Moscow Zoo

Moscow Zoo is located in the Presnensky District of Moscow, on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street, next to the Krasnopresnenskaya and Barrikadnaya metro stations. It is the oldest zoo in Russia, opened in 1864, and remains one of the city's most visited attractions, drawing millions of visitors a year to see more than a thousand animal species.

History

The zoo was founded on the initiative of the Imperial Russian Society for Acclimatization of Animals and Plants; Moscow University professor Anatoly Bogdanov was one of the main people behind its creation. The first collection held 294 animals, mostly typical of Russian wildlife, though a few exotic species were also present — a leopard, a rhinoceros, a jaguar, a pair of lions and a pair of tigers. The Egyptian viceroy gifted the zoo a zebra.

Despite its promising start, the zoo struggled financially for decades: ticket income never covered its running costs, and by 1900 its debts had reached about 100,000 roubles. The situation changed after the zoo was nationalised in 1919, which brought state funding and allowed a major expansion and modernisation in the 1920s and 1930s. During that period the "Animal Island" was built, with open-air enclosures recreating natural habitats instead of cramped cages. By 1938 annual attendance had grown to three million visitors.

The zoo during the war

Several stories from the Second World War are tied to Moscow Zoo. According to staff accounts, during air raids incendiary bombs fell on the grounds, and the elephants reportedly left their enclosures on their own, dousing each other with water; one elephant is said to have even helped staff put out a burning bomb. A bear named Zoyka missed the 1941 evacuation because she had gone into hibernation, and after waking up she stayed at the zoo for many more years.

What to see

Today the zoo holds more than a thousand animal species across roughly 21.5 hectares. Visitors can see rare and endangered animals such as the Amur tiger, the Far Eastern leopard, the Pallas's cat, the Himalayan bear, the wolverine and snow leopards. In 2019 giant pandas arrived at the zoo for the first time in nearly fifty years, and in 2023 a panda named Ruyi gave birth to a cub — the first panda born in Russia; the panda enclosure has since become one of the most popular spots with visitors.

The grounds are divided into zones recreating natural landscapes from the Far North to the African savanna, with a farm area for domestic animals, aviaries and ponds for waterfowl. The zoo consists of an Old and a New Territory linked by a pedestrian bridge over Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street; a new main entrance was built in the early 1990s, and a further large-scale reconstruction in 2020-2024 added an extra entrance near the Barrikadnaya metro station.

Getting there

Address: Moscow, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street, 1. The nearest metro stations are Krasnopresnenskaya on the Circle Line and Barrikadnaya on the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya Line, both a 3-5 minute walk from the entrance. A second entrance is on the Garden Ring side, on Sadovo-Kudrinskaya Street, near the Malaya Nikitskaya Ulitsa stop. The zoo is open daily with no days off, and ticket counters close at 16:00.