page_title: Belfast Zoo
hierarchical_section_title: Belfast Zoo
caption_attribution_description: English: Credit Neil Rickards at Flickr
context_page_description: Belfast Zoological Gardens is a zoo in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is located in a relatively secluded location on the northeastern slope of Cavehill, overlooking Belfast's Antrim Road, resulting in a uniquely tranquil environment for the animals that the zoo is frequently praised for.
  Belfast Zoo is one of the top fee-paying visitor attractions in Northern Ireland, receiving more than 300,000 visitors a year. Located in north Belfast, the zoo's 55-acre site is home to more than 1,200 animals and 140 species.
  The majority of the animals in Belfast Zoo are in danger in their natural habitat. The zoo carries out important conservation work and takes part in over 90 European and international breeding programmes which help to ensure the survival of many species under threat.
  Belfast Zoo is owned by Belfast City Council. The council spends £1.5 million every year on running and promoting the zoo, which is one of the few local government-funded zoos in the UK and Ireland.
  The zoo's work is overseen by the council's Parks and Leisure Committee. The committee is made up of 20 locally elected councillors.
  The story of Belfast Zoo begins with the city's public transport system.
context_section_description: Belfast Zoological Gardens (also known as Bellevue Zoo) is a zoo in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is located in a relatively secluded location on the northeastern slope of Cavehill, overlooking Belfast's Antrim Road, resulting in a uniquely tranquil environment for the animals that the zoo is frequently praised for.
  Belfast Zoo is one of the top fee-paying visitor attractions in Northern Ireland, receiving more than 300,000 visitors a year. Located in north Belfast, the zoo's 55-acre (22 ha) site is home to more than 1,200 animals and 140 species.
  The majority of the animals in Belfast Zoo are in danger in their natural habitat. The zoo carries out important conservation work and takes part in over 90 European and international breeding programmes which help to ensure the survival of many species under threat.
  Belfast Zoo is owned by Belfast City Council. The council spends £1.5 million every year on running and promoting the zoo, which is one of the few local government-funded zoos in the UK and Ireland.
  The zoo's work is overseen by the council's Parks and Leisure Committee. The committee is made up of 20 locally elected councillors.
  The story of Belfast Zoo begins with the city's public transport system. At the beginning of the 20th century, passengers from Belfast were transported to the villages of Whitewell and Glengormley by horse-drawn trams belonging to the Belfast Street Tramway company and steam tramways from Cavehill and Whitewell.
  In 1911, the tram line was taken over by Belfast Corporation, now Belfast City Council. The corporation decided to build a miniature railway, playground, and pleasure gardens. The area was named Bellevue, meaning 'good or pretty view'.
  During the 1920s and 1930s, the gardens were a popular destination for day trips. In 1933, the corporation decided to install a representative zoological collection on the site. Then, in 1934, 12 acres (4.9 ha) on either side of the Grand Floral Staircase, a series of steps designed to reach the top of the hillside, were laid out as Bellevue Zoo.
  It took 150 men to build the site and the steps can still be seen from Antrim Road today. The zoo was opened on 28 March 1934 by Sir Crawford McCullough, the then Lord Mayor of Belfast. The venture was supported by Councillor RJR Harcourt from Belfast Corporation and was partnered by George Chapman, an animal dealer and circus entrepreneur.
  It cost £10,000 (approximately £700,000 in today's money) to build and a total of 284,713 people visited the zoo in its first year.
  Western lowland gorilla
  Pygmy marmoset
  White-belted ruffed lemur
  Red-bellied lemur
  Ring-tailed lemur
  Crowned lemur
  Crowned sifaka
  Red titi monkey
  Black and white colobus
  Red-backed bearded saki
  Geoffrey's marmoset
  Pied tamarin
  Moloch gibbon
  Golden lion tamarin
  Francois langur
  Emperor tamarin
  Colombian spider monkey
  Common chimpanzee
  Cotton-top tamarin
  Venezuelan red howler monkey
  Asian elephant
  Spectacled bear
  Californian sea lion
  Red kangaroo
  Visayan warty pig
  Barbary lion
  Giant anteater
  White-nosed coati
  Blesbok
  Spotted-necked otter
  Rodrigues fruit bat
  Red panda
  Malayan sun bear
  Maned wolf
  Vicuna
  Rothschild's giraffe
  Malayan tapir
  Striped hyena
  Temminck's golden cat
  Red river hog
  Eastern bongo
  Grant's zebra
  Goodfellow's tree kangaroo
  Fossa
  Cape porcupine
  Meerkat
  Black-tailed prairie dog
  Capybara
  Red squirrel
  Southern pudu
  Citron-crested cockatoo
  Moluccan cockatoo
  Red-tailed black cockatoo
  White-tailed black cockatoo
  Palm cockatoo
  Bali starling
  Toco toucan
  Von der Decken's hornbill
  White-tailed sea eagle
  Barn owl
  Chilean flamingo
  Indian peafowl
  Nicobar pigeon
  White-crested turaco
  Luzon bleeding-heart dove
  Gentoo penguin
  Rockhopper penguin
  Andean goose
  Socorro dove
  Helmeted guineafowl
  Sunbittern
  Ostrich
  Darwin's rhea
  Tawny frogmouth
  Red-crested turaco
  Wattled jacana
  Blue-crowned laughing thrush
  Chestnut-backed thrush
  Coscoroba swan
  Southern crowned pigeon
  Crested wood partridge
  Southern screamer
  Laughing kookaburra
  Orange-headed ground thrush
  Pied imperial pigeon
  Violaceous turaco
  Temminck's tragopan
  White-browed coucal
  Beaded lizard
  Royal py
caption: The giraffe and zebra enclosure
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