Taipei Zoo’s present hillside site reflects a major move in its history: the institution began at Yuanshan and reopened in Muzha in 1987. Its story tracks changing ideas about animal care, conservation, education, and the role of a city zoo.
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The zoo’s broad hillside setting feels far removed from a small city menagerie, and that difference is part of its history. Taipei Zoo began as a private zoological garden at Yuanshan in 1914; the Japanese colonial government acquired it the next year and turned it into a public zoo.
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- A private zoological garden opened at Yuanshan in 1914.
- The Muzha zoo opened on January 1, 1987.
- Taipei Zoo identifies conservation, education, research, and recreation as its main functions.
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