Yangon Zoo — Attraction in Yangon

The Yangon Zoo (Burmese: ရန်ကုန် တိရိစ္ဆာန် ဥယျာဉ် [jàɰ̃ɡòʊɰ̃ təɹeɪʔsʰàɰ̃ ʔṵjɪ̀ɰ̃]) is the oldest and the second largest zoo in Myanmar. Located immediately north of downtown Yangon near Kandawgyi Lake, the 70-acre (28 ha) recreational park also includes a museum of natural history, an aquarium and an amusement park.With a collection of nearly 200 species and 1100 animals, the zoo draws nearly 2.2 million visitors annually.The zoo was operated by the Forest Department under the Ministry of Forestry until April 2011, and is now operated by a private firm.

History

The first collection of wild animals in Yangon began in 1882 in connection with Phayre’s Museum, then situated at the present site of the Yangon General Hospital. Funded by a public donation of 240,000 kyats(approximately US$240,000 then) construction started at the present site near the Royal Lake (Kandawgyi Lake) in 1901. The newly established 42-acre (17 ha) zoological gardens was formally opened as the Victoria Memorial Park and Zoological Gardens in honor of Queen Victoria.The major attraction at the opening was the white elephant of King Thibaw, the last king of then Burma, whom the British had exiled to India only 20 years earlier.In 1908 the Victoria Memorial Park and Zoological Gardens Act was passed giving the establishment a legal recognition.

The zoo was vandalized and looted during World War II. In 1951, the then Burmese government changed the name to “Rangoon Zoological Gardens and Parks.” In 1962, the zoo’s area was enlarged to the present size of 69.25 acres (28.02 ha). The enlarged compound opened doors to new attractions: a museum of natural history on 4 May 1966, an amusement park on 7 October 1997 and an aquarium on 1 October 1998.The aquarium is operated by the Department of Fisheries.

Between 2003 and 2006, the zoo underwent a MMK600M (approximately US$600K) renovation program, resulting in an increase in the number of visitors from 1.1 million in 2003-2004 and 1.8 million in 2004-2005 to 2.2 million in 2005-2006.

A large number of animals at Yangon Zoo, including elephants, monkeys, rhinos, and bears, were relocated to the Naypyidaw Zoo in...

DONT VISIT THIS ZOO. There's a wide variety of animals to see here, and it's great to see them up close, however, the conditions these animals are living in are just horrible. The zoo doesn't seem to have proper management at all. These animals have little space to fly and run around. I'm usually fine with zoos as long as there are passionate people taking care of animals. But I didn't feel or see any workers working here with care.

There was a deer that had a deep visible hole on its back, it looked like some sort of infection as well. His horns were damaged too, you could see flesh where the horn started. When food was put out for the deers, it didn't bother moving, as if it was starving its self to end it's suffering (though I'm probably wrong, not an expert on this).

The elephants had little space to move around, one of them had a apparent scar on its head. Hopefully not from being punished, but I highly doubt that scar is from a natural cause. Also apparently one of the workers said that elephant was a 100 years old, even though Asian Elephants do not live that long on average.

Poor surveillance on visitors as well. Was passing the bear areas, and I saw people teasing the bears with chips/snacks making the bears raise their fore legs and wave them, only for the people to take a video of them doing that action.

I deeply hope that the zoo becomes better and improved it's management, but I highly doubt it will, so it would be nicer if it got shut down and had it's animals transported to the wild or a more well managed enclosure. Especially when this zoo has 3 white tigers which I believe should be cared for a lot more than they are right now.

EXTRA NOTE: There is a price for local people, and a price for foreigners, which is absurd, and you can probably guess which one is more expensive. As far as I know, the price of a local child is 1/4 of a...

Visiting to the zoo after 2 decades . It was nothing changed but g&g store add in which is very good thing . Would like to point out few things as please clean the toilets , it was so dirty , smelly , disgusting and if possible please upgrade to sitting closet toilet please prohibit of selling condoms at convenience store as afraid young adult might take advantage of it please treat animals well . Especially tigers and lions , they seem super slim and angry not enough having meats everything seem so black and white , wish to have more bright colouring decorations especially the cage , sitting areas , cars , bicycle, toilets wall with cute cartoon for attraction to the kids and farm of animals wish to have big cage for birds . Should use wider crossing cage . Because of the small fence , even tho the bird are super beautiful can’t able to take picture clearly . ticket is quite cheap . if ticket price upgrade to 5000kyat , we don’t mind giving high price for ticket but make sure things might be pay for the better . please hire more animals profession for care . Example who graduated from geology , biology , zoology . Animals need emotional support too . and smell of animals really bad for kids . the snake area should renovate totally as new . It was 2 decades and nothing change even can’t see inside the cage because of unclear mirror cage . if there’s only one animal in the cage , should add 1 more as partner , if not boredom can eat them alive . Example as donkey.

Thank you and Writing this as a citizen aside from whoever own or whatever current situation is , hope for better experience and service in future . Over all experience for service 2 stars but for all the...