Is Kuwait Zoo Open Right Now?

No. Kuwait Zoo, the only zoo in Kuwait, has been closed to the public since 12 March 2020, when it shut under Ministerial Resolution No. 527 as a COVID-19 precaution, and it has not reopened since. Its land is still tied up in a dispute between government bodies, though the Public Authority for Agriculture said in January 2025 that it was studying how to restore the site.

What happened to Kuwait Zoo

Featured location Kuwait Zoo الفروانية, Kuwait The zoo was set up in 1968 and covers roughly 180,000 square metres.

Kuwait Zoo opened in 1968 in Omariya, in Farwaniya Governorate, first run by the Ministry of Public Works before management passed to the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAF) in 1983. It suffered extensive damage during the 1990 Iraqi invasion and reopened once new animals arrived from other zoos in early 1993.

PAAF closed the zoo on 12 March 2020 as a COVID-19 precaution. A Cabinet decision in July 2021 let other public facilities reopen, but the zoo stayed shut. A 2020 assessment by the zoo's own director found the facility badly deteriorated and put the repair cost at a minimum of KD 232,073, even though KD 164,000 had already gone into partial repairs since 2018. A State Audit Bureau report covering 2021-2022 later documented electrical faults that had caused transformer fires, a crumbling perimeter fence, collapsing canopies, and structurally compromised animal enclosures.

Before it shut, the zoo held about 1,500 animals across 190 species of mammals, birds and reptiles on roughly 180,000 square meters of grounds, and it drew about 170,000 visitors a year -- around 2,000 on a typical public holiday.

Will it reopen?

The buildings aren't the only obstacle. The roughly 106,000-square-meter plot the zoo sits on, in Block 1, Omariya, is caught in a dispute between government bodies over who controls the land: the Ministry of Finance wants it reclassified as state property, while a 2011 Cabinet decision blocks the Agriculture Authority from transferring or reallocating any public park land without explicit Cabinet approval. Nothing else moves until that's settled.

There has been recent movement toward reopening. In January 2025, Nasser Taqi, Director of the Public Authority for Agriculture, said studies were underway to restore the site and expand what animals it holds.

studies are currently underway to restore the Al-Omariya Zoo, focusing on improving the diversity of animals and enhancing the facilities for visitors.

Taqi also ruled out one option that had been floated: handing the site to the General Organization for Social Insurance, which runs a separate zoo project of its own. Neither that announcement nor any other source found for this guide names a completion date.

Other wildlife nearby

If you want to see animals in Kuwait while the zoo is closed, the Scientific Center of Kuwait, in Salmiya, keeps the largest aquarium in the Middle East after Dubai's, with more than 100 species, plus an IMAX theatre and a Discovery Place, across a site of more than 80,000 square meters.