A Day at the Zoo Park

The Zoo is located on Ismail Somoni Avenue opposite KOHI NAVRUZ or the Navruz Palace. It is easily reached by Trolleybus 2 and 10 or Bus 8, 13 and 23. The cost of entry is 2 somoni. The zoo was once the best in Central Asia, but was badly affected by the civil war between 1992-1997 when most of the animals died. Today it is still struggling to recover it's former glory, but is a popular attraction with local children.There are many f&b options, mostly catered for children and also many booths with activities for the youth.

We walked in a clockwise direction to view the animal exhibits. The exhibits in this area included reindeer, ostrich, goats, sheep, bactrian camels and ponies. All these animals had large spaces with green perimeter fences separating the exhibits. The next area was the aviary. The birds on display included chickens, turkeys, guinea fowls, owls, herons, eagles, falcons and vultures. There are two duck ponds, one to the west and another in the eastern section of the zoo. These cages were also adequately sized for the birds. We were impressed to see an Oryx, which is a rare sight in a zoo, and looked in good health..

Other animals included a badger, fox, porcupine, monkey, lion, bear and coyote.The bear and lion sections were far too small for these large animals. A reptile and house of plants is in the northern area of the zoo. The reptile area was also interesting. This section included hamsters, iguana, desert snake, eastern indigo snake, albino snake, chameleon and boa constrictor. Towards the end of this section was a small aquarium with exhibits including turtles.