The Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, established in 1892, is one of India's oldest zoos and one of its better-managed ones. The grounds cover around 157 hectares and include lions, tigers, leopards, Indian elephants, rhinoceroses, gorillas, and a large bird collection. The Mysore Zoo has historically been active in breeding programmes for endangered species — the white tigers born here in the 1970s attracted international attention.
The zoo is particularly good on a weekday morning when crowds are thin and the animals more active in the cool air. It adjoins Karanji Lake on its eastern side; the two can be visited together in a half-day. The layout is spacious by Indian zoo standards and the larger enclosures are a genuine improvement on the concrete pits that characterised an earlier era of Indian wildlife conservation.