Antwerp Zoo is a zoo in the centre of Antwerp, Belgium, located next to the Antwerpen-Centraal railway station. It is the oldest animal park in the country, and one of the oldest in the world, established on 21 July 1843.

Animals and exhibits

Siberian tiger at Antwerp ZooThe king penguins are housed in a refrigerated compartment.Flamingo enclosure in the Antwerp zoo

Together with its sister park Planckendael, Antwerp Zoo houses over 7,000 animals of about 950 species. Over 1.6 million people visit the zoo and Planckendael each year, and the zoo has around 200,000 supporting members.

Some exhibits and species in the park include:

• Vriesland with king penguins, macaroni penguins, and gentoo penguins. A couple of sea otters has also lived here, but they were replaced by seals after the last one died.
• Aquaforum with California sea lions, used to house bottlenose dolphins up to 1999.
• Reptile house, renovated in 2005 with many species of snakes, lizards, turtles, and frogs, as well as caimans
• The over a century old renovated aquarium, with renovations completed in 2015, housing many species of saltwater and freshwater fish
• Nocturama with aardvarks, tamanduas, two-toed sloths, night monkeys, armadillos, slender lorises, lesser mouse-deer, rakalis, Philippine mouse-deer and Egyptian fruit bats
• Savannah aviary with African buffalos and several bird species including guineafowl, ibises and Abdim’s storks
• Egyptian temple with Asian elephants, Hartmann’s mountain zebras and giraffes,
• Aviaries and bird house with many birds species including military macaws, turacos, toucans, peafowls, pheasants and a large collection of Songbirds.
• Hippotopia with hippopotamus, malayan tapirs, dalmatian pelicans, Coypu and a couple of bird species
• Bearcanyon with spectacled bears, and coatis
• Cat enclosures with Amur leopard, lion and jaguar
• Flemish garden
• Kangaroo house with koalas and a tree-kangaroo
• Moorish temple with Okapis
• Monkey house with guereza, owl-faced monkey, javan lutung, emperor tamarin, black-headed spider monkey, golden-headed lion tamarin, pygmy marmoset, mandrill, Ring-tailed lemur and Black Lemur
• Ape house with chimpanzees, western lowland gorillas and the world’s only eastern lowland gorilla in captivity outside of Africa.
• Birds of prey including snowy owl, spectacled owl, crested caracara, Kea and several vultures
• Other enclosures featuring harbour seal, bongo, meerkat, red panda, North American porcupine, American flamingo and African penguin

All the animals in the zoo and Planckendael combined consume about 41 tons of fish, 52 tons of meat, 37 tons of apples, 36 tons of carrots, 128 tons of hay, 4,000 litres of milk, 23,000 eggs, and 10,000 loaves of bread.

The zoo used to have a dolphinarium called the Aquaforum. At the time of its building, one of the most modern of its kind. Over the years, however, the infrastructure was considered far too small and dated. The zoo’s urban location prevented any expansion and meant the society could not build a new one. In 1999 the two dolphins were relocated to the Duisburg Zoo in Germany because of the new national standards for exhibits, with the exhibit too shallow to keep housing dolphins. The Aquaforum now hold sea lions, which are much less demanding.

List of animals of Zoo Antwerp

Architecture and garden

Antwerp Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the world, established in 1843. Many buildings are very well preserved. Some of them have received new functions throughout the years.

• Entrance of the zoo (1843)
• Egyptian temple (1856)
• Moor temple (1885): it still houses okapis. Antwerp Zoo became the world’s first zoo with okapis in 1918.
• Bird building (1948)
• Nocturama (1968)
• Reptile building (1901): this building looks like a Greek temple.
• Aquarium (1910): designed by Emile Thielens.
• Winter garden (1897): a tropical greenhouse.

On January 1, 1983, the entire park (architecture and garden) was listed as a monument.