The United States Is Home To Over 430 And Over 230 Accredited Zoos

Each year on April 8th, National Zoo Lovers Day encourages us to explore our local zoos. Each year, millions of people visit zoos and learn about the many animals that live there. Also known as zoological parks, many of them serve as breeding centers. These facilities are relied upon when species are endangered or at risk of becoming endangered. They also provide education to the public about a broad variety of animals and their habitats.

• 3500 BC – The strange animal remains discovered near Hierakonpolis, Egypt’s ancient capital, suggest the existence of a huge, exotic predynastic zoo
• 1500 BC – Queen Hatshepsut establishes the first real zoo in Egypt.
• 7th Century BC – the Greeks had the habit of caging animals. ‘Alexander the Great’ sent many animals caught on his military expeditions to Greece
• 30 BC – From the shreds of evidence found in Egypt and Mesopotamia, private zoos show status among the wealthy in Rome.
• 1333 – King Philip VI had a menagerie in the Louvre, Paris, in 1333.
• 1519 – A zoo was discovered in Mexico, which housed birds, mammals, and reptiles. It was maintained by 300 zookeepers
• 1752 – The oldest zoo was established in 1752 by order of Emperor Francis I, in  Vienna, Austria.   It was for the viewing pleasure of the imperial family.
• 1765 – The Vienna Zoo was opened to the public in 1765.
• 1775 – The zoo opened in Madrid in 1775.
• 1795 – A zoo in Paris opens
• 1864 – Opened for visitors since 1864, the Moscow Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in Europe, with the presence of over 6000 animals representing 927 species.
• 1874 – America’s first zoo opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 1874 – The United States’ first public zoo, Central Park Zoo, opened in 1874 in New York.
• 1910 – The St. Louis Zoo in Missouri was the first to provide free admission, starting in 1910. This decision set a precedent for public accessibility to wildlife education.
• 1939 – During the outbreak of World War II, London Zoo killed all its venomous animals in case the zoo was bombed and the animals escaped. – Source
• 1950 – Dr. Seuss’ 1950 book “If I Ran the Zoo” featured such animals as “a Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!” This is the likely origin of the slang term “nerd.”
• 1965 – An orangutan named Fu Manchu repeatedly escaped from his cage at the zoo using a key he had fashioned from a piece of wire. Every time his zookeepers inspected him, he hid the key in his mouth.
• 2004 – About 19 Guinea baboons from Paris Zoo were sent to a national park in England in 2004. They were unable to understand English commands but were fully cognitive of French words, forcing their English keepers to learn French. – Source
• 2015 – Zoos have long been the object of April Fools’ Day jokes, so much so that a few have succumbed and joined in the fun. The Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, Minn., set up special phone lines in spring 2015 for fools who were tricked into calling Ms. Ella Fint or Ms. Anna Conda.
• The United States is home to over 430 and over 230 accredited zoos, including expansive national institutions and smaller, specialized animal sanctuaries.
• Approximately 175 million people visit a zoo each year.
• Among the existing zoos of today, more than 40 zoos are 100 years old.
• Florida is home to the most zoos in the U.S. Thirty-one animal theme parks, jungles, and animal museums. Four of those 31 zoos are located in a single Florida city: Miami. There are also three in Tampa.
• Over 183 million annual zoo visitors in the US and over 200 million worldwide- more visitors than NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB annual attendance combined
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom has more than 9.8 million annual visitors.
• More than 3.2 million people visit the San Diego Zoo each year.
• 29 zoos & aquariums in the USA have more than 1,000,000 visitors a year.
• Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has the most with about 4,500,000 visitors.
• Berlin Zoo, Germany, with over 1.500 species has the largest number of species in any zoo in the world.
• The Monterey Bay Aquarium has about 124.000 individual animals and the largest number of animals in any zoo in the world.
• The largest zoo in the US was Red McCombs Wildlife near San Antonio, with over 12.500 acres. It reportedly closed in 2023 after McCombs’ death.
• Before Sylvester Stallone hit it big in the movies, he had a job cleaning the lions’ cages at the Central Park Zoo in New York City.
• Two out of three adults visit a zoo with a child and 50% of adults visit an aquarium with a child
• The average visit is four hours
• 94% feel that zoos and aquariums teach children about how people can protect animals and the habitats they depend on
• 79% feel better about companies that support wildlife conservation at zoos and aquariums
• 66% are more likely to buy products and services from those companies
• Chendra, an Asian elephant in Oregon Zoo, likes to take a morning walk to meet her fellow zoo mates.
• Virtual reality experiences allow people to explore animal habitats without visiting zoos. The San Diego Zoo’s VR tours are a popular example

Sources:

National Day Calendar

American Zoos

Kickass Facts

Chicago Tribune

AZA

Batch Geo

Days of the Year

National Today