tz
/ October 15, 2026
Northwest Trek Wildlife Park sits on 725 acres of forest and meadow near Eatonville, Washington, about an hour south of Tacoma. Unlike a conventional zoo, its signature experience is a tram tour through a 435-acre free-roaming area where bison, Roosevelt elk, mountain goats, caribou, and…
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tz
/ October 13, 2026
The Great Plains Zoo has welcomed visitors to Sioux Falls, South Dakota since opening on June 30, 1963. Spread across 45 acres, the zoo grew out of the Zoological Society of Sioux Falls, a nonprofit founded in 1957 to bring a permanent wildlife park to…
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tz
/ October 12, 2026
Miller Park Zoo sits inside Miller Park in Bloomington, Illinois, and traces its roots back to 1891, when the city first spent public money caring for animals kept in the park. Local lore holds that the collection got its real start around 1900, after a…
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tz
/ October 12, 2026
The Little Rock Zoo traces its roots to 1924, when its first two residents, a timber wolf and a circus-trained brown bear, arrived in what is now Little Rock, Arkansas. Nearly a century later, it has grown into the state’s only zoo accredited by the…
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tz
/ October 11, 2026
Lincoln Children’s Zoo opened on July 23, 1965, after Lincoln businessman Arnott Folsom spent years and his own personal funds planning a zoo designed specifically for kids. What began on just three acres of city land with around 120 animals has grown into a beloved…
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tz
/ October 11, 2026
Lee Richardson Zoo sits inside Finnup Park in Garden City, Kansas, where it has introduced visitors to wildlife from around the world since 1927. What began with two skunks brought in by local Chief of Police Lee Richardson, through a partnership between the city and…
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tz
/ October 9, 2026
Como Park Zoo and Conservatory sits inside Como Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota, pairing a free, AZA-accredited zoo with the historic Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. The zoo traces its roots to 1897, when the city received a gift of three deer, and it has grown into…
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tz
/ October 8, 2026
The Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park has grown from a modest 1934 city menagerie of local bears and elk into a full AZA-accredited zoo tucked inside one of Idaho Falls’ busiest recreation parks. Exotic animals began arriving the following year, and the grounds have…
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tz
/ October 8, 2026
Hutchinson Zoo is a compact, community-rooted zoo in Hutchinson, Kansas, that opened to the public on May 23, 1986 after planning began in 1983. Though small at just 9 acres, the zoo has built a reputation for focusing on wildlife native to Kansas and the…
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tz
/ October 4, 2026
Dickerson Park Zoo has welcomed visitors to Springfield, Missouri since 1923, when the Springfield Park Board established the zoo on land purchased from the estate of Jerome Dickerson, Sr., whose name the park still carries. Like many American zoos of its era, it got a…
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tz
/ October 4, 2026
The David Traylor Zoo of Emporia sits inside Soden’s Grove Park in Emporia, Kansas, and has grown from a modest early-1900s animal collection into one of the smallest zoos in the country to earn accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The zoo opened…
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tz
/ October 3, 2026
Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo sits inside historic Beardsley Park in Bridgeport, Connecticut, holding the distinction of being the only Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited zoo in the entire state. The zoo traces its roots back to 1922, when it opened on parkland that local farmer…
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tz
/ September 30, 2026
Cape May County Park & Zoo sits inside Cape May Court House’s 200-acre Park Central in Middle Township, New Jersey, and has offered free year-round admission since it opened in 1978. What began as a 40-acre plantation tract donated to the county in 1942 has…
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tz
/ September 30, 2026
Cameron Park Zoo sits along the Brazos River in Waco, Texas, where naturalistic habitats replace traditional cages and walkways wind past waterfalls, ponds, and dense native vegetation. The zoo opened to the public on July 18, 1993, the result of a 1989 countywide bond that…
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tz
/ September 30, 2026
Caldwell Zoo began humbly in 1937 as a Child Development Laboratory in Tyler, Texas, where DK Caldwell and his wife Lottie gathered small animals like Easter bunnies and ducklings to delight local children. What started as a modest backyard menagerie grew steadily, and in 1953…
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tz
/ September 27, 2026
Brandywine Zoo sits tucked into Brandywine Park along the banks of the Brandywine River in Wilmington, Delaware, on ground where George Washington is said to have mustered troops during the American Revolution. Opened in 1905 after Dr. James H. Morgan began assembling a small animal…
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tz
/ August 27, 2026
Granby Zoo traces its roots back to 1944, when Pierre-Horace Boivin, the longtime mayor of Granby, Quebec, began assembling a small personal menagerie. That collection grew into an official zoo in 1953 after the local Notre Dame parish donated a 60-acre parcel of land to…
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tz
/ July 30, 2026
Wildlife Safari is a 615-acre drive-through animal park in Winston, Oregon, founded by Frank Hart in 1972 after he was inspired by his travels to Africa. Visitors drive their own vehicles along a roughly 4.5-mile route through open pastures where animals from around the world…
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tz
/ July 30, 2026
Lion Country Safari opened on August 29, 1967, in Loxahatchee near West Palm Beach, Florida, and is billed as the first cageless zoo and the nation’s first drive-through safari park. A group of South African and British entrepreneurs created the park so South Florida families…
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tz
/ July 29, 2026
Roger Williams Park Zoo sits inside the historic Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island, and traces its roots back to 1872, making it the third-oldest zoo in the United States. What began as a small collection of animals has grown into a 40-acre facility…
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