Tourist Attractions In France La Palmyre Zoo
Loving France
It is no secret to anyone who has been following me that I am completely in love with France. Whether it is the countryside, the seaside or the city, I always find something in this country that makes me want to see more of it and love it with more fervour.
I really enjoy travelling in France, discovering new places and new attractions for my little ones. I discovered that here children’s attractions are more than just Disneyland Paris or any other themed park. Here most castles –and believe me, there are more than you could visit everyday during a year- are also child friendly, offering activities and information that educate while entertaining your children.
La Palmyre Zoo
A French Zoo
Looking for entertaining and educative attractions, my latest discovery has been a Zoo located in the heart of the wild Côte de Beauté and the beaches of the Charente Maritime, not far from one of my favourite holidays destinations in the Atlantic coast, Royan; it is one of the best known zoos in Europe: The Palmyre Zoo.
The Palmyre zoo houses around 1600 animals from all over the world, all living comfortably in the same environment. And to prove the success of the Palmyre zoo as a zoological park every year this zoo registers between 200 and 300 births, an astoundingly successful birth rate for a zoo.
Zoos, including La Palmyre, play an active role in the conservation of endangered species. The Zoo de La Palmyre has a special interest in several in situ conservation programs. Most of them involve primates, both because these constitute 27% of the animals at the zoo and because they are among the most endangered animals in the wild.
Some Of The Animals At The Palmyre Zoo In France
The Palmyre Zoo engagement
- ZOO de la Palmyre: The back in the wild program
Returning animals to their natural environment is a way of re-establishing or strengthening wild populations. La Palmyre Zoo has collaborated with other zoos in two such projects. The first project involved golden lion tamarins in Brazil. - ZOO de la Palmyre and the The European Endangered Species Program.
The European Endangered Species Program. Many zoos participate in international breeding programs aimed at halting the disappearance of species such as gorillas, white rhinos or Siberian tigers.
What Makes The Palmyre Zoo Special
Apart from housing more than 112 species in a park that covers 18 hectares of land, The Palmyre zoo is one of the most renowned zoos in France and Europe because of its active engagement with animal life.
This French zoo plays an important role in saving those species risking extinction through active participation in 37 European programs. The Palmyre zoo also works towards the reintroduction of animal life back to their natural environment and collaborates with donations to keep programs in their native countries working towards saving their animal life.
Visiting the Palmyre Zoo
If you are visiting the Palmyre Zoo, you must at least, spare at 4 hours for your visit. We spent 8 hours there which included the zoological park as well as a Sea lion show and a bird’s show. During the visit my little ones were able to hand feed the giraffes, elephants, ostriches, and zebras. They also spent a long time playing around with the dwarf goats and visiting the zoo's nursery.
Feeding The Animals At the Palmyre zoo
Learning About Zoos At The Palmyre Zoo
The origin of zoos
This was the first time that we learnt that zoos have their origins in ancient Egypt more than 3,500 years ago, where, we were told, the pharaohs Thoutmes III and Ramses II had collections of exotic or sacred animals. When Renaissance explorers brought back unknown animals from their trips, a fashion for keeping wild animals took seed among the royal courts of Europe. That is how from the 17th century private animal collections began to open to the general public and as early as 1793 one of the first zoological parks opened in Paris in the Jardin des Plantes.
The Palmyre zoo in particular was created in 1967 by Claude Caillé
These days, thankfully, things have changed and zoos not only show animals but they are assuming an active role in the protection of species threatened with extinction.
The Palmyre zoo in numbers: what do the animals eat?
Some of the Mammals you can see at the Palmyre zoo are :
- Elephants
- Gorillas
- Chimpanzees
- Giraffes
- Jaguars
- Lemurs
- Polar bears
- Sea Lions
- Hippopotamus
- Zebras
- Rhinoceros
- Siberian tigers
- Leopards
- Tigers
The Dwarf Goat's Area Children (and parents) Love!
The Palmyre Zoo (a visit in French)
Opening times and prices
La Palmyre Zoo is open all year : 9am–7pm from the1st of April to the 30th of September, and from 9am–6pm the rest of the year.
Sea lion and parrot shows only run from April to the end of October
The zoo is wheelchair accessible.
Parking
is free.
2010 prices are:
- Adults €15
- Children from 3 to 12 years old €11
La Palmyre Zoo is home to 1,600 animals. It attracts 700,000–800,000 visitors a
year. It costs €16,000 a day to run.
How to get to the Palmyre Zoo
Other things to do and see in the area:
- Skydiving in Royan
While visiting the resort town of Royan on the French Atlantic coast I made several friends from Royans school of parachuting. They invited me to see them skydiving and it was great to see them performing all sorts of acrobatics in the air...
