Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes

About

The menagerie du Jardin des Plantes is a public zoological park in the National Museum of Natural History, located in Paris in the 5th arrondissement. Founded in 1794 on the initiative of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, this zoo is one of the oldest in the world still open to the public. Since 1993, all buildings, including horticultural or zoological shelters, have been classified as historical monuments.

The menagerie covers about 5.5 hectares in the northeast quarter of the Paris plant garden, bordered by the rue Cuvier in the northwest and the quay Saint-Bernard in the northeast. It presents to the public about 600 mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, plus invertebrates, for a total of 189 species. It is one of the few French zoos to present tree kangaroos, orangutans and Tasmanian devils.

Like the zoological park of Paris (known as the "zoo de Vincennes") and the zoological reserve of Haute-Touche, the menagerie has long been managed by the chair of ethology of the Museum; during the reorganization of the Museum in 2001, it was attached to the "Department of Botanical and Zoological Gardens" and since 2017 to the "Adaptation of the Living" department which manages about...