Visit The Zoo Day

A visit to a circus or zoological park provides the opportunity to see animals from around the world living in the wild. Captivity is practiced not so much to show visitors lions, elephants, bears, foxes and monkeys, but for scientific study, conservation and reproduction of the population. Communicating with animals and birds, observing their habits and lifestyle broadens your horizons, helps you achieve inner harmony and balance. In order to increase people's interest in nature reserves and zoos, Visit The Zoo Day was established, which is celebrated every year on December 27. Keeping animals in captivity has been practiced since ancient Egypt. Only representatives of the highest nobility could afford to maintain a living corner. Alexander the Great, the Jewish king Solomon and the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar had menageries. Traces of the oldest known zoo, found by archaeologists in Egypt, date back to around 3500 BC. The remains of animals from private menageries were also found in excavations carried out in China and Italy. The first zoo in the modern sense was opened in 1793 in Paris. The appearance of a menagerie accessible to wide sections of society was one of the manifestations of the Enlightenment. People wanted to expand their horizons of knowledge, incl. by studying the anatomy of animals and observing their behavior. In Great Britain, the first zoo, the basis of whose collection was the royal menagerie, was opened in the City of London in 1828. The institution became available for visiting by city residents in 1847. In Rus', for a long time it was practiced to organize gardens with exotic animals on royal estates. The protected forests of the ancient Russian princes were adjacent to lands where birds and animals were bred for hunting. Peter I loved to order exotic animals from abroad, which were brought and settled in the Summer Garden. At that time, in St. Petersburg one could see elephants walking along the city streets, which was daily entertainment for the townspeople. The animals walked aimlessly along the street, looking around. This pastime gave rise to the appearance of the verb “loiter” in the language. The first permanent zoo in Rus' was opened in Moscow in February 1864. More than 300 specimens of its animals were donated by city residents “sympathetic to the cause of acclimatization.” The symbol of the Moscow Zoo, which still operates today, is the wild cat Manul. A year later, a similar institution was opened in St. Petersburg. Today there are about 50 zoos in Russia. Both children and adults love to visit them. There are petting zoos and living areas in almost every city in the Russian Federation. In them, animals that roam freely in enclosures, and are not locked up, can be touched, picked up and fed. A similar opportunity is provided by safari parks and farmsteads open to visitors. “Go to the Zoo” Day encourages you to become familiar with wildlife and enjoy communication with our little brothers.