Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo

About Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo covers about 25 acres in Gulf Shores, Alabama, roughly six miles from the beach, and is home to around 300 animals. According to the zoo's own website, its collection spans 118 species, including 22 considered critically endangered. The zoo is not currently accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. It's operated by The Zoo Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit governed by a board of directors, and it describes its mission around four themes: education, conservation, adventure, and community.

The zoo opened at its Gulf Shores location in 1989, though its history as a small, family-run animal park in the same town goes back further. It relies on admissions, memberships, and donations to operate, since it receives no public funding, and it's inspected annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Rather than being organized around large themed habitats, the zoo is built around a rotating schedule of daily keeper chats and animal encounters that bring visitors close to specific species throughout the day.

History

The zoo's story starts with a Gulf Shores entrepreneur, Joey Ward, who built a small community zoo called Zooland Animal Park on family-owned land in the middle of town, about a mile from the beach. It housed tropical birds, snakes, big cats, and other exotic animals under the care of Joey and his parents, Wade and Pat Ward, and was popular with locals and vacationers even though Gulf Shores wasn't yet the tourist destination it later became. The Ward family eventually formed a nonprofit, The Zoo Foundation, Inc., to operate the park.

A volunteer named Patti Hall joined around this time and was later asked to become the zoo's director. Her tenure included navigating hurricane seasons, hiring a head zookeeper who would later become the zoo's curator, and renaming the park to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo to build credibility. She also grew "Boo in the Zoo" into an annual Halloween event drawing more than 2,500 attendees.

The defining event in the zoo's history came one September, when Hurricane Ivan, a Category 3 storm, was forecast to make landfall directly on Gulf Shores. Over roughly 36 hours, Patti Hall and her staff evacuated more than 265 animals 20 miles inland to her own property, leaving behind only Chuckie, an 11-foot, 1,000-pound American alligator too large to move, who rode out the storm in his exhibit. On September 16, Hurricane Ivan made landfall and the zoo was left under 14 feet of water; no animal was lost in the evacuation, and Chuckie was later found alive. National media, including NatGeo, People, CNN, and Good Morning America, covered the story, and Peter Jennings named Patti Hall his ABC World News Person of the Week. That coverage led to a 13-episode Animal Planet series, "The Little Zoo That Could," which debuted the following February and helped the zoo reopen just 14 months after the storm.

Recognizing that its original swampy, sand-covered site couldn't survive another major hurricane, the zoo set out to relocate to higher ground. Gulf Shores residents Clyde Weir and his daughter Andrea, moved by the television series, donated 25 acres of land four miles inland for a new facility. Fundraising for the new site was slowed first by the 2008 recession and then by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which hit Gulf Coast tourism hard. With help from animal expert Jim Fowler and renewed backing from the Ward family, construction eventually proceeded on the new Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo at its current location.

Exhibits and habitats

The zoo's layout centers on smaller animal areas rather than large themed trails. The Manor, an indoor building, houses a Micro Market selling snacks and self-serve food near the zoo's Lemur Adventure area. A South American Adventure area hosts a recurring daily bird chat, part of the zoo's broader schedule of keeper talks that also covers big cats and the zoo's barn animals. Animal encounters — paid, closely supervised sessions with individual animals — are a regular feature of a visit, alongside the zoo's stage shows, which run daily during the warm-weather months.

Animal highlights

The zoo's own materials describe a collection of 118 species and about 300 individual animals, all housed on-site with names and backstories the zoo shares with visitors. Its public animal directory lists at least 68 species by name, including big cats such as lions, servals, clouded leopards, and Eurasian lynx, and primates including capuchin monkeys, hamadryas baboons, squirrel monkeys, and several lemur species — brown, red ruffed, and ring-tailed. The collection also includes giraffes, a range of reptiles from green iguanas to yellow anacondas, and a mix of domestic and farm animals such as alpacas, donkeys, goats, and sheep alongside its more exotic residents.

Planning your visit

As listed on the zoo's website, the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with last admission at 3:30 p.m.; it's closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. General admission, as listed, runs $23.95 for ages 13 to 54, $20.95 for seniors 62 and up and military, and $15.95 for children 3 to 12, with children two and under free; prices don't include tax. Group rates apply for parties of 15 or more, with discounted school-group admission and free entry for teachers and bus drivers.

The zoo offers stroller, double-stroller, and wagon rentals, along with complimentary manual wheelchairs on a first-come, first-served basis and a mobility scooter for $20. Guests may bring their own food, and drink machines, mini-melt ice cream, and snow cones are sold inside; the Micro Market near Lemur Adventure offers additional self-serve snacks. Service dogs are permitted under ADA guidelines, though pets are not allowed. All zoo guests age 15 and under must be accompanied by a paying guest at least 16 years old. Because admission prices and hours can change, confirm current details on the zoo's official website before visiting.