Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

La Palmyre Zoo was founded in 1966 by Claude Caillé, an animal lover after working in a small family zoo in Limousin. Before its official opening, Caillé started in 1957 with a travelling zoo in French schools, then captured animals in Africa (gorillas, chimpanzees, zebras) during several expeditions to Cameroon and Kenya in the 1960s. These trips, although sown with initial failures (lost animals, logistical problems), led to the acquisition of the park's first residents.

The zoo opened in June 1966 on 3 hectares with 60 animals, attracting 129,500 visitors in its first season. Its rapid success allowed for successive enlargements: giraffe enclosures (1975), monkeyry (1980), African plain (1992), and space of the great monkeys (2009). Significant events marked his history, such as the birth of the first gorilla in captivity in France (1978), the fire of the Coubre forest (1976) requiring the evacuation of animals, or the creation of a bat nocturama (1995).

Engaged in conservation, the zoo has been involved since its inception in European programmes for endangered species (EEP), such as gorillas, Asian elephants or algazella oryx. He played a key role in reintroductions, such as that of golden tamarinds in Brazil (1992) or oryx in Tunisia (1999). In 2006, he contributed to a rhinoceros safeguard campaign. Family management continued, with Patrick Caillé (son of the founder) taking the chair in 2005, followed by Pierre Caillé (grandson).

The park also faced challenges, such as the prion crisis in a cheetah (2001), revealing an unprecedented case of BSE in a non-ruminant, or the economic impacts of the Covid-19 (2020) pandemic, with a 45% drop in attendance. Despite this, it remains a major player in regional tourism, attracting more than 700,000 annual visitors before 2020. Its modern facilities, such as the Polar Bear Basin (1996) or the Great Apes Space (2009), reflect its evolution towards an animal welfare and pedagogy model.

Today, the zoo covers 18 hectares and houses 1,500 animals of 115 species. It offers educational shows (sea lions, parrots) and thematic spaces, such as the African plain or vivarium. A member of EAZA and WAZA, he collaborates with universities and NGOs on in situ research and conservation programmes, particularly for the orangutans of Borneo or the lemurs of Madagascar. Its economic model is based on a strong tourist traffic, with a summer peak linked to its coastal location between Royan and the island of Oléron.

The history of the zoo is marked by family anecdotes, such as the feeding of baby animals in the first decades, or the installation of the host Georges de Caunes in a cage in 1988 and 1990 for an immersive experience. These elements illustrate its evolution from a traditional 1960s zoo to a modern scientific and tourist institution, while remaining a family business spread over three generations.

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