Regional Government of Madrid installs two large murals in Casa de Campo underground station, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the zoo

The Regional Government of Madrid will decorate, starting today, two large murals at Casa de Campo underground station with photographs of animals that are in danger of extinction as part of the Conservation Programmes of the Zoo Aquarium of Madrid. The initiative is framed within the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the zoo, located very close to the station.

The Regional Councillor for Transport and Infrastructure, David Pérez, explained this during his visit to Casa de Campo station, accompanied by the Director of the Zoo, Enrique Pérez. The aim of this initiative is to raise awareness in society of the need to protect the environment and to publicise all the conservation and research projects undertaken at the zoo, and to encourage its visitors to travel to the zoo by underground.

The regional councillor and zoo director then walked to the zoological installations and reviewed the advertising on the autotrain that will travel around the zoo with silhouetted posters with the Metro logo, banners and side flaps encouraging users to travel by public transport.

SPECIES IN DANGER OF EXTINCTION

The two murals that will decorate Casa de Campo station are made up of a total of 21 photos of species in danger of extinction, taken by Pedro Jarque – a photographer specialised in animal portraits. His artistic project seeks to show them in a closer way and highlight their beauty through their behaviour, which is a wake-up call regarding the need to protect them.

The giant panda is particularly striking, a species tied in to the zoo’s history, which has seen the birth of a pair of twins during its 50th anniversary. You can also see Asian elephants, brown bears, orangutans, Iberian lynxes, coastal gorillas and rhinoceroses.

The photos are accompanied by a series of texts that highlights some of the peculiarities of the species portrayed, in an attempt to draw society’s attention to the work carried out at the Zoo Aquarium of Madrid under the European Endangered Species Programmes (EEPs), as a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA). At the same time, the installations show the active collaboration with international NGOs to protect them in their natural habitat.