Greater Vancouver Zoo » Greater Vancouver Zoo

Greater Vancouver Zoo
20-05-2008

Welcome to the Greater Vancouver Zoo | GREATER VANCOUVER ZOO

This collection of approximately 800 animals is located an hour east of Vancouver, and is in essence more of a wildlife park than a proper zoo. It only recently regained its CAZA accreditation after several years of having its "official zoo license" suspended for the inadequate housing of a baby hippo. I visited the zoo during this time and was shocked to see the young hippo living in solitary confinement inside a tiny, dark barn. This female hippo spent a year and a half by herself in a pitiful barn until eventually the zoo constructed a new exhibit and obtained a male for company.

Four hippos have died prematurely at the zoo. Two drowned in their pond in 1983 after falling through ice and then not being able to get out of the water. Their replacements, Gertrude and Harvey, died in 2004 and 2005 due to health reasons. The zoo thus lost its accreditation with the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2004 because its hippo facilities were sub-standard, but regained accreditation in early 2008.

ZOO MAP | GREATER VANCOUVER ZOO

The map of the zoo illustrates how the majority of the animals are hoofstock, and they are exhibited in fairly large enclosures. The problem with such exhibits is that they are generally quite barren, with ugly wire fencing surrounding the mammals. The signage at this zoo is notoriously poor, and many exhibits have either no signs at all or only contain a bare minimum of information.

05/07 ~ SPIDER MONKEY KILLED AND ANOTHER IS MISSING | GREATER VANCOUVER ZOO

The zoo recently made headlines all over Canada for the theft of a spider monkey, and the violent death of its mate.

Overall the zoo is a major disappointment, and nowhere close to Canada's two large zoos in Calgary and Toronto. The Greater Vancouver Zoo does have an excellent grizzly bear exhibit for its solitary bear, and the enclosure is over an acre in size and is full of naturalistic materials. The arctic wolves and several of the hoofstock have adequately sized enclosures, but there isn't a lot to be proud of for this collection of captive animals.

20-05-2008

Thanks for the review, snowleopard. I may be going out that way to see Mountain View this summer, and was planning on visiting. They have some interesting hoofstock (kulan, Alpine ibex), but I haven't heard wondrous things about the facilities.

20-05-2008

Minor detail (but of interest to us zoo historians). Do you remember if they were selling a guide book. The only copy we know of was from 1998 and had an albino black bear, tiger and Asian elephant on the cover.

20-05-2008

@zoospud: sorry but I've never heard anything about a guide book for this zoo. The two elephants (one African and one Asian) eventually transferred to sanctuaries and I believe are now both deceased. The albino black bear is still alive but must be quite old now, and that bear was the zoo's claim to fame for a long time as there aren't many albinos kicking around in zoological collections.

20-05-2008

Actually the African Elephant, Tumpe, is alive and well at Disney's Animal Kingdom where she arrived from the Riverbanks Zoo (Columbia, SC) last year. Hopefully she will breed with one of their two bulls and contribute to the captive population. Also, Tumpe was born at the Toronto Zoo in 1983.

30-06-2008

Very sad occurrence at the Vancouver Zoo on Friday... a Golden Eagle flew into the lion cage during a demo.

CTV.ca | Lions at Vancouver zoo kill captive eagle

30-06-2008

Very sad for the eagle, but I would have to say the whole occurence with the lions was pretty impressive. That sure was some day at the zoo!

idea for Vancover zoo
30-06-2008

If they called themselves Vancouver Zoo Safari Park , it might help to give the visitors a small hint that there will be quite large grassed enclosures , rather than just a "zoo" , which means several sorts of things to people , depending on their preference of animal .
Anyone that gets disappointed over large grassed areas for the enclosures can be informed that this is a little of what it is like in the real world for the animals ....
When Orana Park first started , it was called Orana drive through Lion safari , or something very similar . When people went there , they expected to find large fields with lions and other large carnivores being the main thrust of the attraction . Although the name and the style has changed , the park is still there and has been a real success