The Matecaña City Zoo is located in Pereira, Colombia

Pereira, Colombia

Pereira is the capital city of the Colombian department of Risaralda. It stands in the center of the western region of the country, located in a small valley that descends from a part of the western Andes mountain chain. Its strategic location in the coffee producing area makes the city an urban...

, the work of the Society of Public Improvements Pereira, who on January 26, 1951, through a management buy the 17 hectares (42 acre) of farm Matecaña. The initial goal was to build a football stadium, but the ground was not considered useful for this, and decided to spend at a botanical garden and playground.

Currently the zoo is at its Matecaña master plan renovation of facilities that aim to change cages by plant more closely resemble the natural habitats of the animals exhibited originating ecosystems, providing a better quality of life for animals and a better understanding to the community who daily visit. The zoo has a collection of 800 individuals from 150 different species, between bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s, mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s and snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

s from Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, plus some endemic animals. In the garden there is also a great diversity of flora endemic and native to the area.

History

• In 1959 the first secure cages were built to lock the few captive animals, the project was made official and the purchase of animals was authorized. In 1961 was the chronological accuracy of its foundation and opened an item in the budget for food, maintenance and management of animals like condor
  Condor
  Condor is the name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere.They are:* The Andean Condor which inhabits the Andean mountains....
  
  s (Andean Condor), Bengal tiger
  Bengal Tiger
  The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...
  
  s (Panthera tigris tigris), eagles
  Eagle
  Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
  
   and the Colombian Atlantic coast flamingo
  Flamingo
  Flamingos or flamingoes are gregarious wading birds in the genus Phoenicopterus , the only genus in the family Phoenicopteridae...
  
  s .

• In 1968 the park was visited by dignitaries from Mexico
  Mexico
  The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
  
   and made contact with the Chapultepec
  Chapultepec
  Chapultepec Park, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" in Mexico City, is the largest city park in Latin America, measuring in total just over 686 hectares. Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of the park's main functions is to be an ecological space in the vast...
  
   Zoo. The animals purchased were an Asian elephant
  Asian Elephant
  The Asian or Asiatic elephant is the only living species of the genus Elephas and distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Three subspecies are recognized — Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant or E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m....
  
  , a zebra
  Zebra
  Zebras are several species of African equids united by their distinctive black and white stripes. Their stripes come in different patterns unique to each individual. They are generally social animals that live in small harems to large herds...
  
   (male), two hippo
  Hippo
  A hippo or hippopotamus is either of two species of large African mammal which live mainly in and near water:* Hippopotamus* Pygmy HippopotamusHippo may also refer to:-Given names:...
  
  s, sacred baboons (Papio hamadryas) and sable
  Sable
  The sable is a species of marten which inhabits forest environments, primarily in Russia from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, in northern Mongolia and China and on Hokkaidō in Japan. Its range in the wild originally extended through European Russia to Poland and Scandinavia...
  
   antelope
  Antelope
  Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...
  
  s. expanding the collection.

• The collection was maintained until 1993 when exotic african fauna arrived from farm Napoles
  Hacienda Napoles
  Hacienda Nápoles is the luxurious estate built and owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia...
  
  . (Pablo Escobar
  Pablo Escobar
  Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug lord. He was an elusive cocaine trafficker and rich and successful criminal. He owned numerous luxury residences, automobiles, and even airplanes...
  
  's country house)

• In 1999 the education department was established to coordinate environmental education programs for the conservation of biodiversity in Colombia and spread the importance of all species of wild fauna and flora.

Services

The park organizes guided tours, environmental workshops, seminars, lectures, consults with researchers, and leisure activities (Safaris, birthdays, nocturnal guided tours, recreational holidays).

Matecaña zoo sites

• Serpent
• Clinic
• Step Home
• Bird place (aviary)
• Museum of Natural Sciences
• Lake
• Education Department (Zoo Guides)