The Zoo León is a zoo located in León, Guanajuato

León, Guanajuato

The city of León, formally León de los Aldama is the sixth most populous city in Mexico and the first in the state of Guanajuato. It is also the seat of the municipality of León...

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. The zoo is open 365 days a year.

Zoo León is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums

Association of Zoos and Aquariums

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums was founded in 1924 and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in the areas of conservation, education, science, and recreation.The AZA headquarters is located in Silver...

 (AZA).

History

Zoo León was opened in September 1979. Since 1989 it has been owned and operated by the Municipality of León.

In 1994 a veterinary clinic was added to the zoo, and in 2002 the Night Safari was opened.

In 2010 the zoo hosted an extra cost temporary exhibit called "Reptiles and Poisonous Arthropods of the World". The exhibit was designed to familiarize visitors with less popular animals. In addition to five species of snakes that live in Guanajuato, the exhibit included rattlesnakes, pythons, cobras, tarantulas, and other spiders.

Animals and exhibits

The zoo is home to more than 1100 animals of 180 species. 7 of these species cannot be found in other Mexican zoos: warthog

Warthog

The Warthog or Common Warthog is a wild member of the pig family that lives in grassland, savanna, and woodland in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the past it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P...

s, Amur leopards

Amur Leopard

The Amur leopard , also known as the Far Eastern leopard, Korean leopard, and Manchurian leopard is one of nine recognised subspecies of leopard. It is a wild feline predator native to the mountainous areas of the Russian Far East. It used to inhabit the forests of Korea and China, but it has...

, flying foxes

Pteropus

Bats of the genus Pteropus, belonging to the megabat or Megachiroptera sub-order, are the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as the fruit bats or flying foxes among other colloquial names...

, mongoose lemurs

Mongoose Lemur

The mongoose lemur is a lemur ranging from 12 to 18 inches long plus a tail of 16 to 25 inches. The mongoose lemur lives in dry deciduous forests on the island of Madagascar as well as in the humid forests on the islands of the Comoros...

, Kamchatka bear

Kamchatka Brown Bear

The Kamchatka brown bear , also known as the Far Eastern brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear, native to the Anadyrsky District, the Kamchatka Peninsula, Karaginskiy Island, the Kuril Islands, the coastal strip west of the Sea of Okhotsk southward to the Stanovoy Range and the Shantar Islands...

s, sloth bears

Sloth Bear

The sloth bear , also known as the labiated bear, is a nocturnal insectivorous species of bear found wild within the Indian subcontinent. The sloth bear evolved from ancestral brown bears during the Pleistocene and shares features found in insect-eating mammals through convergent evolution...

 and raccoon dogs

Raccoon Dog

The raccoon dog , also known as the magnut or tanuki, is a canid indigenous to east Asia. It is the only extant species in the genus Nyctereutes...

.

The Raptor Cage is claimed to be the largest in the world, and houses golden eagle

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...

, bald eagle

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...

, red-tailed hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk is a bird of prey, one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the "chickenhawk," though it rarely preys on standard sized chickens. It breeds throughout most of North America, from western Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West...

, harris hawk, caracara

Caracara

Caracaras are birds of prey in the family Falconidae. They are traditionally placed in the subfamily Polyborinae, but are sometimes considered part of their own subfamily, Caracarinae, or members of the true falcon subfamily, Falconinae...

, vulture

Vulture

Vulture is the name given to two groups of convergently evolved scavenging birds, the New World Vultures including the well-known Californian and Andean Condors, and the Old World Vultures including the birds which are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains...

s, and owl

Owl

Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...

s.

At the Children's zoo, visitors can see pet species, as well a primates such as capuchin

Capuchin monkey

The capuchins are New World monkeys of the genus Cebus. The range of capuchin monkeys includes Central America and South America as far south as northern Argentina...

, green monkey

Green Monkey

The green monkey , also known as the Callithrix monkey, is an Old World monkey with golden-green fur and pale hands and feet. The tip of the tail is golden yellow as are the backs of the thighs and cheek whiskers. It does not have a distinguishing band of fur on the brow, like other Chlorocebus...

s, macaque

Macaque

The macaques constitute a genus of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. - Description :Aside from humans , the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to Afghanistan and, in the case of the barbary macaque, to North Africa...

s, baboon

Baboon

Baboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...

s, and three species of lemur

Lemur

Lemurs are a clade of strepsirrhine primates endemic to the island of Madagascar. They are named after the lemures of Roman mythology due to the ghostly vocalizations, reflective eyes, and the nocturnal habits of some species...

s.

The Safari is a 7 hectares (17.3 acre) exhibit where visitors can see and photograph animals from the African savanna roaming together in an environment similar to their original homes. Visitors can also feed some of these animals.

Other attractions

Visitors can ride a miniature train around the zoo and past its main attractions. The zoo also contains large picnic areas with grills.

Conservation

Since about 2004, the zoo has been breeding the endangered pavón

Horned Guan

The Horned Guan, Oreophasis derbianus is a large, approximately 85 cm long, turkey-like bird with glossed black upperparts plumage, red legs, white iris, yellow bill and a red horn on top of head. The breast and upper belly are white, and its long tail feathers are black with white band near...

 (horned guan). It has also been active in breeding the Mexican gray wolf

Mexican Wolf

The Mexican Wolf is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf. It is native to North America, where it is the rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies.- Physical features :...

, which is currently extinct in the wild, and cares for and breeds several species of macaw

Macaw

Macaws are small to large, often colourful New World parrots. Of the many different Psittacidae genera, six are classified as macaws: Ara, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsitta, Primolius, Orthopsittaca, and Diopsittaca...

, including the scarlet macaw

Scarlet Macaw

The Scarlet Macaw is a large, colorful macaw. It is native to humid evergreen forests in the American tropics. Range extends from extreme south-eastern Mexico to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in lowlands up to up to...

.

The future

In 2009, the state government announced that over the next four years it would be spending 40 million pesos to build a new aquarium at the zoo, as well as another 30 million pesos to modernize the zoo, including remodeling the aviary and creating a new children's play area.