Amazing value for money.
This is a beautifully designed zoo with a great variety of animals to see. The layout is well thought out, making it easy and enjoyable to explore.
We were impressed by the quality of the exhibits and the overall visitor experience. Without a doubt, it’s one of the best zoos we have visited and is well worth a visit for families, couples, and animal lovers alike. Highly recommended.
We really enjoyed our day at this zoo. It's very good value, only ¥1000 entry for adults, free entry for children. Lots of animals that we've not seen at other zoos such as wolves and bears, and we came closer to these animals than at any other zoo we've visited before. The staff were very friendly too, and there's free umbrellas and prams/strollers too.
Hands down the best zoo I’ve ever been to. It’s amazing to see how big most of the enclosures are and how much natural foliage they have. I thought I would be finished in maybe two hours (what I’m used to with most zoos) but we were there for 4 hours and loved every second. It’s a great game to play can you spot the animal in some of the areas where they have areas to burrow and hide. It’s like you’re seeing them do their natural behaviors. I recommend going by 11am to see every habitat without needing to rush. Some animals had areas where they can run over bridges right over you and I’m amazed at how well they built the playgrounds for each animal to get enrichment. This is a must see if you’re in the area and for a day trip. Truly stunning for all ages!
Totally worth it. The animals are really cute and the entry is really cheap. We bought adult ticket,1000 yen per person. Even we didn’t buy in advance the line is pretty short.
Apart from the penguin parade, it is not that crowded. It took us several hours to walk around.
There is rest area around the zoo with food and drink machines. So it is not too tiring. We didn’t buy anything, but the food are not too expensive, you can get a meal below 1000 yen.
In the winter, many animals are not in displays but some others are really active too, penguin and polar bears are totally worth it. Also some of them are night animals, so they might not be active.
There is a show, parade and feeding, so if you want to watch, plan ahead. It’s really cute.
The exhibitions have some English translations but not a lot. So we didn’t learn much.
It is a little sad, because some of the cage seems quite small, but overall it looks like the took good care of the animals.
Get your zoo and round-trip bus tickets at the tourist information counter in Asahikawa station or at the bus ticketing office in the next building. You can purchase these a day before.
It is quite a lovely zoo with many variety of animals, some in cages while others are in open enclosures.
This is the first time I see hippopotamuses indoors, just swimming in a pool. There were no exit that leads to any outdoor area.
The chimpanzees have an indoor and outdoor area. The day I visited, there were 3 indoors and more outdoors. I think the concept for putting them indoors is to allow visitors to come right up close to the chimpanzees that happen to sit by the glass. But they look to be bored out of their minds. Hopefully the zoo rotates the chimps so everyone gets to spend time in the sun.
The most spectacular scene was the orangutan with a very interesting enclosure, well two actually, separated by a road on the ground but connected by ropes high above ground. The orangutan moves between the two using the ropes.
It was just mesmerizing to watch the orangutan moving across over our heads, as well as a little nerve-wracking - if it falls midway, it would fall right onto the road, or might even land on a few visitors. It is too skillful to fall, but still?
There is also a macaque hill, somewhat like the one in Ichikawa zoo. But this one has windows on one side of the wall where you can get really close to the macaques that sit by the window.
There are clean toilets everywhere, and several stores selling Hokkaido soft-serve ice cream.
All in all, you can enjoy a few very engaging hours at this zoo.
