Last summer I promised my little cousins that we would spend a day together and go the bio-park Zoom Torino. It is located about twenty kilometers from home and five kilometers from where I work, but I had never had occasion to visit it before.
With those nice and warm fall days, I reminded this nice time spent there and it came into my mind as a good option to spend a saturday and sunday with children just outside the city in a quiet and natural environment.
Zoom Torino is an immersive bio-park, not a zoo as I had always imagined. I was surprised because I was afraid of finding sad animals in their captivity, while walking through the various settings and observing the behavior of animals carefully I had to change my mind about that.
Zoom Torino, which wants to become the reference point in Italy and Europe to share knowledge of the animals and their habitats is a newly developed bio-park, away from the old and outdated idea of traditional zoo. It aims to raise awareness and protect animals, preserve and defend endangered species, support research and develop environmental issues. For this reason some animal species are not always visible except during some organized and planned walks and always under the watchful guidance of biologists working in the park and taking care to ensure that animals receive all the attention they need.
I cannot forget the fun we had and the joy I could see in the eyes of Arianna & Alice to see the hippopotamus in the big tub! Me too, I admit, I was charmed by these animals that have always been my favorite. And what about the laughter that we made when the biologist explained us the habits of these animals and that the hippos produce 80 kg of shit per day !!!
The part that most enthused us [and I talk about all three, because even myself, at the end, I came back as a “little girl”] was the walk with lemurs.
This walk is one of the scheduled and organized together with park biologists who expressly ask to not lean on walls or touch animals.
Just imagine the shock when a lemur jumped from one side of the path in which we walked to the other! We had stopped for a moment to listen to the explanation of the guide and I saw myself passing the animal a few centimeters from my face. We then noticed that lemurs have fun to shock visitors, they do so almost on purpose!
I challenge anyone in that situation, not to think of Maurice, the king of the lemurs of Madagascar. the famous cartoon!
During 2016, the bio-park Zoom launches a communication campaign “to Know to Preserve”: to draw attention to the fact that human behavior is seriously threatening the four basic natural elements: water, air, fire and earth.
The message it wants to convey, especially to the children who will be future generations and who will have to manage our planet, is to know something or someone to be able to defend it.
Located about 30 km from Turin, the Park is also easily accessible from Lombardia and Liguria with about two hours by car or by train. Inside the park there are several eateries with meals for adults and children (that often come with animal gadgets).
Inside the park there is also a beautiful swimming pool with a sandy beach, for hot summer days, where you can spend part of the visit swimming and relaxing.
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This is such a unique place to be with kids. I too would have shocked with the lemur jumping past my face. I can understand returning back as a child after the experience here.
It is a nice place to be even for grown up 😉
Cute animals at the park 🙂 I love the message of conservation that the park spreads – especially as humans are the main cause of habitat destruction and the only ones who can stop it. Xx
Yes, I like the message too! I think it's very important for next generations
This looks like so much fun! I would love to get to be so close to lemurs. It's refreshing to hear the animals didn't seem sad like they do in many zoos.
I wouldn't go or even write if the animals would have been in sad cages
I found the lemurs so cute! But ya guess they would shock a child at first. Such a lovely place to take your kids to 🙂
Actually it wasn't a shock for the kids, but more for me instead. LOL
this place is just so so amazing, i mean… just look at the awesome images here.
The hipo and lemurs reminds me of the animated movie Madagascar. There is no boring times in the zoo!
Loved the post. The pictures say it all. It's a fun place for kids and adults as well I guess. I would have Definitely enjoyed here.