Taiwan's Zoos: The Oldest Is Not Muzha, and the Largest Is Not the Whole Story

30-Second Overview

30-second overview: Taiwan has only three public zoos: Taipei, Hsinchu and Kaohsiung's Shoushan Zoo. But once private safari parks, aquariums and ocean theme parks are included, at least 10 institutions matter. "Oldest" has two answers: Taipei Zoo began in 1914, while Hsinchu Zoo, founded in 1936, is the oldest existing zoo still on its original site.

A Map of the Island

On July 6, 2013, Yuan Zai (圓仔), Taipei Zoo's first giant panda cub, was born. She became a city event: queues, livestreams, merchandise and people who had not visited a zoo in years suddenly knew Muzha had a baby panda.

Taiwan's zoo map, though, does not begin or end at Muzha. Yuanshan in 1914, Hsinchu Park in 1936, Sizihwan in 1978, Guanxi in 1979, Checheng's coast in 2000 and Taoyuan's high-speed rail district in 2020 together show how Taiwan has learned to look at animals.

The tricky part is terminology. Taipei is the oldest institution; Hsinchu is the oldest zoo still on its original site; Shoushan has both Sizihwan and Shoushan periods. Moves like these usually mean a city has changed its ideas about land, transport and animals.

The blanks matter. Public institutions usually publish annual reports; private operators often appear only in broader amusement-park statistics or scattered news.

The Three Public Zoos

Taipei Zoo is the old tree of Taiwan's zoo system. It opened at Yuanshan in 1914, moved to Muzha in 1986 and now covers 165 hectares, making it one of the world's major metropolitan zoos. In Taiwan, "going to the zoo" often means this place.

Its most famous animals are the giant pandas. Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓) arrived from China in 2008, their names carrying a cross-strait message of reunion. Yuan Zai's 2013 birth turned the zoo into a stage for politics, media and city affection.

But Taipei Zoo is not only pandas. Formosan black bears, pangolins, leopard cats and conservation research are where it connects to Taiwan's biodiversity hotspots.

Hsinchu Zoo works in miniature. It is only about 2.7 hectares, yet it has stayed in Hsinchu Park since 1936. After closing in 2017, it reopened in 2019 as "Zoo Reborn," focused less on star animals than on removing iron cages from the visitor's view.

"No cages" does not mean no boundaries. It means terrain, glass, moats and planting do some of the work. Director Yang Chiaming once said that if the goal was merely to see rare animals, "you can pay money to buy them." Hsinchu's real move was restraint: fewer animals, better care.

Shoushan Zoo puts the same question into a hill. It began at Sizihwan in 1978, moved to Shoushan in 1986 and reopened after renovation in late 2022. Elevated walkways let visitors see animals through trees, side angles and gaps, not only from cage fronts.

Together, the three public zoos describe three cities: Taipei at capital scale, Hsinchu as civic memory and Kaohsiung as mountain-and-sea terrain.

Private Safari Parks and Encounter Zones

Leofoo Village is remembered as a theme park, but it began in 1979 as a wildlife park in Guanxi, Hsinchu County. The operator says it was then Taiwan's only and largest free-range wildlife park, covering 73 hectares, before later theme areas were added.

Its signature is a viewing system: a steam train through herbivores, a bus into the predator area, and visitors moving among rides, hotels and animals.

Wanpi World Safari Zoo in Xuejia, Tainan, opened in 1994. It says it now keeps more than 300 species and more than 2,000 animals in a semi-open setting. Social media remembers its capybaras, giraffes, alpacas, meerkats, servals and encounters.

Wanpi's value and risk both sit in "closeness." It brings children near animals, but it also makes welfare, feeding rules and encounter boundaries daily management. The full debate belongs in zoo and exhibition animal ethics; the directory point is that private parks often sell a distance public zoos avoid.

Aquariums and Ocean Parks

If land zoos show how cities make room for animals, Taiwan's aquariums show how an island imagines the sea. The National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Checheng, Pingtung, opened in 2000, with Waters of Taiwan, Coral Kingdom and World Waters as its core galleries.

NMMBA is also a museum, research institution, education site and tourist attraction. Its overnight program became a family-travel classic because it moves the ocean from a textbook to the side of the body. It reads naturally with Taiwan's marine conservation and challenges (台灣海洋保育與挑戰).

Xpark belongs to another era. Opened in 2020 beside Taoyuan's high-speed rail station, it was created by Japan's Yokohama Hakkeijima and calls itself Taiwan's first "urban aquatic park," with about 300 species and more than 30,000 aquatic and terrestrial animals.

Its signature is immersive staging: the Formosa tank, penguins and jellyfish walls. Its controversy also matters. Soon after opening, advocates and media questioned care conditions. Xpark asked whether an aquarium can live inside a retail district, and what light, sound and photo culture mean for animals.

📍 Further reading: For a species-by-species walkthrough of Xpark's penguins (Magellanic, Gentoo, rockhopper and others), see Penguin Encyclopedia: Xpark Penguin Guide. This article does not repeat that guide; it places Xpark back on the Taiwan zoo map.

Farglory Ocean Park in Hualien and Yehliu Ocean World in New Taipei belong to the older ocean-show line. Farglory opened in 2002 with dolphins, sea lions, rides and a hotel. Yehliu opened in 1981 and remains known for its ocean theater and aquarium.

As of April 25, 2026, Farglory's dolphin show "Tiaolang Qiyuan" (跳浪奇緣) had ended on April 6, 2026. The operator said the space would become a dolphin care base. The ocean park remains; the old dolphin-show format is receding.

Fact-check note: public information confirms dolphins and sea lions at these venues; this article does not list orcas as a current Taiwan signature animal.

Smaller Parks Are a Different Category

Taiwan also has zoo-like sites that should not automatically be counted as zoos: duck parks around Jinshan and Wanli, Kinmen's Qiu Lianggong ecological park, sika deer parks, capybara farms, alpaca farms, leisure farms and pet-interaction venues.

They belong to the social-media animal-encounter economy: cafes, lawns, feeding sessions, photo packages and local revitalization trips. They are scattered and harder to verify in one table.

This article keeps the main list to large, regular, recognizable zoos and aquariums. Grouping every animal encounter together would erase the differences that matter.

How to Read This Directory

Taiwan's zoos are not a straight line from backwardness to progress. Taipei moved from Yuanshan to Muzha. Hsinchu changed cages into habitat-style display. Shoushan lifted visitors above a hillside. Leofoo linked safari to theme park. NMMBA fused museum and aquarium. Xpark put an aquarium into a rail-side shopping district.

Each institution leaves a gesture from its time. Older visitors remember Hsinchu's elephant and school trips to Shoushan. People born in the 1980s and 1990s remember Leofoo's predator bus and Wanpi's peacocks. Younger visitors remember Xpark's jellyfish walls, Yuan Zai's livestreams and NMMBA overnight photos.

Those memories can clash. Some miss animal shows; others see them as what should end. Some believe encounters help children love animals; others see contact itself as stress. A directory should put those conflicts on the map.

If there is one sentence to keep, it is this: Taiwan does not simply have several zoos; it has several ways of placing animals inside public life. The useful question is not "which one is best," but what we want people to remember when we take them to see animals.

Sources

• Taipei Zoo (primary)
• Taipei Zoo 2024 report (primary)
• Hsinchu Zoo history (primary)
• Hsinchu Zoo visitor data (primary)
• CNA: Hsinchu Zoo reopening
• CommonWealth: Hsinchu Zoo reborn
• Shoushan Zoo (primary)
• TAZA: Shoushan Zoo
• UDN: Shoushan Zoo visitor drop
• Wanpi World (primary)
• Leofoo Village history (primary)
• Leofoo animal area (primary)
• Xpark (primary)
• Taipei Times: Xpark care dispute
• NMMBA 2024 report (primary)
• Farglory Ocean Park (primary)
• CNA: Farglory dolphin show ends
• Yehliu Ocean World (primary)
• MOA: Animal Exhibition Management rules (primary)