Shenzhen Safari Park

Shenzhen Safari Park (Chinese: ) is a zoo located in Shenzhen, China. It is in the Xili Subdistrict, near Xili Lake. and has a surface area of 1.2 million square metres. It is China's first zoo with uncaged animals. The zoo contains over 300 species and over ten thousand animals, including endangered species such as Giant Pandas and South China tigers.

History

On September 28, 1993, the zoo first opened its doors. Since 2004, the zoo's black swans have had a mutualistic relationship with the koi that live in the zoo's waters. Because the swans began dipping their food pellets into the water to moisten the texture, the koi learned to swim up to the swans and eat the pellets. A lioness in the park gave birth to three cubs on May 1, 2014, and failed to care for them. To keep the cubs nourished, park workers had begun bottle-feeding them. On May 16, a local pet store sent a Golden Retriever to care for the cubs, and the dog was accepted as their surrogate mother by the cubs.

Controversy

On October 2, 2014, a horse pulling tourists in a heavy carriage in the zoo collapsed and died for the twelfth time that day. The tourists and some of the zoo's security guards came to the conclusion that the horse died as a result of overwork and malnourishment.