The Tel Aviv Zoo was a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

founded in 1938 and located in central

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. The zoo closed in 1980 and the animals were moved to the Zoological Center of Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan. The

Gan Ha'Ir The word Gan or the initials GAN may refer to: Places * Gan, a component of Hebrew placenames literally meaning "garden" China * Gan River (Jiangxi) * Gan River (Inner Mongolia), * Gan County, in Jiangxi province * Gansu, abbreviated ''Gā ...

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

now occupies the zoo's site.

History

When Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Schornstein arrived in Tel Aviv from Copenhagen in 1935, he had purchased some animals in Italy, and started a pet shop at 15 Shenkin Street which he named ‘Gan Hayot’ (‘zoo’ in Hebrew). In 1938 he started the zoo at 65 Hayarkon Street. After some lions and tigers were donated to the zoo, it caused too much disruption in the neighborhood, and was moved to its location behind city hall in 1939. In the late 1960s and the 1970s the zoo was one of the few zoos in the world to successfully breed

flamingos Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...

. In 1981, the animals were moved out of the city to the Zoological Center of Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan. The

now occupies the site of the former zoo. The zoo was home to four elephants when it was closed, two of which were moved to Ramat Gan and two of which were moved elsewhere. Three are still alive as of 2010.

Notes

External links

* Former zoos Zoos in Israel Buildings and structures in Tel Aviv 1938 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 1981 disestablishments in Israel Educational organizations established in 1938 Zoos established in the 1930s Zoos disestablished in the 20th century Educational organizations disestablished in 1980 {{Israel-stub