User:Zetagaming/Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park

Zetagaming/Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park
Date opened	1899
Location	Toyohashi, Japan
Land area	39.6 ha (98 acres)
No. of animals	800
No. of species	approx. 140
Major exhibits	Japanese macaque, red panda, Asian elephant, brown bear, lion, Grant's zebra, rhinoceros, giraffe, hippopotamus, polar bear, greater capybara, King penguin, Gentoo penguin, Rockhopper penguin
Website	http://www.nonhoi.jp

The Toyohashi Zoological and Botanical Park (豊橋総合動植物公園,とよはしそうごうどうしょくぶつこうえん）is a public complex located in the Oiwa-cho neighborhood of Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan. The park consists of four sections: a zoo, a botanical garden, the Toyohashi City Natural History Museum, and an amusement park. It also operates under the nickname Non Hoi Park (のんほいパーク). Non and hoi are particles taken from the Mikawa dialect.

Overview

Masajiro Ando opened the first zoo in Toyohashi in 1899. His privately operating Ando Zoo was situated outside of Toyohashi Station. Ando donated the zoo to the city in 1931 and it was renamed to Toyohashi Zoo. The zoo was closed in 1945 after destruction from bombing during World War II and reopened in 1954. The site changed to its current location in Oiwa-cho in 1970 and opened as the Toyohashi Children's Nature Park. In 1992, the zoo was reorganized into a larger 39.6 hectare site and opened as the Toyohashi Zoo and Botanical Park. In 2012, the zoo had been visited by a cumulative 14 million visitors.

Zoo section

As of 2021, 800 animals from 130 species were kept in captivity. A herd of six Asian elephants is kept, the largest size for any public zoo. In 1995, the zoo became the first in Japan to start a polar bear diving show. It is also the only zoo in Japan to have a display where lions can be viewed from below.

In 1970, when the zoo opened as the Children's Nature Park, the park introduced a a "fence-less" exhibit, where animals were isolated by moats and other means so that they could be seen in a more 'natural' state. The areas that were switched to this approach were designed to allow visitors to get a close look at the animals in a close model of their natural environment.

The exhibition facilities allocated for each theme include the Animal Resource Center, which shows stuffed specimens of many mammals, birds, and other animals. In the Nocturnal Animal House, the lights in the museum are turned off around 9:40 a.m. A warning is given to visitors not to use the camera's flash when taking pictures. Visitors can observe African dormice, serval cats, gibbons, aardvark, fennec foxes, and white-bellied hedgehogs.

In the "Nakayoshi Ranch" area, open Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, visitors can ride or straddle a Kiso horse. In the "Mogumogu Hiroba" area, visitors can participate in an animal feeding experience with different animals for different types of food.

Facilities and Main Animals

Thematic Exhibits

Africa Area

• Giraffe, common eland, plains zebra, lesser flamingo, white rhinoceros, American white ibis, common ostrich, grey crowned crane, meerkat, great white pelican

Osawa Pond

• Whooper swan, carp feeding

Australia Area

• Emu, kangaroo, western grey kangaroo, Parma wallaby

Domestic Area

A retired D51 class steam locomotive (D51 89) is installed. Riding or touching is not allowed.

• Oriental stork, black-headed ibis, Chilean flamingo, Japanese black bear, Japanese badger, Japanese squirrel, masked palm civet, Sika deer, American flamingo, Japanese fox, Japanese racoon dog (tanuki)

Polar area

• Rockhopper penguin, king penguin, Humboldt penguin, spotted seal, polar bear

Bird area

• Ruddy kingfisher, blue rock thrush, Japanese bush warbler, black-tailed gull, long-tailed tit, varied tit, Eurasian goshawk, Eurasian skylark, Mandarin duck, common kingfisher, Narcissus flycatcher, mountain hawk-eagle, grey bunting, meadow bunting, Japanese pygmy woodpecker, Japanese thrush, Japanese robin, Indian peafowl, caique, Daurian redstart, common kestrel, White's thrush, peregrine falcon, Japanese wagtail, dusky thrush, silver pheasant, Mikado pheasant, olive-backed pipit, warbling white-eye, blue-and-yellow macaw, red-flanked bluetail

Owl Forest

• Snowy owl, Ural owl, Indian eagle-owl, barn owl

Reptile Area

Reptiles are located in the same building as the orangutan exhibit. HVAC is used to maintain an appropriate climate year-round.

• Leopard gecko, green tree python, emerald tree monitor, Chinese alligator

Monkey Area

• Monkey deck
  • Visitors may ascend a three-meter high platform to observe six species of monkeys living in trees. Each exhibition is climate-controlled.
  • Diana monkey, Geoffroy's spider monkey, gibbon, tufted capuchin, Black-capped squirrel monkey, ring-tailed lemur
• Squirrel monkey area
  • Squirrel monkey

Single-animal exhibits

The 4,400m² asian elephant exhibit is one of the largest in Japan, including a 1660m² pool.

A new lion enclosure was constructed in 2020, including a 'lion catwalk' where parkgoers can observe lions from below.

In 2020, Toyohashi Zoo unveiled the first red panda exhibit in the Tōkai region.

There are hippopotamus shows in the hippo area on Saturdays and Sundays.

• Asian small-clawed otter
• Chimpanzee
• Siberian tiger
• Japanese serow
• Japanese macaque
• Sumatran orangutan
• Common patas monkey
• Sun bear and brown bear
• Mandrill

Natural History Museum

Further information: Toyohashi Natural History Museum

Tyrannosaurus full body skeleton

The Toyohashi Natural History Museum opened on May 1, 1988. Artifact exhibits focus on biological evolution and the natural history of the local area. The museum includes a 67-million-year-old Edmontosaurus fossil, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and other dinsaurs, as well as a mammoth fossil skeleton. Apart from artifacts, the museum offers a variety of activities such as videos and quizzes.

The largest video theater operated by the museum projects 4K quality films in stereoscopic 3D onto a display that is 18m wide and 10m high, the first of its kind in the Tōkai region.

Upon entering the museum, visitors will find a fossil wall in the front hall, where they are allowed to touch real fossils with their hands. The Galapagos Story Exhibition, introduces a diorama of the Galapagos Islands and Charles Darwin's life story. The Edmontosaurus Exhibition shows an actual fossil of edmontosaurus anectens, a "bone bed:", and a dense formation of dinosaur fossils. The Natural History Square will display full-body skeletal specimens of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops. The Local Nature Exhibit, which focuses on the Mikawa region, uses real specimens of plants and animals, replicas, and dioramas to develop the nature and research history of the region. In the outer corridor are immersed specimens of frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus).

In the Paleozoic Exhibit, visitors can grasp the history of the earth from its birth to just before the appearance of dinosaurs. In the Mesozoic Era exhibit, the whole body skeletons of eumosaurus, allosaurus, and stegosaurus, and ammonite fossils are displayed. In the Cenozoic Era Exhibit, visitors can learn about Aachenosaurus and Kenaga mammoth with a whole body skeleton, 600 fossils, and large images.

In the outdoor Dinosaur Land, there are dinosaur models depicting a parent and child Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Iguanadon, Ankylosaurus, and others.

External Links

[[Category:Glass architecture]][[Category:Botanical gardens in Japan]][[Category:Zoos in Japan]][[Category:Coordinates on Wikidata]]