Madrid Zoo (Zoo Acuario de la Casa de Campo)
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| Address |
Casa de Campo S/N 28011 Madrid Spain
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| Telephone |
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| How to
Find it: |
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| Open: |
Open 10-18 |
| Prices: |
Adult 1855 Pesetas, Children about half |
| Area: |
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No of Species |
No of Animals |
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Star
Rating |
| Mammals |
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Conservation |
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| Birds |
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Enclosures |
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| Reptiles |
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Education |
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| Amphibians |
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Recreation |
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| Fish |
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Research |
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| Total |
0 |
0 |
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Click here for a Link to the Zoo’s own Web Pages
Write a
review of this zoo
This critique last updated:
Feb 2008
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Visitor Reviews This review submitted by Neils Johs. Legarth Iversen January 2001
The official name of the Madrid Zoo is something like Zoo Acuario de la Casa del Campo, which shows firstly how important they find their new aquarium, secondly where the whole thing is situated: in the enormous park Casa del Campo in the far west of Madrid, once a royal possession. Normally you can get out there with the metro from Principe Pio (the old Northern Railway station), but currently that part of the line is closed. Instead you should take bus 33, either from Principe Pio or from metro station Extremadura. The zoo is in the southern end of the area, and here you also find the Parque de Atracciones and a road lined with hookers (sorry to say it, but it is true!). The zoo formerly inhabited the eastern part of the Parque de Retiro (closer to the town center), but moved to its present location some 20 years ago. This means that everything is fairly new, but on the other hand old enough for the vegetation to have settled. The planners opted for a geographical structure, with a large African section, an Asian section and smaller American, Australian and European sections. But the principle has not been applied 100 %, – in the immense gorilla house, for instance, you also find one single American alligator. And then there are the special exhibits. I have already mentioned the splendid aquarium, where the focus is exclusively on tropical waters. One positive detail here is that the invertebrates are detailed out on a par with the fish, – and one thing more: the windows were impeccably clean when I was there! Apart from this, the zoo also has a dolphinarium with bottlenosed dolphins. As might be expected the shows are loud… which leads me to my single most important complaint: some noiseloving spaniard at some point in the world history got the insane idea of putting up loudspeakers along all the main pathways of the zoo, spewing out an unholy brew of bad pop music and mangled pieces of classical music. The natives of Spain may like it, I didn't. Another quibble: they have got shows with birds of prey (and parrots) once or twice a day. Which means that the birds – one of each species – have to wait all day on stilts between the shows. In my opinion it would be better to give up the bird shows, if they can't make them without those stilts. Otherwise it is a fine zoo. Go there … but bring a set of ear plugs!
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