Barcelona Zoo re-opens

Barcelona Zoo is open again, having taken all the hygiene and protection measures needed to ensure a safe experience for visitors and maximum safety for staff. Capacity is limited to 50% and opening hours are from 10 am to 7 pm, with the ticket booths closing at 5 pm. Various points have been set up around the site to provide hand sanitiser and information on how to follow the safety regulations. On-site eateries have also been adapted to the new reality, with mobile points set up. Visitors should respect the safety distance of 1.5 metres and it is obligatory to use a face mask when this distance can’t be maintained. Visitors are advised to purchase tickets in advance via the Zoo website.

25/06/2020 20:57 h

Ajuntament de Barcelona

All these measures come within the framework of the BCN Safe City project, which has the goal of ensuring health and hygiene measures to provide safety and foster confidence in the city.

In this respect, the Zoo has started the Global Safe Site certification process with an Excellence rating and will also get the Safe Tourism Certified seal from the Spanish Institute for Quality in Tourism (ICTE). These standards certify that tourist sites have properly implemented the established safety protocols and set up a specific risk prevention system against the virus.

Summer schools at the Zoo

Summer schools are offered from 29 June to 10 September and aimed at youngsters up the age of 16. Participants learn about the nature that surrounds us and acquire values of respect towards conservation and biodiversity. This year’s groups will be smaller, with fixed participants, following the health recommendations at all times to ensure the safety of children and educators. The registration period is still open via the Zoo website.

Bigger app

The Zoo’s mobile app is being re-launched at the same time. Besides information on what there is to see, there are two personalised routes based on the time available for people’s visits, and a new game to explore the biodiversity in a ludic and educational way. The app will also be an agile and direct way of providing updates and measures relating to the current health situation.

35th anniversary of the Zoo Club

Various actions are being prepared for this anniversary, such as the possibility of members being able to invite various friends and relatives to get discounts on tickets. All memberships have been extended by the same amount of time that the Zoo has been closed.

Re-programming of solidarity action

Various solidarity actions were suspended due to Covid-19 and efforts are now being made to re-programme them in the coming months. The first is Dreamnight at the Zoo in September, aimed at children with serious illnesses or disabilities and organised in collaboration with different hospitals and foundations in the metropolitan area.

The final quarter of the year features three other now-traditional events, such as the day by the Fundació Ramon Martí i Bonet to combat visual impairment, and the day to combat heart conditions with the collaboration of the Paediatric Cardiology Service at the Hospital Vall d’Hebron.

Conservation and awareness work

Barcelona Zoo has kept working to guarantee the safety of its staff and animal welfare during lockdown. During these months there have been births among various species, including a White Oryx, extinct in the wild, and a Mhorr Gazelle, a highly vulnerable species. There has also been continuity for existing projects, as well as new initiatives such as the TuroCat project, coordinated by the Barcelona Zoo Foundation with the Ministry for Territory and Sustainability at the Government of Catalonia, as well as the Associació Trenca, with the goal of recovering the European polecat (Mustela putorius), one of the least-known and most threatened carnivores in Catalonia.

A special awareness day is being organised for World Chimpanzee Day on 14 July, offering an occasion to get to know the Zoo’s chimps better and learn about the difficult situation the species is in through talks, games and workshops. There will also be an opportunity to get a first-hand insight into the work of the event’s co-organisers: the Jane Goodall Institute in Spain, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (Sierra Leone), the Fundación Mona and SOS Primates.

Full information on the re-opening of Barcelona Zoo can be found on the website: https://www.zoobarcelona.cat/

 

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