Wilhelma Zoo

Wilhelma Zoological-Botanical Garden Stuttgart
(German: Wilhelma Zoologisch-Botanischer Garten Stuttgart)
Logo of Wilhelma Zoo and Botanical Garden
Wilhelma Zoo circa 1900
Wilhelma Zoo, Stuttgart Location in Germany
Alternative names	Schloss Wilhelma
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Zoo
Architectural style	Moorish Revival
Classification	Zoo
Location	Bad Cannstatt District, Baden-Württemberg
Address	Wilhelma 13, 70376 Stuttgart, Germany
Town or city	Stuttgart
Country	Germany
Coordinates	Coordinates: 48°48′19″N 9°12′11″E / 48.80528°N 9.20306°E / 48.80528; 9.20306
Opened	1919 (as a botanical garden), 1951 (first animal exhibit)
Client	Wilhelma Zoo
Owner	Baden-Württemberg, Ministry of Finance
Landlord	Baden-Württemberg, Ministry of Finance
Affiliation	Department of Real Estate and Buildings
Grounds	30 hectares (74 acres)
Design and construction
Architect	Ludwig von Zanth
Known for	Wilbär the polar bear, accidentally breeding of a virulent strain of Caulerpa taxifolia
Website
www.wilhelma.de/nc/en/home.html

 Wilhelma  is a zoological-botanical garden in Stuttgart in the Bad Cannstatt District in the north of the city on the grounds of a historic castle. Wilhelma Zoo is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Baden-Württemberg, seeing more than 2 million visitors annually.

The Zoo and Botanical Garden have been staffed since 1846. The Moorish Revival style echoing the Alhambra have been maintained and supplemented since 1960. Today, the zoo has an area of about 30 hectares (0.30 km²), houses around 11,500 animals from around the world composed of roughly 1,200 species and roughly 6000 plants from all climates. Of Germany's zoos, Wilhelma's collection ranks second to the Berlin Zoological Garden. In addition to the public garden, Wilhelma also has a branch office located in Fellbach, where the zoo keeps its stallions.

Wilhelma receives gorilla juveniles rejected by their mother and reared by the zookeepers. At age 2-3, the gorillas are sent back to their original zoo(s).

In 1829, the property the zoo stood near the mineral springs on the Castle Rosenstein estate. Then Duke William I of Württemberg decided to build a royal bathhouse in the gardens. The Duke decided that the bathhouse should be built in the Moorish style in the same fashion as the Alhambra in the Spanish province of Granada, with an attached Orangery. Unfortunately, construction ground to a halt in 1816 due to economic woes caused by the Year Without Summer, so Wilhelma became just another summer residence of the Dukes and later Kings of Württemberg. Ludwig von Zanth was hired in 1837 to design and construct the Duke's bathhouse.