Ecoparque Interactivo de la Buenos Aires

This was a former zoo and is now a free nature preserve where many animals roam free. The Palermo neighborhood has 3 sprawling gardens within walking distance of one another: Jardín Japones, Jardín Botánico and Parque El Rosedal.

Ecoparque was recently added to that list. Once this was the site of a grand, and very sad, city zoo, where iron cages kept lions, tigers and chimpanzees in cruelly small spaces. The zoo closed in 2016, and since then, the new owners have been converting it into a peaceful nature preserve, where peacocks and Patagonian maras (native, fleet-footed rodents) roam free. The exotic animals have been sent to sanctuaries abroad, but the giraffes are too large & old to transport and a puma that had been kept illegally as a pet is still housed here.

The zoo's gorgeous, antique buildings remain, their stateliness now an elegant contrast to the wild native plants and brush growing along footpaths.

What made this beautiful zoo special for me was that the animals were free & the old cages & buildings that used to house animals are now gift shops & restaurants housing us. It was a very busy crowded Sunday afternoon & there were many families.

So cool. We stumbled upon this gem of a zoo located in a park by accident and had an amazing couple of hours seeing all the different animals. Highly recommended

Este es el sitio del viejo zoológico. Están restaurando sus edificios a lo que era antes, una hermosura!!!!
Lo que he podido ver, la verdad que impresionó. Hay unos cuantos animalitos ronroneando libremente, y pusieron unas esculturas interactivas que están buenísimas. Todos los chicos se estaban re divirtiendo . Lo lindo es que la gente estaba actuando con buenos modales, manteniendo el espacio de todos de forma limpia y llevándose bien. No había mucha gente en sus celulares, al contrario!!!! La única que vi en el celular era la señora de seguridad en la puerta.
Los baños estaban limpios también, interactúe con unos de los empleados de mantenimiento para expresar mi gratitud de como esta el lugar, y se puso chocho. Buen trabajo a todos!!!!!

So this used to be a zoo, and then at some point recently they decided that zoo's are unethical and gave away all of the animals except the ones that are local to Argentina or that are too old to move, so you have kind of a weird mix. The highlight is that the entire park is covered with Mara's walking all around free range (a large rodent like a capybara/agouti/etc). A lot of the areas are closed or don't have any animals, so i think it's kind of a rebuilding year for this park.

There should be an infinite bar of red stars on yelp because this park is FANTASTIC. There are these creatures that look like a mix of kangaroo-rabbit-kohala-deer?! Sooo cuuuute and they are everywhere .... not caged! Just roaming around...at first I thought they were statues...nope, they are so real.
Camels, flamingos, condor, little monkeys, turkeys, peacocks....
This place is magic... all but the monkey, marsupial cute creatures, turkey and peacocks were enclosed.
The park is clean, has paved paths, a map, multiple structures of different shapes...multiple ponds, paths, it's really charming and whimsical
I'll post pictures soon