The Novosibirsk Zoo
The Novosibirsk Zoo is a world-renowned scientific institution as well as a popular tourist attraction. The zoo has over four thousand animals and is an active participant of thirty-two different captive breeding programmes for endangered species. On average, around 700,000 people visit the zoo each year.
In 2000, the zoo held the closest relative to the cape lion of South Africa. John Spence was always fascinated about the stories of these grand lions scaling the walls of General van Riebeeck's castle in the 17th century. Spence's search took thirty years, which led him to the Novosibirsk Zoo, where he found the closest living resemblance to the cape lion; the zoo called the lion Simon. The lion and his family are kept outdoors in large, natural settings. "It is kept all the year around in the climate conditions of the west Siberia at the temperatures from −49 °C (−56 °F) to 36 °C (97 °F). In forty years, more than sixty cubs were born."
The zoo's current curator is Rostislav Shilo. Simon's cubs were named after him and his wife, Olga.
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Famous quotes containing the word zoo:
“...there was the annual Fourth of July picketing at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. ...I thought it was ridiculous to have to go there in a skirt. But I did it anyway because it was something that might possibly have an effect. I remember walking around in my little white blouse and skirt and tourists standing there eating their ice cream cones and watching us like the zoo had opened.”
—Martha Shelley, U.S. author and social activist. As quoted in Making History, part 3, by Eric Marcus (1992)