Short history Timisoara Zoo

The Zoological garden was opened to the public in 1986. Back then, it hosted around 30 species, the majority coming from our country's fauna.

From the opening and util the end of October 2005, it was administered by the Authonomous Direction Horticultura which was, later on, turned into a commercial entity. The poor administration of this objective could be easily seen.

In order to remedy this situation, starting with 2002, Timisoara City Hall got the ownership title for the land where the zoo was located. In 2003, as the owner of 6,34 hectars, Timisoara City Hall started making the Feasability Study for the fitting up of the zoo.

Until 2002 things didn’t work out quite well at the Zoological Garden because of the unclear juridical situation of the land, which made it impossible to allocate funds for investments in 2003.

In 2004, following a visit to the Zoological Garden in Szeged, Timisoara City Hall made the feasability study and in the autumn of 2004 the Zoo was closed for the public in order to start the fitting out.

Once the Feasability Study was finished and approved by the Local Council of Timisoara the works for rehabilitation, fitting out and compliance with the European standards began according to the projects. The first investment works began with the infrastructure: lighting system (the existing one was unfunctional), sewarage system and pumping gear for sewage.

In 2006 the works continued with the arrangement of alleys, parking places, canals-footbridges, organization on the vertical, drainage for the habitat of the stags and construction habitat for the bears. We became members of the Federation of Public Zoological Gardens and Aquariums which allows us to collaborate with other zoos in the country and members of EAZA.

In 2007 we finished the works at the habitats for emu, guanaco, capuchin monkeys, dwarf kangaroos, ostriches, waterfowl and kinder-zoo.

According to HCL (Local Council Decision) no. 155/25.04.2007 - for the approval of the Agreement ragarding the cooperation between Timisoara and Szeged for local development, there were established collaboration relations on various points regarding the safekeeping of animals in captivity between the two zoological gardens.

The Zoological Garden was reopened to the public on 1 June 2007, the International Children's Day, after a period of time in which the works of rehabilitation were finalized.

It was a real success: thousands of people visited the Zoo only in June.