The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is the second oldest zoo in the United States, founded in 1873 and officially opening in 1875. It is located in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It originally began with in the middle of the city, but has spread into the neighboring blocks and several reserves in Cincinnati's outer suburbs. Several historic buildings were designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
The zoo houses over 400 species, 1,800 animals and 3,000 plant species. In addition, the zoo also has conducted several breeding programs in its history, and was the first to successfully breed California sea lions. In 1986, the Lindner Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) was created to further the zoo's goal of conservation. The zoo is known for being the home of Martha, the last living passenger pigeon, and of Incas, the last living Carolina parakeet.
The zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), and a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).
In 2014, USA Today included the Cincinnati Zoo in a ranking of U.S. Zoos based on data provided by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. A 2019 reader's choice ranking of the nation's best zoos by USA Today named the Cincinnati Zoo the top zoo in North America.
History
In 1872, three years before the zoo's creation, Andrew Erkenbrecher and several other residents created the Society for the Acclimatization of Birds in Cincinnati to acquire insect-eating birds to control an severe outbreak of caterpillars. A collection of approximately 1,000 birds imported from Europe in 1872 was housed in Burnet Woods before being released. Besides a group of birds that he had collected, Erkenbrecker owned a group of mammals of all types, including monkeys and an elephant that he had bought from a circus. In 1873, members of the Society of Acclimatization began discussing the idea of starting a zoo and founded The Zoological Society of Cincinnati. One year later, the Zoological Society of Cincinnati purchased a 99-year lease on in the cow pasture known as Blakely Woods.
The Cincinnati Zoological Gardens officially opened its doors on September 18, 1875. The original landscape design was by Adolph Strauch. Architect James W. McLaughlin, who constructed the zoo's first buildings, designed the earliest completed zoological exhibits in the United States. The zoo began with eight monkeys, two grizzly bears, three white-tailed deer, six raccoons, two elk, a buffalo, a laughing hyena, a tiger, an American alligator, a circus elephant, and over four hundred birds, including a talking crow. The first guide book about the Cincinnati Zoo was written in 1876 in German. The founders of the zoo, including its first general manager, were German immigrants and the city had quite a large German-speaking population. The first English-language edition (illustrated) was published in 1893.
In its first 20 years, the zoo experienced many financial difficulties, and despite selling to pay off debt in 1886, it went into receivership in 1898. In order to prevent the zoo from being liquidated, the stockholders chose to give up their interests of the $225,000 they originally invested. For the next two years, the zoo was run under the Cincinnati Zoological Company as a business. In 1901, the Cincinnati Traction Company, purchased the zoo, hoping to use it as a way to market itself to potential customers. They operated the zoo until 1917, when the Cincinnati Zoological Park Association, funded by donations from philanthropists Mary Emery and Anna Sinton Taft and a wave of public desire to purchase the increasingly popular zoo, took over management. In 1932, the city purchased the zoo, an action that had been advocated for by Ohio state senator Robert J. O'Brien in 1916, and started to run it through the Board of Park Commissioners. This marked the zoo's transition from its period of financial insecurity to its modern state of stable growth and fiscal stability.
In addition to its live animal exhibits, the zoo houses refreshments stands, a dance hall, roads, walkways, and picnic grounds. Between 1920 and 1972, the Cincinnati Summer Opera performed in an open-air pavilion and were broadcast by NBC radio.
Historic structures
In 1987, parts of the zoo were designated as a National Historic Landmark, the Cincinnati Zoo Historic Structures, due to their significant architecture featured in the Elephant House, the Reptile House, and the Passenger Pigeon Memorial.
Four zoo buildings were listed on the National Register in 1975 as the "Cincinnati Zoo District", although they were removed in 1999. This district comprised the Kemper Log Cabin (built in 1804 and moved to the zoo in 1912), the Aviary, the Monkey House, and the Elephant House, the oldest existing structures in the complex at that time.Owen, Lorrie K., ed. Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places. Vol. 1. St. Clair Shores: Somerset, 1999, 578. The Monkey House and the Elephant House were separately included in the Cincinnati Zoo Historic Structures designation in 1987 and named a National Historic Landmark.Cincinnati Zoo Historic Structures , National Park Service, 2008. Accessed November 26, 2013. Built of concrete and stone,, Ohio Historical Society, 2007. Accessed November 26, 2013. the Monkey House had been constructed by 1880, along with the Aviary, and the Elephant House was built in 1902. The Kemper Log Cabin was moved to Sharon Woods Village in Sharonville in January 1982."Potpourri". Cincinnati Magazine 1983-05, 183.
Elephant House
Equipped with minarets and a windowed dome, the Elephant House was built to evoke the Taj Mahal and a sense of contemporary India. This concrete structure measures . The zoo followed the pattern of many other zoos, which constructed animal houses in the styles of the countries whence the animals came, but the Elephant House was one of the last zoo buildings in the United States constructed with such a philosophy. Designed by architects Elzner and Anderson, it was placed atop the zoo's highest hill. Its original cost was $50,000, and in later years the zoo has expended further money on renovations.Kraft, Joy W. The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. Charleston: Arcadia, 2010.
Reptile House Originally built as the Monkey House, the Reptile House is a round Moorish Revival building designed by James W. McLaughlin for use as the aviary. Its design centers around a large dome more than high, with numerous windows and skylights that enable it to be lit by sunlight, in addition to Corinthian columns. Although it was expanded in 1922 by the construction of a veterinary hospital, the zoo arranged for an extensive remodeling to prepare it for the reptiles that were first placed within it in 1951. Zoo historians claim that the Reptile House was the oldest zoo building anywhere in the United States. The original Aviary no longer stands, having been destroyed in the 1970s; a collection of gorilla exhibits occupies the site now.
Animals and exhibits
Elephant Reserve (currently unoccupied)
The Herbivora building was constructed in 1906 for $50,000, a huge sum at the time, which was home to the zoo's Elephants, Giraffes, Hippopotamuses, and Rhinoceroses until the late 1990s. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, it is considered one of the most spectacular historic buildings in the world. The building was 150 feet (46m) and 75 feet (23m) wide and was constructed primarily of concrete for housing hooved animals. In 2000, the attraction became Vanishing Giants, featuring giraffes, okapis, and elephants. From 2007 to 2008, the giraffe and okapi yards were renovated into a food court area, and their respective species were moved to other areas in the zoo. It has since undergone several renovations and became the Cincinnati Zoo's Elephant Reserve at that time.
Elephant Reserve was the home to two subspecies of the Asian elephant in a exhibit with a 60,000-gallon pool in the female yard. The zoo has been trying to breed the two, but they have been unsuccessful since their last baby in 1998.
As of October 1, 2024, the elephants were moved to the Elephant Trek. The current Elephant Reserve is to become Giraffe Tower sometime in the future.
P&G Discovery Forest Renovated in 1989, this classroom is used for live animal demonstrations for school groups and zoo visitors presented regularly during the summer. The building houses a few species, including a Linnaeus's two-toed sloths, Florida box turtle, and the Eastern box turtle. It also contains many small animals used for demonstrations as part of the zoo’s visitor engagement program.
Eagle Eyrie This flight cage opened in 1970 as one of the largest flight cages of its time. Originally containing bald eagles, these were moved elsewhere, and the exhibit currently features a Steller's sea eagle and an Andean condor.
Reptile House The Reptile House is America's oldest surviving zoo building, built in 1875. Originally, it housed monkeys and other primates until 1951. Now, it is home to over 30 reptile species from around the world in both indoor and outdoor exhibits. Selected species include Chinese alligators, Gila monsters, brown anoles, emerald tree monitors, quince monitors, Pascagoula map turtles, pancake tortoises, spider tortoises, poison dart frogs, Titicaca water frogs, hellbenders, black rat snakes, corn snakes, rattlesnakes, pine snakes, king cobras, Indochinese spitting cobras, boa constrictors, emerald tree boas and West African Gaboon vipers. Neighboring the Reptile House are two outdoor exhibits featuring the Galápagos tortoises and rescued bald eagles, the latter formerly contained Japanese macaques.
Gorilla World This exhibit opened in 1978 as a naturalistic, rain forest habitat for the Cincinnati Zoo's western lowland gorillas. The Cincinnati Zoo leads the country in gorilla births with 51. Mboka Jo was the last gorilla born at the zoo in 2025. The zoo holds the record for having 6 gorilla births in one year in 1995. In this same year, one of their gorillas gave birth to the world's first test-tube gorilla. Near the gorilla exhibits, the zoo also features black-and-white colobus monkeys.
Night Hunters
The Carnivora Building was built in 1952. In 1985, it was renovated to become the Cat House. From 2010 to 2011, it was renovated again to become the Night Hunters exhibit. It is home to many nocturnal and/or predatory animals previously found in other exhibits throughout the zoo, including aardvarks, binturong, black-footed cats, fishing cats, clouded leopards, common vampire bats, fennec foxes, Indian flying foxes, large-spotted genets, Pallas's cats, ringtails, a Gambian pouched rat, sand cats, and tawny frogmouths. During the day, lights inside the building are kept very low to allow visitors to view the animals in their natural nocturnal habitats.
Cat Canyon Cat Canyon houses feline species, including cougars, Malayan tigers, and snow leopards. The exhibit also supports educational conservation programs focused on threatened species. Included at the end of this trail is an exhibit housing Eurasian eagle-owls.
World of the Insect
Opened in 1978, this is the largest building in North America devoted to the display of live insects. The Cincinnati Zoo has been given four awards by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association for successful propagation of insects, and World of the Insect received the prized American Zoo and Aquarium Association exhibit award in 1979. This building also features the longest ant exhibit in the world, housing colonies of leafcutter ants. Some of its species include Antilles pinktoe tarantulas, Brazilian whiteknee tarantulas, dragon-headed katydids, Eastern lubber grasshoppers, marbled crayfish, Texas bullet ants and water scorpions. Despite being an insect house, it also displays Fire belly newts, the Phelsuma grandis,