In 1999, Rain Forest, the BIOPARC management company, landed in Fuengirola to transform the city's old zoo. He eliminated barriers and cement, and made cages disappear, creating an animal park with open spaces, simulating natural environments and guaranteeing the well-being of the animals. In 2001, the year it opened its doors, this new bio-park gave residents and visitors to the Costa del Sol the opportunity to discover something totally new, zooimmersion, a new way of understanding zoological parks that allowed visitors to delve into the biodiversity of Madagascar, equatorial Africa, Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific islands.

Today, twenty-three years later, Bioparc Fuengirola completes its project with a final expansion in which it recreates the seas, coasts and jungles of Central and South America; a thematic area that is inspired by the historic first circumnavigation of the world carried out by Juan Sebastián Elcano and the men of the ship Victoria.

An investment that exceeds nine million euros has transformed 2.800 square meters, turning Bioparc Fuengirola into an authentic experience for visitors. Six years of work have allowed us to enjoy what will be one of the largest coral reef aquariums in Europe, a permanent exhibition about the first trip around the world and dozens of new threatened species, included in the IUCN Red List.

This new space was announced today, through an opening ceremony attended by the president of Rain Forest SL, José Maldonado; the director of BIOPARC Fuengirola, Francisco de Asis García; the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalusia, Arturo Bernal; the president of the Malaga Provincial Council, Francisco Salado; the mayor of Fuengirola, Ana Mula; the territorial delegate of Tourism of the Junta de Andalucía, Gema del Corral; or the director of Tourism and Planning of the Costa del Sol, Antonio Diaz.

A circumnavigation route of the globe through its tropical jungles, which becomes an immersive and educational experience connecting History and nature

Just like the Spanish explorers did, this expansion allows visitors to discover the rich biodiversity of the reefs, rivers and jungles of Central and South America, promoting greater awareness and appreciation for their conservation. This new project makes it possible to visit Bioparc Fuengirola with three different perspectives: through the jungles of the world, under the rivers of these same jungles and following the footprints of the infinite journey of Elcano and Magellan.

To the fauna and flora already represented in the park, is now added that belonging to the tropical areas of Central and South America, thus completing a journey through all the tropical jungles of the world. From the depths of the Amazon to the dense forests of the Congo.

The role of water in Bioparc Fuengirola was and is essential. Until now, a complete water circuit composed of living estuaries and waterfalls guaranteed the well-being of each and every one of the species that the park protects and houses. But, now, life within these rivers takes on a special role. A space of saltwater aquariums rediscovers marine life for visitors with dozens of types of anemones and corals and the fish and invertebrates typical of the reef. Added to these are aquariums and freshwater estuaries that accompany the visitor throughout the tour.

The design of these almost three thousand square meters expands the entire extension of the park to 22.000m2 and accurately reproduces these natural habitats, offering an immersive and educational experience that connects History with nature. on a tour of reefs, navigation rooms, a cabinet of curiosities, Amazonian aquariums, an area of ​​colorful bromeliads and a large aviary fourteen meters high in which, through collapsed cenotes and an underwater vision tunnel, the visitor arrive at a life-size Mayan pyramid.

Architectural complex with museum essence

Six years of work have turned this extension into a spectacular architectural complex with a great museum essence. A work of art that has been possible thanks to the work of architects, experts in naturalistic recreation, sculptors, painters and interior designers, with the help of veterinarians and biologists. Again and following the line that marks the design of the entire park, the concrete has been modeled and painted to build and recreate artificial trees and stones, which coexist harmoniously with natural elements.

Inside the new building, the different rooms that contain the aquariums recreate the atmosphere and knowledge of the 16th century. From the entrance square to the building, marked by a gigantic armillary sphere, and by the cosmological maps of Nebra and Copernicus, the visitor enters the century that dawned the Renaissance, following in the wake of the Spanish navigators. The setting of fresco paintings, navigation elements and decoration typical of the time, allegories of travel and the reproduction of the first globes made around the discovery of the New World, is completed with a Chamber of Curiosities, a cabinet where the objects most unknown and disturbing of the time were collected for scientific study.

An architecture inspired by the brilliant Piranesi's set of arches completes the tour of the interior; a tour that takes us through the underwater tunnel of a sunken Mayan temple, over which gigantic Amazonian fish swim, to the outside of the Mayan cenotes. There, in front of the spectacular Muyil pyramid, surrounded by rivers where strange and surprising species swim, a jungle full of birds and American monkeys will take us through Xibalbá, the Mayan underworld, to a watercourse surrounded by waterfalls where the visitor You will have an encounter with the giant otters of the Amazon.

With this fusion between Art and nature, Bioparc Fuengirola aims to fascinate the people who visit its facilities, excite them and make them protect and conserve biodiversity. Through the tour of the expansion, it will be possible to see dozens of new threatened species that are incorporated into the zoological collection that the Malaga animal park already houses, bringing it to almost 300 species.

The biodiversity of Central and South America

With the opening of the American ecosystems, Bioparc Fuengirola joins the participation of new Endangered Species Programs coordinated by EAZA such as, for example, the golden and Goeldi's marmosets, the white-faced saki, the sloth, the giant otter , the blue-throated conure, the muitú turkey, the green toucanet, the Jamaican partridge dove or the emperor tamarin, among others. All of them will coexist in an aviary 14 meters high and 1.100 meters2, without barriers and which visitors will be able to see up close, without touching them.

Along with them, animals as endangered as the well-known axolotl guard their space. In the waters of the different aquariums and estuaries, the visitor can discover clown fish, damselfish, surgeon fish, caesios, anthias, arapaimas, piranhas or different species of rays.