Almaty Zoo

Almaty Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in Kazakhstan. It was founded in 1937 at the foot of Kok-Tobe beside Gorky Central Park. The zoo was originally planned for Tastak, but its first director, Murzakhan Tolebayev, recommended moving it to the Kazenny Park area. Its history includes the arrival of the Indian elephants Dubas and Palma in 1961 and the opening of an animal theater in 1966. Today, the collection includes 2,781 animals representing 310 species, including about thirty rare species listed in Kazakhstan’s Red Book. Visitors can see giraffes, elephants, rhinoceroses, and zebras; lions, tigers, lynx, and pumas; chimpanzees, gibbons, and hamadryas baboons; and ostriches, swans, cranes, and birds of prey. The aquarium displays sharks, moray eels, and jellyfish, while the terrarium contains snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and turtles.

Almaty Zoo has its own legends. One concerns Katya, a giant Seychelles tortoise said to have been born in 1917. She arrived in 1967 for the zoo’s 30th anniversary and became its largest tortoise, with a shell 120 cm long and a dome 47 cm high. Katya lived a long life but produced no offspring. Another famous resident was Batyr, an elephant whose name means ‘hero.’ He could imitate human speech, dogs barking, and other sounds, and was even said to swear. Batyr reportedly used around twenty words and phrases before his death in 1993.