The zoo was founded by Sigvard Berggren and the first resident was the lion Simba, which Berggren early published a book about, Simba - my lion, in Africa, in Tosseryd, by the film (1960). This lion also starred in the Nils Poppe film Lejon på stan (1959). Simba was donated after his death to Gothenburg Natural History Museum where he is stuffed outside the mammal hall at the original entrance.
The zoo was early to showcase several species together on the "Savannah" and "The Asiatic". In addition, a basic idea was that as few bars as possible would separate visitors and animals. Instead, level differences and water are used in many places as obstacles.
Sweden's only African elephants are here and the zoo is known for its successful cheetah breed. In 2010, for example, the cheetah Luanga received a record litter of eight youngsters. The same year, a flamingo chicken was hatched for the first time in the zoo's history. A new bear plant was also inaugurated. It is 14,000 square meters and has a large lake for the bears to swim in. Three meters up is a wooden sidewalk for spectators.
