The Perm Zoo celebrated its birthday

Photo by Vitaly Koksharov

On August  6, 2022 Perm Zoo celebrated its 89 anniversary.  During the day there were a number of festivities on the location, including  demonstration of feeding the animals, workshops, awards ceremony, a concert and a foam disco party.   

The festivities programme started at noon with the demonstration of feeding the ottars, followed by “Dream Catcher” workshop for visitors to create their own charms.  Demonstration feeding of the white bears and then the macaques were held twice a day. “BLAST DANCE”   group from Perm taught the elements of contemporary dance at their masterclass.

Young visitors enjoyed the class called “Derivates form the dower chest”: the Perm Zoo specialist demonstrated “the derivates”, i.e. parts of animals, such as horns, feathers, etc.- and explained how these are used by the animals. 

The programme featured the awards ceremony of the  competition “My Favourite Zoo” dedicated to the anniversary of the Zoo.  This was followed by  the concert from “The Virtuosos”  music group. The festivities were competed by a foam disco party.

As reported, Perm Zoo history as an independent organisation started  on August 1, 1933; however, the roots go back further into the earlier days and have a connection to the Perm Regional Local Lore Museum, which had a part called “Live Nature Section” started by a group of famous researchers of Perm and the Urals.  The first exhibits included brown bear Mashka, 5 small foxes, 2 small elks, 2 roe deer, 3 eagle owls and a few birds.  Following the official opening of the section, the number of animals started to grow. Today the Perm Zoo boasts the collection of over 2,000 species representing 282 kinds, 192 of them being entries in “the Red book”.