Phoenix Zoo

The Arizona Trail is designed to emulate the wildlife and plant life of the state of Arizona. It features several plants native to the Sonoran Desert including the saguaro cactus, and animals such as the coyote, collared peccary (more commonly known as the javelina), cougar, bobcat, raven, turkey vulture, coati, thick billed parrot, Sonoran pronghorn, and the Mexican wolf.[14]

The Africa Trail showcases many of the most popular animals in the world, including the African painted dogs, hamadryas baboon, mandrill, ostrich, Mhorr's gazelle, white rhino, Grévy's zebras, lions, cheetahs, Reticulated and Masai giraffes. The Desert Lives (pronounced like "life") trail, diverts off of the Africa Trail before and after the lion and hyena exhibits, and features bighorn sheep and Arabian oryx among the natural buttes.[10][14]

The Tropics Trail has two parts. The inner trail following the lake is home to the "Tropical Flights" aviary as well as Bornean orangutans and the common squirrel monkeys of "Monkey Village". The outer tropics trail passes by the Komodo dragons in the "Land of the Dragons" exhibit,[12][13] Asian elephants, jaguar, Galápagos tortoises, Aldabra giant tortoises, iguanas, anteaters, Sumatran tigers of the "Isle of the Tiger" exhibit, and an assortment of tropical birds. It includes the Forest of Uco, a lush rainforest landscape that surrounds visitors along a 1-mile walking trail and includes reproductions of a South American mercado and a scientific expedition and ruins, and highlights several tropical animals including the Andean bear.[10][14]

The Children's Trail lets children get close to many small animals from around the world, including emus, an ocelot, a caracal, siamang gibbons, and golden lion tamarins.[5]

Next to the Wallaby Walkabout is a rectangular display called "Feel the Difference",[14] with three vertebrate charts (reptile, fish, and amphibian), and an invertebrate chart created by Frank Schaffer Publications.

Continuing on the trail will take you through Harmony Farm, featuring many farm animals, a petting zoo, and demonstrations on farming and agriculture oriented toward children.[10][14]

The Hunt Bass Hatchery Caretaker's House

The Hunt Bass Hatchery Caretaker's House was built in 1936 and is located in the Phoenix Zoo grounds. Following the Great Depression, Governor George W. P. Hunt (Arizona's first elected governor) commissioned a bass fish hatchery to be established in Papago Park during 1932. The hatchery was built as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The hatchery, operated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, was a success, and was in operation until 1959 (as it was considered obsolete by this time); around this time, the state of Arizona ceded the majority of Papago Park to the City of Phoenix. The City of Phoenix leased the hatchery grounds, including its man-made lakes, to the Arizona Zoological Society in 1962 to establish the Zoo. The hatchery property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 23 January 2003, reference: #02001723.[15] The Caretaker's House was renovated in the late 1990s, and is now known as "Ruby's House", as it is dedicated to the memory of Ruby, the famous painting elephant at the zoo (see her biography below). Ruby's House has become a popular venue for weddings, receptions, and other special events.

In addition to the trails, the zoo has several specialty attractions.

• Stingray Bay was opened in November 2006, and included more than 30 cownose rays and southern stingrays in a 15,000 gallon "touch tank." The "touch tank" lets visitors to touch the rays, whose barbs have been trimmed for safety. The exhibit is now permanent after installation of equipment to adjust water temperatures in the summer. In October 2007, bamboo sharks were added to the exhibit.[16]
• An endangered species carousel is featured by the Leapin' Lagoon Splash Pad.
• The Safari Train[17][18] provides a nonstop guided tour of the zoo.
• Camel rides.[19]
• Giraffe Encounter
• ZooLights - an annual December lighting show, which began in 1991.[20]

The zoo has a wide array of youth programs and animal encounters, including field trips,[21] Night Camp,[22] an outreach program which includes a zoomobile for outreach to locations outside the city,[23] a summer camp, and a large volunteer program for teenagers 13–17, known as the Zooteen program.[24]

Palms near the zoo entrance

In its first years, the zoo hosted a captive breeding program ("Operation Oryx") with the specific goal of reintroducing the almost extinct Arabian oryx to the wild.[26] By the early 1990s this program was still one of only two programs (the other being the golden lion tamarin) to have gone through the full wilderness-zoo-wilderness sequence.[7] Nine oryx had been caught or donated for the breeding program. However, two pairs were delayed, so the "World Herd" was started in Phoenix in 1963 with only five animals shipped to the zoo and two born quickly after. The two delayed pairs arrived in 1964 to increase the herd to 11 individuals.[7] The program was very successful, and the zoo celebrated its 225th Arabian oryx birth in 2002.[10] The Arabian oryx became extinct in the wild in 1972,[29] and reintroduction efforts were started in 1982 when oryx were released to the wild in the Omani Central Desert and Coastal Hills.[30] Additional captive herds have been discovered and used as the basis for reintroductions, for instance in Saudi Arabia,[31] but there has been some interbreeding even with these herds and most of the Arabian oryx in the wild today have ancestors from the Phoenix Zoo.[32]

The zoo provides sanctuary to many animals that need a place to live for various reasons. Some (like the Arabian oryx, Bali mynah, rhinoceros hornbill, Mexican gray wolf, and white rhinoceros) participate in captive breeding programs, some (such as the African spotted dogs) have retired from such programs and need a home,[26] some have behavioral problems, and some are being rehabilitated to return to the wild. Animals that are in of sanctuary are treated somewhat differently from other animals by the zoo. While normal exhibits balance the needs of the animals with those of visitors (for example, incorporating large viewing areas), the sanctuary exhibits are almost completely focused on the comfort and well-being of the animals.[33]

After the 1998 death of Ruby, the zoo's famous painting elephant, the zoo abandoned its elephant breeding program and began to focus on elephant behavior. The zoo is currently home to three Asian elephants that have a variety of behavioral issues, the most common being aggressive toward other elephants. One elephant is a former performer at a circus and was subject to mistreatment, while the other two were captured in remote regions where they were never properly socialized.[34]

The zoo provides lead poisoning treatment for California condors from the Grand Canyon area. These birds are one of the most endangered species on the planet, having at one time been reduced to 22 individuals in the wild.[35] In February 2006, they treated a female (#149) who had been released in the 1990s and her son (#304) who survived a very rare birth in the wild. Both birds were captured in the Grand Canyon region and brought back to the zoo to be treated.[27][36] A California condor (#133) was still being treated for lead poisoning at the zoo as of March 2010.[28]