Zoológico del Altiplano

The Zoológico del Altiplano is Tlaxcala's public state zoo. It covers 13.5 hectares in the municipality of Apetatitlán de Antonio Carvajal, on the Apizaco-Puebla road at kilometre 32.5, roughly 15 minutes from downtown Tlaxcala. The state government's ecology agency, the Coordinación General de Ecología, runs it, and recent news coverage also calls it the Zoológico de Tlaxcala.

A tourism directory puts the collection at 534 animals of 104 species. The grounds are split into circuits covering Mexican wildlife, small and big cats, the African savanna, exotic species and a play area; the zoo's vets describe it as three loops, for small mammals, deer, and savanna and big cats. Every enclosure has a sign explaining the species, and you can walk it on your own or with a guide. A full visit takes about an hour and twenty minutes.

The cats are the highlight: lions, tigers, jaguars, pumas and Bengal cats. The zoo keeps a lion sanctuary; in 2019 the state announced 7 million pesos for three lion-only shelters and plans to trade white lions with other zoos, and five African lion cubs were born there in June and July 2020. In 2020 a pair of ring-tailed lemurs arrived from the Zacango zoo, its first species from Madagascar, and in March 2021 three male Mexican wolves, a father and two young, came from a breeding centre in Nuevo León under the national recovery programme for this endangered subspecies.

Other residents include black bears, wolves, American bison, water buffalo, llamas, axis deer, peccaries and European wild boar, spider monkeys, raccoons, grey foxes, porcupines and capybaras, plus birds such as red-tailed hawks, falcons, great horned owls, macaws, toucans, peacocks, Egyptian geese and chachalacas. Some animals were rescued from abuse. There is also a snake house, a nocturnal house, a farm, an audiovisual classroom and an artificial lake with rowing boats, along with playgrounds, a zip line, a restaurant and snack stands. Each December it runs a Christmas season, Navidad Salvaje, with posadas and a walk through every habitat.