Ueno Zoo
Ueno Zoo entrance gate
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| Date opened | 1882 |
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| Location | Tokyo, Japan |
| Coordinates | 35°43′03″N 139°46′17″E / 35.71750°N 139.77139°ECoordinates: 35°43′03″N 139°46′17″E / 35.71750°N 139.77139°E |
| Land area | 14.3 ha (35 acres) |
| No. of animals | 2600 |
| No. of species | 464 |
| Memberships | JAZA |
| Major exhibits | giant panda, Sumatran tiger, western lowland gorilla |
The Ueno Zoo (恩賜上野動物園 Onshi Ueno Dōbutsuen?) is a 14.3-hectare (35-acre) zoo, managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and located in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is Japan's oldest zoo, opening on March 20, 1882. It is a five-minute walk from the Park Exit of Ueno Station, with convenient access from Tokyo's public-transportation network. The Ueno Zoo Monorail, the first monorail in the country, connects the eastern and western parts of the grounds.
The zoo is in Ueno Park, a large urban park that is home to museums, a small amusement park, and other attractions. The zoo is closed Mondays (Tuesday if Monday is a holiday).
The zoo started life as a menagerie attached to the National Museum of Natural History. In 1881, responsibility for this menagerie was handed to naturalist and civil servant Tanaka Yoshio, who oversaw its transition into a public zoo. The ground was originally estate of the imperial family, but was (恩賜 onshi?, forming the first part of the name in Japanese, untranslated officially) to the municipal government in 1924 — along with Ueno Park — on the occasion of crown prince Hirohito's wedding.
In August 1943, the administrator of Tokyo, Shigeo Ōdachi, ordered that all "wild and dangerous animals" at the zoo be killed, claiming that bombs could hit the zoo and escaping wild animals would wreak havoc in the streets of Tokyo. Requests by the staff at the zoo for a reprieve, or to evacuate the animals elsewhere, were refused. The animals were executed primarily by poisoning, strangulation or by simply placing the animals on starvation diets. A memorial service was held for the animals in September 1943 (while two of the elephants were still starving) and a permanent memorial (built anew in 1975) can be found in the Ueno Zoo.
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