Guide Tour of San Diego Zoo, California, United States

The San Diego Zoo is a zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, housing over 12,000 animals of more than 650 species and subspecies on 100 acres (40 ha) of Balboa Park leased from the City of San Diego. San Diego Zoo is the most visited zoo in the United States. Travelers have also cited it as one of the best zoos in the world.

The San Diego Zoo was a pioneer in the concept of open-air, cageless exhibits that recreate natural animal habitats. The San Diego Zoo is 100 acres in size. It is well known for its lush, naturalistic habitats and unique animal encounters and is home to more than 3,700 rare and endangered animals representing approximately 660 species and subspecies and a prominent botanical collection with more than 700,000 plants. Over half of the Park’s 1,800 acres (730 hectares) have been set aside as protected native species habitat.

The Zoo is a unique walking experience that exhibits animals in the most natural way possible, adding shows and animal presentations throughout the day for additional enjoyment. It is viewed in several ways, first and foremost by walking along pathways, into aviaries, and through bioclimatic zones. Zoo guests may view cuddly looking koalas, reptiles of various shapes and sizes and many more interesting species.

The San Diego Zoo displays animals in a more expansive, open setting than at the zoo. Exhibits at the zoo are often designed around a particular habitat. The same exhibit may feature many different animals that can be found side by side in the wild, along with native plant life. Animals are regularly exchanged between the two locations, as well as between San Diego Zoo and other zoos around the world, usually in accordance with Species Survival Plan recommendations.

Exhibits range from an African rain forest (featuring gorillas) to the Arctic taiga and tundra in the summertime (featuring polar bears). Some of the largest free-flight aviaries in existence are here, including the Owens Aviary and the Scripps Aviary. Many exhibits are “natural”, with invisible wires and darkened blinds (to view birds), and accessible pools and open-air moats (for large mammals).

The temperate, sunny maritime climate of California is well suited to many plants and animals. Besides an extensive collection of birds, reptiles, and mammals, it also maintains its grounds as an arboretum, with a rare plant collection. The botanical collection includes more than 700,000 exotic plants. As part of its gardening effort, some rare animal foods are grown at the zoo. For example, 40 varieties of bamboo were raised for the pandas when they were at the zoo on long-term loan from China. It also maintains 18 varieties of eucalyptus trees to feed its koalas.

The San Diego Zoo is a pleasurable outdoor experience, the zoo is very large with diversified area that takes all day to properly explore. There is a 35-minute Guided Bus Tour that gives a good overview of the Zoo that traverses 75% of the park, along with an Express Bus that stops at several locations to assist guests in accessing different areas. There is also an overhead gondola lift called the Skyfari, providing an aerial view of the zoo.

Exhibits
The zoo is expected to open a new exhibit, the Sanford’s Children Zoo, sometime in 2021. All the exhibits house many rare and endangered species.

Monkey Trail and Forest Tales
Monkey Trails showcases monkeys and other animals from the rainforests of Asia and Africa. Opened in 2005, it replaced an older exhibit known as the Monkey Yard. Monkey Trail is home primarily to monkeys such as guenons, mangabeys, Angola colobuses, tufted capuchins, spider monkeys, and mandrills, but it also showcases many other species of animals, such as yellow-backed duikers named Ethana, Lucius and Peep. There are three pygmy hippopotamus named Elgon, Mabel and their son Akobi. There are also slender-snouted crocodiles. Many species of turtles, snakes, lizards, and fish can be seen in a series of water/land exhibits with underwater viewing areas.

In smaller exhibits, many reptiles and amphibians such as pancake tortoises can be found, along with many species of arthropods such as Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Monkey Trail utilizes a new method of displaying arboreal animals—by climbing up an elevated walkway throughout the exhibit. Some of the horticultural highlights in Monkey Trail include a ficus tree, cycads, and a bog garden.

Owens Aviary
The Owens Aviary contains about 200 tropical birds representing 45 species. Lories, kingfishers, Bali mynahs, jacanas, woodpeckers, and argus pheasants can all be seen here.

Scripps Aviary
The Scripps Aviary is home to many colorful birds such as the amethyst starling, tinker birds, and the sociable weaver.

Panda Canyon
In the past, the San Diego Zoo was one of four zoos in the U.S. which had giant pandas on display, and was 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 San Diego 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 (meaning “little gift”), was born on July 29, 2012, and was let outside for visitors to see on January 9, 2013.

The pandas in San Diego Zoo were back to China, after successfully serving the larger conservation effort for pandas. For decades, the zoo housed and successfully bred giant pandas. After April 2019, the panda exhibit is not in operation. All of the cubs except Xiao Liwu have since been sent back to China to participate in the breeding program there.

In addition to being able to view this rare animal species, the nearby Giant Panda Discovery Center had interactive exhibits that let the visitor experience firsthand what the animals smell and sound like. Since the closing of Panda Trek, there are now more native Chinese animals, including Sichuan takins, a red panda, Mangshan pitvipers, and an exhibit comparing several types of bamboo which are still visible. There is also a slope featuring leopards and snow leopards.

Urban Jungle
The Urban Jungle houses different animals including a small herd of masai giraffes, Soemmerring’s gazelles, red kangaroos, Greater One-horned rhinos, flamingos, African Wild Dog, Grevy’s zebra and cheetahs. Many of the Zoo’s animal ambassadors live there including a binturong, clouded leopards, crested porcupines, southern ground hornbills, and a tamandua. The giraffes living here are on what was Elephant Mesa. There is also a theater where the zoo has its “Animals in Action” show.

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 three polar bears, named Kalluk, Chinook, and Tatqiq. More animals that make their home in the Plunge include reindeer (or caribou), Canadian lynx, raccoon, arctic fox, and Arabian wildcat. An underwater viewing area is available to observe the polar bears swimming in their 130,000-US-gallon (490,000 l) pool.

Farther down the path lies the arctic aviary, home to diving ducks including buffleheads, harlequin ducks, redheads, smews, wigeons, pintails, canvasbacks, and long-tailed ducks. The aviary houses more than 25 species of duck. 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 cougars, giant anteaters, maned wolves, Patagonian maras, Chinese gorals, lowland anoas, royal antelopes, Siberian musk deer, Cuvier’s gazelles, gerenuk, bontebok, Grévy’s zebras, lesser kudu, Speke’s gazelles, Chacoan peccarys, Steller’s sea eagles, Andean condors, ornate hawk-eagles and harpy eagles.

Discovery Outpost
The Discovery Outpost is located in the southeastern corner of the zoo, near the entrance. It is where the reptile house is located along with the new reptile walk. Inside is the children’s zoo and the Discovery Playground. A small bird aviary called the hummingbird aviary includes sunbirds, manakins, tanagers, euphonias, purple honeycreepers, plate-billed mountain toucans, green aracaris, and hummingbirds.

There is also an insect house with an insect collection including live insects: leafcutter ants, stick insects and water beetles. There is a petting zoo, called the petting paddock, which is home to different breeds of sheep and goats. This is where people, mostly kids, can have more interaction with the animals. There is also a Fisher-Price Discovery Playground, perfect for kids who want to have some fun and play. The children’s zoo is under renovation along with the Komodo dragon and hummingbird exhibits.

Other animals in the Children’s Zoo include naked mole rats, fennec foxes, ocelots, mice, macaws, southern tamanduas, owls, and porcupines. Reptiles at the reptile house and reptile walk include Chinese alligators, Galápagos tortoises, Komodo dragons, anacondas, cobras, monitor lizards, pythons, bushmasters, caiman lizards, Fiji banded iguanas, water cobras, short-nosed vine snakes, black-headed pythons, Boelen’s pythons, coachwhips, side-striped palm-pit vipers, Ethiopian mountain adders, flower snakes, radiated tortoises, European pond turtles, ocellated lizards, European glass lizards, leopard tortoises, African spurred tortoises, savannah monitors, Vietnamese mossy frogs, freshwater crocodiles, pancake tortoise, Indian gharial, Anegada ground iguana, alligator snapping turtle, along with various snakes, lizards, iguanas, turtles, frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians.

Lost Forest
Based upon the real Ituri Forest in Africa, this exhibit opened in 1999 and houses different animal species from the rainforests of central Africa. The exhibit begins with a forested exhibit for okapi and black duiker, 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 two hippopotamus named Funani and her daughter Amahle, which also houses tilapia, and has an underwater viewing area. After the hippos, the path passes through a bunch of bamboo before reaching a clearing where aviaries have housed great blue turaco, emerald starlings, tambourine doves, crowned eagles, and Congo peafowl.

A thatched-roof gift shop and a food stand are located in a plaza near by. Immediately to the right is the African forest buffalo exhibit, which also houses De Brazza’s monkey, Allen’s swamp monkey, the red-tailed monkey, chimpanzees and the spotted-necked otter. The plaza leads to a bridge flanked by the buffalo exhibit on one side and an exhibit that only the small 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 (10,000 m2) elephant habitat—more than three times the size of the zoo’s former elephant exhibit, in what used to be Elephant Mesa (now the heavily panned “Urban Jungle” exhibit area). Currently a herd of five, the herd includes three females and two twin brothers. It consists of a blended herd of three African bush elephants named Shaba, two new juveniles from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and Reid Park Zoo named Tsandizkle and Inhlonipho, and two Asian elephants named Devi and Mary.

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 smilodon fatalis, 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. Elephant Odyssey’s other animal exhibits include lions, jaguars, Baird’s tapirs, guanacos, capybaras, pronghorn, two-toed sloths, Kirk’s dik-diks, secretary birds, dung beetles, three kinds of rattlesnakes, desert tarantulas, toads, newts, turtles, frogs, dromedary camels, horses, burros, llamas, western pond turtles, maned wolf and the California condor.

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 lions which has a lion exhibit to the left which houses a lion named Ernest and a lioness named Miss Ellen, as well as an exhibit that has houses 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, capybaras, guanacos, and lammas. 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 secretarybirds 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 and diving beetles, among other aquatic insects. 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 pronghorns, horses, and camels. 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 (740 m2) 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 six western gorillas, which are a family group consisting of Paul Donn, Jessica and their son Denny as well as a bachelor group consisting of three males named Ekuba, Maka and Mandazzi from a viewing window, across a waterfall, and across a creek.

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 four Sumatran orangutans named Satu, Indah and their daughter Aisha as well as Karen (a Bornean orangutan was also kept here) and even three siamangs named Unkie, Eloise and their daughter Selamat in an 8,400-square-foot (780 m2) exhibit, which is flanked by a 110-foot (34 m) 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.

Sun Bear Forest
This $3.5 million exhibit opened in 1989, and exhibits Bornean sun bears, Sloth bears, Snow Leopard and silvery lutung monkeys. One end of the 1.5-acre (0.61 ha) 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 a couple of small aviaries house fifteen species of birds, including fairy bluebird and fruit doves. A large glass-covered exhibit with artificial vines is designed for crested gibbons. Farther down the path, visitors can see spotted hyenas, brown bears, spectacled bears, river otters, black-and-white colobuses, François’ langurs, aye-ayes and wrinkled hornbills,

Tiger Trail
Tiger Trail, located in a sloping canyon, opened in 1988 and houses three male Malayan tigers named Conner, the eldest, and Cinta and Berani, the twins, they are all brothers. From the top of the canyon, the path first goes through a pavilion with underwater viewing of crocodilians such as gharials and other aquatic reptiles.

It proceeds to another pavilion, this time flanked by the Marsh Aviary, with white-collared kingfishers and storks and a fishing cat exhibit. Farther down the canyon is an exhibit for the Malayan tapir, babirusas, Visayan warty pigs, Indian pythons and the 1⁄4-acre (0.10 ha) tiger habitat, which has a hillside stream, waterfall, and glass viewing window.

Outback
A new Australian Outback area, nicknamed “Koalafornia”, opened in May 2013. The San Diego Zoo has the largest koala colony outside of Australia. 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 wombats, Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroos, ringtail possums, wallabies, and Australian birds, such as kookaburras, blue-faced honeyeaters, masked lapwings, Gouldian finches and palm cockatoos. Even the short-beaked echidnas are housed there, even though they are considered monotremes. 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 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 (21 m) long and 10 ft (3.0 m) wide habitat also includes a 200,000 US gal (757,080 l; 166,535 imp gal) pool for the penguins that stretches 170 ft (52 m), with depths up to 13 ft (4.0 m). 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. Twelve leopard sharks arrived at the San Diego Zoo 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.

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 exhibiting the Amur leopards, from as far as Russia to Northern China. This is due to the fact that 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 black leopard,.

Along with the leopard exhibit, the Acacia Woodland exhibit in Africa Rocks features a vervet monkey troop. The vervet monkeys are very agile and one of the only primate species that lives in a woodland habitat. The aviary in this exhibit features two species of bee eaters, the white-fronted and white-throated, as well as black-headed weavers and several other bird species.

The exhibit also features African silverbills, African pygmy geese, African jacanas, amethyst starlings, beautiful sunbirds, blue-naped mousebirds, collared pratincoles, common waxbills, emerald-spotted wood doves, Fischer’s lovebirds, golden-breasted starlings, greater painted-snipes, long-tailed paradise whydahs, magpie mannikins, Melba finches, Namaqua doves, pin-tailed whydahs, purple grenadiers, red-billed firefinches, red-cheeked cordon-bleus, wnowy-crowned robin-chats, stone partridges, village indigobirds, white-bellied go-away-birds, white-headed buffalo weavers, yellow-crowned bishops, yellow-ecked Francolins, yellow-mantled widowbirds, and zebra waxbills. There are also three species of lizards in the aviary—girdle-tailed lizards, Mali spiny-tailed lizards, and red-eaded rock agamas.

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. By building this new exhibit, the Zoo will be able to participate in breeding programs that will help ensure healthy populations of lemurs in zoos.

The exhibit houses a ring-tailed lemur family consisting of mom Tweena, dad Mathew, and their baby Bijou along with five other Ring Tailed Lemurs. Along with lemurs, the Madagascar Forest exhibit houses the lemurs’ main predator the fossa as well as the honey badger.

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 in New York City. Alpha male Juma leads the all-male members including Mahbub, Saburi, Abasi, Diwani, and Valentino. the group arrived at the Zoo on September 7, 2016, from the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany where they lived with 44 other geladas.

Kopje Woodland
Kopjes are homes for well adapted animals. The San Diego Zoo’s Kopje Woodland in Africa Rocks is home to animals including klipspringers, rock hyrax, and the dwarf mongoose. Each animal has well adapted feet that allow them to cling to the rocks. The exhibit also includes these animals’ main predator, the bateleur eagle, as well as meerkats, servals, caracal, New Guinea singing dog 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. They remain one of the smallest species of Crocodilia, only measuring about 5 ft (1.5 m) in length. Behind the crocodile exhibit features Rady Falls, a 65 ft (20 m) tall waterfall, the largest man-made waterfall in San Diego. The west African exhibit also features Madagascan big-headed turtles, West African mud turtles, and the floating fig tree.

Activities

Botanical Tour
Take a tour of the San Diego Zoo’s spectacular gardens and plant collections any time you choose, with our Botanical Tour brochures. A Botanical Bus Tour will be available at 2 p.m., led by a different horticulture staff member each month—giving you a broad perspective of our botanical collections.

Guided Bus Tour
Join a narrated, round-trip 35-minute adventure through Zoo grounds on double-decker buses—and find out more about how we’re saving species worldwide, and what you can do as an ally for wildlife.

Kangaroo Bus
he Kangaroo Bus is a friendly, non-narrated transportation service that lets you hop on and off at four stops around Zoo grounds. To find the nearest stop, look for a yellow kangaroo on your map or a yellow kangaroo sign on grounds.

Skyfari Aerial Tram
Take an airborne shortcut over the treetops to the other end of the Zoo, and enjoy spectacular views of the Zoo and surrounding Balboa Park.

Wildlife Care Specialist Talks
Come meet Maza, a greater one-horned rhino, and his wildlife care specialist. Learn about his care, and conservation efforts.

Balboa Park Miniature Train
The Balboa Park Railroad takes a four-minute, half-mile loop through four acres of Balboa Park. The train station is located outside the Zoo’s exit.

4D Theater
See 3D movies with amazing special effects to add another dimension to your cinematic experience.

Play Areas
Northern Frontier – Get the scoop on polar bears from supersized illustrated storybooks, compare your height to our life-size polar bear statues, and then crawl into a polar bear den and pop your head up through ice holes.

Elephant Odyssey – Across from the condors at Harry and Grace Steele Elephant Odyssey is an open-air and hands-on play and exploration area for kids, and kids at heart. Kids can work off some energy with a maze of elephant satellite tracking collars, a play fossil dig, and puzzles to solve.

Australian Outback – Hang out in the trees with koalas with koala replicas. Choose a seat and settle in koala style, and have your photo taken to share with family and friends.

Special Experiences

Animals in Action Experience
Join the interactive experience bring the animals out to you for an up-close view. Our expert wildlife behavior specialists will also take you behind the scenes to learn more about some of our wildlife ambassadors. You will hear amazing stories about each animal you meet, and find out how San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is helping to save species here and around the world.

Big Cats Experience
In this 90-minute tour, travel by cart and by foot to see some of the Zoo’s most iconic and fascinating wild cat species. Learn about cats of all sizes, how we care for them, and what you can do to help cat species worldwide. You will even get to meet one special cat up close.

Discovery Cart Tour
Sit back in the comfort of your own expedition cart, enjoy a 60-minute guided tour of the Zoo, led by one knowledgeable guides. Eexplore the Zoo together, the guide will share stories about the plants and animals in our care, and how our conservation work is making an impact worldwide. Step off the cart for a look at some of your favorite critters, and snap some amazing photos as you enjoy this unique Zoo experience.

Conservation
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is an international nonprofit conservation organization that operates two world-class parks, the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and empowers people to connect with plants and animals, develop an understanding of nature, and contribute to safeguarding wildlife everywhere by becoming Wildlife Allies.

The San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research is the largest zoo-based multidisciplinary research effort in the world. Based at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research adjacent to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, more than 200 dedicated scientists carry out research vital to the conservation of animals, plants, and habitats, locally and internationally.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance collaborates with hundreds of individuals and organizations in field projects to innovate and implement full-spectrum conservation strategies to save wildlife worldwide. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance integrate wildlife health and care, science, and education to develop sustainable conservation solutions. Conservation is at the heart of everything San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance do. And it starts with that connection we make with people and wildlife every day. Because when wildlife thrives, all life thrives.

The zoo is active in conservation and species-preservation efforts. Its Institute for Conservation Research (formerly the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species) raises California condors, tigers, black rhinos, polar bears, orangutans, peninsular pronghorn, desert tortoises, African penguins, mountain yellow-legged frogs, Pacific pocket mice, Francois’ langurs, giraffes, quino checkerspot butterflies, Hawaiian crows, light-footed clapper rails, Gray’s monitors, tree lobsters, clouded leopards, Galapagos tortoises, Tahiti lorikeets, lion-tailed macaques, mhorr gazelles, gorillas, Przewalski’s horses, koalas, burrowing owls, elephants, Tasmanian devils, okapi, Southwestern pond turtles, and 145 other endangered species.

As a result, they have reintroduced more than 30 endangered species back into the wild, and have conserved habitat at 50 field sites. They also have over 200 conservation scientists working in 35 countries around the world. It employs numerous professional geneticists, cytologists, and veterinarians and maintains a cryopreservation facility for rare sperm and eggs called the frozen zoo.