Avilon Zoo is a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...

located in Barrio San Isidro,

Rodriguez, Rizal Rodriguez, officially the Municipality of Rodriguez ( tgl, Bayan ng Rodriguez), formerly known and still commonly known as Montalban, is a 1st class municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Rizal, Ph ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. It is operated by the Avilon Wildlife Conservation Foundation, which also operated the Ark Avilon Zoo in

Pasig Pasig, officially the City of Pasig ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 803,159 people. It is located along the ...

Zoo

Avilon Zoo is currently the largest zoological institution in the Philippines in terms of land area and collection of animals. The facility located in Rodriguez, Rizal houses more than 3,000 specimens of exotic wildlife representing more than 600 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fishes and invertebrates. The zoo has a diverse collection of Philippine native

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

, most of which have been bred successfully in captivity through Avilon's ex situ conservation programs. Avilon Zoo is also home to a diverse collection of plants of which more than half are endemic to Philippines. Avilon Zoo aims to be one of Southeast Asia's premiere wildlife facilities. At Avilon Zoo guided tours and educational field trips offer guests the opportunity to learn about wildlife. Conservation efforts being done to preserve threatened species and to protect the environment. Aside from the animals and exhibits, guests are encouraged to experience feeding animals like

arapaima The arapaima, pirarucu, or paiche is any large species of bonytongue in the genus ''Arapaima'' native to the Amazon and Essequibo basins of South America. ''Arapaima'' is the type genus of the subfamily Arapaiminae within the family Osteoglossi ...

s, exotic

water fowl The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on ...

giant tortoise Giant tortoises are any of several species of various large land tortoises, which include a number of extinct species, as well as two extant species with multiple subspecies formerly common on the islands of the western Indian Ocean and on the ...

wild horse The wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'', which includes as subspecies the modern domesticated horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') as well as the endangered Przewalski's horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii''). The Europea ...

s and

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

and also interact with the zoo's bunch of talented and friendly creatures.

Ark Avilon Zoo

An affiliate indoor zoo known as the Ark Avilon operated in

from 2008 to 2019.

Avilon Wildlife Conservation Foundation

Avilon Wildlife Conservation Foundation is a non-profit organization that is committed to significantly contribute to Philippine wildlife conservation efforts through education and ex situ species preservation programs. The foundation currently runs Avilon Zoo in

and Ark Avilon Zoo in

. Avilon Wildlife Conservation Foundation is a member of the Southeast Asian Zoos Association (SEAZA).

Notable conservation achievement

Avilon Zoo has successfully bred the Gray's monitor lizard (''Varanus olivaceus'') or "butaan" ''

ex situ Svalbard GLOBAL SEED BANK, an ''ex situ'' conservation. ''Ex situ'' conservation literally means, "off-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered species, variety or breed, of plant or animal outside its natural habitat; ...

'' (in captivity). The first documented ''V. olivaceus'' successfully hatched and reared in captivity was a female named Grasya. The successful hatching was featured in

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

's "BUTAAN: The Lost Dragon".

References

External links

* * {{authority control Zoos in the Philippines Zoos established in 2005 Buildings and structures in Rodriguez, Rizal Tourist attractions in Rizal