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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
tz
/ October 11, 2026
Blank Park Zoo sits on the south side of Des Moines, Iowa, near the grounds of historic Fort Des Moines. What began in 1963 as a $150,000 gift from philanthropist Abraham Harry Blank grew into the Des Moines Children’s Zoo, which opened its gates on…
Read more
tz
/ October 11, 2026
The Lehigh Valley Zoo sits on about 29 acres inside the sprawling 1,100-acre Trexler Nature Preserve in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, a short drive from Allentown. The surrounding preserve traces its roots back to 1906, when local industrialist Harry Clay Trexler began buying up farmland to protect…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
tz
/ October 7, 2026
Tucked beneath a canopy of oak and pine trees in Kamper Park, the Hattiesburg Zoo has been a fixture of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, since it opened in 1950 on a donated 40-acre tract originally given to the city back in 1908. Despite its modest 12-acre footprint…
Read more
tz
/ October 4, 2026
The Dakota Zoo sits on the banks of the Missouri River in Bismarck, North Dakota, where it has grown from a small backyard menagerie into an AZA-accredited facility spanning 90 acres. It opened to the public on June 3, 1961, with just 75 mammals, 23…
Read more
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…
Read more
tz
/ October 2, 2026
Charles Paddock Zoo is a small but mighty community zoo in Atascadero, California, tucked beside Atascadero Lake Park on the Central Coast. What began in 1955 as county park ranger Charles “Chuck” Paddock’s informal menagerie of rescued and recovering wild animals grew into a public…
Read more
tz
/ October 1, 2026
The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens sits just north of Orlando in Sanford, Florida, tucked along the shores of Lake Monroe. What began in 1923 as the small Sanford Municipal Zoo, stocked with animals donated by the local fire department, grew into a full-fledged…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
tz
/ September 13, 2026
Ouwehands Dierenpark is a zoo in Rhenen, in the Dutch province of Utrecht, set on a wooded rise called the Laarschenberg at the edge of the Utrecht Hill Ridge. It traces its roots to 1919, when Cor Ouwehand started a small farm on the Grebbeberg…
Read more
tz
/ September 8, 2026
Barcelona Zoo opened its gates on September 24, 1892, inside the leafy Parc de la Ciutadella, making it one of Europe’s older urban zoos still operating today. Over more than a century, it grew from a modest municipal menagerie into a full-fledged conservation and research…
Read more