Smoking Ban at Auckland Zoo

From today, visitors to Auckland Zoo will be told to stub out their cigarettes or leave.

After complaints from the public, the Auckland City Council-owned zoo this week announced that it was going smoke free for the first time in its 88-year history.

Visitors who wanted to smoke can puff away in a designated area outside before entering the zoo or get a leave pass to go outside to light up before returning through the main entrance.

The zoo's new policy coincided with World Smokefree Day on Monday and was prompted partly by customer complaints, said zoo board Chairman, councillor Graeme Mulholland.

Mulholland said the smokefree move was in line with the zoo's move to create a healthy environment, stating "the zoo is a place where Aucklanders and visitors to Auckland come to see unique wildlife, and we want to make sure that their whole experience will be enjoyable. This is why the board has endorsed a smokefree policy."

More than 580,000 people visited Auckland Zoo last year, and the zoo said it expected few complaints about the new smokefree policy.