Sapporo City Maruyama Zoo

One of the best zoos I've ever visited! The zoo grounds is immense and never feel cramped. Most of the animals have large enclosures with indoor and outdoor spaces, so they can roam around during different seasons and not feel trapped. We saw a large assortment of animals here (birds are a bit lackluster but that's ok. There's a different place for that). The polar bear was hiding when we visited and no hippo! Don't know what happened to it. The zoo restaurant is not bad too! Overall it's an excellent place to visit! The zoo is open air and on an incline since this is near the mountain so you have to come prepared for that.

Takes about 4 hours to see all the animals. We enjoyed the reptile museum the most. We were amazed how clean and well maintained the zoo was. We actively saw many zoo staff clean the cages and feed the animals.

I visited Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo recently. The place is clean and well-organized, and there’s a good variety of animals to see. Some enclosures are more spacious than others, but overall the animals seemed well taken care of. It’s a nice spot for families or a quiet afternoon walk. Not too big, so you can see everything in a couple of hours. Worth a visit if you’re nearby, but don’t expect anything too extraordinary.

Great zoo. Get so close to the animals. Can really see them in entirety. Cutest red panda, beautiful snow leopard are the highlights. But all the famous animals are present Very well worth the tiny entrance fee.

This zoo needs a lot of tender care. We visited on a Tuesday afternoon, only very few people or visitors were here! But we do see some very young school kids here to have their field day! Even this zoo doesn’t have lots of animals, all the animals they have are in good condition and health. But there are many, I mean many empty stalls without any animals. That makes the zoo looked very sad. The animal that impressed me the most is the tiger. It looks magnificent The polar bear also looks very good. Best wishes to this zoo and the animals!

I visited Maruyama Zoo (円山動物園) in Sapporo during the winter, when everything was covered in white snow. The scenery was beautiful and felt like stepping into another world. Despite the cold weather, all the animals looked healthy and well-cared for, which shows how dedicated the staff are. It was also my first time ever seeing a polar bear, seal, and penguin in real life — such an amazing and memorable experience! My visit was truly enjoyable and left a strong impression on me. I hope to return again someday, perhaps in the summer or autumn, to see the zoo in a different season. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Sapporo!

Date: 03/05/2025 Reach around 10am, took a nice stroll along the trail. It is nice to reach before the crowd. A very nice zoo, I must say, much much better than Asahiyama Zoo. Lots of animals to visit ❤️ The Tiger and Brown Bear were very accommodating that day, moving a lot and interactive. The staff at the indoor seating for the elephant gave a nice explanation about the elephant while throwing some apples for it to eat and get near us. Lots of people picnic at the middle of the zoo while enjoying the company of cherry blossom, we joined in as well for our lunch 🥰 Definitely recommend visiting Maruyama Zoo!

Visited in the summer season. Wasn't expecting much as the fee was 800JPY, and this wasn't marketed as some national zoo. However, this might genuinely have been one of the best zoos I've been to so far. Not only did the variety of animals far exceed my initial expectations, the animals' living quarters were also very spacious--- usually with both an outdoor and indoor area for roaming and resting respectively. The best exhibits in my opinion were the polar bear and elephant exhibits. The tiger however, could have been afforded more space to run around, however. Worth a visit, if you are a true animal lover. All the best to the staff and animals of the Maruyama Zoo.