Founded in 1794, largely with animals brought from the royal zoo of the Palace of Versailles, abandoned because of the French Revolution, it is the second oldest zoological garden in the world (after Tiergarten Schönbrunn).

In the beginning Jardin des Plantes referred only to a botanical garden of 58 acres (230,000 m2), created and built by the royal physicians Jean Herouard and Guy de La Brosse.

While the menagerie at first was just provisional it grew in the first three decades of the 19th century to be the largest exotic animal collection in Europe.

The Zoo was under the scientific leadership of the former head of the zoological department at the museum, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844).

Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Frédéric Cuvier published their results in the quarterly work Histoire des Mammifières.

The so-called Rotonde was added to the basic enclosures in 1804, and from 1808 was used to harbour large animals such as elephants.

A half century passed after this improvement without any further innovations except the restoration of the bear pit and some technical corrections.

However the Jardin des Plantes still exists today and is the second oldest civil zoo in the world.