Oregon Zoo
The Oregon Zoo, originally the Portland Zoo and later the Washington Park Zoo, is a zoo in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located in Washington Park, approximately southwest of downtown Portland. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi River.
The zoo is owned by the regional Metro government. It currently holds more than 1,800 animals of more than 230 species, including 19 endangered species and 9 threatened species. The zoo also boasts an extensive plant collection throughout its animal exhibits and specialized gardens. The zoo also operates and maintains the narrow-gauge Washington Park & Zoo Railway that previously connected to the International Rose Test Garden inside the park, but currently runs only within the zoo.
The Oregon Zoo is Oregon's largest paid and arguably most popular visitor attraction, with more than 1.7 million visitors in 2018. The zoo is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
History
Founding
The Oregon Zoo was founded in 1888, making it the oldest North American zoo west of the Mississippi. It all began with two bears purchased by Richard Knight – one brown bear and one grizzly. A former seaman turned pharmacist, Knight began collecting animals from his seafaring friends. He kept his collection in the back of his drug store on Third & Morrison streets. When caring for the animals became too large a responsibility he sought to sell them to the city of Portland. Instead of buying the animals, the city offered to give Knight two circus cages and allowed him to place the caged bears on the grounds of City Park.Care and feeding of the bears, however, still fell to the Knight family and friends. It was not long before Knight addressed the city council again regarding the bears. Just five months later, he offered to donate the bears, along with their cages, to the city. Portland City Council accepted his offer on November 7, 1888, and thus began the Portland Zoo. Located in Washington Park, it was sometimes referred to as the Washington Park Zoo.
By 1894, there were over 300 animals in the zoo’s collection. In 1925, the zoo moved to the site of the present Portland Japanese Garden, still within Washington Park.
Hoyt Park
The zoo moved again in 1958–59 to its current site, designed by Lawrence, Tucker & Wallmann. This was located in Hoyt Park, west of Washington Park, but some years later the two parks were combined as Washington Park. At this time, the Portland Zoo Railway was constructed to connect the zoo to its former site in Washington Park and other attractions there. The zoo's move to the new, much larger site was made in stages, over more than a year, with the first animals being moved in spring 1958 and limited public access being opened in June 1958, one day after the first section of the Zoo Railway opened. During the transition period the new zoo was only open on weekends, as most animals were still at the old site awaiting completion of their new enclosures. However, the new railway operated six days a week until mid-September. Meanwhile, the old zoo remained in operation, but in May 1959 was restricted to pedestrian access only, closed to automobile access, for its last months of operation.Washington Park
The zoo at its current site opened on July 3, 1959. It was renamed the Portland Zoological Gardens at that time, but remained commonly known as the Portland Zoo. The elephants and big cats were not moved to the new zoo until November. A new interchange was constructed on the adjacent freeway, the Sunset Highway, for better access to the new zoo.Elephants
The zoo rose it popularity locally in 1953, when Rosy the Asian elephant was acquired. The zoo became world-famous in 1962 when the Asian elephant "Packy" was born. He was the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years and was the tallest Asian elephant in the United States at 10.5 ft tall. A total of 28 more calves have been born at the Oregon Zoo, including seven sired by Packy, making it the most successful zoo elephant breeding program in the world. On August 23, 2008, Rose-Tu, the granddaughter of the zoo's first elephant Rosy, gave birth to a son named Samudra. The birth made Samudra the first third-generation captive-born elephant in North America.Attendance in 1962, the year Packy was born, was 1.2 million people. Over the next several years, the number of animals declined, from 450 in 1962 to 386 in 1976, and annual attendance also declining over the same period, reaching its lowest point in 1975, with 448,198 visitors.
On February 9, 2017, Oregon Zoo staff decided to euthanize Packy after a long struggle with drug-resistant tuberculosis. He was laid to rest at an unidentified city-owned "wooded, grassy area" that is not open to the public.
Metropolitan Service District
Until 1971, the zoo was operated by the City, and then by the Portland Zoological Society under contract to the City. In 1976, area voters approved a tax levy plan under which the zoo was taken over by the Metropolitan Service District. Ownership of the zoo passed to Metro on July 1, 1976. Metro has continued expansion projects, aided by donors, sponsors and volunteers.Later in 1976, MSD renamed the zoo the Washington Park Zoo after a naming contest. The railway was renamed the Washington Park and Zoo Railway two years later. The decline in attendance seen in the 1960s and 1970s eventually began to reverse, and the zoo recorded 752,632 visitors in 1984 and 897,189 in 1986.
Oregon Zoo
The Metro Council changed the zoo's name from the Washington Park Zoo to the Oregon Zoo in April 1998. In September of that year, the zoo became accessible by the region's MAX light rail system, with the opening of a Westside MAX line featuring an underground Washington Park station. In 2003, the zoo began participation in a California condor recovery program started by San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo. The program is designed to breed California condors to be released into the wild and save them from extinction.In November 2008, regional voters approved a $125 million bond measure to improve infrastructure, enhance older exhibits and increase access to conservation education and the degree of sustainability. Attendance at the zoo reached a record 1.6 million visitors for their 2008 to 2009 year. The record was due in part to the birth of another baby elephant. A new record was set the following year with 1,612,359 people visiting the zoo. The zoo again brought in more than 1.7 million visitors in 2018.
Exhibits
Africa Savanna
Predators of the Serengeti, a $6.8 million exhibit which opened in September 2009, expanded the Africa Savanna into the site of the former Alaska Tundra exhibit which used to house: Muskoxen and Grizzly Bears. The zoo previously had lions, but closed the exhibit in 1998 to build Steller Cove. The three new lions come from zoos in California, Virginia and Wisconsin.Discovery Plaza
The exhibit formerly contained a pair of Amur leopards with a 19 year old male named Boris being one of the oldest Amur leopards in captivity. Boris was euthanized on October 10, 2018Great Northwest
Black Bear Ridge has three black bears added in April 2010 after the previous three had been euthanized for health reasons. Their names are Tuff, Dale, and Cubby. A fourth, Takota, died in 2023 during a routine medical procedure.Primate Forest
The zoo housed the world's oldest Sumatran orangutan, Inji, who was humanely euthanized January 9, 2021 after keepers noticed her failing health.Public access
The Washington Park light rail station provides regional public transit access to the Oregon Zoo. TriMet bus route 63-Washington Park no longer serves the zoo via Washington Park as of summer 2022.Memorial fountain
The zoo features the Charles Frederic Swigert Jr. Memorial Fountain, an outdoor bronze and stone fountain and sculpture by American artist Richard Beyer, installed in 1983. It was donated by Christine Swigert in memory of her husband Charles F. Swigert Jr. The figure group depicts a man talking to a standing female child and several animals, including an ape, a lion or cougar, a monkey, and a family of wolves. The man is shown with a monkey behind him and a lion and wolf cub at his feet. The installation measures approximately 5 feet x 20 feet x 7 feet. The Oregonian has described the appearance of one of the wolves as "friendly". An accompanying plaque reads:THE / CHARLES FREDERIC SWIGERT JR. / MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN / GIVEN BY CHRISTINE SWIGERT / IN MEMORY OF HER HUSBAND. / BESIDE THE WATER / LIFE AND THE WORLD CAN BE FOUND / I THINK OF A FRIEND / SCULPTURE BY RICH BEYER / DEDICATED ON AUGUST 1, 1983
Conservation
The Oregon Zoo collaborates with wildlife agencies and conservation organizations on recovery projects for imperiled species including California condors, western pond turtles, northern leopard frogs, Oregon silverspot butterflies and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies. The zoo manages a community science project to monitor the American pika and was the first zoo in the world to successfully breed critically endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits and Oregon silverspot butterflies.In 2012 the Oregon Zoo became the first zoo to draw blood samples from polar bears without the use of anesthesia, leading to the development of a groundbreaking polar bear conservation science program. The zoo has since partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey on polar bear diet, energetics, and movement studies. In Borneo, the zoo supports elephant conservation by funding two ranger positions, and partners with Malaysian and Indonesian organizations to mitigate human-wildlife conflict and improve animal welfare for elephants and orangutans.