San Diego Zoo is a California zoo known for its beautiful landscape and its open enclosures for animals. It covers 100 acres (40 hectares) of hills and canyons in Balboa Park in San Diego. It is administered by the Zoological Society of San Diego.
The San Diego Zoo’s collection includes thousands of mammals, birds, and reptiles, representing about 800 species. Its rare animals include koalas, the first to be exhibited outside their native Australia.
Most of the zoo’s animals live in areas that resemble their natural habitats in the wild. The zoo also features several walk-through aviaries (bird enclosures) and a children’s zoo, where youngsters may get up-close views of a variety of animals. Visitors may tour the zoo on foot, by bus, or on an aerial tram called the Skyfari.
The zoo’s beginnings date from 1916, when San Diego surgeon Harry Wegeforth founded the Zoological Society of San Diego. The society started its collection with animals that had been exhibited in San Diego during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. In 1922, the city granted the society the land that the zoo now occupies in Balboa Park. In 1972, the society opened the San Diego Wild Animal Park, north of the city. The park, now called the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, is a center for the preservation and display of endangered species.
