Calgary Zoo facts for kids
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Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo on St. George's Island
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| Date opened | 9 January 1929 |
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| Location | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Land area | 0.3 km2 (0.12 sq mi) |
| Coordinates | 51°02′45″N 114°02′00″W / 51.04583°N 114.03333°W |
| No. of animals | Over 1,000 |
| No. of species | 272 |
| Memberships | WAZA, AZA, CAZA |
| Major exhibits | Panda Passage, Penguin Plunge, Land of Lemurs, Canadian Wilds, Prehistoric Park, Destination Africa, African Rainforest, Eurasia |
| Website | https://www.calgaryzoo.com/ |
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo is a super cool place to visit in Calgary, Alberta, Canada! It's located just east of the city's downtown area. You can easily get there by C-Train (a light rail system), by car, or even by bike or walking along the Bow River pathway. A big part of the zoo is on St. George's Island, right in the middle of the Bow River.
The zoo is run by the Calgary Zoological Society, which is a non-profit group. This means they use all the money they make to help animals and run the zoo, not to make a profit. It's actually Alberta's oldest registered charity! The zoo is also approved by three big groups: the AZA, WAZA, and CAZA. This shows they meet high standards for animal care.
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo is home to over 1,000 animals and 272 different kinds of species (not counting tiny fish or insects!). The zoo covers 120 acres and is split into seven main areas. These include Destination Africa, Canadian Wilds, Penguin Plunge, and Prehistoric Park. The zoo is open almost every day of the year, except for Christmas Day.
Did you know the Calgary Zoo is Canada's most visited zoo? In 2015, TripAdvisor even gave it a Travellers' Choice Award! Experts also say it's one of the best zoos in the world for helping save animals. In 2013, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums called it "one of the top zoos in the world." People in Alberta also think it's one of the most respected and loved places around!
Contents
History of the Calgary Zoo
St. George's Island, where much of the zoo is today, was once Calgary's first park. People loved to go there for picnics and to relax. The very first animals arrived on the island in 1917. Then, the Calgary Zoological Society was officially started on January 9, 1929.
Sadly, in June 1929, some animals died when big floods hit St. George's Island. But the zoo recovered and kept growing! In 2003, a huge new area called Destination Africa opened. It included the TransAlta Rainforest and the African Savannah. Later, in 2012, the zoo opened Penguin Plunge, a cool new home for Arctic and Antarctic penguins.
In 2013, the zoo announced a big plan to rebuild and improve things over 20 years. One of the first big projects was getting ready for two giant pandas to arrive in 2018 for a five-year visit!
The Big Flood of 2013
In June 2013, the Calgary area had really bad floods. The island part of the zoo and some of its Canadian Wild zone were badly damaged, costing over $50 million to fix. But here's an amazing story: in just 12 hours, as the water rose, the zoo staff managed to move 140 animals to safe, higher ground! Only a few fish, two peacocks, and a pot-bellied pig were lost.
The zoo had to close for most of July 2013. But by August, the northern part of the zoo (about 60 acres) reopened. The whole zoo was back open in November 2013. In 2014, they even welcomed new animals like mandrills and Komodo dragons!
Helping Animals: Conservation at the Zoo
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo is a leader in helping save animals. About one-third of the zoo's 130 species are part of "Species Survival Plans." These are worldwide efforts to protect animals that are at risk of disappearing. Twenty-nine species at the zoo are actually in danger of extinction! Other animals at the zoo act as "ambassadors" to help people learn about endangered species.
The zoo has a team of experts, including animal keepers, teachers, and volunteers. They work hard to teach visitors about the beauty of nature and the dangers animals face. Each year, over 575,000 adults and children learn directly from the zoo's programs.
The zoo is also home to amazing biologists who are known around the world for their work in bringing species back from the brink. The science magazine Nature even ranked the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo as one of the top five zoos globally for conservation research! In 2012, Dr. Axel Moehrenschlager, who leads the zoo's conservation research, won a big award for his work in Canada. He also leads a global group focused on reintroducing animals into the wild.
The zoo focuses on saving eight highly endangered species from Western Canada:
- whooping crane
- Vancouver Island marmot
- swift fox
- black-footed ferret
- black-tailed prairie dog
- burrowing owl
- northern leopard frog
- greater sage grouse
They also help with conservation projects in other parts of the world, like:
- The Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary in Ghana
- Protecting Snow leopards in Central Asia
- Helping Gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo
In 2008, the zoo's hippo sanctuary project in Ghana won a special United Nations award. It's now a great example for other communities in Africa on how to protect wildlife!
Exploring the Zoo's Amazing Worlds
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo has many different and exciting exhibits across its 92 acres. Let's explore some of them!
Destination Africa
Opened in 2003, Destination Africa was one of the zoo's biggest projects ever! It has four buildings, including the TransAlta Rainforest and the African Savannah. The TransAlta Rainforest is huge, covering 2,900 square meters (about 31,000 square feet). It's filled with plants and animals from the African rainforest.
In the African Savannah building, you can see amazing animals like hippos, Masai giraffes, red river hogs, and even a giant baobab tree. There's a huge indoor pool for hippos where you can watch them swim underwater! When the weather is warm, the doors open up to connect this building with the rest of the Savannah exhibit. Here, you'll find Hartmann's mountain zebras, grey crowned cranes, and ostriches. Other animals like African lions also live in the Savannah.
In the TransAlta Rainforest, you'll discover primates like western lowland gorillas, eastern black-and-white colobus monkeys, and mandrills. There are also cool reptiles like leopard tortoises, Malagasy tree boas, a panther chameleon, and dwarf crocodiles. Plus, there's an aviary (a big bird enclosure) with many kinds of African birds.
Land Of Lemurs
In 2017, the Land of Lemurs opened! Here, you can see three different kinds of lemurs: the black-and-white ruffed lemur, the ring-tailed lemur, and the red-fronted lemur. They are so much fun to watch!
Canadian Wilds
The Canadian Wilds area was built in the 1990s. It's where most of the zoo's North American birds and mammals live. This area has outdoor spaces divided into three zones: the Aspen Woodlands, the Northern Forest, and the Rocky Mountains.
Animals you might see here include dall sheep, river otters, caribou, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, grizzly bears, polar bears, muskoxen, moose, whooping cranes, black bears, cougars, wood bison, and grey wolves.
Rocky Mountain Bird Aviary
This special bird house is home to amazing birds like a barred owl, golden eagle, great grey owl, bald eagle, snowy owl, and a rough-legged hawk.
Dorothy Harvie Botanical Gardens and ENMAX Conservatory
The outdoor gardens are very popular at the zoo, especially the Dorothy Harvie Gardens. The zoo's location helps many special plants grow here. The ENMAX Conservatory is the indoor part of the gardens. It has different "themed" areas like a tropical garden, a rainforest, a dry garden, and a butterfly garden. You can also see some animals, like birds and insects, inside the conservatory.
The ENMAX Conservatory was completely updated in 2009. Now, it focuses even more on teaching visitors how important plants are and how to save energy. The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo even earned a special "LEED Gold" award for being energy-efficient and building responsibly. It was the first place like it to get such a high award!
Exploration Asia (Formerly Eurasia)
The western part of St. George's Island is dedicated to animals from Eurasia. Here, you can find incredible animals like Amur tigers, snow leopards, Pallas's cats, Japanese macaques (snow monkeys!), red pandas, Japanese serows, Bactrian camels, and Komodo dragons.
This section was also home to four giant pandas for a while, starting in May 2018. They were on loan from China. The panda habitat, called Panda Passage, had adult male Da Mao, cubs Jia Yueyue and Jia Panpan, and their mom Er Shun. The pandas have since gone back to China because it became hard to get enough bamboo for them during the CoVID-19 pandemic.
The area known as Panda Passage has now been renamed Gateway to Asia. It's now home to a Malayan tapir and two white-handed gibbons!
Prehistoric Park
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo's six-acre Prehistoric Park is like stepping back in time! It has life-sized dinosaurs in places that look like their ancient homes. You'll see replicas of an inland sea and a volcanic mountain, surrounded by over 100 kinds of living plants.
Some of the dinosaurs you can spot include Albertosaurus, Allosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Apatosaurus, Baryonyx, Centrosaurus, Corythosaurus, Deinonychus, Dilophosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Elasmosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Iguanodon, Metriacanthosaurus, Nothosaurus, Omeisaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Protoceratops, Pteranodon, Pterosaur, Stegosaurus, Struthiomimus, Styracosaurus, Tanystropheus, Triceratops, Tylosaurus, Tyrannosaurus rex, and Yangchuanosaurus. It's a roar-some experience!
Penguin Plunge
Penguin Plunge is located right at the entrance of the zoo and opened in spring 2012. This exhibit is home to four types of penguins: king penguins, Humboldt penguins, gentoo penguins, and rockhopper penguins.
Penguin Plunge has two main parts: an indoor area with controlled temperatures and an outdoor area. In the summer, the warm-weather South American Humboldt penguins enjoy the outdoor exhibit. In winter, they stay inside. On certain winter days, when the weather is just right, the king penguins go for scheduled walks outside. It's a fun way for them to get exercise and explore!
Events at the Zoo
- Zoolights
Zoolights is a super popular Christmas lights festival held at the zoo every year. It's only closed on Christmas Day. This month-long show has over one million lights shaped like animals and is the biggest seasonal light show in western Canada!
Recent Exciting Animal Births
The Calgary Zoo is also a place where many new animal babies are born! This is really important for helping endangered species.
In March 2012, an Amur tiger named Katja gave birth to three Amur tiger cubs. This was a huge deal because there are only about 350 of these tigers left in the world! These births meant a 1% increase in the global population. Later, the two male cubs, Vasili and Samkha, moved to other zoos to help with future breeding programs.
In early 2016, a baby western lowland gorilla named Kimani was born to Kioja. She was a bit small at birth but quickly grew strong and healthy!
In August 2016, a king penguin chick named Edward hatched. The next year, another king penguin chick hatched and was named Cleopatra. They both have royal names!
In May 2017, a Przewalski's horse foal was born at the zoo's Wildlife Conservation Centre. Even though visitors can't see it, this birth is very important for the future of this endangered wild horse.
In June 2018, a bactrian camel calf was born to Eva. He was later named Gobi.
Images for kids
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Indian peafowl roam freely around the zoo grounds.
See also
In Spanish: Zoológico de Calgary para niños
