San Antonio Zoo

In the early 1900s, City Parks Commissioner Ludwig Mahncke displayed buffalo, elk, deer, lions, and bears in an enclosed area near the south end of Brackenridge Park, while San Antonians had previously viewed animals at a small private zoo in San Pedro Park. A permanent zoo was established in 1914 under Parks Commissioner Ray Lambert in the old rock quarry near the north end of Brackenridge Park. Lambert envisioned a cageless zoo within the quarry's natural limestone walls, using the Upper Labor irrigation ditch as a water feature. In 1928, donors who provided funding and animals formed the San Antonio Zoological Society, which took over zoo operations from the city in 1931 and has continually expanded its collections and exhibits. During the Depression, the Works Projects Administration provided funding and labor for many new exhibits, including areas for hooved animals, tigers, elephants, and birds. Primate Paradise, long known as Monkey Island, was completed in 1929 with terraced outdoor viewing for monkeys and was transformed in 2010 into Africa Live. Today the fifty-six acre zoo is home to more than 3,500 animals representing 600 species.

San Antonio, Texas · United States