Education needs to be understood in a broad and cross-cutting way at the Zoo. Everything at the Zoo is an educational resource: the animals themselves and the design of their enclosures (which help to explain their habits), the various interpretation points and signage, and the experience beyond the Zoo, on social media and this website.

We are making a special effort with the latter, and a notable example is new interactive route through the history of the Zoo “Walk through the past, present and future of a biodiversity conservation institution”. The history of Barcelona Zoo spans more than 125 years, offering an endless source of information of great interest and representing something to be valued!

This completely interactive and game-based tool explains the history of Barcelona Zoo in seven stages, from its origins through to the present day. Each stage includes key dates which provide access to more extensive and detailed information on the period in question, along with a visual narrative based on historical photos, maps, posters, images, songs and videos. The dates are like windows which allow us to delve into the history of the Zoo. Each of the stages of the itinerary is conducted in the company of the most iconic animal from the time, who encourages us to interact and discover the content like in a game. Avi the Elephant, the albino gorilla Snow Flake, Ulisses the killer whale, the lions, the Komodo dragons and others all make an appearance.

You can find the timeline for the Zoo on this website and discover the most notable episodes, historic events, most significant scientific contributions, most unique specimens, iconic characters and main points of interest from the different periods in the history of the Zoo.

The value of this educational resource has earned recognition in the form of the bronze award for the best website by a cultural institutions in the Lovie Awards 2020, given by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences on 19 November and involving nearly 1,000 participants from over 30 countries. The awards equate to Europe’s internet Oscars and are synonymous with excellence in the internet. The award also means recognition for the work of La Tempesta, the company which developed the resource. We are really chuffed about it!

The new Zoo timeline introduces the historical dimension into the education resources at our zoo in a highly accessible way, reflecting from a historical perspective on its work and its role in the city of Barcelona at a social, cultural and scientific level.

We hope you like it!