Dublin Zoo announces half price Christmas tickets
James Cox
To celebrate a strong year after bouncing back from Covid challenges, Dublin Zoo has announced half price online tickets from December 27th to January 1st.
Three thousand of the half price tickets will be available.
Spring 2022 saw the opening of the Himalayan Hills habitats for the popular snow leopard and red pandas. This year Dublin Zoo also welcomed its 60,000,000th visitor, as well as new animals, including an okapi calf, two male red howler monkeys, and five dholes.
On April 1st, Leo Varadkar opened the spectacular new Himalayan Hills habitats.
"Inspired by the natural habitat of red pandas and snow leopards, the Himalayan mountain range, the area reflects the look and feel of a Nepalese Village. With its colourful roofs and prayer flags, visitors to the Himalayan Hills enjoy an immersive experience as part of the themed eco-region."
In September, in honour of International Red Panda Day and to mark the "incredible generosity of the Irish public during the ‘Save Dublin Zoo’ campaign of 2020", the Zoo unveiled a red panda sculpture created by award-winning sculptor Stephanie Hess. The sculpture can be enjoyed by visitors to the Himalayan Hills habitats.
In early December, Dublin Zoo launched its Conservation Master Plan, which sits under the overall ‘Dublin Zoo 200: Vision 2021-2031’, and identifies 42 actions across seven strategic areas necessary to achieve the Zoo’s ambition of becoming a zoo-based conservation organisation of national and global significance over the next decade.
These areas include conservation breeding and reintroduction, protecting Ireland’s wildlife, conserving genetic diversity and creating conservation scientists.
Following its return in 2021 after a Covid-enforced absence, Wild Lights has been popular with visitors again.
The theme is “The Magic of Life".
To ensure Wild Lights has no impact on energy supply, it was taken off the grid and is powered by hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) derived from 100 per cent renewable raw materials.
Commenting on 2022, Dr Christoph Schwitzer, Director of Dublin Zoo, said: “We’ve been extremely fortunate to be able to share some major milestones with our visitors in 2022. Having An Tánaiste Leo Varadkar launch our highly anticipated Himalayan Hills habitats was a highlight, as was welcoming our okapi calf in August. We were delighted to be able to acknowledge the generosity of the Irish public with the unveiling of the red panda sculpture by Stephanie Hess in September. We’re excited about the potential of our recently launched Conservation Master Plan, which supplements our ‘Dublin Zoo 200’ vision and shows our commitment to becoming a globally significant zoo-based conservation organisation.”
Dublin Zoo will be open over the Christmas period with the exception of Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day. Dublin Zoo’s opening hours throughout December are 9.30am-4pm, with last entry at 3pm. Wild Lights is open from 5pm-9pm, with last entry 8pm.
