In 1933, Vera Chaplina, a naturalist and future writer, created the "green platform", a special enclosure for young animals where different cubs that their mothers refused to feed were not only raised, but also taught to live peacefully together.

This experiment aroused great interest among visitors, and for many years the "green platform" remained one of the Moscow Zoo's main attractions.

Notable additions include a new main entrance in the shape of a large rock castle, and a footbridge that connected the old (1864) and new (1926) properties of the zoo.

The Moscow zoo has over 7,500 animals representing about 1,000 species and covers an area of about 21.5 hectares (53 acres).

The collection of the museum includes more than 10,000 zoo coats of arms from all over the world, hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and drawings by the masters of Russian animalistics, such as Vasily Vatagin, Alexei Komarov, Vadim Trofimov, Andrei Marts and Alexei Tsvetkov.