Taipei Zoo's 40th relocation anniversary marked with historic photos

Taipei, Sept. 14 (CNA) Taiwan's National Archives Administration on Monday marked the 40th anniversary of Taipei Zoo's move on Sept. 14, 1986, by inviting the public to revisit historic photos of the move on its website.

In a press release, the administration highlighted photos of the 1986 Taipei Zoo Relocation Parade, including images of student athletes from Taipei's Kainan High School leading vehicles carrying animals through the city as crowds looked on.

Other photos show engineers designing animal enclosures with artificial hills, as well as the roughly 14-kilometer parade route, which was planned to accommodate animals of different sizes and heights, with the route avoiding as many overpasses as possible to accommodate the giraffes.

In addition to the photos, the administration highlighted archival records explaining the decision to relocate the zoo from its original site in Yuanshan.

According to the records, the original zoo, founded in 1914 during Taiwan's Japanese colonial period as Maruyama Zoo, occupied only 3.49 hectares.

By 1972, the zoo had become too small for the growing city, with 1.8 million people visiting that year, the administration said.

Pollution from nearby traffic and underground waterways, combined with noise that disturbed the animals from nearby Taipei Songshan Airport, also prompted the Taipei city government to seek a new location for the zoo.

The records show that the government spent more than a decade selecting a site and planning and building the new zoo.

Experts surveyed several suburban locations around Taipei before settling on the current 165-hectare site, approximately 28 times larger than the old zoo, according to the administration.

The city government and zoo also decided to abandon traditional cage displays in favor of specially designed habitats intended to improve animal welfare, including more than 35,000 square meters of artificial hills, the records show.

Such advances helped establish Taipei Zoo as a leader in conservation, research and education.

To celebrate the new zoo and bid farewell to the 72-year-old facility, officials decided to stage a parade for the relocation of the animals, which was held 40 years ago Monday, according to the documents.

Record label Rock Records was also commissioned to release "Happy Paradise" (快樂天堂) ahead of the move to generate public interest in the relocation and create a celebratory atmosphere.

Archived photos showed hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets of Taipei to watch the animals make their way to their new home 40 years ago Monday.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the relocation, the administration invited the public to visit its archives access service and documents column to revisit the historic undertaking and see what Taipei looked like in the mid-1980s.