Amsterdam - Zoo

(Local Name: Zoo Natura Artis Magistra) Amsterdam Zoo was set up by a private association calling itself Natura Artis Magistra (Nature is the instructor of Art), from which the zoo got its name. The aim was to give the townspeople a better understanding of the world of nature by means of exhibits and live animals. In 1838 a site was acquired in the Plantage Middenlaan and the zoo that was built there came to be known as Artis, an abbreviation of the Latin name. There were few animals to start with but their numbers soon grew, for example by purchases from traveling menageries. In its first hundred years the zoo was open only to members of the Association who came here for Sunday walks and attended the concerts held here in the summer months. When the Association got into financial difficulties the city of Amsterdam and the Province of North Holland bought the zoo and rented it to the Association for the nominal annual sum of one guilder in 1937, since when the zoo has been open to the public. Right from the start the layout has been continuously extended and modernized. Most animals live in outdoor enclosures corresponding as closely as possible to their natural habitats. The zoo's main attractions are the aquarium - which, with about 700 species of fish, is the second largest collection in the world (after West Berlin) - and the nocturnal animal house. Children find the children's farm especially interesting. The zoo has a very interesting Zoological Museum attached.