Gaziantep Museum of Zoology And Natural History
Covering an area of 100 hectares within the Burç Forest and established by the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, the Gaziantep Wildlife Protection Area and Zoo is the biggest zoo in Türkiye and the Middle East, the third biggest in Europe and the fourth biggest zoo in the world. It is home to 325 species and a total of 7,100 animals and attracts visitors from all over Türkiye, not just Gaziantep.
Within the zoo, in an area covering 750 m2, lies the Gaziantep Museum of Zoology and Natural History, the first and only museum of its type to be established within a zoo. Here, in a fantastical world where time seems to have frozen, visitors can come face-to-face with hundreds of species that became extinct millions of years ago and also learn about species that we have shared our planet with for years but that are now endangered.
The Gaziantep Museum of Zoology and Natural History offers visitors the chance to see 700 exhibits of 550 varied species from mammals to reptiles, birds to marine animals, and also the skeletons of a number of now extinct animals, consigned to the depths of history.
The museum exhibits include a Dimetrodon, a precursor to the dinosaurs and the best known of the carnivorous Pelycosaurs which were the first mammal-like reptiles on the planet living 150 million years ago. Visitors can also marvel at Tyrannosaurus rex, the dinosaur that dominated the planet, the fierce sabre-toothed tiger, a mammal from the Felidae family that became extinct 10,000 years ago, the now extinct mammoth from the Elephantidae family that lived around 1700 BC, and Dorudon, the early relative of the rhinoceros and the whale that lived 33 million years ago.
In establishing exhibits for the Museum of Zoology and Natural History, no living animals were harmed. Only animals whose lives had come to a natural end, whether in the wild or in the zoo, were mounted by experts using taxidermy techniques. The animals are displayed in life-like scenes showing them in various poses and settings, as both predators and prey, and whilst feeding and flying.
The museum provides a realistic snapshot of the natural world. These life-like displays include 187 birds of varying types such as song birds, birds of prey, and web-footed birds, 55 different marine creatures that have been preserved whole using a drying technique, and 60 animal specimens such as snakes, crocodiles, monitor lizards and fish that have been stored in jars filled with preserving chemicals.
In addition to the wildlife collections at the Gaziantep Museum of Zoology and Natural History, visitors of all ages and sectors, from school children to scientists, are invited to make an extraordinary journey of discovery through the animal kingdom, using seminars in the education hall, educational films, and wildlife documentaries.