User:Cherenkova07/The Rostov Zoo

The Rostov Zoo is one of the largest zoos in Russia (an area of approximately 90 hectares). It’s a zoological park that is rich in its traditions. It is located in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.

The Rostov Zoo is a participant of 38 programmes to save rare and threatened species of animals and is an ISIS (International Species Information System) member. A zoo’s distinctive feature is the large park area which makes zoo a particularly popular resting place for the city's residents. The Rostov Zoo’s plants are a natural monument.

History
The Rostov Zoo was founded in June 1927 on the school petting zoo basis and that school was named after the Soviet Union Marshal S. M. Budennyy. It was founded thanks to the pupils and the teacher of one of the Rostov schools (now it is the school no. 43 located at 64 Budennovsky av.).

On June 26, 1927, the Zoological Garden was opened on the school area for the public’s access. In the autumn of 1929, the school collection of animals was transported to the city outskirts where five urban cottages were allocated for it. Vladimir Vilgelmovich Kegel, a school teacher and a natural history study group founder, was the first director of the Zoo.

In 1930, the zoo had got exotic animals such as an elephant, a lion, a tiger, a puma, a leopard, a crocodile, sea lions, a python, monkeys, parrots, llamas, ostriches. They were confiscated from the Anatoly Filatov’s private zoo because of his tax debts. At that time he toured at the Theater Square in Rostov.

In 1935, the Rostov Zoo got the emus progeny. The city provided all the zoos of the country with these birds, as well as two foreign zoos - in China and Romania.

On 5 September, 2009, the Rostov Zoo received three elephants from the Berlin Friedrichsfelde zoo. The Rostov Zoo has had no elephants for over twenty years and then got them in exchange for a white bear cub. But this was not the end of the story: in December, 2010, a baby-elephant, a girl, was unexpectedly born in the zoo. Apparently, the elephant was transferred to the Rostov Zoo being already pregnant.

Collection
This Zoo is one of the zoos that have the largest territory across Russia. There are about 5 thousand animals belonging to 400 species - 105 species are included in the IUCN Red List, 33 species in the Russia Red Data Book, and 132 species are added to the lists of applications of the CITES Convention.The Rostov Zoo cooperates with the world leading scientific and public organizations dealing with the problems of rare and threatened animal species’ conservation. There is the large number of animal species listed both in the International Red Data Book and in the regional lists of rare and threatened animals.

The Rostov Zoo has one of the highest rates of breeding white-tailed eagles in Europe.

The zoo also has an aquarium section where a broad range of underwater world inhabitants is represented - from the Don Edge fishes to the rare freshwater rays and crabs from South America. There are crocodiles from South-East Asia, a variety of turtles, snakes from Central Asia, Africa, America, as well as other exotic reptiles in the terrarium.