For the ninth consecutive year, next weekend (9 and 10 June) we are celebrating A Day of Clown Noses with the NGO  Pallapupas with the aim of showcasing the important work these hospital clowns are doing, and to raise funds. The Zoo will fill up with clowns and laughter simultaneously, with five educational and leisure centres, as well as offering half price tickets. Part of the funds raised will be donated to help the Pallapupas in their work.

Tickets can only be bought in advance at the Pallapupas website except for members of the Super3 Club, whose entry is free with the purchase of a solidarity nose for €4 and showing your Super3 card on the 9th or 10th at Zoo entrances.

The Pallapupas will visit all the spaces where we are celebrating Clown Day and will surely make both young and old have an unforgettable and incredible day!

To publicise this great festival, the Pallapupas encourage everybody to create a huge ‘wave of noses’ on social media, sharing your photos wearing a clown nose and the hashtags #nasvermell and #mareadenassos.

The Pallapupas, hospital clowns, think humour is the fundamental tool to handle the adverse situations that people live during their struggles with diseases, and they accompany patients of all ages going through very difficult times in the hospital, showcasing their strength: theatre.

This weekend come to the Zoo and put on your red nose in solidarity with the children hospitalised in our city!

Today at the Zoo we are hosting the charity party Dreamnight at the Zoo, a special and totally free evening that is held on the eve of the first Friday of June at zoos around the world, for boys and girls suffering from a serious disease or disability, and their parents and siblings.

Since the Rotterdam Zoo was opened in Holland in 1996, this initiative has been spreading. This year 286 zoos in 39 countries are participating, excited about the idea of making kids happy who are having a tough time and don’t have many chances to visit the Zoo. During 2017, some 100,000 families participated in a Dreamnight somewhere in the world. That means almost a half million special guests!

For the party this year, we will close the Zoo half an hour early so that our guests—some 50 families—can have the park to themselves and leave after the sun has gone down, hopefully happy with the experience they got to have and the gifts that we will give them as souvenirs. Among other activities, they will visit the Komodo dragons, the giraffe dormitory, feed fish to the penguins and other birds that come to spend the night in the Zoo’s trees, prepare enrichment for meerkats and take part in a workshop to learn to be naturalists and learn about the animals that surround us. We will also have snacks and the participation of magicians, Pallapupas (hospital clowns) and the entertainment group De Moment Fantàstics, who will add their magic and happiness to the evening.

The Barcelona Zoo joined the Dreamnight network in 2007, making this our 12th edition. Helping us out with the organisation for the party have been the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, Sant Joan de Déu Hospital and other hospitals via the foundations Pequeño Deseo, El Somni dels Nens and Enriqueta Vilavecchia. We are extremely grateful to all of these institutions, as well as the companies, entities and volunteers that have offered us their time, services or products free of charge and always with great affection and enthusiasm.

Collaborators:

Coca-Cola, Campofrío, Pepsico, Frigo, Migueláñez, Damm, Aramark, Prevencontrol, Premium Merchandising, Sorigué, Arts & Documenta, Pallapupas, Societat Espanyola d'Il·lusionisme, De moment fantàstics, Casa Gay, SA, Lynx Edicions, Educa, mcongress merchandising, RCD Espanyol and FC Barcelona.

The Barcelona Zoo Foundation has opened the application process for the 2018 grants for research and conservation projects. These grants are meant to support those projects that share the Zoo’s values of conservation, education and awareness towards biodiversity.

This year’s grants are:

• 14th Edition of the Floquet de Neu Grant for research projects on primates, focusing on any of these disciplines: conservation, ecology, genetics, ethology, cognitive abilities, reproduction, communication, animal well-being, etc. both in captivity and in the wild.

• 10th Edition of the Grants of the Research and Conservation Programme for specific projects proposed by external researchers, in accordance with the general goals of the Barcelona Zoo Foundation in the field of research and conservation.

• 6th Edition of the Antoni Jonch Grant for projects focused on the research on the native fauna of Catalonia and its conservation.

Since 2009, the Zoo has granted a total of 827.242€ in scholarships, which, along with our research and conservation programs, constitute a proof of our commitment to the protection of endangered wildlife.

The deadline for the submission of applications and projects for all the calls of 2018 is June 3, 2018.  You can learn more about the guidelines of the calls by clicking on the links or on the Barcelona Zoo Foundarion website.