San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in San Diego, California, United States, located in Balboa Park. It started with animals left from the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. Dr. Harry M. Wegeforth brought these animals together.

The zoo uses open-air exhibits that look like natural animal homes.

The zoo is on 100 acres of land borrowed from the City of San Diego. It has over 12,000 animals from more than 680 species and subspecies. It is the most visited zoo in the United States and is often called one of the best zoos in the world.

Its parent group is the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, a private nonprofit group. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance also runs the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. For the sister place in Escondido, California, see the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

History

The San Diego Zoo began with animal shows from the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. Harry M. Wegeforth started the Zoological Society of San Diego in 1916. He wanted a zoo in San Diego after hearing a lion roar at the exposition.

The zoo opened in Balboa Park in 1921. It used animals from the exposition and from a closed park called Wonderland Amusement Park. People paid to enter through a fence. A magazine named ZooNooz began in 1925.

Frank Buck was the zoo's director in 1923 but left after three months. Later, Belle Benchley became director and was the only woman in the world to hold that job at the time. She led the zoo from 1925 to 1953.

In 1938, the zoo got two young giraffes named Lofty and Patches from British East Africa. They traveled safely even during a big storm at sea. The zoo was one of the first to build exhibits without cages, using moats instead.

The zoo started a special group in 1975 to help animals in danger. In 1997, the world’s only albino koala was born there. In 2014, African penguins arrived for the first time since 1979.

Escapes

The San Diego Zoo has had some funny escape stories. Ken Allen, a Bornean orangutan, became famous for escaping many times and was called “the hairy Houdini.” In 1940, a Malayan Tapir named “Terrible Trudy” escaped several times. In 2013, two striped hyenas got out but were safely brought back. In 2014, a koala named Mundu climbed a tree outside its area but was gently persuaded back in. In early 2015, two Wolf's guenons monkeys escaped but were returned safely. In 2023, a red panda named Adira escaped for six hours but was easily brought back. She and another red panda, Lucas, welcomed their first baby cub in June 2023.

Features

The zoo has a guided tour bus that visits most of the park. There is also a special overhead ride called the Skyfari, which gives visitors a view from above. The Skyfari was built in 1969 by a company in Bern, Switzerland.

Exhibits at the zoo are designed to look like the natural homes of the animals. Some exhibits show animals that live together in the wild, along with plants from their habitats. Exhibits include areas that look like an African rain forest with gorillas, and cold Arctic areas with polar bears. The zoo also has some of the largest bird houses in the world.

The San Diego Zoo also runs the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a large park located near Escondido. This park gives animals more space to live in natural settings that look like parts of Asia, Africa, and Australia. The Safari Park has helped many animals stay healthy.

The San Diego Zoo has a very large and varied collection of animals. Over the past twenty years, the zoo has made new, bigger homes for the animals and moved some to the Safari Park.

The warm, sunny weather in California is good for many plants and animals. The zoo is also a special garden with over 700,000 different plants from around the world. The zoo grows special foods for some animals, like different kinds of bamboo for pandas and eucalyptus trees for koalas.

Exhibits

Monkey Trail and Forest Tales

Monkey Trails showcases primates and other animals from tropical rainforests in Asia and Africa. It opened in 2005 and is home to monkeys such as the Angola colobus, tufted capuchin, De Brazza's monkey, lesser spot-nosed monkey, Black mangabey, Wolf's mona monkey, and mandrill. There is also a pair of pygmy hippopotamus named Elgon and Mabel, who share their underwater-viewing pond with African cichlids and tilapia. Visitors can also see West African slender-snouted crocodiles, different reptiles, and various African freshwater fish in paludarium- and riparium-style exhibits.

Owens Aviary

The Owens Aviary contains about 200 tropical birds from around 45 species, mainly from Australasia, Oceania, and Papua New Guinea. The aviary is built onto the side of a canyon wall, featuring a waterfall that cascades downhill through the aviary before splashing down into a large pond. The aviary is lushly landscaped with palms, ficus, and many other plants. The bird collection includes the Chinese hwamei, eclectus parrot, black-naped fruit doves, common emerald doves, red-billed leiothrix, Victoria crowned pigeons, Bali mynas, Nicobar pigeons, the blue-crowned laughingthrush, white-rumped shamas, the maleo, Himalayan monal, Indian peafowl, and great argus pheasants.

Scripps Aviary

The Scripps Aviary was built in 1923 and is home to many colorful birds from Africa such as the violet-backed starling, African gray parrots, blue-bellied rollers, tambourine doves, great blue turacos, hammerkops, superb starlings, black-headed weavers, white-headed buffalo weavers, white-faced whistling ducks, African spoonbills, Madagascar crested ibises and southern bald ibises.

Parker Aviary

The Parker Aviary houses various birds from South America including Andean cock-of-the-rocks, blue-crowned motmots, blue-headed macaws, crested oropendola, Inca terns, keel-billed toucans, ringed teals, sunbitterns and toco toucans as well as golden lion tamarins. It is situated next to a complex of 20 smaller aviaries previously known as Wings of Australasia, exhibiting tropical birds from Southeast Asia and the Pacific. San Diego Zoo has the largest collection of birds in North America.

Asian Passage

See also: Giant pandas around the world § United States

The San Diego Zoo had been one of four zoos in the U.S. that had giant pandas on display and had been the most successful in terms of panda reproduction. The first two giant panda cubs in U.S. history to have been born in the U.S. and survive into adulthood—Hua Mei (female, born to Bai Yun and Shi Shi) and Mei Sheng (male, born to Bai Yun and Gao Gao)—were born at the zoo, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. After that, three more giant panda cubs—Su Lin and Zhen Zhen (both females) and Yun Zi (male)—were born to the resident giant panda parents Bai Yun and Gao Gao. Xiao Liwu, was born on July 29, 2012, and was let outside for visitors to see on January 9, 2013. By 2015, all of the cubs had been sent back to China to participate in the breeding program there.

By April 2019, the giant panda exhibit had closed. The pandas in the enclosure had been repatriated to China after successfully serving its conservation mission. Since the closing of Panda Trek, the exhibit had been repurposed to display other Chinese animals, including golden takins, red pandas, Mang Mountain pit vipers, Amur leopards, snow leopards and an exhibit comparing several types of bamboo.

In November 1984, the Chinese Wildlife Protection Association, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Forestry, and the Chengdu Zoo formed a Chinese delegation to the United States to carry a pair of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys to the San Diego Zoo for a 13-day exhibition of snub-nosed monkeys. This was the first time that golden snub-nosed monkeys were exhibited abroad.

In November 2023, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping hinted at the return of giant pandas to the zoo as a "gesture that China is ready to continue cooperation with the U.S. on panda conservation." In June 2024, a pair of pandas, named Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, were loaned to the zoo. The two giant pandas made their debut at the San Diego Zoo on August 8, 2024.

Urban Jungle

The Urban Jungle houses different animals including a herd of five Masai giraffes (including a calf born on July 4, 2025), Soemmerring's gazelles, American flamingoes, a Grant's zebra, a miniature donkey and a male Indian rhinoceros named Maza. Many of the Zoo's animal ambassadors live there including a binturong, southern ground hornbills, red kangaroos, fennec foxes, South African cheetahs and Cape porcupines.

Polar Bear Plunge

Polar Bear Plunge, which opened in 1996, and was renovated in March 2010, houses over 30 species representing the Arctic. The main animals in the area are the two female polar bears, named Chinook and Tatqiq. More animals that make their home in the Plunge include reindeer, arctic foxes, racoons, eurasian lynx and an underwater viewing area is available to observe the polar bears swimming in their 130,000-US-gallon pool.

Farther down the path lies an aviary with several species of diving ducks. Some of the horticultural highlights include giant redwood trees, many different pine trees, and manzanita.

Just up the path of Polar Bear Plunge is Northwest Passage, housing mountain lions, maned wolves, giant anteaters, Patagonian maras,gerenuk, bontebok, tufted deer, Grévy's zebras, musk deer, Cuvier's gazelle, lesser kudu, Speke's gazelles, Chacoan Peccarys, as well as the Eagle Canyon, home to Andean condors, harpy eagles, ornate hawk eagles and Steller's sea eagles.

Wildlife Explorers Basecamp

Opened in 2022, the Wildlife Explorers Basecamp was built on the site of the historic Children's Zoo, allowing children to get closer to several animals and also includes interactive play opportunities and sculptures. There are 4 main zones in the basecamp that feature wildlife that lives in the 4 main ecosystems: Desert Dunes, Wild Woods, Marsh Meadows, and The Rainforest.

The Rainforest includes Naked Mole Rats, Goats, binturong, Burmese star tortoises, sloths, caracals, ocelots, wombats, Brazilian porcupines and southern tamanduas. Desert Dunes includes black-tailed prairie dogs, burrowing owls, and fennec foxes. Wild Woods includes squirrel monkeys and coatis.

Hummingbird Habitat

A small aviary that, as of July 2022, includes three species of hummingbirds, the Anna's, Costa's, and Amazilia hummingbirds, along with other birds from South America such as bananaquits, crested quail-doves, golden-collared manakins, blue-necked tanagers, green-backed trogons, opal-rumped tanagers, paradise tanagers, swallow tanagers, turquoise tanagers, screaming pihas, violaceous euphonias, green honeycreepers, purple honeycreepers, red pileated finches, spangled cotingas and pompadour cotingas. Guests can view the birds from an observation bridge, and the aviary also includes a cenote pool. Wattled jacanas can also be seen in the aviary.

Spineless Marvels

The McKinney Spineless Marvels features naked mole-rats and a large invertebrate collection consisting of Central American giant cave cockroaches, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, leafcutter ants, Goliath beetles, giant dead leaf mantises, ghost mantises, two-spotted assassin bugs, giant African millipedes, giant desert hairy scorpions, golden silk orb-weavers, Antilles pinktoe tarantulas, Brazilian black tarantulas, Mexican fireleg tarantulas, golden-eyed stick insects, goliath stick insects, jungle nymphs, thorny devil stick insects and western honey bees.

Cool Critters

This two-story building houses fish, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians. Some of the species housed here are axolotl, Chinese giant salamanders, Cuvier's dwarf caimans, Fiji banded iguana, leopard geckos, Indonesian blue-tongued skinks, common chuckwallas, yellow-spotted river turtles, freshwater angelfish, giant danios, pinktail chalceus, threadfin acara, multiple Lake Malawi cichlids, South American lungfish and sunburst diving beetles.

Reptile Walk

Previously called Reptile Mesa, the Reptile Walk houses small outdoor yards, one housing European species like European pond turtles, marginated tortoises, scheltopusiks and ocellated lizards while the other contains African species, radiated tortoises, Sudan plated lizards and yellow-throated plated lizards. Nearby is the Komodo Kingdom, a new exhibit for the zoo's Komodo dragons.

Walking down the path leads to a building split in two. One side contains terrariums for amphibians such as the Amazon milk frog, Panamanian golden frog, brown mantella, magnificent tree frog, fire salamander, Kaiser's mountain newt and many species of poison dart frog including the dyeing poison dart frog, green and black poison dart frog, black-legged poison frog and splashback poison frog. The other side contains native Californian species like the Colorado River toad, California kingsnake, coastal rosy boa, Baja California rat snake, San Diego gopher snake and giant horned lizard.

The walkway then passes an enclosure for the endangered Chinese alligator and afterwards is a building housing turtles, including broad-shelled river turtles, Roti Island snake-necked turtles, Argentine snake-necked turtles, red-headed Amazon River turtles, Malayan snail-eating turtles, Parker's snake-necked turtles, mata mata and pig-nosed turtles.

Nearby is the gharial pond. Various turtles like Indian flapshell turtles, Indian narrow-headed softshell turtles, northern river terrapins, painted terrapins and others are also housed with the gharials.

Concluding the Reptile Walk are yards housing Asian forest tortoises, African spurred tortoises, blue iguanas, Jamaican iguanas, Galápagos tortoises and leopard tortoises.

Reptile House

This is a renowned Spanish-influence structure. As of July 2022, animals at the reptile house include Mertens' water monitors, flower snakes, Mangshan pit vipers, king cobras, Gila monsters, timber rattlesnakes, Philippine sailfin lizards, Santa Catalina Island rattlesnakes, eyelash vipers, blue-spotted tree monitors, black tree monitors, Madagascar tree boas, Mexican beaded lizards, ringed tree boas, Angolan pythons, emerald tree monitors, green tree pythons, snouted cobras, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, shinglebacks, Mary River turtles, red-bellied short-necked turtles, fathead minnows, African bush vipers, black-headed bushmasters, Central Fijian banded iguanas, Pascagoula map turtles, philodryas baroni, Madagascar ground boas, yellow-spotted monitors, monocled cobras, banded water cobras, mangrove vipers, Gray's monitors, woma pythons, pancake tortoises, West African gaboon vipers, western green mambas, Solomon Islands skinks, puff adders, spider tortoises, simalia boeleni, bothriechis lateralis, banded rock rattlesnakes, twin-spotted rattlesnakes, western diamondback rattlesnakes, Chiapan beaded lizards, crotalus willardi, yellow-blotched palm pit vipers, Chinese crocodile lizards and Sulawesi forest turtles. The reptile walk also houses Ethiopian mountain adders. In 2014, the San Diego Zoo became the first U.S. zoo to successfully breed Ethiopian mountain adders after the successful hatching of seven eggs.

Lost Forest

Based upon the real Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the central part of the continent of Africa, this exhibit opened in 1999 as 'Ituri Forest' and houses different animal species from the rainforests of central Africa. The exhibit begins with a forested exhibit for okapi, black duiker, and forest buffalo, then winds past a recreation of two-leaf-covered Mbuti huts with signage about the people's customs and traditions. Next, the path leads to the hippopotamus exhibit housing three hippopotamus named Funani and her daughter Amahle, and Guadalupe, and has an underwater viewing area.

After the hippos, the path passes through a bunch of bamboo before reaching a clearing where the aviaries are located A thatched-roof gift shop and a food stand are located in a plaza near by. Immediately to the right is an exhibit with red river hogs, Allen's swamp monkeys, Red-tailed monkeys, and spotted-necked otters. The plaza leads to a bridge flanked by the red river hog exhibit on one side and an exhibit that only the monkeys and otters can access on the other. Across the bridge is a creek where the otters can swim, with viewing both above and below the water's surface. Afterwards, the path joins the rest of the zoo.

Elephant Odyssey

This exhibit opened on May 23, 2009, on the site of the former Hoof and Horn Mesa area. The main feature of the exhibit is the 2.5-acre elephant habitat—more than three times the size of the zoo's former elephant exhibit Elephant Mesa (now the "Urban Jungle" exhibit area). Currently a herd of four, which includes one older female Shaba, and three younger males named Inhlonipho, Vus'Musi and Tsandizkle, who came from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, and Reid Park Zoo respectively. Elephant Odyssey also features a glimpse of the past, with the Fossil Portal and life-size statues of ancient creatures of Southern California next to exhibits of their modern-day counterparts. The ancient life represented include the Columbian mammoth, the saber-toothed cat, the American lion, the Daggett's eagle, a Merriam's teratorn, the dwarf pronghorn, the dire wolf, the short-faced bear and the Jefferson's ground sloth.

The Fossil Portal is an artificial tar pit that periodically drains to reveal man-made Pleistocene-Era bones. The path turns a corner and opens up at the Mammoth Passage Plaza, with exhibits for jaguars and African lions, with a lion named Ernest and a lioness named Miss Ellen, as well as an exhibit that has houses Linnaeus's two-toed sloths to the right, and the tip of the elephant exhibit, with a large wading pool, straight ahead. The path continues to the left along with the pool, passing by the jaguar exhibit on the left. The northern end of the elephant pool drains into the mixed-species exhibit, which houses Baird's tapirs, guanacos, and capybaras. The path meets up with the elephant exhibit again before it reaches the Elephant Care Center, where visitors can watch keepers care for the pachyderms.

Next is an exhibit for secretary birds with grasses, a tree, and a statue of the extinct Daggett's eagle nearby. Afterward, the path goes down a crevasse with a wall embedded with vivaria for dung beetles. The path tunnels below the elephant exhibit to reach the other side, where it continues between the elephant exhibit and a creek for native reptiles and amphibians. Just past the source of the stream is a restaurant and gift shop, and after that are exhibits for dromedary camels, llamas, horses, & burros and another with pronghorns. Next the path splits between a playground, a rattlesnake terrarium, and a California condor aviary with artificial rock spires and a stream. The paths then reunite and join the rest of the zoo.

Gorilla Tropics

Simulating the rainforests of central Africa, and opened in 1991, Gorilla Tropics has an 8,000-square-foot enclosure for the eponymous species. The exhibit has waterfalls, a meadow, and tropical plants such as allspice, coral trees, and African tulip trees, as well as several species of bamboo.

Guests can view the two western lowland gorillas, which is a bachelor troop consisting of two males named Ekuba and Denny from a viewing window, across a waterfall, and across a creek. Nearby are the bonobo habitat, an enclosure for an aviary housing crowned eagles and a small glass aviary by the bonobos housing a variety of smaller birds like exclamatory paradise whydahs, purple grenadiers, red-billed firefinches, red-cheeked cordon-bleus, zebra waxbills and more. There is also a row of other mesh aviaries which include more birds like three species of bird-of-paradise, the raggiana bird-of-paradise, magnificent bird-of-paradise, superb bird-of-paradise alongside others like Bali mynas, crested wood partridges, red-tailed black cockatoos, tricolored parrotfinch, mountain peacock-pheasants, western crowned pigeons, beautiful fruit doves, Guam kingfishers, Mindanao bleeding-hearts and blue-crowned lorikeets.

Absolutely Apes

This exhibit opened in 2003, as a major renovation of the former "Whittier Southeast Asian Exhibits", which had opened in 1982. It houses an adult male Sumatran orangutan, Labu, three females, Karen, Indah, and Aisha, as well as one juvenile male, Kaja. The orangutans live alongside two siamangs Eloise and her daughter Selamat in an 8,400-square-foot exhibit, which is flanked by a 110-foot glass viewing window.

The exhibit provides sway poles and artificial trees for the apes to swing on and a fake termite mound for them to fish condiments out of. The viewing area is designed to resemble the mulch-lined exhibit side of the viewing window by having rubber mulch, and miniature sway poles for kids. Some plant species in the exhibit are toog trees, carrotwood trees, and markhamia trees. Silvery lutungs reside in an exhibit adjacent to this area.

Sun Bear Forest

This $3.5 million exhibit opened in 1989, and exhibits Bornean sun bears, François' langurs, White-cheeked gibbons, and Aye-ayes. One end of the 1.5-acre complex houses lion-tailed macaques in a grassy exhibit with a stream and climbing ropes. The oblong sun bear exhibit straddles the path along the rest of the complex, and an aviary houses some species of birds, including Asian fairy-bluebird and Red-billed leiothrix. Farther down the path, visitors can see grizzly bears, sloth bears, spotted hyenas, spectacled bears and river otters.

Tiger Trail

Tiger Trail, located in a sloping canyon, opened in 1988 and houses two Malayan tiger brothers, Conner and his younger brother Berani. From the top of the canyon, It proceeds to another pavilion, this time flanked by a bunch of aviaries which feature Asian fairy-bluebirds, Baikal teals, blue-crowned laughingthrushes, Edwards's pheasants, common emerald doves, tricolored parrotfinch, red-billed leiothrix, and there are also exhibits for fishing cats and rare coconut crabs.

Farther down the canyon is an exhibit for Malayan tapirs, North Sulawesi babirusas, Indian pythons and the 1⁄4-acre tiger habitat, which has a hillside stream, waterfall, and glass viewing window. The Tiger Trail area of the zoo, when dedicated in 1988 as 'Tiger River', replaced an exhibit area that was known as Cascade Canyon, which had opened in 1973.

Outback

A new Australian Outback area, nicknamed "Koalafornia", opened in May 2013. The San Diego Zoo has over 40 koalas, the largest number in any zoo outside of Australia and the largest collection of Australian wildlife in America. It has twice as much exhibit space for koalas, including more outdoor enclosures based on a realization that koalas need sun exposure for their health.

The new area includes other Australian marsupials, such as parma wallabies, brush tailed bettongs, Goodfellow's tree-kangaroos, common ringtail possums, & short-beaked echidnas, though they are monotremes as well as Australasian birds, such as kagus, laughing kookaburras, blue-faced honeyeaters, common emerald doves, fawn-breasted bowerbirds, metallic starlings, masked lapwings, Gouldian finches and palm cockatoos. Since October 2013, the exhibit also houses Tasmanian devils, the first American zoo to do so; the animals are now kept in half a dozen zoos in the Americas as part of the Australian government's Save the Tasmanian Devil Program.

Africa Rocks

Conrad Prebys's Africa Rocks highlights the biodiversity of Africa. The exhibit opened on July 1, 2017, but was not completed until December 6, 2017. The exhibit cost US$60 million to construct. The money was donated to the zoo by 3,800 donors. Africa Rocks replaced Dog and Cat Canyon, which featured grottos that were built in the 1930s.

The exhibit features the following six habitats:

Cape Fynbos

The Cape Fynbos exhibit features African penguins, an endangered species native to South Africa. The exhibit was designed to mimic the giant granite boulders that are found on Boulders Beach in South Africa, a place where these birds live. The 70 ft long and 10 ft wide habitat also includes a 200,000 US gal pool for the penguins that stretches 170 ft, with depths up to 13 ft. Along with the large pool, the exhibit features a cobblestone beach and a nesting area. A group of 20 penguins moved in on June 22, 2017, to get ready for when the exhibit opened on July 1, 2017.

The penguins also share their exhibit with leopard sharks among other fish. Twelve leopard sharks arrived on June 23, 2017, from SeaWorld San Diego. The sharks were introduced to their exhibit and their penguin neighbors on Wednesday, June 28, 2017. The sharks range in age from 5 to 20. African penguins do not live alongside leopard sharks in the wild; however, they do live with similar shark species. Leopard sharks feed on crustaceans on the bottom floor and do not pose a threat to the penguins.

Acacia Woodland

The Acacia Woodland exhibit features a leopard exhibit, a troop of vervet monkeys, and an aviary. The leopard exhibit does not feature the African subspecies of leopard, but rather exhibits Amur leopards, from as far as Russia to Northern China. This is because the Amur leopard is critically endangered, as there are only around 60 individuals left in the wild. The San Diego Zoo participates in the Amur leopard Species Survival Plan, a breeding program that focuses on preserving the genetics of this endangered cat. The Acacia Woodland exhibit will allow the Zoo to have more breeding spaces for the cats. The Zoo has a spotted and a black leopard.

The aviary in this exhibit features two species of bee-eaters, the white-fronted and white-throated, as well as white-headed buffalo weavers and several other bird species. The exhibit also features African silverbills, African pygmy geese, violet-backed starlings, splendid sunbirds, blue-naped mousebirds, common waxbills, emerald-spotted wood doves, golden-breasted starlings, exclamatory paradise whydahs, magpie mannikins, Namaqua doves, pin-tailed whydahs, purple grenadiers, red-billed firefinches, red-cheeked cordon-bleus, snowy-crowned robin-chats, village indigobirds, white-bellied go-away-birds, white-headed buffalo weavers, yellow-crowned bishops, yellow-mantled widowbirds, and zebra waxbills. There are also Mozambique girdled lizards in the aviary.

Madagascar Forest

The Madagascar Forest exhibit features lemur species that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) Prosimian Taxon Advisory Group (TAG) has identified as needing sustainability assistance for the North American population, including blue-eyed black, red ruffed, red-collared, ring-tailed lemurs and Coquerel's sifakas.

Along with lemurs, the Madagascar Forest exhibit houses the lemurs' main predator the fossa as well as honey badgers.

Ethiopian Highlands

The Ethiopian Highlands exhibit houses two primate species: the gelada and the hamadryas baboon. The San Diego Zoo is only the second zoo in North America to house geladas, the other facility being the Bronx Zoo. An all-male troop of geladas arrived on September 7, 2016, from the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany. This move was based on the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (EAZA) European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for geladas—the European equivalent of an Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP) program. The bachelor group will be introduced to females later on. The exhibit is also home to Nubian ibexes.

Kopje

The word kopje in Dutch means "small head" which describes the rock formations that seem to pop out in the savanna. Kopjes are homes for well-adapted animals. The San Diego Zoo's Kopje section in Africa Rocks is home to animals including klipspringers, rock hyraxes, and dwarf mongoosees. Each animal has well-adapted feet that allow them to cling to the rocks. The exhibit also includes Trumpeter hornbills and bateleur eagles, as well as meerkats, servals, and the red-leaved rock fig, a tree species that manages to grow wherever its seeds disperse including the rocky kopje.

West African Forest

The West African Forest exhibits the West African dwarf crocodile, Kenyi cichlids, the Madagascan big-headed turtle, and the West African mud turtle. Behind the crocodile exhibit features Rady Falls, a 65 ft tall waterfall, the largest man-made waterfall in San Diego.

Conservation

The San Diego Zoo works to help protect animals and nature. It cares for many endangered animals such as California condors, tigers, black rhinos, polar bears, orangutans, and more.

The zoo has helped increase the numbers of endangered animals in zoos and in the wild. For example, the California Condor was close to disappearing, with only 22 left in 1982. The San Diego Zoo started a special breeding program, and in 20 years, the population grew to 200. This shows how important it is to breed endangered animals to save them. The zoo has helped return more than 30 endangered species to the wild and protects habitats in many places around the world. It also has scientists working in 35 countries to help protect animals and nature.

Zoo Corps

Zoo Corps is a special program at the San Diego Zoo for students aged 13 to 17. These students help teach visitors about the animals and why they are important. The program helps people learn about animals and how to protect them. It also helps students learn to speak confidently.

Zoo Corps runs all year in two parts: from May to November and from January to May. Members need to help out at the zoo at least once a month.

The program uses special "Kits" placed around the zoo. These kits have items that help explain why some animals are in danger or teach about their lives. The four kits are called "Backyard Habitats", "Saving Species", "Animal Care", and "Sustainability".

Architecture

Local architect Louis John Gill designed the zoo's first buildings and animal homes. In 1926, he designed a research hospital in the Spanish Revival style and won an Honor Award from the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 1937, he made a very large bird cage, the biggest in the world at that time.

Awards

The San Diego Zoo has won many awards for its exhibits, programs, and work in helping animals have babies and protecting wildlife. These awards are just for the Zoo itself, not for the group that runs it.

In popular culture

The San Diego Zoo has been in many famous movies, TV shows, and songs. The very first YouTube video, titled Me at the zoo, was filmed there. It was uploaded on April 23, 2005, by Jawed Karim, one of YouTube's co-founders.

The zoo has also been in films like Citizen Kane and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. It has been featured in TV programs and music albums too. It even inspired a novel about a special journey to a wonderful paradise.