The Zoological Society of Ireland’s Fota Wildlife Park is located on 100 acres on Fota Island, 10 kilometres east of Cork City, and attracts roughly 460,000 people each year. Outside of Leinster, it is currently Ireland’s second most popular tourist destination.
The mission of Fota Wildlife Park is to inspire people to appreciate and protect the richness of their natural world. The Park’s basic conservation, teaching, and research objectives have guaranteed that they are well-positioned to increase public awareness of challenges to plant and animal habitats and declining global biodiversity. In the last ten years, Fota Wildlife Park has invested significantly in its infrastructure, adding an indoor Giraffe viewing area, the Madagascan Village and the Asian Sanctuary, which opened in 2015. It is home to animals such as Asian lions, Sumatran tigers and Indian Rhinos.
Fota is a recognised charity and a non-profit organisation with limited liability. It is wholly self-sufficient, relying solely on gate receipts, membership fees, and revenue from the gift store. Any excess created annually by Fota Wildlife Park is reinvested in capital projects and infrastructure improvements, such as flood defences and the construction of state-of-the-art habitats for its animals.
