This Park is like a botanic garden and a zoo. Herre you can find many attractions beside a huge variety of animals. Early Loro Parque has been a zoo for lots of species of birds an parrots, some of them in danger of extinction. Nowadays it is one of the most famous and visited tourist attractions on the isle of Tenerife.

If you visit Loro Parque you can get immersed in the fascinating world of animals and also some exotic flowers and plants. One of the highlights in this zoo are different animal shows, which you can enjoy in Loro Parque. The latest attraction is a show with Orcas, who have been braught to the zoo in 2006. As well you can enjoy a great show with dolphins, sea lions and parrots with their trainers. Another thing you should not miss in Loro Parque is Planet Penguin. Here you can see different species of pengiuns. A special part has been formed into a perfect habitat for some of them. The climate of the Antartic has been formed with tons of ice and snow. You really feel like in the Antartic if you see how its continuately snowing.

one of the orcas in Loro Parque

Dolphin show

Sea lion

Penguins in Planet Penguin

In Loro Parque you can observe lots of animals, a very special habitant of this zoo ist a white tiger.

White tiger

The whole surface of this park is more than 135.000 m². In Thai Village, an originally thai village has been built inside Loro parque, you can buy some souvenirs and other things. It’s easy to get there, from the center of Puerto de la Cruz you can take a train for free, which is bringing you to the entrance of Loro Parque.

Here you will find more information: www.loroparque.com

Within a few minutes, anyway one comes from a climatic zone by car into the next one.
So for example it can happen that you start from the Puerto de La Cruz in the north of the island with cloudy weather and you drive in direction to Bajamar or Tacoronte, only a few kilometers, and you will find sunshine there.

The complete northeast of the island of Tenerife is formed by a rugged area. The massif rises steeply up from the Atlantic, which is forming the precipitous coast. The range of Anaga is abundantly covered with vegetation for the most part and sometimes veiled by clouds.

Places you should visit are the botanic garden and the Loro Parque in Puerto de la Cruz, or the small idyllic mountain village Masca situated in the romantic range of Teno.

Another highlight of Tenerife are the historical centers of La Orotava and La Laguna. For who is interested in winegrowing culture, the wine museum in El Sauzal in the north of the island, would be interesting to visit.

Loro Parque in Puerto de la Cruz has a list of species that includes Orca killer whales, dolphins, sea lions, tigers, jaguars, sharks, alligators, chimpanzees and flamingos.

Virtually every important member of the animal kingdom is represented here. You’ll need a whole day to do it justice and still you will want to go back again the next day!

Many of Loro Parque’s inmates have been rescued from private owners. Others have been donated by other zoos who thought Loro Parque could offer them a better environment.

Many of the animal enclosures – there are few cages here – mimic natural habitats. For example, a virtual jungle has been created for the gorilla enclosure, housing six male gorillas and occupying 3,500 square metres

The Penguin House is a wondrous place, reproducing the climate of the Antarctic in the finest detail, even producing 12 tons of ice and snow a day for the enjoyment of the 250 penguins accommodated there.

Loro Parque shows are as spectacular as anything you’ll see in Florida, separately featuring the killer whales, dolphins, sea lions and parrots.

Loro Parque came into being over 30 years ago, initially specialising in the breeding of rare parrot species to prevent their extinction. They have since gone on to rescue and protect scores of other animals.

The new online ticketing system aims to speed up the admission process by cutting down on queues at the ticket kiosks.

Tickets can be purchased through the park’s website, www.loroparque.com.

The system operates in three languages, English, Spanish and German, and the online transaction is carried out through a safe server.

Loro Parque already operates an extensive ticket sales network with many tourists able to purchase tickets in advance through their tour operator or hotel.

They would like to see the protected area cover all of the Macaronesia islands – the collective name for the five volcanic archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira and Salvages (Portuguese), the Canaries (Spanish) and Cape Verde (independent).

The proposal will be discussed at an International Conference for the Protection of Dolphins in Tenerife in November.

The conference is one of a series of worldwide events being held to mark the International Year of Dolphins, with representatives attending from Spain, Portugal and African countries.

The dolphin campaign is an initiative of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

It has the enthusiastic backing of the Loro Parque Foundation in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, which has launched a range of events aimed at raising the interest of school children in whale-watching trips and scientific research into marine mammals, and to motivate students to support conservation and protection.

The President of the Loro Parque Foundation, Wolfgang Kiessling, is backing the Canarian government call, emphasising the need for a large protected area in the Atlantic Ocean to ensure the survival of dolphins and small marine mammals.

Ahead of the November conference, the Canarian government is consulting various interest groups such as boat owners, tourist operators, protection groups and environmental organisations on this and other conservation activities.

It’s a common misconception that cats hate swimming in particular and water in general.

My experience of the domestic moggy is strictly limited, but I’ve watched Prince, one of the star attractions at Loro Parque, Tenerife‘s biggest tourist attraction, enjoying a dip in his private pool on several occasions. He loves it.

Indeed, tigers love water, and white tigers particularly adore it. White tigers have the reputation of being good swimmers but poor climbers.

Which is strange really because the white tiger is not a sub-species as such, but rather a genetic misfit.

White tigers are rarely found in the wild. In about 100 years only 12 white tigers have been seen in the wild in India.

They are almost extinct and most of the ones living are in captivity, mostly in zoos, though rarely are they as well catered for as at Loro Parque.

The white tiger is neither an albino nor a separate sub-species of the tiger, but simply has the rogue gene needed for white colouring.

None of which concerns Prince as he takes his daily dip before stretching out regally in the sun as his many admirers pay homage.

‘There is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a gorilla than any other animal I know.’

An estimated 500 million people worldwide heard Sir David Attenborough whisper those words as he lay next to a 100kg female gorilla in Rwanda nearly 30 years ago.

His encounter with the gorillas in the BBC natural history series Life on Earth is one of television’s most memorable.

At Loro Parque in Tenerife, you can’t get quite as close to the gorillas as David Attenborough did all those years ago.

But, as the pictures above and below show, you do get a pretty good view of the park’s gorilla enclosure, which covers 3,500 square metres and houses six gorillas in conditions very like their native habitat.

The six gorillas are part of an experimental group on loan from various European zoos and form part of a breeding programme for endangered species.

Situated in Puerto de la Cruz in the north of the island, Loro Parque is rightly recognised as one of the finest animal parks anywhere in the world.

The gorillas are fed only the best fruit and vegetables and their living quarters have constant ventilation and under-floor heating to provide perfect conditions for them.

Incidentally, the BBC4 will be broadcasting on Easter Sunday a programme entitled ‘Gorillas Revisited with David Attenborough’, in which he tells the story of how he and his film crew managed to obtain such excellent pictures of the Rwanda gorillas.

Snow falls every day in Tenerife – up to 12 tons of it on to a bleak, rocky landscape where the temperature never rises above zero degrees.

Impossible you might think in this island of eternal spring, where the sun shines all year round and the climate is reckoned by many to be the best on the planet.

While the sun worshippers spend lazy days on the beaches of Puerto de la Cruz in the north of the island, just a few yards away conditions are very different for the residents of Planet Penguin at Tenerife’s most popular visitor attraction, Loro Parque

This penguin paradise replicates in minute detail the habitat of their native Antarctica, where the world’s largest fridge maintains a constant temperature of air and water, and where snow falls throughout the day to ensure that the King, Rockhopper, Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins feel perfectly at home.

Their well-being was confirmed recently by the hatching of seven chicks, with another 20 eggs continuing to be incubated by parent birds in the comfort of specially-built nests.

The 4,000-square metres penguin quarters are a constant amazement to the thousands of visitors who flock to Loro Parque every day to be escorted through the spectacle on a conveyor-belt walkway for a close-up of the penguins as they swim, play and chatter, just as they would in their natural environment.