Tokyo Ueno Zoo Japan | A Visit to the Ueno Park Zoo | Japan's oldest zoo | Tokyo Zoo

Date opened – 1882
Location – Tokyo, Japan
Coordinates – 35°43′03″N 139°46′17″ECoordinates: 35°43′03″N 139°46′17″E
Land area – 14.3 ha (35 acres)
No. of animals – 2600
No. of species – 464
Memberships – JAZA
Major exhibits – giant panda, Sumatran tiger, western lowland gorilla
——-
The Ueno Zoo is a 14.3-hectare (35-acre) zoo, managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and located in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is Japan’s oldest zoo, opened on March 20, 1882. It is a five-minute walk from the Park Exit of Ueno Station, with convenient access from Tokyo’s public-transportation network. The Ueno Zoo Monorail, the first monorail in the country, connects the eastern and western parts of the grounds.
——
The zoo is in Ueno Park, a large urban park that is home to museums, a small amusement park, and other attractions.

The zoo started life as a menagerie attached to the National Museum of Natural History. In 1881, responsibility for this menagerie was handed to naturalist and civil servant Tanaka Yoshio, who oversaw its transition into a public zoo.The ground was originally estate of the imperial family, but was bestowed (恩賜, onshi, forming the first part of the name in Japanese, untranslated officially) to the municipal government in 1924 — along with Ueno Park — on the occasion of crown prince Hirohito’s wedding.

Animals
——-
Polar Bear at the Ueno Zoo
Tiger at the Ueno Zoo
The zoo is home to more than 3,000 individuals representing over 400 species. The Sumatran tiger, and western lowland gorilla head the list of the zoo’s population. Ueno has more species on exhibition than any other zoo in Japan.

At some point, redistribution of the animals among Tokyo’s other zoos (including Tama Zoo and Inokashira Nature Park) left Ueno without a lion. However, in response to public demand, Ueno borrowed a female from the Yokohama Municipal Zoo.
———–
Notable species
Aardvark
African penguin
American bison
American flamingo
Aldabra giant tortoise
Alpaca
Asian elephant
Asiatic lion
Aye-aye
Barbary sheep
Black rhinoceros
California sea lion
De Brazza’s monkey
Dwarf crocodile
Eastern black-and-white colobus
Emu
Eurasian otter
False gharial
Geoffroy’s spider monkey
Giant panda
Hartmann’s mountain zebra
Hippopotamus
Hokkaido brown bear
Japanese black bear
Japanese giant salamander
Japanese macaque
Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth
Maned wolf
Okapi
Polar bear
Pygmy hippopotamus
Red panda
Reticulated giraffe
Ring-tailed lemur
Saltwater crocodile
South American tapir
Sumatran tiger
Sun bear
Western grey kangaroo
Western lowland gorilla
White-handed gibbon