Palmyre Zoo
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| Date opened | 1966 |
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| Location | Les Mathes, Charente-Maritime |
| Coordinates | 45°41′15″N 1°10′1″W / 45.68750°N 1.16694°WCoordinates: 45°41′15″N 1°10′1″W / 45.68750°N 1.16694°W |
| Land area | 18 ha (44 acres) |
| No. of animals | 1600 |
| No. of species | 130 |
| Website | www |
La Palmyre Zoo (French: Zoo de La Palmyre, French pronunciation: [zo.o də la palmiʁ]) is a zoo in Les Mathes, Charente-Maritime, near Royan, in southwestern France. It was created in 1966 in the forest of la Coubre by Claude Caillé. Extending over 18 hectares (44 acres), including 14 of landscape garden, it offers the visitor the opportunity of observing more than 1600 animals of all kinds, divided into 130 species, over a distance of more than 4 kilometres (2.5 mi).
La Palmyre Zoo officially opened its doors in 1966, but the project really began in a semi-official way in 1957, thanks to the efforts of its founder, Claude Caillé.
He was the son of a newspaperman, with whom he started working at the age of 14. In his twenties he met his future wife, Irene, whose brother had a small zoological gardens in Croustille, close to Limoges. It was through his frequent visits helping his brother-in-law that Claude Caillé discovered his passion for animals. Consequently, he became interested and went on to study zoology.
In 1957, accompanied by his wife and their two children, Patrick and Bruno, he began with a small travelling zoo which he exhibited in schools, traveling through France. In the 1960s he decided to leave for Africa to capture animals. After a stay among Pygmies, he brought gorillas and chimpanzees back from Cameroon.
He left then to Kenya where, helped by Kĩkũyũ, he captured zebras, antelopes and giraffes, but did not have sufficient money to pay the taxes and the transportation for the animals. He returned then to France, but returned three months later with the money necessary. Unfortunately, the animals entrusted to his team disappeared, killed meanwhile by Kĩkũyũ. Claude Caillé then took up the school road and rounds for three years.
On returning to Kenya, he joined Carr-Hartley who captured and provided animals to zoos around the whole world. This time the operation succeeded, and he returned then to France with a livestock of exotic animals, and settled in Palmyre in the heart of a forest of maritime pines and holm oaks, near the beaches of the Atlantic ocean.
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