Fota Wildlife Park Co. Cork

Our Story

Fota Wildlife Park, part of the Zoological Society of Ireland, is located on 100 acres at Fota Island 10km east of Cork City and has an annual attendance of 440,000 visitors. It is currently the second largest visitor attraction in Ireland outside of Leinster.

Fota Wildlife Park’s vision is to inspire people to understand and conserve the biodiversity of our natural world. The Park’s core values of conservation, education, research and entertainment have ensured that we are uniquely placed to foster greater public understanding of the threats to plant and animal habitats and decreasing global biodiversity. Fota Wildlife Park has made considerable investment in the past 5 years upgrading its infrastructure and is currently near completion of an additional 27 acres development that focuses on Asian animals and plants.

Our objectives

Fota Wildlife Park cares for several different animal species in danger of extinction. Through long-established Breeding programmes, which are run cooperatively with other institutions around the world, the Park is helping restore populations of some species while protecting the very survival of others.

Conservation is something everyone can contribute to by re-telling our animals’ stories and making as many people aware of just how critical our efforts here in Ireland and further afield are.

As part of this effort, the Park is actively seeking to reduce its carbon footprint and introduced three Green Zones areas in order to promote and demonstrate sustainable recycling practices to visitors in June 2012.

Read more in our Breeding programmes and Conservation in Ireland section.