Zoo in Mumbai: Rani Baug

Hours and booking as published on the zoo's official site. Prices are shown at the booking step and are not repeated here.

The official site counts more than 325 animals of 34 species. Among those it lists are the Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, sloth bear, striped hyena, jackal, hippopotamus, swamp deer, sarus crane, pelican, golden pheasant and spotted owlets, as well as smaller residents such as Wallace's flying frog and the African giant snail. The Humboldt penguin house, opened in 2016, is the zoo's best-known enclosure and a fixture of local family weekends.

The garden was laid out in 1861 on the Mount Estate in Mazgaon, now part of Byculla, and opened to the public in 1862; land for the zoo was added in 1890. After independence it was renamed after Jijabai, mother of Shivaji, though the old names are still used. The official site gives the area as 60 acres with more than 6,600 trees, and the canopy holds one of Mumbai's largest colonies of fruit bats; the yellow-footed green pigeon, Maharashtra's state bird, feeds on the old fig trees here.

The compound also holds the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, the city's oldest museum, the David Sassoon clock tower at the entrance, and the great stone elephant that once stood on Elephanta Island and gave it its name: it broke when the British tried to ship it to England and was reassembled here.

Rani Baug is in Byculla East, and Byculla station on the Central suburban line is the nearest railway stop. From Colaba or Fort a taxi is the simple option; auto-rickshaws do not run this far south. More on trains, metro and taxis in getting around Mumbai.

For animals outside cages, Mumbai has more than most cities. Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the northern suburbs is home to leopards: a recent camera-trap census by WCS-India and the state forest department counted 54 across the park, Aarey and Tungareshwar. From roughly October to May the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary runs forest-department boats among wintering lesser and greater flamingos; in a good year the creek holds over a hundred thousand migratory birds. On Malabar Hill, the Hanging Gardens and Kamala Nehru Park are free and popular with children, and the elevated nature trail next to them walks through the treetops. More in animals and birds of Mumbai.