Societa Zoologica "La Torbiera" was established in 1977 by Francesco Rocca in a small town Novara near Milan, Italy. Its zoo occupies the area of 50 ha and contains different rare and endangered species like Amur leopards, Siberian tigers, markhors, snow leopards, musk deer and many endangered birds.

The park was instituted as the center for breeding, research and conservation of the species in danger. Special attention has been paid to the Italian and European faunas and to the rare and endangered species of wild cats (family Felidae).

For this, La Torbiera participates in and supports a number of programs targeted to wildlife conservation and shares these activities with local researchers and institutions working in situ.

The atmosphere in the La Torbiera zoo is so natural that animals stay as free in their behavior as possible and do not fear visitors who stay unnoticed in their small observation points.

The principal objective and mission of La Torbiera (member of IUCN) is to safeguard the existence of disappearing species and the habitat through captive breeding (member of EAZA), environmental education and field projects in several regions of the world: Armenia, Thailand, Argentina, Gabon, Russian Far East. It also helps local researchers in their first scientific studies aimed at conservation of species and habitats in danger.

Regarding the involvement of La Torbiera in our leopard project in Armenia, Francesco Rocca and volunteer Massimo Pizzetti are very active in overall stewardship and financial support. Due to their invaluable support, our project has become well-known and popular in international scientific community. In May 2001, they and Andrea Crosta visited Armenia to see our project sites, check our progress and acquaint themselves to key local environmental professionals

working with us to save the leopard from extinction. Their impression was highly positive and this has greatly enforced our enthusiasm and devotion for continuation of project and spreading a word about it all over the world for further development and fundraising.

torbiera@iol.it