Riyadh Zoo

Riyadh Zoo (Arabic: حديقة الحيوانات بالرياض, romanized: Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaywānāt bi-Arriyāḍ, lit. 'the garden of animals in Riyadh'), formerly Riyadh Zoological Gardens and locally as Malaz Zoo, is a 55-acre zoo in the al-Malazz neighborhood of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1957 as a private menagerie for King Saud bin Abdulalziz and the Saudi royal family, the zoo was opened to the public in 1987 and it's today home to more than 1,500 animals of around 196 different species, including endangered ones. It is the largest and one of the oldest zoos in Saudi Arabia.

History

Riyadh Zoo was set up by orders from King Saud bin Abdulaziz in 1957 as his private menagerie of exotic wild animals which he mostly received as gifts to the Saudi royal family. Most of the zoo's animals were originally kept at the palace grounds of Royal Nasiriyah Palace in al-Nasiriyah district of Riyadh as the menagerie was unable to handle the surging crowd of people which gathered to watch the animals whereas the menagerie in al-Malaz became the Riyadh Zoological Gardens. The structure of Riyadh Zoological Gardens was completely razed down in 1981 for the construction of a new public zoo six years later in 1987. The zoo was designed by London-based consultants Safari Parks International. After signing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, by 1988, the zoo started receiving animals from countries like United States, Peru, Australia, Singapore, Kenya and Egypt. In reciprocation, Riyadh Zoo later dispatched two native sand cats to Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio, United States.

Al Riyadh newspaper reported in 2007 that the zoo and the animals within are in miserable state and large-scale mismanagement by officials have led to a sharp decline in number of visitors. The case of the zoo was brought forward to the then Mayor of Riyadh, Prince Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf Muqrin al-Saud, who ordered an all-out rehabilitation of the zoo in 2008. For long visitors above the age of 12 were barred from entering the zoo, to this, a frustrated Saudi national published a column in the Al Eqtisadiah newspaper dated 21 June 2007 (6/22/1428 Hijri), in which he asked Riyadh Municipality to review the rule and allow family visitors into the premises of the zoo. The Saudi government accepted his request and subsequently issued directives in which the zoo was asked to allow family visitors. By 2009, the authorities successfully revived the zoo and saw 200% increase in visitors and couple of years later the zoo became one of the top tourist destinations to be visited by families and tourists.