Events

Banging their heads against the wall in despair and peering forlornly through the bars of their godforsaken cages, these are the inmates of the world's saddest zoo.

The planet's worst animal park is probably also its smallest.

Just three lions, two bears and two guinea pigs live out their boring, hunger-filled days in tiny cages, displaying all the signs of creatures slowly being driven mad by their unnatural existence.

They are the residue of a billionaire's whim, bought as entertainment by an Armenian oligarch to underwrite his ego and parade before his friends in themed jungle parties.
    

But the parties, along with the cash to care for the poor beasts, vanished at the same time as their owner.

Now the animals scrape along on a starvation diet of slaughterhouse scraps and scavenged woodland plants brought to them by an elderly couple fighting hard to keep them alive.

The zoo is in the Armenian town of Gyumri – the place where the family of Armenian-American superstar Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe stem from – but it has been over two years since it saw a paying guest: