Zoom Torino is a zoological garden built on the principle of zoo immersion: not cages to look at, but reconstructed habitats the visitor walks through. It lies at Cumiana and opened in 2009 where a family park with a few animals, called Laghi Baite, had stood before; the project is by Gianluigi Casetta, who had taken the site over from his father.
What to see
The species kept here are eighty-four, spread over eleven habitats that reproduce African and Asian environments. The African section has a savannah with reconstructed baobabs and kopjes and, since 2014, Hippo Underwater, where the hippos are watched from below the waterline. The Asian one, the second largest, has an artificial lake, the Tiger Temple and the Amphitheatre of Petra, where falconry displays are held.
Visiting
Madagascar is an island ringed by a lake with flamingos and pelicans and topped by two artificial baobabs, home to the lemurs and to the Aldabra giant tortoises. Then come the Penguin Bay, with African penguins, the Farm of the Worlds with domestic animals, meerkats and prairie dogs, and the Tree of Life, the reptile house opened in 2021. The latest arrival is the Butterfly Oasis, a tropical greenhouse of 300 square metres opened in 2024.
Our editors' tip
It is worth knowing how the animals get here. Zoom works inside the EAZA circuit, the European zoos that exchange specimens for the breeding programmes of endangered species: the lions came from Sweden and France, the giraffes from Switzerland and the Czech Republic, the female red panda from France. Since 2022 there has also been a foundation of the same name, funding scientific research on the animal world.