Manila Zoo

I've been to many zoos and didn't expect them to have so few animals. The birds are well taken care of. There’s not much grass for the zebras to eat and I’m a bit concerned about the lions and tigers in their enclosures, their spaces seem a bit too small for them. They look sad. :(

Our son enjoyed his first visit to Manila Zoo, running around its now spacious area. Although some animals were not present when we visited. One of his favorite animals is the giraffe, so he went looking for it, but he never saw it. I personally appreciate the comfort rooms—each cubicle has its own bidets, good water pressure, and the unique design of the sinks. 😁 They also have a separate diaper changing room for those who have babies/toddlers.

The area is big but because of the hot weather the animals are hiding from the sun. Don't bring your own water and food inside. A little pricey for the food inside. Few animals. Too hard the capture photos especially the ones who has a glass wall. Book in advance for the qr code. Bring an umbrella or a cap. Comfortable shoes or slippers.

Visited this zoo before few years back when the entrance was still free, and unfortunately they had more animals way back. It seems that the new government wasn't able to continue what the older one have started. There are labels and information about a lot of animals which aren't actually there( giraffe, zebra, hyena, hippo, elephant(recently died last 2023). Butterfly garden had a lot of differrnt butterflies before, but now it only has a single butterfly species roaming around. They probably have plans of getting those animals but maybe when Manila had a new government, those plan were frustrated. Now that theyre back, I hope that they'll be able to continue what they started before.

The zoo has definitely improved compared to our visit sometime in 2013. The facilities were okay however, there were not too many animals and we were a bit disappointed because of this. For the price of 300 per adult, we just considered our entrance fee as a donation to the zoo... I hope there would be more animals in the future and /that the animals will be well taken cared of so our children can still see them someday.

I’m a bit of a zoo nerd and have been to scored of zoological parks across the world. Manila Zoo, won’t say it was awesome, but it was interesting. Started with an awkward tickets g process where I gave staff cash and they bought the ticket on an app and printed a paper ticket at a kiosk that I couldn’t use. The there was either the painted horse or perhaps Zorse or Hebra, not sure. The outside aviary with the pheasant pictured was primarily filled with local pigeons…on purpose, like as the exhibit. No croc, no primates, butterfly house was small and had like 2 species. Reptile house was mainly pythons, turtles and a few iguanas. Big aviary was just peafowl, which was cool since you often don’t get to see peacock display and dance. But with all the weird lameness of the animals on, or not, exhibit, the infrastructure was nice. A little rundown, but you could tell at some point in the past the Manila Zoo was likely a premier park. Kids playground integrated into primate enclosures, boardwalks, water features. Was probably a nice inner city zoo, but those days have past. Recommend visiting because I’ll always recommend a Zoo, but want to set expectations low. Less than $10 for both tickets for me and my son.

Well ventilated area. Many animals inside so the kids will enjoy. Unfortunately, the tigers were sleeping when we went (after lunch). Overall, the experience was nice. It is recommended to purchase admission tickets online because there were many walk-in visitors.

We went to the Manila Zoo because My son Heard about the Zoo from his friend, Wishing that he will sees some of his favorite Animal likes giraffe, but Fortunately we cannot see those Animals. We spend over 30 minutes trying to understand how this few Animal Survive from this hash Condition. Anyway the Zoo is a complete disaster, I can tell that this is not a Zoo, but I rather called it a Animals Prison Camp. This few Animal are so struggling to survive, I am so sorry to see them, I want the Government to Shut down this zoo and let this Animal and reptiles and birds free. It's not good to just use them to make money from them..

So yeah, what's a Manila tour without a quick visit to Manila Zoo? So just to let you know in a straightforward manner, you guys can do better than visit this place. Because seriously, who will pay 100 pesos to see an elephant who looks more sick than my stomach when it smells prawns. But hey, the good news is the city government of Manila is actually planning to rehabilitate the zoo in a billion-dollar project and a firm who will join forces for a venture agreement to improve the zoo. So at least next time we get to see a healthier version of Mr. Elephant?

Here's an idea: take a kid and a socially-sensitive adult to a zoo, and see just how different their reactions are. A kid will ooh and aah at the animals, and maybe tap on the glass in the reptile room, a la Dudley in Harry Potter. The adult will most likely start off indulging and humoring the kid, but you might see him cringe at a particularly deplorable-looking cage and the sad animal inside it. The Manila Zoo needs to step up its game. I don't know if it is lacking in funds, as there is a continuous stream of people going in and out, especially during the weekends. But the state of the animals is just sad. Mali the elephant has to stand in the heat all damn day. The lions have their bones sticking out from malnutrition, and the tigers are losing their fur. Let's do something about this, please?

From a tourist's point of view, the Manila Zoo is an okay place to add to your itinerary without shelling out too much money. After all, for P100 pesos you get to see a 40-year old elephant, a lion, some rare birds, and more. From any other point of view however, I can't really say there's much merit to the zoo. It's particularly dirty, and having visited on a weekend there were more people than usual, including a group that was rather rowdy and very disrespectful to the animals, disturbing the ones who were sleeping (it was 1pm, an employee told me a lot of the animals, particularly the mammals would sleep at this time). The cages seemed to be in poor condition and the humidity was unbearable even for me, so I couldn't even imagine what it was like for the poor animals. I definitely would not recommend going here.

Zoos, for better or worse, are tourist attraction anywhere you go. I know how controversial they are of late but I feel that they still have a place in this world. Even if you could read up or watch animals online, the educational experience of seeing them in the flesh is still different. That's the ideal anyway. Manila Zoo is a relic from the 60's. I'd wager that what it looked like back then is the same as it looks now. It's old and run down. It's still a cheap way to spend an afternoon in Manila, but it could be better. The zoo has been subject to criticism recently because of activists claiming that the zoo's star, Mali the elephant, is living in deplorable conditions, which is sadly true. I'm giving this three stars because the whole experience is still good for kids. For adults however, it's a completely different story. The zoo is set to be rehabilitated over the next couple of years. Let's just hope that by then it would be something we could be proud of.