Fukuoka Zoo & Botanical Garden

Fukuoka City is the 7^th most populated city in Japan with more than 1.4 million people.  The city-owned Fukuoka Zoo & Botanical Garden is a large sprawling facility befitting of such a large urban community.  Opened at its present location in 1953, Fukuoka Zoo has a zoological section and a botanical section.  In this blog, I will only discuss the zoo section areas, and I will discuss them in the order that I viewed them.

Immediately after entering through the main entrance, I went to what was described as the South Garden.  Here, the first area I encountered was the:

Asia Tropical Forest

This area was completed in 2013 and designed with a large and spacious elephant enclosure.  Sadly, at the time of my visit, there were no elephants in residence.  Due to the decline of wild elephant populations, it has become very difficult for Japanese zoos to replace their aging (and dying) elephants. 

Entrance to Asia Tropical Forest

Spiral walkway leading from the elephant enclosure to the orangutan enclosure.

View looking down at the elephant enclosure that did not have elephants.

This was the only elephant I found during my visit.

Proceeding into the tropical forest, I saw:

White-handed Gibbons

Bornean Orangutan

Orangutan in a hammock.

Malayan Sun bear enclosure

This exhibit included a 2^nd floor viewpoint from where you could look down into the enclosure.

The Malayan Sun bear enclosure also included a viewing spot that was located inside of the exhibit.

This is the entrance to the viewing spot.

Access to the viewing spot is through a small tunnel: fun for kids, but torture for anyone over 160 centimeters tall. 

View of the Malayan Sun bear from the viewing spot.

View of Asian Tropical Forest complex

Leopards

Binturong

Leopard cat exhibit

Asian Short-clawed otter exhibit

Big Cats Area

Amur Tiger

The Amur tiger enclosure was mainly a concrete slope with a small pool near the bottom.  There was also a perch for the tiger to sit upon.

Reptile House

This set of exhibits was housed in a small shack. 

Phillipine Sailfin Lizard

Indian Star Tortoise

Japanese Deer, Raptors, Birds

Next to the reptiles was an enclosure of Japanese deer.

Two bucks were jousting.

Others were just watching.

Just across the way from the reptiles and deer were a number of birds in fairly small quarters.

Ural Owl

Common Kestrel

Nihon Kounotori

Hippopotamus enclosure

Children’s Zoo

This area featured domesticated animals, including some that could be petted and/or fed.

Ducks

Rabbits

Guinea pig

Goats

On the slopes below the children’s zoo were the Red Kangaroos.

Moving from the South Garden back towards the main entrance, I next came upon the:

Humboldt Penguins

Red Pandas

Next I moved onto the North Garden part of the zoo which was located on slopes higher than the South Garden area.  Here I saw:

Giraffes

Chimpanzees

This enclosure was designed as a large cage.  For a sense of scale, please look at the height of the people standing in front of the exhibit.

View of inside of cage.

Chimpanzee sleeping in a hammock.

Shooting photos through cage bars is never satisfying.

Next door to the chimpanzees were:

Black Bears

Waterbird cage

This large, walk-in exhibit featured flamingos, wild ducks, etc.

Continuing up the hill, one comes upon the exhibits of animals found in Japan.

Japanese macaques

Exhibits of Japanese tanukis, foxes, and Japanese badgers.

Tanuki - not a good portrait through bars.

Red Fox

Moving along, there was a section devoted to ungulates.

Arabian Oryx

Barbary Sheep

Zebra

Other facilities

Just inside of the main entrance, there was an exhibit hall and a resource room.

Food and Souvenirs

In the South Garden area there was a shop that sold snacks and souvenirs.

In the main entrance building, there was a nice restaurant and a café which also sold souvenirs.  The curry and rice lunch at the restaurant was delicious.

Getting There

I visited Fukuoka Zoo with a friend who did the driving, so I cannot accurately describe the route using public transportation.  According to the zoo’s pamphlet, the closest bus stop to the main gate is the “Doubutsuen-mae” stop using bus routes #56 and #58.  The pamphlet also describes a 15-minute walk to the front gate from the subway Sakurazaka station.  Admission to the zoo was 600 yen for adults, 300 yen for high school students, and free for intermediate students and younger children.

(Note: All photos in this post were taken during a visit made on February 20, 2019.  The comments in this post are based on observations made at that time.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)