Zoo Miami is Florida’s largest zoo and the only tropical zoo in the continental United States, combining a zoological park and botanical garden on a vast Miami site. Its origins trace to 1948, when a small group of traded and abandoned animals formed the basis of the old Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne. After Hurricane Betsy devastated that zoo in 1965, plans advanced for a larger inland location, which opened in 1980 on the former Naval Air Station Richmond grounds. Known for spacious cageless habitats, major exhibit regions, and conservation work, it has repeatedly rebuilt and expanded after hurricanes, fire, and other storm damage.