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Hanoi Zoo considers its past and imagines a new, greener future

Director of the Hanoi Zoo, Le Si Thuc talked with Dai Doan Ket (Great Unity) newspaper about the zoo and developing Me Tri Wildlife Park, which, when completed in 2010 will be city’s largest green area.

How would you describe the Hanoi Zoo?

I have worked at the zoo and witnessed all its changes for 30 years. The area was originally overgrown and covered with mud and graves. But it has since become an impressive garden, beautifying the city.

The zoo has received attention and praise from regional and international zoos since becoming a member of the Southeast Asia Zoo Association in 1993.

The park opened in 1976 with 30 species and about 300 individual animals. We now have 90 species and 566 animals. The zoo is home to endangered species, listed in the Viet Nam Red Book, including the Indochina tiger, golden cat and Silver pheasant.

The zoo, originally sat on 1,350sq.m and had only five display areas. It is now nine times larger and features 50 displays.

What about the zoo’s green space?

Hanoi Zoo has become a ‘lung’, a green space which, regulates the air in the city’s west. All 20ha are covered with trees, flowers and grass.

Hanoi Zoo is also a field school for students. They can study biology, zoology and botany, and learn about human beings’ relationship to nature.

The zoo’s Silver pheasant breeding project won a Viet Nam Fund for Supporting Technological Creativity Prize in 1997. What do you think about the achievement?

One of zoo’s main jobs is to conduct research and apply technology to preserve our native animals and plants.

The Silver pheasant was discovered for the first time in the central province of Ha Tinh’s Vu Quang National park in the early 1990s.

The bird is native to Viet Nam and very rare. It took us along time to successfully breed the birds in captivity, but we now have twenty.

The prince and princess of Japan are very interested in pheasants and lauded our efforts when they visited Viet Nam some years ago.

Through a Government initiative there are now 130 birds living throughout Europe and Asia.

Can you tell us about the upcoming Me Tri Wildlife Park?

Viet Nam should have a zoo which meets international standards. I was very lucky to visit zoos in 40 nations. These zoos cover large areas from 100 to 200ha.

We studied the way people build and manage them. We hope to apply their achievements to the Me Tri project. The park will cover 100ha at a cost of VND690 billion (US$45 million).

The park will open to commemorate the 1,000 year founding anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi in 2010. — VNS