Louisville Zoo facts for kids
Zoo entrance
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| Date opened | May 1, 1969 |
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| Location | Louisville, Kentucky, United States |
| Land area | 134 acres (54 ha) |
| Coordinates | 38°12′19″N 85°42′19″W / 38.20528°N 85.70528°W |
| No. of animals | 1,700 |
| Annual visitors | 900,000+ |
| Memberships | Association of Zoos and Aquariums, American Alliance of Museums |
| Major exhibits | The Islands, Africa, Glacier Run, Australia, South America, HerpAquarium, Gorilla Forest, Cats of the Americas |
The Louisville Zoo is a super cool place in Louisville, Kentucky. It's a big zoo, about 134 acres, and it's home to over 1,200 animals! You can see animals from all over the world, living in spaces that look like their natural homes.
This zoo is officially recognized by important groups like the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Lots of people visit every year, usually between 760,000 and 945,000 visitors!
Contents
History of the Zoo
The Louisville Zoo first opened its doors on May 1, 1969. Back then, it had about 250 animals for everyone to see. The land for the zoo was bought by the city in the 1960s. A kind person named James Graham Brown gave a lot of money to help build it.
When the zoo first opened, you could see big animals like elephants and giraffes. There was even a fun train ride that took visitors around the exhibits. This train ran for many years, until 2019. At first, some people thought the zoo didn't have enough shady spots, but over time, as trees grew, it became much shadier and more comfortable.
In 1997, a beautiful, old-fashioned carousel was added, which is still a favorite ride. Later, in May 2007, the Glacier Run Splash Park opened. This is a water playground with lots of sprays and features, perfect for cooling off! It was the first part of the bigger Glacier Run area to open. The Splash Park was closed for a bit in 2022 for updates but reopened in April 2023.
Amazing Exhibits
The Louisville Zoo has eight fantastic main exhibits. These are The Islands, Africa, Glacier Run, Australia, South America, HerpAquarium, Gorilla Forest, and the Cats of the Americas. Each one lets you explore different parts of the world and meet amazing animals!
Gorilla Forest
"Gorilla Forest" is a huge, 4-acre exhibit that won an award in 2003! It's home to a group of eight western lowland gorillas and a pygmy hippopotamus. When you visit, you can get super close to the gorillas, with only a strong glass wall between you. It's like being nose-to-nose with them!
You can also see the gorillas playing and relaxing from different outdoor spots. One very old female gorilla named Helen, who was born in 1958, lived here for a long time and was known as the "Grand Dame" of the gorilla world. She passed away in October 2022.
HerpAquarium
The HerpAquarium is a cool place where you can see over 100 different kinds of reptiles, amphibians, and fish from all over the world. You might spot boa constrictors, colorful panther chameleons, and even black piranhas!
A very special resident here is King Louie, a rare male albino American alligator who is about 9.5 feet long. He's named after King Louis XVI of France, just like the city of Louisville! Louie was born at another zoo called the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.
The zoo is also helping to save critically endangered Panamanian golden frogs. These frogs are in danger in the wild because of a fungus and their homes being destroyed. The zoo is working hard to protect them. You can also see a group of common vampire bats in an exhibit that looks like an old mine shaft.
Islands
The "Islands" exhibit is super unique! It's the first zoo exhibit in the world that lets different animals take turns exploring the same space. This means the animals get to experience new things throughout the day, just like they would in the wild. It keeps them active and curious! It's also special because it's the first exhibit to have both predator and prey animals in the same area, though they are kept safe from each other.
All the animals in this exhibit are either endangered or threatened. The animals you see might change each day, so every visit is a new adventure! You could see amazing animals like Sumatran tigers, orangutans, siamangs, and Malayan tapirs.
The zoo has four orangutans: two males named Teak and Segundo (Gunny), and two females named Amber and Bella. The Islands Pavilion is an indoor area where you can see many kinds of birds, including the rare white-throated ground-dove. The Louisville Zoo was the first zoo ever to successfully hatch this rare dove! Other cool birds you might see include Victoria crowned pigeons, African penguins, and Inca terns. This pavilion also has Rodrigues fruit bats, giant Aldabra giant tortoises, and Komodo dragons.
Wallaroo Walkabout
Opened in 2007, the Wallaroo Walkabout lets you walk right through the exhibit! You can see common wallaroos and red-necked wallabies up close. You'll also spot some Australian birds like the emu and laughing kookaburra. If you stay on the walkway, you might even get to interact with the wallaroos and wallabies!
After the Wallaroo Walkabout, you can enter Lorikeet Landing. This is a walk-through birdhouse filled with brightly colored lorikeets. The zoo has 56 lorikeets of different types. The best part? You can feed nectar to these friendly birds right from your hand! The Wallaroo Walkabout will be updated by 2025 to welcome Red kangaroos and Southern cassowarys.
Glacier Run
Finished in early 2011, Glacier Run is a 4.3-acre outdoor exhibit designed to look like an old gold-mining town next to a glacier. Here, you can see amazing animals like polar bears, harbor seals, California sea lions, and grizzly bears. You might also spot snowy owls and huge Steller's sea eagles.
Outside the "gold mine town," there are three more exhibits for snow leopards, Amur tigers, and red-crowned cranes. The exhibit also has the fun splash park for kids that opened in 2007. Glacier Run has special viewing areas, some even underwater, so you can see the animals swimming! There's also an outdoor stage where you can watch animal training demonstrations.
Africa
This part of the zoo feels like the African Serengeti! You can see powerful lions, tall Masai giraffes, and speedy Hartmann's mountain zebras. Other animals include dromedary camels, southern white rhinoceroses, and cute meerkats. There's even a special petting yard with Nigerian Dwarf goats.
The Louisville Zoo is one of the few zoos where you can see both African and Asian elephants in the same habitat. The zoo is home to Punch, an Asian elephant born in 1970, who is currently the oldest Asian elephant in North America! There's also Mikki, an African bush elephant born in 1985, and her son Fitz, born in 2019. The giraffe yard was updated in 2022 and will soon house other birds like the white stork alongside the giraffes.
Cats of the Americas
This exhibit is next to the South America area. It's special because all the animals here are rescued and can't go back to the wild. You can see animals like Canada lynxes, majestic bald eagles, and powerful pumas.
South America
This exhibit features animals from the Andes mountains and the Amazon rainforest in South America. It also has a beautiful botanical garden. Here, you can find colorful Chilean flamingos, unique maned wolves, slow-moving Linnaeus's two-toed sloths, and amazing jaguars. You might also spot bright hyacinth macaws. In 2023, 46 new Chilean Flamingos joined the flock from the San Diego Zoo, making it one of the biggest flamingo groups in any zoo!
Kentucky Trails
Get ready for a new adventure! The zoo is building a huge, 20-acre exhibit called Kentucky Trails. This area will be dedicated to animals from North America, especially those found in the Appalachian Mountains and Cumberland Gap regions. It's being built with help from Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
You'll see animals like American bison, elk, American black bears, and bobcats in large, natural-looking habitats. There will also be a big education center and restaurant. Construction is set to begin in 2023, and the exhibit is expected to open in 2025!
- Mammals
| Western lowland gorilla | Black-and-white colobus | Chinchilla | Domestic ferret |
| Orangutan | Siamang | African lion | Cougar |
| Jaguar | Canadian lynx | Amur tiger | Grizzly bear |
| African elephant | Asian elephant | Addax | Hartmann's mountain zebra |
| Masai giraffe | Common woolly monkey | Polar bear | Babirusa |
| Bongo | Rodrigues fruit bat | Vampire bat | Dromedary camel |
| Domestic rabbit | Black-footed ferret | Guanaco | Four-toed hedgehog |
| Pygmy hippopotamus | African pygmy goat | Meerkat | Naked mole-rat |
| Virginia opossum | Brazilian porcupine | White rhinoceros | Nigerian Dwarf goat |
| Grey seal | California sea lion | Malayan tapir | Sumatran tiger |
| Wallaroo | Red-necked wallaby | Warthog | Maned wolf |
| Three-banded Armadillo | Harbor seal | Ringtailed lemur | Snow leopard |
| Nubian goat |
- Reptiles and Amphibians
- Birds
- Fish
| Bucktooth tetra | Green severum | Silver arowana | Redhook metunnis |
| African lungfish | Banded archer fish | Banded lepornus | Lookdown |
| Silver moony | French grunt | Red-bellied piranha | Largemouth bass |
| Redear sunfish | Bluegill | African moony | Spanish hogfish |
| Spotted gar | Longnose gar | Dolphin catfish |
- Arthropods
| Blue bloom birdeater | Texas brown tarantula | Venezuelan suntiger tarantula |
| Salem ornamental tarantula | King baboon spider | Mexican redknee tarantula |
| Chilean rose tarantula | Mexican fireleg tarantula | Brazilian salmon pink |
| Giant millipede | Madagascar hissing cockroach | Deathstalker |
Special Animal Friends
The Louisville Zoo has some animals with really interesting stories!
- Mojo: This patas monkey used to belong to a famous race car driver, Tony Stewart. Mojo came to the zoo in 2007 because he became a bit too wild to be a pet.
- Scotty: Scotty was an African elephant born at the zoo in 2007, the first elephant born in Kentucky! Sadly, he passed away when he was only three years old due to health problems.
- Siamang Babies: The zoo has done an amazing job hand-raising three baby siamangs named Sungai, Zoli, and Zain. It's thought to be the only zoo to ever hand-raise three siamang babies so young!
- Black-footed Ferrets: The zoo is helping to save black-footed ferrets, which are one of the most endangered animals in North America. They are part of a special breeding program to help these ferrets survive.
- Bakari: Bakari is a Masai giraffe born in 2009. He had a leg problem, and the zoo helped him with a special surgery. He's believed to be the first giraffe ever to have this kind of procedure!
- Qannik: Qannik is a polar bear cub found all alone in Alaska in 2011. The Alaska Zoo rescued her, and the Louisville Zoo's new Glacier Run exhibit was the perfect home. With help from UPS, Qannik flew to the zoo in what was called "Operation Snowflake"!
- Ziva: In 2013, the zoo held a contest to name their first zebra foal born in 13 years. The winning name was Ziva!
- Thelma: Thelma is an 11-year-old reticulated python who surprised everyone in 2012 by having six healthy baby snakes all by herself, without a male! This is a rare event called parthenogenesis.
Fun Events at the Zoo
The Louisville Zoo hosts many exciting events throughout the year, even after regular hours!
One of the most popular events is the "World's Largest Halloween Party," held every October 31st. It's a super fun Halloween-themed celebration!
For grown-ups, there's "Brew at the Zoo," where local restaurants and craft beer vendors come together with live music. This event usually happens in August and is very popular.
Near the entrance, you can find a booth called "Handimals." Here, kids can make cool animal pictures using their own handprints! Also, when a new baby animal is born at the zoo, they often hold a contest to let people send in ideas for names.
See also
- List of attractions and events in the Louisville metropolitan area
- List of parks in the Louisville metropolitan area
- Senning's Park, Louisville's first zoo
Images for kids
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Addax
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Hartmann's mountain zebra
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Demoiselle crane
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African pygmy falcon
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Western lowland gorilla
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Mhorr gazelle
