Story

Founded on December 17, 1972, Loro Parque was initially created as a paradise for parrots, and began its journey with only 25 people, 150 parrots and a space of 13,000 square meters. Since that time until today, and after a history of many challenges, Loro Parque has become one of the most respected zoological institutions in the world, both for its beauty, the excellence of its facilities and absolute respect for nature. Together with Loro Parque Fundación, it holds the largest and most diverse reserve of parrot species and subspecies in the world, becoming the leading international entity in the breeding and management of psitacids. A must visit and one of the most powerful magnets for tourists in the Canary Islands, Loro Parque has received almost 50 million visitors throughout its history. The excellence, the quality of its facilities, the love of detail and its environmental commitment have converted the park into the Best Zoo in the World, recognised as such by users of the prestigious travel portal TripAdvisor in 2017 and 2018.

Mission

Through its history, Loro Parque has remained committed to nature conservation and has worked every day to share its mission with its visitors: to protect and conserve animals and their natural habitats for future generations.

Our Commitment

100 years ago, there were 2 billion people on the planet. By the end of this year, the shocking figure of 7.6 billion had already been reached. In the same period of time, however, the elephant population has fallen from 10 million to less than 450,000, and every day 100 are killed, despite the amount of resources devoted to their protection. A similar situation applies to African lions: there are now only 25,000 of the 100,000 there were 50 years ago, a dramatic and truly alarming reduction of 75%. The same fate has also affected the planet’s forests, where 22 million hectares out of the 80 that existed have been destroyed.

In order to grow and satisfy our needs for food, housing, etc., we humans use the resources of the wild animals that live with us on Earth. Today, 50% of the population is concentrated in cities, and this percentage will increase to 85% by the year 2050, which is already just around the corner.
For this reason, the role of wildlife conservation centres, such as Loro Parque in Tenerife, is more important than ever: it is necessary to maintain living contact between animals and citizens. And there is one fact that shows that the human need to get closer to the nature: despite the massive migration to the cities, the number of people who visit the zoos every year exceeds 700 million. The role of zoos and aquariums as animal embassies is crucial to solving the environmental crisis and has been recognised by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s most prestigious federation of conservation organisations.

Animals have no voice, and that prevents them from communicating their problems in our language. Therefore, wildlife conservation centers are the most appropriate representation of their interests. The world is already in the sixth wave of extinction, and its first victims are the great exponents of its species, such as the lion, the rhinoceros or the elephant.

In this context, wildlife conservation centres play an important role: becoming a genetic reserve for the future to ensure the survival of many species. And that is Loro Parque’s commitment, to be a true embassy for wild animals, a place where people can approach nature and learn to protect it. In addition, time has shown that the human demand to approach animals exists, and every year zoos and aquariums are visited by more customers who are satisfied with the work that these institutions do in terms of education, protection and conservation of species.