According to the order of the Minsk City Council on 2 March 2001, the territory allocated for the Minsk Zoo has a total area of 42 hectares (100 acres) in frameworks of the streets Uborevicha, Tashkentskaya, Golodeda, and Mashinostroiteley.

This area is bordered by a large urban district Chyzhouka to the south, the industrial zone of Minsk Automobile Plant to the north, and the Chizhovskoye water reservoir with a recreation zone to the west.

The first acquisitions of the new zoo were wild animals, which had found themselves in miserable conditions (an injured white stork, swans, polluted with black oil in an industrial precipitation pond, young roes, small foxes, and others).

However, its development and capital construction were kept by municipal authorities due to various ecological factors: the zoo was quite near to the industrial area of the plant, Chizhovka lake, and the floodplain of the Svislach river.

In 2000 there was the decision of Minsk City Council made for further development of the Zoo along the floodplain of the Svislach:Exposition area of "South America" with a tropical pavilion and open enclosures, children’s zoo, also service and household buildings (booking office, entry control station, garages, store-houses).