The National Zoo and Aquarium is a privately owned 25 acres (10.1 ha) zoo

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

 and aquarium

Aquarium

An aquarium is a vivarium consisting of at least one transparent side in which water-dwelling plants or animals are kept. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, marine mammals, turtles, and aquatic plants...

 in the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n capital city of Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

. It is located in Yarralumla

Yarralumla, Australian Capital Territory

Yarralumla is a large inner south suburb of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Located approximately south-west of the city, Yarralumla extends along the south-west bank of Lake Burley Griffin...

 at the western end of Lake Burley Griffin

Lake Burley Griffin

Lake Burley Griffin is an artificial lake in the centre of Canberra, the capital of Australia. It was completed in 1963 after the Molonglo River—which ran between the city centre and Parliamentary Triangle—was dammed...

 also next to Scrivener Dam

Scrivener Dam

Scrivener Dam is a concrete gravity dam in Canberra, Australia. It was completed in 1963 across the Molonglo River to create Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of Canberra. It was named in honour of the surveyor Charles Scrivener. The dam is located at . It was engineered to withstand a...

.

Zoo Motto

"To inspire and assist in the conservation of the natural world through innovative and exciting educational experiences."

The Zoo

The National Zoo and Aquarium is privately owned by Canberra businessman Richard Tindale, and is maintained as a predominantly family-run business. The zoo receives no Government or Commonwealth support, and relies on entry fees from the public to continue operations. The zoo also relies on a large number of volunteer recruits to aid in the management of it's grounds and the animals residing there.

The Zoo is the only combined zoo and aquarium in Australia. The zoo has both Australian endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 species and introduced species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 including the largest collection of big cat

Big cat

The term big cat – which is not a biological classification – is used informally to distinguish the larger felid species from smaller ones. One definition of "big cat" includes the four members of the genus Panthera: the tiger, lion, jaguar, and leopard. Members of this genus are the only cats able...

s in Australia, including, until recently, the only tiglon

Tiglon

A tiglon , tigon, and tion is a hybrid cross between a male tiger and a lioness . Thus, it has parents with the same genus but of different species. The tiglon is not currently as common as the converse hybrid, the liger; however, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tiglons were more...

 in Australasia. The zoo is also involved in a number of breeding programs for endangered species

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

.

The National Zoo and Aquarium plays host to many educational programs and specially designed tours for various groups; including school tours, family groups, Walk on the Wild Side, daily information sessions and children's birthday parties . The zoo runs children's activities during ACT public school holiday periods and a hands-on educational program for children from 8-16 years of age on weekends during the term .

Tux the Penguin

A little penguin at the zoo reportedly bit Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...

, providing the inspiration for Tux

Tux

Tux is a penguin character and the official mascot of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux distributions depict Tux in various styles. In video games featuring the character, female...

 the Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 mascot.

Animals

Australian animals at the zoo include dingo

Dingo

The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...

s, koala

Koala

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....

s, kangaroo

Kangaroo

A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...

s, wallabies

Wallaby

A wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name.-Overview:...

, emu

Emu

The Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae) is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. There are three subspecies of Emus in Australia...

, Tasmanian devil

Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian devil is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae, now found in the wild only on the Australian island state of Tasmania. The size of a small dog, it became the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world following the extinction of the thylacine in 1936...

s, and wombat

Wombat

Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately in length with a short, stubby tail. They are adaptable in their habitat tolerances, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as...

s.

The Zoo maintains a collection of large cats including Tawny lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

s, white lion

White lion

The white lion is occasionally found in wildlife reserves in South Africa and is a rare color mutation of the Kruger subspecies of lion . It has been perpetuated by selective breeding in zoos around the world...

s, a Sumatran tiger

Sumatran Tiger

The Sumatran tiger is a tiger subspecies that inhabits the Indonesian island of Sumatra and has been classified as critically endangered by IUCN in 2008 as the population is projected at 176 to 271 mature individuals, with no subpopulation having an effective population size larger than 50...

, a 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...

, snow leopard

Snow Leopard

The snow leopard is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of South Asia and Central Asia...

s, cheetah

Cheetah

The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...

s, pumas, and serval

Serval

The serval , Leptailurus serval or Caracal serval, known in Afrikaans as Tierboskat, "tiger-forest-cat", is a medium-sized African wild cat. DNA studies have shown that the serval is closely related to the African golden cat and the caracal...

s. Other mammals include brown bear

Brown Bear

The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...

s, sun bear

Sun Bear

The sun bear , sometimes known as the honey bear, is a bear found primarily in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia; North-East India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Southern China, Peninsular Malaysia, and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.-Description:The sun bear...

s, 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...

s, giraffe

Giraffe

The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...

s, common eland

Common Eland

The common eland , also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is the largest antelope in the African continent...

, black-capped capuchin

Tufted Capuchin

The tufted capuchin , also known as brown capuchin or black-capped capuchin is a New World primate from South America...

, common marmoset

Common Marmoset

The common marmoset is a New World monkey. It originally lived on the Northeastern coast of Brazil, in the states of Piaui, Paraiba, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Bahia...

, cottontop tamarin

Cottontop Tamarin

The cotton-top tamarin , also known as the Pinché tamarin, is a small New World monkey weighing less than 1 lb...

, black-and-white ruffed lemur

Black-and-white ruffed lemur

The black-and-white ruffed lemur is the more endangered of the two species of ruffed lemurs, both of which are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Despite having a larger range than the red ruffed lemur, it has a much smaller population that is spread out, living in lower population densities...

s, ring-tailed lemurs

Ring-tailed Lemur

The ring-tailed lemur is a large strepsirrhine primate and the most recognized lemur due to its long, black and white ringed tail. It belongs to Lemuridae, one of five lemur families. It is the only member of the Lemur genus. Like all lemurs it is endemic to the island of Madagascar...

, black-and-white colobus

Black-and-white colobus

Black-and-white colobuses are Old World monkeys of the genus Colobus, native to Africa. They are closely related to the brown colobus monkeys of genus Piliocolobus. The word "colobus" comes from Greek κολοβός kolobós , and is so named because its thumb is a stump.Colobuses are herbivorous, eating...

, De Brazza's monkey

De Brazza's Monkey

De Brazza's monkey is an Old World monkey endemic to the wetlands of central Africa.- Taxonomy :Locally known as swamp monkeys, these primates are named after the Italian-French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. They were given the species name neglectus because of their skill in hiding from...

, red panda

Red Panda

The red panda , is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs...

s, and Oriental small-clawed otters

Oriental Small-clawed Otter

The oriental small-clawed otter , also known as Asian small-clawed otter, is the smallest otter species in the world, weighing less than 5 kg. It lives in mangrove swamps and freshwater wetlands of Bangladesh, Burma, India, southern China, Taiwan, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines,...

.

The Aquarium includes a variety of tropical marine and freshwater bony fish including Murray cod

Murray Cod

The Murray cod is a large Australian predatory freshwater fish of the Maccullochella genus and the Percichthyidae family. Although the species is a called cod in the vernacular, it is not related to the northern hemisphere marine cod species...

, Queensland Groper

Giant grouper

The giant grouper , also known as the brindle bass, brown spotted cod, or bumblebee grouper and as the Queensland groper in Australia, is the largest bony fish found in coral reefs, and the aquatic emblem of Queensland, Australia. It is found throughout the Indo-Pacific region, with the exception...

, humphead wrasse

Humphead wrasse

The humphead wrasse is a wrasse that is mainly found in coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region. It is also known as the Māori wrasse, Napoleon wrasse, Napoleonfish; or "So Mei" 蘇眉 and "Mameng" ....

 and green moray

Green moray

The green moray, Gymnothorax funebris, is a moray eel of the family Muraenidae, found in the western Atlantic from New Jersey, Bermuda, and the northern Gulf of Mexico to Brazil, at depths down to 40 m. Its length is up to 2.5 m.-External links:...

, as well as several shark species including blacktip reef shark

Blacktip reef shark

The blacktip reef shark is a species of requiem shark, family Carcharhinidae, easily identified by the prominent black tips on its fins...

s, tawny nurse shark

Tawny nurse shark

The tawny nurse shark is a species of carpet shark in the family Ginglymostomatidae, and the only extant member of the genus Nebrius. It is found widely along coastlines in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, preferring reefs, sandy flats, and seagrass beds from very shallow water to a depth of 70 m...

, leopard shark

Leopard shark

The leopard shark is a species of houndshark, family Triakidae, found along the Pacific coast of North America from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico...

 and brownbanded bamboo shark

Brownbanded bamboo shark

The brownbanded bamboo shark, Chiloscyllium punctatum, is a bamboo shark in the family Hemiscylliidae found in the Indo-West Pacific from Japan to northern Australia, between latitudes 34° N and 26° S, to depths of . Its length is up to...

.

Reptiles and amphibians at the zoo include shingleback skink, blotched blue-tongued skink

Blotched Blue-tongued Lizard

The Blotched Blue-tongued Lizard is a skink with a fleshy blue tongue which is used to taste the air and scare off potential predators. They are a robust and relatively large member of the skink family that tend to rely on camouflage and bluff as their primary means of defence...

, green iguana

Green Iguana

The Green Iguana or Common Iguana is a large, arboreal herbivorous species of lizard of the genus Iguana native to Central and South America...

, rhinoceros iguana

Rhinoceros Iguana

The Rhinoceros Iguana is a threatened species of lizard in the family Iguanidae that is primarily found on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, shared by the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They vary in length from 61 to 137 cm and skin colors range from a steely gray to a dark green...

, Taiwan beauty snake

Beauty rat snake

The Beauty Rat Snake is a species of long, slender, semi-arboreal snakes that are native to Asia. Their average length is about 5-7 feet, with an unofficial record of slightly under 10 ft...

, reticulated python, Malayan blood python

Python curtus brongersmai

Python curtus brongersmai, a subspecies python, is a non-venomous snake found on the Malay Peninsula.-Description:Adults generally grow to 137-182 cm in length, with females usually a little longer than males, and usually weigh 5.4–9 kg ; much more than other snakes of similar length.The...

, olive python

Liasis olivaceus

Liasis olivaceus is a non-venomous python species found in Australia. Two subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.-Description:...

, boa constrictor

Boa constrictor

The Boa constrictor is a large, heavy-bodied species of snake. It is a member of the family Boidae found in North, Central, and South America, as well as some islands in the Caribbean. A staple of private collections and public displays, its color pattern is highly variable yet distinctive...

, American alligator

American Alligator

The American alligator , sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator, is a reptile endemic only to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two living species of alligator, in the genus Alligator, within the family Alligatoridae...

, pig-nosed turtle, and Australian green tree frogs.

Birds at the zoo include little penguins

Little Penguin

The Little Penguin is the smallest species of penguin. The penguin, which usually grows to an average of in height and in length , is found on the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand, with possible records from Chile.Apart from Little Penguins, they have several common names...

 and peafowl

Peafowl

Peafowl are two Asiatic species of flying birds in the genus Pavo of the pheasant family, Phasianidae, best known for the male's extravagant eye-spotted tail, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen, and the offspring peachicks. The adult female...

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