility is specifically for communication with animals)

In this facility, visitors can touch animals and feed them. Smoking, eating and drinking are prohibited.

Sheep
Duck
Goose
Muscovy duck
Rabbit
Guinea pig
Tortoise (Turtle)
Chicken
Goat
Miniature pig
Donkey
Rose-crested cockatoo
Cockatoo
Rockhopper penguin

Other facilities

Animal library: storing approximately 6000 books on animals. It does not lend books out.

Specimen room: containing a stuffed specimen of a cockatoo. It holds the record for keeping a live cockatoo in captivity (of 54 years), the longest in Japan as of 2003.

Medical center

Kitchen

First-aid center: entrusted by Kyoto Prefecture, it treats wild animals.

History

April 1, 1903: it opened as only the second zoo in Japan. It housed 238 animals of 61 species.

1910: a female and a male lion were born, the first time in Japan.

1932: an escaped male lion called 'Kozakura-go' was shot to death.

1940: by the end of the year it housed 965 animals of 209 species.

September 1945 (at the end of the War): it housed 274 animals of 72 species.

1953: for the first time in Japan two male tigers and a female tiger are born in captivity.

1955: 'Otogi no Kuni' was opened.

1962: Japan's first male lar gibbon was born.

1966: it succeeded in Japan's first artificial incubation of a white stork.

1967: it succeeded in Japan's first incubation of a black-necked swan.

1970: Japan's first male western lowland gorilla was born.

1966: it succeeded in Japan's first incubation of a Caribbean flamingo.

1976: Japan's first female European bison was born. In the same year, it succeeded in Japan's first artificial breeding of a Florida python.

1981: it succeeded in Japan's first artificial incubation of a streaked shearwater.

1984: it succeeded in Japan's first artificial breeding of a red-footed tortoise.

1990: it succeeded in Japan's first incubation of a plain chachalaca.

2003: at its centennial anniversary, it housed 721 animals of 175 species.

[Original Japanese]