Limburg Zoo

The Limburg Zoo, also known as Zwartberg Zoo, was a zoo in the Belgian parish of Zwartberg inside the municipality of Genk. The zoo become personal assets of the Wouters circle of relatives and did not acquire any subsidy or sponsorship. The zoo became acknowledged for its huge range of animals, which resulted from the inner breeding programme and the purchase of abused and dumped animals from bankrupt zoos and circuses. The massive range of animals, the bad nation of the animal enclosures, and actions by way of animal rights establishments drew media attention to the zoo.

In 1997 the Wouters family decided to close it; the animals had been relocated to different zoos. In the past due 1960s Marcel Wouters, then a director of the "Leen- en Kredietkas", offered 6 hectares of land that had previously belonged to the Zwartberg coal mine. The zoo opened on Whit Monday 17 May 1970 with more than 2 hundred animals. In 1973 there were already extra than a thousand animals, so every other 10 hectares of land were bought. Another 4 hectares were offered a few years later.