[2] In January 1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the Kazakh SSR made a decision on the immediate creation of a zoo in Alma-Ata.

Murzakhan Tolebayev, an experienced hunter and expert in Semirechye, was engaged in choosing the place for building the first zoo in the republic.

Tolebayev's opinion was supported by other members of the land commission and the management of the Government House.

On February 19, by decision of the Almaty City Council, a land plot of 46 hectares, on the right bank of the Kazachka River, in an orchard, was allocated for construction.

The allotted territory by its relief gave a full opportunity to make it for its intended purpose without great expense.

To fill the zoo, Tolebayev personally caught some species of animals in the Kazakh steppes, including saigas, ibex, and gazelles.

In February 1937 Murzakhan Tolebayev published an article in the newspaper "Socialist Asia" about the opening of the zoo on June 1.

He later secured funds to purchase animals from the Moscow and Leningrad zoos and the Askania Nova Nature Reserve.

Already in October 1937 bears, lion, rare hoofed animals and many other new zoo inhabitants arrived in Alma-Ata in special carriages.

In October the commission, headed by the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Levon Mirzoyan, visited the building and was satisfied with the work done.

The opening of the zoo was attended by a delegation of members of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee.

Murzakhan Tolebayev was awarded with a diploma by the NKVD for the safe delivery of the animals from Moscow to Alma-Ata.

It exhibits numerous representatives of aquatic fauna of our planet - fish, crustaceans, mollusks, amphibians.

Reptiles include representatives of lizards and snakes suborder, among which tiger and reticulated pythons, water dragons, chameleons, rattlesnakes and Egyptian cobra are of particular interest for visitors.

Elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, rhinoceroses, plains tapir, antelopes (gnu, nyala, kudu, oryx) attract attention from the paired and unpaired hoofed animals.

In 2016, it became known about the death of snow leopards listed in the Red Book, which had previously been donated by foreign zoos[13].

From the zoo in Almaty, according to Bobka, the Prague garden received news of the polar bear for the last time on April 15, saying that it was fine.

Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR Dinmukhamed Kunayev signed a project to build a new part of the zoo, which would greatly expand it.