Seoul Zoo (Gwacheon, Republic of Korea)

In September 2012, I had the opportunity to visit Seoul Zoo which is located at the border of the Seoul and Gwacheon Districts in the Republic of Korea.  Since I was preoccupied with chaperoning a group of students, and because we did not allot enough time to adequately explore what turned out to be a very expansive zoo, I didn’t take as many photographs of the animals as I normally would.

A Really “Grand” Park

Seoul Zoo is located within the Seoul Grand Park. To get there, you ride the subway 11 stops from Seoul Station (about 20 to 25 minutes) to “Seoul Grand Park” station. The park grounds are very, very, large. After exiting the subway station, it is about a 500-meter walk past the parking lots to a large building where you can purchase a ticket to ride an electric tram another kilometer or so through the park to the actual zoo entrance.  You could choose to walk, but because the zoo itself will also require a lot of walking, I recommend the tram.

If I recall correctly, the ticket for the tram was 800 Korean won.  Admission to the zoo itself was 3000 won.

There was a large tiger statue near the zoo entrance.

The zoo grounds are so wide-spread that they have shuttle trams on routes circling the inside of the property.

There is also a chairlift that travels the full length of the zoo, exits the zoo, and returns back to the area where you first boarded the trams.  Riding this lift will add a little thrill to your visit as there are a few worrisome stretches where it takes you over heavy vegetation in the zoo and over a lake in the park.  If you drop your cellular phone or any other possession, you will have to consider it lost for good.

Gardens of Art

The grounds feature many carefully maintained plants and shrubbery and a number of animal-related artworks.

There is even a plaza where metal hippos appear to be sticking their heads out of a blue gravel pond.

The Tigers

Since the amount of time allotted to explore this zoo was short, I decided to concentrate on at least getting some decent photographs and video of the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) enclosures.  At the “Beast Pavilion”, there were two open-air enclosures housing two tigers each.  These enclosures were separated from visitors by a deep concrete dry moat.

At 2:30pm., the tigers were fed some chicken.

Explanation sign for tiger enclosure: other than the name of the animal, everything was written in Korean.

One of the open-air enclosures with dry moat.

Below is a video of this exhibit.

There were also two large cage-type enclosures.  One housed Amur tigers, one housed white tigers.  (Because of the negative aspects and health risks associated with intentionally inbreeding animals to achieve rare color-morphs like white tigers, many zoos do not keep white tigers.)

There was even a food stand decorated in a tiger motif.

Other Exhibits

Entrance to “Ape Pavilion”. 

This exhibit utilized electrified wires and a deep dry moat to keep the animals from escaping.

The “Oriental Pavilion” housed snakes, crocodiles, and monkeys.

“Bear Pavilion”

Dolphin show at “Marine Pavilion”.

The physical size of this zoo was really impressive.  Looking at the map I brought home, I realized that I only managed to walk through about one-third of the property.  Without question, this is one zoo that I would like to someday revisit. 

(Note: All photos taken in this post were taken during a visit on September 10, 2012.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)