Los Angeles Zoo


The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The city of Los Angeles owns the zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals.

History

Eastlake Zoo, opened in Eastlake Park in 1885. The second zoo, Griffith Park Zoo, opened in 1912 and was located about south of the current zoo site until it was closed in August 1966. Remnants of the original zoo remain. The Los Angeles Zoo opened in its present location on November 28, 1966. The site was formerly the location of Rodger Young Village, which was itself built on the land which had been used for the Griffith Park Aerodrome.
By the early 1990s, the zoo's infrastructure was deteriorating. In January 1992, a ten-inch water pipe burst, leaving half of the zoo without water. The next day, city officials passed a $300 million master plan that had been recently drafted to deal with the infrastructure problems and inadequate exhibits. The zoo nearly lost its accreditation in 1995 because of numerous health and safety violation; it rebounded under a new director. The number of species exhibited has been reduced from 400 in 1993 to around 280, coinciding with construction of larger naturalistic enclosures holding animals in bigger groups.
In 1998, the zoo opened Chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, followed by Red Ape RainForest in 2000, the Komodo Dragon Exhibit, the Winnick Family Children Zoo in 2001, the Entry Plaza, Children's Discovery Center and Sea Lion Cliffs in 2005, Campo Gorilla Reserve in November 2007, Elephants of Asia in the winter of 2010, and the LAIR in 2012.

Notable incidents

In 1979, Virginia, a wolf, escaped the zoo multiple times by ascending trees, climbing fences, and walking along branches until she could escape. At one time she eluded capture for a month by hiding in Griffith Park. It is unclear whether Virginia was ever recaptured.
A spate of escapes took place during the late 1990s and early 2000s when, in half a decade, at least 35 animals escaped the zoo including zebras, chimpanzees, kangaroos and antelopes.
Evelyn, the gorilla, escaped her enclosure approximately five times. In one widely covered incident, she used some overgrown vines to pull herself out of her exhibit. She then had full run of the zoo for an hour as TV-news copters hovered overhead and visitors were evacuated before she was tranquilized. In a prior incident, she hopped on the back of another gorilla, Jim, to make her escape. Part of the problem was that the gorilla habitat was originally intended to house bears; this was alleviated by the opening of a specially designed Campo Gorilla Reserve in 2007.
On June 26, 2012, a chimpanzee infant baby, born to Gracie, a member of a 15-chimpanzee tribe, was mauled to death by an adult male chimpanzee. The zoo said this event was totally unexpected, although it also stated that acts of aggression by male chimpanzees are always a possibility. Gracie was allowed to keep her baby overnight to grieve, and counseling was being offered to staff, and to the visitors who had seen the event. It is reexamining its policy of how it introduces baby chimpanzees to the tribe.
In 2014, a bighorn sheep escaped from its enclosure, and ultimately the zoo itself. It was struck by a car approximately three hours later and subsequently died.
In 2016, Killarney the koala was killed by P-22, the cougar that lived in Griffith Park.

Exhibits and attractions

Botanical Gardens

In 2002, the zoo became a certified botanical garden, and the official name of the institution was changed to the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Throughout the zoo grounds, there are 15 different collections of plants, highlighting over 800 different species, with a total of over 7,400 individual plants.

Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains

Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains, a one-acre exhibit complex, opened in 1998 and houses chimpanzees. The hillside exhibit is dotted with boulders, palm trees, and an artificial termite mound, and features a waterfall next to a tall rock ledge where the troop's leader can survey much of the area. Guests can view the animals across various moats or through a glass viewing window.

Campo Gorilla Reserve

Campo Gorilla Reserve opened in November 2007 featuring western lowland gorillas in a complex. Guests view the animals through two glass observation windows and three other locations. On January 18, 2020, an endangered western lowland gorilla was born at the Los Angeles Zoo, the first to be born there in over two decades. Plants in the exhibit include palms, pomegranates, and ferns.

Elephants of Asia

Not to be confused with Singapore Zoo's Elephants of Asia, this $42 million exhibit complex at the center of the zoo opened in 2010 and is currently an empty exhibit. There currently are no elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo. The two remaining Asian elephants, Billy and Tina, were transferred on May 21, 2025 to the Tulsa, Oklahoma Zoo. The main elephant enclosure was and has a barn used for medical exams. The complex was divided into several areas, each based on a different country in the elephants' range. The Thai Pavilion teaches visitors about the role of elephant labor in Thailand's economy. Guests could find information about elephant conservation in India at Elephants of India Plaza, which also has a waterfall where the animals can bathe. The Elephants of China section houses sarus crane and Chinese water deer in a marsh habitat and had information about the history of the Dai people and their relationship with elephants.
In April 2025, it was announced that the zoo would be transferring their last two remaining elephants Billy and Tina to the Tulsa Zoo and would be "pausing their elephant care" indefinitely, and the elephants would be transferred out a month later.

The LAIR

The LAIR, which opened in 2012, is a $14 million indoor-outdoor exhibit complex that focuses on herps and terrestrial arthropods. Guests first pass through the Oak Woodland Pond, where local species can move in and live among native plants. The next feature is the main building where the Damp Forest houses poison dart frogs, Chinese giant salamanders, and a recreation of a Daintree Rainforest river with archerfish, Australian lungfish, and Fly River turtles. The Mangshan pitviper, west African green mamba, South American bushmaster and other snakes live in the next segment of the building, Betty's Bite and Squeeze Room, named after Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association co-chair Betty White. Guests can see keepers care for animals behind the scenes in the Behind the Glass room. The Care and Conservation Room showcases Gray's monitor and other endangered reptiles. After the main building is Arroyo Lagarto, a set of outdoor exhibits for Madagascar radiated tortoise, Madagascar spider tortoise, desert lizards, and California desert tortoise. A secondary building, the Desert LAIR, houses the Gila monster, Sonoran toad, Arizona Desert hairy scorpion, California kingsnake, and other species from Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California. The LAIR ends with Crocodile Swamp, an outdoor exhibit home to false gharials.

Red Ape Rain Forest

Red Ape Rain Forest, a recreation of a Southeast Asian jungle, opened in 2000 and houses Bornean orangutans. The mesh enclosure, which has openings for the guest path to go through, is shaped like a horizontal donut and back-dropped by hibiscus, bamboo, and rubber trees. The apes can climb on artificial sway poles, branches, and vines placed throughout the exhibit or wade in a shallow stream. Visitors enter the exhibit through an Indonesian pagoda, continue over the stream on a deck bridge, and arrive at a small pavilion with a glass viewing window. The path next leads to a large central deck where guests can view the entirety of the surrounding exhibit. Afterwards, guests proceed to an interpretive area with traditional Indonesian folklore and exit the exhibit area through another pagoda.

Rainforest of the Americas

Rainforest of the Americas features animals who live in the tropical regions of North, Central, and South America. It opened in 2014 and houses the uakari, southern black howler monkey, red-bellied piranha, keel-billed toucan, harpy eagle, Goliath bird-eating spider, giant river otter, emerald tree boa, cotton-top tamarin, Baird's tapir, jaguar and other species.

List of animal species

As of 2022:
;Birds
;Mammals
;Reptiles and amphibians
;Fish
;Invertebrates