Françoise Delord's passion: ZooParc de Beauval
Passion…
Passion for birds…
Passion for animals…
Passion for wildlife…
Passion for conservation…
Passion for pandas…
ZooParc de Beauval was founded in 1980 by Françoise Delord.
Mme Delord was schooled as an actor and she worked for many years at Bobino, a big theatre in Paris, with some of the best artists in France, like Jacques Brel.
The day that she acquired her first bird changed her life. A passion for birds started and a few years later, a big ‘volière’ (great French word for bird house) with 300 birds was standing in the Delord family’s apartment in Paris.
It was time to move and Françoise Delord acquired a piece of land in Saint-Aignan, situated in the Central Region of France, in the Loir-et-Cher (41) department. It was here at ‘Beauval’ that she gave birth to her third child in June 1980: the zoo.
Beauval started as an ornithological park, until the arrival of the first large cats in 1989.
Over 30 years later you can feel the passion for animals when you enter ZooParc de Beauval… And than to think that it all started with 2 birds…
Giant pandas have always fascinated Françoise Delord. She started working on their panda deal in 2006 and they finally will see the results of years of hard work…
Mme Delord always shared her passion for wildlife and her zoo with her children Delphine & Rodolphe, who are now the Director of Education & Communication and General Director of ZooParc de Beauval.
ZooParc de Beauval is classified among the 15 most beautiful zoos around the world by Forbes.
The zoo tries to make a difference in conservation with L’Association Beauval Conservation & Recherche.
A beautiful book about Françoise Delord and her Beauval ‘Instinct’ was published in 2010.
Today ZooParc de Beauval has 4600 animals, 60 hectares of land, 600000 visitors a year, 250 employees in peak season and a turnover of 18 million euros a year.
The zoo is the largest and most popular in France and they have many rare and unique species in France, like koalas, okapis, manatees, takins, white tigers and soon our beloved giant pandas Huan Huan & Yuan Zi.
More on www.zoobeauval.com
