Greenville Zoo

About Greenville Zoo

The Greenville Zoo is a 14-acre zoo in Greenville, South Carolina, approved by the Greenville City Council in 1957 and opened to the public in 1960. It began with mostly indigenous animals, including bears, deer, bobcat, foxes, ducks, and prairie dogs, and has since grown into an Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited facility. The zoo lists at least 20 species on its website today, including African wild dogs, an Amur leopard, a Sumatran orangutan, a red panda, and a Masai giraffe.

History

Construction on the Greenville Zoo began in 1960 after City Council approval in 1957. A monkey dome went up in 1962 and brought 26 colobus monkeys to the collection. Through the rest of the 1960s the zoo was fenced, its walkways were paved, and a chimpanzee building, sea lions, otters, a macaw, and two leopards were added. Elephants arrived in the 1970s.

By 1981 the zoo held 70 animals across 11 display areas and had grown from 5 to 14 acres. It closed in 1984 for major upgrades and reopened in 1986 with a new education center, reptile building, gift and refreshment center, South American area, and waterfowl lagoon. A Cub Kingdom preschool playground opened in 2002, followed by an Asian Encounter exhibit in 2003 and, in 2008, a Masai giraffe exhibit featuring two giraffes named Autumn and Walter.

In 2014, Ladybird, a 44-year-old female African elephant, was euthanized after a month of abdominal pain left her unable to stand. Because AZA regulations bar zoos from housing a single elephant, the zoo's remaining elephant, Joy, was to move to Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but she died en route. The former elephant exhibit became a South American Pampas habitat in 2015, first for a giant anteater named Moe and later for two rheas from New York's Queens Zoo. A new Amur leopard den arrived in 2021, along with the completion of Primate Row — enclosures housing four of the five protected primate species kept at the zoo — the return of an American alligator after several years without one, 14 new Chilean flamingos, two southern screamers, and a pair of Kunekune pigs. That year's new "Holidays at the Zoo" event set attendance and revenue records for December.

Exhibits and habitats

The zoo's Primate Row, completed in 2021, holds four of the five protected primate species in the collection. Its South American Pampas exhibit, created from the former elephant habitat in 2015, is home to rheas and previously a giant anteater. The Masai giraffe exhibit, opened in 2008, has produced at least one giraffe calf: Kiko, born in 2012 to the zoo's female giraffe Autumn on a breeding loan from Boston's Franklin Park Zoo, later became the first giraffe born in South Carolina to cross into Canada when he moved to the Toronto Zoo. The zoo's Amur leopard den, added in 2021, and its lagoon, home to Chilean flamingos and southern screamers, round out the exhibit areas named in available records. In 2015, the zoo also welcomed its first baby gibbon and a baby red panda, named Willie after the singer Willie Nelson.

Animal highlights

The zoo lists at least 20 species on its website, including African wild dogs, an Aldabra giant tortoise, an American alligator, an Amur leopard, Angolan colobus monkeys, a bat-eared fox, black-headed spider monkeys, Chilean flamingos, a Masai giraffe, an ocelot, a red panda, and a Sumatran orangutan, along with birds of prey such as a barred owl, a Eurasian eagle-owl, a Harris's hawk, and a Rüppell's griffon vulture. A Kunekune pig, a rhea, and a southern screamer round out the collection named in available records.

Planning your visit

Greenville Zoo is located at 150 Cleveland Park Drive in Greenville, South Carolina. Two free parking lots sit directly across from the zoo entrance, with additional parking provided during special events. The zoo's website lists membership options as well as information on birthday parties, rentals, overnights, and shelter rentals, and it maintains a set of visitor guidelines meant to keep the zoo family-friendly for all guests. Hours and current ticket prices were not available in the sources for this page — check the zoo's official website for up-to-date admission rates and operating hours before you visit.