Discover the best zoos and aquariums across the country. ThrillZing covers admission, must-see exhibits, animal encounters, and reciprocal membership tips for every major zoo and aquarium — plus the latest news from the world of wildlife attractions.
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/ August 16, 2026
Diergaarde Blijdorp — Rotterdam Zoo — was founded on 18 May 1857 as the Rotterdamsche Diergaarde, a Victorian-era garden in the middle of the city. Yet the zoo you visit today is also a 20th-century landmark: in 1940 it moved to the Blijdorp district and
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Natura Artis Magistra — Latin for “Nature is the teacher of art”, and known to everyone simply as Artis — opened in Amsterdam in 1838. It is the oldest zoo in the Netherlands and the fifth-oldest zoo in the world still operating, founded by a
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Dublin Zoo opened its gates in Phoenix Park on 1 September 1831, a year after the Royal Zoological Society of Dublin was founded at a meeting in the Rotunda Hospital in May 1830. The grounds were laid out by Decimus Burton, the celebrated architect who
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
The Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes opened on 11 December 1794 inside Paris’s famous botanical garden, making it the second-oldest zoological garden in the world — only Vienna’s Tiergarten Schönbrunn is older. It was created in the turmoil of the French Revolution, largely stocked with
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
This list ranks the 25 largest aquariums in the world by total water volume — the standard measure for comparing them — covering facilities open to the public as of August 2026, with every figure checked against current sources. Where totals effectively tie, the aquarium
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
The Oregon Coast Aquarium sits along Yaquina Bay in Newport, Oregon, where it has introduced visitors to the marine life of the Pacific Northwest since opening on May 23, 1992. Spread across 23 acres, the AZA-accredited facility blends indoor galleries with outdoor habitats that mirror
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Lahore Zoo, on Mall Road in Lahore, Punjab, was established in 1872 and is one of the largest zoos in Pakistan — and by founding date one of the oldest zoos anywhere in the world. It began as a small aviary donated by Lala Mela
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
The Mulhouse Zoological & Botanical Park (Parc Zoologique et Botanique de Mulhouse) was created in 1868 by a group of philanthropist industrialists led by Charles Thierry-Mieg, on the wooded Rebberg heights at the edge of the Tannenwald forest in Alsace, France. More than 150 years
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Shark Reef Aquarium sits inside Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip, giving visitors a walk-through look at one of the largest collections of sharks in the United States. Opened on June 20, 2000, after a $40 million construction investment, the 105,000-square-foot facility was
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
The Budapest Zoo & Botanical Garden (Fővárosi Állat- és Növénykert) opened on 9 August 1866, making it the oldest zoo in Hungary and one of the oldest in the world. Uniquely for a major zoo, it sits inside the City Park in the very center
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Karlsruhe Zoo — formally the Zoologischer Stadtgarten Karlsruhe — opened in 1865, making it one of the oldest zoos in Germany. It is an unusual hybrid: a zoo and a landscaped city garden fused into one enclosed park in the heart of Karlsruhe, stretching between
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
Leningrad Zoo opened in 1865 in Alexander Park on St. Petersburg’s Petrogradskaya Storona, founded by Sofia and Julius Gerhardt as a private zoological garden. It is one of the oldest zoos in Russia and the most northerly of the country’s major zoos, and today it
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tz
/ August 16, 2026
This list ranks the 25 oldest zoos in the world that are still operating as of August 2026 — ranked by the year each institution first opened its gates to visitors as a zoo. Charter dates and royal menageries that never became public zoos don’t
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tz
/ August 15, 2026
Adventure Aquarium sits on the Camden Waterfront along the Delaware River, directly across from Philadelphia. The facility traces back to 1992 as the New Jersey State Aquarium and reopened under its current name in 2005 after a major renovation led by Herschend Family Entertainment, which
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tz
/ August 15, 2026
The Tennessee Aquarium sits on the banks of the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga, where it has anchored the city’s riverfront since opening its first building, River Journey, on May 1, 1992. A second building, Ocean Journey, followed on April 29, 2005, expanding the complex
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tz
/ August 15, 2026
The Aquarium of the Pacific opened on June 20, 1998, on a 6-acre site along Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, California. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, it was built to showcase the biodiversity of the Pacific Ocean, from
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tz
/ August 14, 2026
National Aquarium Denmark, known locally as Den Blå Planet (The Blue Planet), opened in March 2013 in Kastrup, just outside Copenhagen, replacing a smaller aquarium that had operated in Charlottenlund since 1939. Designed by Danish architecture firm 3XN, the building’s distinctive whirlpool-shaped form has won
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tz
/ August 14, 2026
Two Oceans Aquarium sits at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, taking its name from its unique location where the cold Atlantic Ocean and warmer Indian Ocean currents converge along the Cape coastline. Opened on 13 November 1995, the aquarium has grown into
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tz
/ August 13, 2026
L’Oceanogràfic is a vast oceanarium in Valencia, Spain, forming part of the City of Arts and Sciences complex in the dried-up bed of the Turia River. Opened on February 14, 2003, it was designed by architect Félix Candela, with structural engineering by Alberto Domingo and
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tz
/ August 13, 2026
Sea Life London Aquarium sits inside the historic County Hall building on the South Bank of the River Thames, directly across the water from the Houses of Parliament. It opened on 28 March 1997 as the London Aquarium before Merlin Entertainments acquired it in 2008
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