The Las Delicias Zoo () Also Zoological Park of Las Delicias Is an urban zoological garden located at 400 meters above sea level in the northern end of the city of

Maracay Maracay () is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of Girardot Municipality. The population of Maracay and its ...

Aragua State Aragua State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains, jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular beaches are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first national par ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

with native species from the Cordillera region and the rest of Venezuela. The zoo operates under Declaration No. 655 published in Official Gazette No. 32007 of June 17, 1980. The Ministry of the Environment maintains the rectory of the Maracay Zoo and the Aragua State Government assumes some administrative responsibility to support the programs that are developed in the park. The zoo is a historical continuation of a hacienda in the eastern slope of Cola de Caballo Mountains. The zoo of Maracay opened for the first time in 1915 at the initiative of General

Juan Vicente Gómez Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón (24 July 1857 – 17 December 1935) was a Venezuelan military general, politician and '' de facto'' ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. He only officially served as president on three occasions d ...

as a corral with a personal exhibition of many animals presented at Las Delicias hacienda, owned by the president. Then, native animals such as chigüires, nutrias, corocoras, gabanes, garzones soldiers and alligators. In 1928 the collection was enriched with specimens requested from the Hamburg Zoo and other places such as Bengal, Elephant, Giraffe, Orangutan, Chimpanzee and African Lions. Gómez died in his house inside the zoo grounds in December 1935. The zoo was officially inaugurated in 1952 by the then president of Venezuela

Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military officer and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 1950 to 1952 and as president from 1952 t ...

. It was also known for their hybrid bears, which derived from a mating between a male

spectacled bear The spectacled bear (''Tremarctos ornatus''), also known as the South American bear, Andean bear, Andean short-faced bear or mountain bear and locally as jukumari ( Aymara and Quechua), ukumari ( Quechua) or ukuku, is a species of bear native to ...

and a female

Asian black bear The Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), also known as the Asiatic black bear, moon bear and white-chested bear, is a medium-sized bear species native to Asia that is largely adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. It is distributed from southeast ...

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File:Aguila harpia.jpg File:Gansos en Las Delicias.jpg File:Guacamayas Zoo Las Delicias.jpg File:Mono capuchino.jpg File:Zamuro Rey Maracay.jpg

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Las Delicias, Zoo Zoos in Venezuela Protected areas established in 1952 Maracay

Gallery

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References