Gulf Breeze Zoo

About Gulf Breeze Zoo

Gulf Breeze Zoo is a zoo on U.S. Highway 98 in northwest Florida, at 5701 Gulf Breeze Parkway. Although the mailing address uses Gulf Breeze, Wikipedia places the zoo in Woodlawn Beach, near Navarre and Gulf Breeze. The zoo's current website is gbzoo.com, where it describes itself as 50 acres of wild adventure.

According to the zoo's FAQ, the facility is divided into two parts. The first 20 acres are a walking area, and the remaining 30 acres are a free-roaming preserve that visitors tour on a guided train ride. The zoo's conservation page says it is privately owned, receives no state or federal tax funding, and is operated by Zoofari Parks, working alongside Alabama Safari Park, Virginia Safari Park and Texas Zoofari Park.

The zoo is open seven days a week on a seasonal schedule. Its FAQ says it is open 363 days a year and closes on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

History

Wikipedia traces the zoo to an earlier operation called The Zoo Northwest Florida, which started on an acre of land on Burgess Road and later moved to a larger tract in Cantonment, Florida. It says the zoo was established at its current site in 1984 by four local businessmen, with Pat Quinn, one of the founders, as its first director. It began with about 60 animals on 19 acres.

Wikipedia says that in 2004 the founders handed ownership to a nonprofit, the Gulf Coast Zoological Society, and that hurricanes Ivan and Dennis struck the area in 2004 and 2005 with devastating effect on the zoo. It then describes a temporary closure on August 17, 2009, while the zoo waited on funding decisions from Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, followed by a county announcement on August 20, 2009, that the closure would be permanent. In December 2009 a team of zoological professionals from Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge, Virginia, purchased the zoo. After renovation it reopened on February 18, 2010, as Gulf Breeze Zoo.

Wikipedia reports that on January 20, 2018, the first baby white rhino was born at the zoo, the first rhino calf in its history, and that in February 2019 a family of six orangutans arrived from a conservation center in Connecticut. The zoo's own rhino page says several calves have been born over the years as part of its breeding program, including a female named Kipenzi in 2025.

Exhibits and habitats

The Safari Express train ride is the way most visitors see the preserve. The zoo describes a narrated journey of about 15 minutes in a locomotive of the CP Huntington style through the 30-acre preserve, where rhinoceros, deer, antelope and emus roam. According to the ride page, riders may also see gorilla and orangutan families and Nile hippos in their pond. The FAQ says the train departs every hour on the hour beginning at 10 a.m., with the last train at 4 p.m., and that it is delayed if there is lightning. The train is wheelchair-accessible, but strollers and wagons must be parked at designated areas before boarding.

An elevated boardwalk lets visitors look over the preserve. The zoo's boardwalk page says visitors can watch herds of antelope, deer and rhino and see orangutans on their island habitats. Species profiled on the zoo's website include three western lowland gorillas named Babuka, Rwanda and Kigali; Sumatran orangutans; three Nile hippos named Kiboko, Cleopatra and their son Kibuzo; southern white rhinos; and a greater one-horned rhino named Soman.

Other animals named on the zoo's current pages include lions and ring-tailed lemurs, whose habitats face each other according to the encounters page, along with Galapagos tortoises, American alligators, dromedary camels, Scottish Highland cows, a sloth named Zelda and a herd of reticulated giraffes. The boardwalk page also mentions pygmy hippos.

The zoo also has a farm where visitors can feed and pet goats and sheep, a budgie aviary where visitors can feed budgerigars, and a mining sluice next to the farm where visitors wash mining rough to find gems and fossils for a separate fee.

Conservation and programs

The zoo's conservation page says it supports wildlife conservation through public education, captive breeding, habitat protection and financial support for conservation teams. Through Zoofari Parks, it says it works with sister facilities to support conservation efforts in more than 135 countries, including rhino and elephant anti-poaching teams, artificial nesting sites for wild penguins, and relocation of giraffes across the Nile.

Species pages name specific partners. The southern white rhino page says the zoo supports the International Rhino Foundation on an ongoing basis and collaborates with the Zoological Association of America's Southern White Rhino Animal Management Program. The orangutan page says the zoo supports the Sumatran Orangutan Society.

The zoo offers animal feeding experiences. Visitors can feed giraffes, camels and Scottish Highland cows daily, and American alligators seasonally from April through October, weather permitting, according to the feeding page. Giraffe feed is purchased at admissions or from the Giraffe Hut, and the FAQ says feed cups are available for goats, sheep, camels, waterfowl, turtles and giraffes.

The zoo also sells behind-the-scenes encounters. Its encounters page lists seven: American alligator, Galapagos tortoise, giraffe, Indian rhinoceros, Nile hippo, ring-tailed lemur and sloth. Participants check in at admissions to sign a waiver and receive a wristband. Minimum ages vary by animal, and the Galapagos tortoise encounter runs only from May through October. The zoo's rhino page describes the rhino encounter, with a greater one-horned rhino named Soman, as about 20 minutes long for a small group. Encounter fees are listed on the zoo's website.

The zoo's FAQ says it cannot accept injured or orphaned wildlife and directs callers to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Planning your visit

As listed on the zoo's website for 2026, the zoo is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from January 1 through February 27, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from February 28 through October 30, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from October 31 through December 31. The last guests are admitted at 3 p.m. in the periods with a 4 p.m. closing and at 4 p.m. in the period with a 5 p.m. closing. The zoo is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

The zoo says admission includes all exhibits, walking paths and experiences, with ticket prices, extras and memberships listed on the tickets and hours page. The home page recommends buying tickets in advance, and the zoo's phone number on its website is 866-620-1825. Tickets are valid for the entire day, and guests who leave and return must keep their receipt for re-entry. The zoo does not offer refunds for rain, according to its FAQ.

Outside food and drink are not permitted inside the zoo. The FAQ says a cafe serves lunch items, and that a covered picnic pavilion outside the zoo grounds may be used before entering, although grills are not allowed there. Pets are not allowed, though service dogs are permitted with restrictions. Smoking and vaping are not permitted on zoo grounds, and the designated smoking area is in the main parking lot. Wagons and wheelchairs can be rented for a fee, strollers are not rented, and guests may bring their own.