After a two-year renovation, the nation’s oldest zoo yesterday reopened with a new layout that it said brings visitors and animals closer than before.
Built in 1936, the Hsinchu Zoo overhauled its aging infrastructure with a no-cage approach to better protect and manage its animals in five areas, where they are separated from the public by moats or bushes and fences no taller than 120cm, allowing people to observe them at a closer distance without disturbing them, the city government said.
Visitors would be able to view all the animals, including orangutans and Bengal tigers, up close, it said, adding that common eland antelopes would be visible from the canteen area.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiuh, Taipei Times
“Seeing the zoo become a center of tourism again has always been a dream of mine, and now I have seen that dream fulfilled,” Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) said.
Lin, whose mayoral campaign platform last year centered on renovating the zoo, presided over the reopening with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
He said that he hoped the zoo would usher in a new period of prosperity for the city.
The zoo has also reduced the number of animals it cares for, from 70 species to 44, to make sure each group has ample space, zoo director Yang Chia-min (楊家民) said.
Most of the other species, which were released to the wild or relocated to other facilities, were birds, Yang said, adding that one of the old bird cages was turned into an art installation that visitors would walk through when entering the zoo.
The installation was designed to help visitors experience a caged animal’s perspective and inspire them to think differently about nature, he said.
The city government said that it has retained nearly 80 percent of the plants it had before the renovation, as well as familiar structures, such as a fountain and an entryway inspired by the former main entrance at the Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg, Germany.
The Hsinchu zoo also kept the pen of an elephant that was gifted to the zoo, the city government said, adding that its preserved bones would be displayed in the building, along with historic photographs of the zoo.
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