At Zoom, Africa and Asia behind glass

Don't call it a zoo, it's called Zoom Torino: there are no nets or cages and you walk through it, not stuck in a car, a tête-à-tête with the animals is guaranteed. With due caution, of course. The tour includes visits to many different faithfully reconstructed habitats where the animals are free to move around and visitors can really observe them at close quarters.

It is a journey that takes you, for example, to Madagascar with lemurs, giant tortoises, flamingos and pelicans; to Asia with tigers, a family of siamang gibbons, cranes and axis deer; to the Petra Amphitheatre to admire the flight of birds of prey; and to many other fantastic worlds!

Let's talk about swimming with hippos: their names are Lisa, Ze Maria and their first-born son Filippo and they are housed in a large tank that has a glass wall separating it from another tank where, if you wear a swimming costume, you can basically swim together. Who knows what the hippos will think of how we humans swim? The pool for humans slopes down into an actual beach, Malawi Beach, which mimics the shores of Lake Malawi, with extra sun loungers and umbrellas so that after swimming you can relax a little in the sun.

At Zoom you will find a reproduction of Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa, one of the few places in the world where you can swim with penguins, because not all of these cute feathers live in icy waters! You can see them swimming underwater through a large glass window and walking alongside them: there are 65 black-footed penguins in all.

 “Alle giraffe guardiamo negli occhi...”.(We look giraffes in the eye - Italian popular song). As in the song The Watusi goes, here at the Zoom biopark it is possible to climb onto a platform at giraffe height to really look them in the eye. Accompanied by a biologist, in small groups, you can also approach them from the ground to see how tall they are. In Zoom's Serengheti there are also a couple of rhinoceroses, animals at risk of extinction due to indiscriminate hunting for the substances in their horn.

At Zoom you can also experience a night in a tented camp in the savannah where you fall asleep and wake up hearing the cries of animals. The day begins with breakfast with the giraffes, sunrise walk in the park and other activities. Getting there is very easy, even by train from Turin Porta Susa station.