Riga Zoo

www.rigazoo.lv

City: Riga

Country: Latvia

Province: Riga

Species 486

Opend 14.10.1912

Its a zoo where you meet giraf's, tigers, wilde reindeers, maned wolves, japanese macaques, ringtailed lemurs, grey seals, zebras, hippos and kiangs

Last visitet 2015

Rigas Nacionalais zoologiskais darzs
Meza prospekts 1
LV-1014 Riga
Latvia

zootierliste.de/zoosmap.php?showzoo=10000968

Phone 67 51 84 09

Open minimum 10am-5pm

Entrance fee

• Adult 15 €
• Child 6 €
• Family* 31 €

• 19tn century: The People of the city wants a zoo like the one in Königsberg, Moscow and St Petersburg, but the city thaught it would be to expensive
• 13th June 1907 The city gets an application for putting a zoo in the Kaiser forest
• 19th march 1908 200 stockholder creat an association to found a zoo in the Kaiser forest, this is registratet on September 29th the same year
• 10th february 1909 the Association meets officially for the first time
• 11th jannuary 1910 the city gives an ok to build a zoo at the Kaiser forest, the same year the tram is extendet to the area
• 13th april 1911 The association signs a contract saying that the zoo shall be opend with in 5 years and at least show 75 different species. The zoo concentrates in the beginning on Latvian animals
• November 1911 the bear housr is finished, home for 4 animals
• 7th february 1912 the zoo opens, but has to be closed on the 7th april, since the animals are bullied by local since the zoo is open for 24 hours
• 15th April the zoo reopens and takes an entrance fee of 15 kap for adults.
• 13th may the zoo restaurant opens
• August 1912 a pavillion for birds of prey and a monkey house is donated
• 4th October 1912 the zoo has 88 different species
• 14th October 1912 the city recognizes the zoo, thus this is called the officially opening day
• In 1913 the zoo gets a black panther, a sunbear, 4 monkeys, 2 pelicans and turtles from Indochina (Vietnam). Later on it gets elephants
• 1914 Office building, entrance building, elephant house, monkey house and a aquarium are opened
• 21st 1914 february the zoo gets a couple of wisent (soon after they breed which was quite rare back then, the animals where almost extinct), a group of samoyeds are on show for 6 month
• 7th august 1915 the first lion cubs are born
• 1917 The most valuable animals where taken to Germany, the rest shot
• 1917-21 the zoo runs as a basic zoo for people goingon the countryside in summer
• 1921-35 the zoo is transformed in to a summer colony for children
• 10th september 1932 Its decided by the Forest department to reopen a zoo with Latvian animals for propaganda reasons and officially announced the 2nd november 1932
• 27th june 1933 the city accept the idear and the state can rent 2 hectare for 1 lat a year to 1938
• 19th december 1933 the zoo reopens with 124 native species
• 31st may 1934 The zoo gets its first exotic animals like bisons, baboons, cockatoos and aguti. Later same year to male lions arrive
• 11th april 1935 the zoo gets beavers, reindeer and english park cattle, a month later a load of brazilian animals arrive, like capuchin monkeys and spider monkeys
• 13th august 1935 a lionhouse it beeing build
• 8th April 1936. From Warsaw comes lions, wolves, dongos and ferrets. Later the year Bengal tigers, porcupines, toucans, penguins and rhesus monkeys. In 1936 the monkey house is rebuild
• 1937 More or less all carnivores get new cages and enclosures, the reptile house is beeing renovated. The zoo gets lions, bactrian camels and Asian black bears so that the zoo now has 106 species
• 1938 there is beeing build a new monkey house and 7 aviaries for birds of prey.
• 1939 A new lion house and houses for ungulates are build and the zoo gets its old size. 
• 1940 As a new part of the Soviet union the zoodirector was taken to jail and a year later to work camp in siberia. The new one though made the zoo blossom and severasl animals gave birs, as well where new animals bought - so in 1944 it had 179 different species. The zoo even started growing their own crops. 
• 1948 A new aquarium building was build
• 1950 The zoo started breeding silk worm as well as building a reptile house.
• 1952 A Bengal tiger was born and nursed by hand, the storries where published later on. In general where the decade 1945-55 a good breeding year for tigers and lions
• 1956 A pair of Kiangs arrive from Beijing Zoo (China)
• In the 1950s-60s young carnivores and herbivores where kept in the same cage
• At the end of the 1950s Riga zoo was the 2nd largest of the Soviet Union
• 1966 The first hippo calf is born
• 1979 the bear enclosures where buils. The zoo has 367 species
• 1980-85 A flamingo house, kangaroo enclosure, terrariun, hippo house and kiang enclosure was opened or renovated.
• Since 1982 the zoo works togehter with Kobe zoo (japan) and Rostock zoo (Germany)
• 1987 An ecology laboratory opened, a year later some animals are re-introduced to the wild. The same year the monkey house gets renovated.
• 5th april 1990 An Asian elephant is born
• 1991 Latvia gets independent, there for in stead of the usual 700.000 visitors annually only 100.000 come
• 1992 The zoo becomes a member of EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria), the same year is recognised as National zoo
• 1994 House for Latvian amphibians and reptiles opens
• 1997 Lemurs and Galapagos tortoises get theire own house. The aquarium gets renovated
• 1998 The tiger enclosure opens. The kangaroo and lion enclosures gets renovated
• 1999 A farm opens with farm animals from Latvia
• 25th may 2001 A tropical house with more than 80 species opens which includes an aquarium and a night zoo. The pelicans and cranes get new homes
• 2002 the seal  and lesser panda enclosures opens, the zoo gets a home page
• 2004 Enclosures for takins and the arctic fox opens
• 2007 The giraffe house opens
• 2010 The hippo hous is renovated
• 2011 A new lynx enclosure opens
• 2012 The owl aviaries are renovated and waders get a new enclosure