Zoo Yaroslavl - the first in Russia and the CIS zoological park landscape type. The zoo covers an area of ​​123 hectares. This allows you to organize here are spacious aviaries and keep pets in as close as possible to the natural environment, which undoubtedly improves their quality of life compared with animals in other zoos. Zoo workers are trying to create favorable conditions for life and reproduction of animals.

The mission of the Yaroslavl Zoo is to conduct educational activities to bring home to people the need to preserve the diversity of the animal world, which is essential to the existence of the human species. More than half the population of Yaroslavl have visited the zoo, many repeatedly. Such popularity Zoological Park allows to educate especially effective, including among the younger generation.

One of the main goals of the zoo is to preserve in captivity of wild animals for the preservation and development of species. In Yaroslavl zoo successfully live: Bactrian camel, brown bears, wolves, deer, African ostrich, elk, pheasant, flamingos, wild boars and Vietnamese pigs, European fallow deer, reindeer, antelope Kanna, mute swan, domestic duck, Przewalski's horse, llama, bison, cheetahs, kangaroos and other animals.

Zoo Conservation Strategy is developed, according to which is determined by a set of goals and tasks facing the zoo. The conservation efforts of the zoo include: control over the number of rare species of animals in their natural habitats in the Yaroslavl region in the Russian Federation as a whole; dilution in a zoo of wild animal species; conducting research to identify favorable conditions for the life of animals; the creation of optimal conditions zoo environment, which is extremely close to the natural; the return of rare species of animals back into natural habitats; monitoring of released animals. Zoo conducts extensive educational work, which is organically linked with the process of education, spiritual enrichment, and instilling a sense of beauty.

Yaroslavl Zoo makes an enormous contribution to the protection of nature, which is to preserve the gene pool of endangered and rare species, which are included in the Red Book as the Yaroslavl region, and Russia, as well as the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 172 species of animals listed in the Red Book of the Yaroslavl region, some, such as the black stork, common copperhead, osprey, peregrine falcon, serpent eagle, lesser spotted eagle, golden eagle, greater spotted eagle have international protection status. Reproduction of these animals in captivity will restore natural populations later.

Research conducted at the zoo, are aimed at creating extremely favorable conditions for the maintenance of certain species and their breeding in captivity, improving the methods of education in the field of nature conservation.

Yaroslavl Zoo is a powerful scientific and educational base for the needs of the educational process for students of technical, biological faculty of Yaroslavl University, Agricultural Academy, the Pedagogical Institute. On the basis of the zoo is scheduled to open environmental and zoological circles. Pupils and students take care of the animals, clean the zoo and aviary.

Yaroslavl Zoo hosts a variety of guided tours for schoolchildren, acquainting the younger generation with the biology of different animal species, the diversity of all the animal world, the problems of environmental protection. Conducted tours, thematic discussions, tutoring arouse great interest among zoo visitors, regardless of their age. The zoo is constantly arranged a variety of children's events and contests with prizes.