At the time of its inauguration in 1959, the zoo sprawled over 4.6 hectares and had 11 houses for over 130 species of more than 600 animals. 
  It has been renovated four times to meet the modern aesthetic senses and the features of animals, with the result that it now covers an area of over 100 hectares with 8 halls and 37 houses for animals.
  Those modern buildings house over 850 species of more than 12 000 animals, which live in the country and which are rare to be found in the world. They give delight to the visitors.
  The Central Zoo draws more than four hundred thousand people every year.
  It plays the role as a favourite recreational resort, an educational place for the people and a zoological research and conservation centre of wildlife.
  The Central Zoo represents the Korea Zoo Association and has nine local zoos and a dolphinarium under its control.
  It gained a membership of the South-East Asian Zoos’ Association (SEAZA) on May 24, 2021 and a membership of the Euro-Asian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EARAZA) on October 14, 2022.