San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo occupies about 100 acres of Balboa Park and traces its founding to 1916, when animals left over from the Panama-California Exposition were gathered into a permanent collection. It is operated by San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which also runs the Safari Park in Escondido, roughly thirty-five miles north; the two are separate sites and a combined ticket is sold for both. The zoo is laid out across a canyon system, so the terrain is more varied than the acreage suggests, and a guided bus tour and an aerial tram are included with admission and function as genuine transport rather than only as attractions. The collection is unusually broad, with strong representation outside the standard mammal set, and the botanical planting is accredited in its own right. Notable areas include Africa Rocks, Elephant Odyssey, the Lost Forest and Northern Frontier.

About San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo sits on land leased from the City of San Diego inside Balboa Park, on grounds that grew out of animal exhibitions left over from the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. Its founder, Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth, brought that leftover collection together and, in 1916, formed the Zoological Society of San Diego. The zoo now covers close to 100 acres and reports housing more than 12,000 animals representing more than 680 species and subspecies, with an annual attendance of roughly four million. It is the most visited zoo in the country, and its parent organization, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, runs one of the largest zoological membership associations anywhere.

The Wildlife Alliance also operates the nearly 2,000-acre San Diego Zoo Safari Park about 30 miles northeast of the zoo, near Escondido, where wide-open field exhibits give many species room the zoo's urban footprint can't provide. Animals move between the two properties, and between other zoos, in accordance with Species Survival Plan recommendations, an arrangement that has helped the Safari Park's breeding programs in particular.

San Diego was an early pioneer of open-air, cage-less exhibits that recreate natural habitats rather than confining animals behind bars, a design philosophy that shaped the zoo from its earliest years and still runs through its newer exhibit areas. It is also an accredited botanical garden, with a collection of more than 700,000 exotic plants that includes dozens of varieties of bamboo and eucalyptus grown specifically to feed the zoo's pandas and koalas.

History

Wegeforth served as president of the Zoological Society of San Diego until 1941, initially following precedents set by the Bronx Zoo's New York Zoological Society. A permanent tract of land in Balboa Park was set aside in August 1921, with the city agreeing to own the animals while the zoo managed them; Ellen Browning Scripps financed a fence around the property so the zoo could begin charging admission, and the zoo's publication, ZooNooz, launched in 1925.

Early directorships were short-lived — animal collector Frank Buck lasted three months in 1923 before clashing with Wegeforth — until Wegeforth appointed the zoo's bookkeeper, Belle Benchley, to the role. She served as zoo director from 1925 to 1953, for most of that time the only female zoo director in the world. Under her direction, in October 1938, two giraffes named Lofty and Patches were shipped from British East Africa, surviving a hurricane at sea and a cross-country truck journey before arriving at the zoo — a story later featured in the 2019 novel West With Giraffes.

The zoo built the country's first lion area without enclosing wires in 1922, part of its early push toward moated, cageless exhibits. Its Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species was founded in 1975; it became the Division of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species in 2005 and was expanded into the Institute for Conservation Research in 2009. The zoo has also recorded a number of firsts and rarities over the decades, including the world's only albino koala born in a zoological facility, in 1997, and the first giant panda cubs born in the U.S. to survive into adulthood, Hua Mei in 1999 and Mei Sheng in 2003.

Giant pandas left the zoo in 2019 after their long-running conservation loan from China ended, but in June 2024 a new pair, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, arrived on loan and made their public debut on August 8, 2024. The zoo has also weathered a handful of memorable escapes over the years, most famously Ken Allen, a Bornean orangutan nicknamed "the hairy Houdini" for his repeated breakouts, along with escaped hyenas, monkeys, a koala, and a red panda named Adira who spent six hours loose in a tree in 2023.

Exhibits and habitats

Several of the zoo's exhibit areas are organized around African wildlife and habitat types. Africa Rocks, which cost $60 million and opened in stages through 2017, groups six habitats: Cape Fynbos, where African penguins share a large pool with leopard sharks; Acacia Woodland, home to Amur leopards and vervet monkeys; Madagascar Forest, with several lemur species and their main predator, the fossa; Ethiopian Highlands, housing gelada and hamadryas baboons; Kopje, a rocky habitat for klipspringers, rock hyraxes, and meerkats; and West African Forest, featuring West African dwarf crocodiles and Rady Falls, the tallest man-made waterfall in San Diego.

Lost Forest, based on the Ituri Forest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, opened in 1999 and houses okapi, forest buffalo, and a trio of hippopotamuses with underwater viewing, along with red river hogs, Allen's swamp monkeys, and spotted-necked otters. Elephant Odyssey, opened in 2009 on the site of the former Hoof and Horn Mesa, centers on a 2.5-acre elephant habitat — more than three times the size of the zoo's earlier elephant exhibit — and pairs its herd of four elephants with a Fossil Portal displaying Pleistocene-era bones and life-size statues of ancient Southern California animals.

Gorilla Tropics, opened in 1991, gives its western lowland gorillas an 8,000-square-foot enclosure with waterfalls and tropical plantings, alongside a bonobo habitat and several aviaries. Absolutely Apes, opened in 2003, houses Sumatran orangutans and siamangs behind a 110-foot glass viewing window. Tiger Trail, dedicated in 1988, sits in a sloping canyon and includes a tiger habitat with a hillside stream and waterfall, plus exhibits for Malayan tapirs and babirusas. The Outback, nicknamed "Koalafornia" and opened in 2013, gives the zoo's more than 40 koalas — the largest number outside Australia — expanded outdoor space, along with wallabies, tree-kangaroos, and Tasmanian devils, which the zoo was the first in the U.S. to exhibit.

Bird life is spread across several dedicated aviaries, including the Owens, Scripps, and Parker Aviaries, which together hold birds from Australasia, Africa, and South America; the zoo holds the largest bird collection in North America. The Wildlife Explorers Basecamp, opened in 2022 on the site of the former Children's Zoo, is organized into four ecosystem zones and includes the Hummingbird Habitat and the McKinney Spineless Marvels invertebrate collection.

Animal highlights

San Diego Zoo lists at least 680 species on its website, and its published figures put the total number of animals at more than 12,000. The zoo's own species list spans everything from elephants, giraffes, lions, and tigers to bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, snow leopards, and giant pandas, alongside a large reptile and amphibian collection that includes Komodo dragons, gharials, and dozens of tortoise and turtle species. Notable residents include Malayan tiger brothers Conner and Berani, western lowland gorillas Ekuba and Denny, and a herd of Masai giraffes that welcomed a calf in July 2025.

Conservation and programs

The zoo's Institute for Conservation Research is described as the largest zoo-based multidisciplinary research effort in the world, employing more than 200 scientists working in 35 countries. It has helped reintroduce more than 30 endangered species into the wild and maintains conserved habitat at 50 field sites, along with a cryopreservation facility for rare sperm and eggs known as the Frozen Zoo. Its best-known success is the California condor: in 1982, only 22 birds remained due to poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat loss; the zoo was granted permission to run the first captive propagation program for the species, and within 20 years the population had grown from 22 to 200.

The zoo also raises or manages breeding populations of tigers, black rhinos, polar bears, orangutans, desert tortoises, African penguins, dholes, giraffes, lion-tailed macaques, Przewalski's horses, saiga antelope, okapi, and 145 other endangered species, among many others. Its Zoo Corps volunteer program enlists high school students, ages 13 to 17, to teach guests about the animals and ecosystems on display, running year-round in two sessions.

Planning your visit

San Diego Zoo is located at 2920 Zoo Dr in Balboa Park. A guided tour bus covers about 75% of the park, and the Skyfari aerial gondola, built in 1969, offers an overhead view of the grounds. Given the size of the zoo and its many exhibit areas, plan for a visit of several hours if you want to see the major habitats.

Hours, ticket prices, parking information, and accessibility details are not confirmed here — check the zoo's official website before you go, since admission and operating hours can change seasonally.