Dhaka Zoo,is a Zoo located in the Mirpur section of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Dhaka Zoo the largest and the national zoo of Bangladesh. The Zoo contains many native and non-native animals and wild life.
It is the national zoo under the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, started as a menagerie at the High Court Premises in Dhaka in 1964, and moved to its present location in 1974. In the same year it was ceremonially opened for public on June 23. The zoo occupies an area of about 75 ha. It has two lakes of about 13 ha, which receive thousands of waterfowls every year in winter.
Animal Species
The total number of vertebrate fauna in the zoo is about 2,150 in 191 species. Included in these animals, are about 551 mammals under 64 species, 1,543 birds under 90 species, 73 reptiles under 15 species, and about 104 aquarium fishes under 23 species. To attract visitors besides many fascinating animals, there are 15 tigers, 21 lions, 9 hippopotamus, about 200 monkeys, and 33 pythons. Moreover, some rare and interesting animals such as the rhea, peacock, zebra, elephant, African grey parrot, water buck, impala, emu, baboon, chimpanzee, gayal, black bear, tapir, mandrill, and estuarine crocodile provide additional entertainment to the visitors.
Features
The zoo has a captive breeding programme and successfully bred the Royal Bengal Tiger, lion, leopard, primates, deer, and many birds. It has animal exchange programmes with many zoos of the world. As gifts Bangladesh government presented about 300 zoo animals to different organisations and personalities of different countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iraq. The zoo regularly organizes various education programmes for students. The various ornamental features of the garden provides an aesthetic background to the animal houses, enclosures and aviaries, scattered all over the area, exhibiting indigenous fauna of Bangladesh as well as exotic specimens collected from different countries of the world.
About 3 million visitors visit the Dhaka Zoo every year. Except Sunday the zoo remains open on other weekdays from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm (October-March) and from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (April-September). It also remains opens to the visitors for certain hours during government holidays. The beautiful natural environments of the zoo offer almost all recreational facilities to the visitors, a large part of which is constituted by the students and children. The zoo has an advisory committee headed by the Minister, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.[1]
The yearly budget of Dhaka Zoo is Tk 3.75 crore out of which Tk 2.50 crore is spent on feeding the animals.
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