Izu Shaboten Zoo

Izu Shaboten Zoo is a zoo and cactus garden at the foot of Mt Omuro in Ito, on the Izu Peninsula. It opened in 1959 and covers about 200,000 square meters. About 150 kinds of animals live there, and its greenhouses hold about 1,500 kinds of cacti and succulents. Peacocks and squirrel monkeys roam the grounds freely.

The capybara bath

Capybaras have been kept at the zoo since 1966. One winter day in 1982, a keeper cleaning their enclosure with hot water saw the capybaras gather in a small puddle of it and soak their feet and hindquarters. The keepers then filled a pond with hot water for them, and the bath has been run every winter since. The zoo calls it the original capybara open-air bath, Ganso Kapibara no Rotenburo (元祖カピバラの露天風呂), and it is known as a winter tradition of Izu. Capybaras can also be met all year in the Capybara Rainbow Plaza.

The zoo and four others, Nasu Animal Kingdom, Saitama Children's Zoo, Ishikawa Zoo and Nagasaki Bio Park, hold a capybara long-bath contest in winter and a capybara watermelon-eating race in summer.

The animals

The Animal Boat Tours, which the zoo describes as the first of their kind in Japan, circle a pond with nine islands where squirrel monkeys, lemurs, spider monkeys and other primates live, with flamingos and capybaras on the shore. One course goes around the pond with a guide; the other lands on a monkey island, where visitors feed the monkeys.

In the Ancient Ruins Rock Garden, llamas live on a hill and are fed by zipline: treats clipped to a rope about 10 meters long are pulled up to them past goats and sheep that try to take them. The Savanna Area holds giraffes, zebras and ostriches, and the giraffes can be fed. Red pandas can be fed in limited numbers, and according to the zoo it keeps more southern tamanduas than any other zoo in Japan. Touch de ZOO shows naked mole rats and other small animals, and Bird Paradise keeps birds in a setting close to their natural one.

The cactus greenhouses

The Kogen-ryu (高原竜), the park's symbol, stands at the entrance to the greenhouses. Five greenhouses group the plants by region: South America, Africa, forest cacti, Madagascar and Mexico. The Africa house holds only succulents, since no cacti grow wild there. The collection includes columnar cacti over 5 meters tall, edible prickly pears, cacti about 3 centimeters across and a golden barrel cactus (Echinocactus grusonii) more than 170 years old, called the king of cacti.

Outside, the Ancient Ruins Rock Garden sets cacti and succulents among replica stone sculptures of ancient Mexican civilizations. At the cactus shop, visitors choose from more than 100 kinds of cacti and succulents and a pot, and staff plant them into an arrangement to take home.

Restaurants and shop

The Forest Animal Restaurant GIBBONTEI seats diners beside stuffed capybaras and red pandas and serves the zoo's own dishes. Hanamusubi serves udon with cactus leaf, Chao serves ramen and fried rice, and Cafe Sherry sells soft serve made with red cactus fruit. The Gift Shop Animal Mart sells the zoo's own goods, stuffed animals and Izu souvenirs.