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Annually over one and a half million visitors pass through the gates of the Los Angeles Zoo. Located in Griffith Park in the heart of the nation's second largest city, the Los Angeles Zoo is home to 1,200 animals from every corner of the world.
The idea that 'more is better' is certainly true here, especially with the aura of tinsel town. Historically, the Los Angeles Zoo wasn't the first zoo to hit this sprawling town. First came the privately operated Selig Zoo, located in the downtown section of the city in 1885. Then, in 1912, came the Griffith Park Zoo, an eclectic collection of retired circus animals. Not until 1966, decades later, did the citizens of Los Angeles take the proposal of a new facility to house the zoo seriously. Built on 113-acres of hilly terrain in Griffith Park, some original animals from 1966 still make their home in the Los Angeles Zoo.
In the early 1980s, as part of their endangered species program the Zoo joined the California Condor Recovery Program and actively worked to secure a future for the endangered California Condor. In the same time period, the Ahmanson Koala House opened and the Zoo became the first facility in the world to exhibit the Koala in a darkened setting. Then came the China Pavilion built specifically to house two giant pandas. Today you can see rare golden monkeys, snow leopards, polar bears, and gelada baboons.
Kids will love Adventure Island, built especially for them. The animal nursery with incubators that provide special care for baby animals, is a high point on the tour. Included in their natural habitat sitting are bats and skunks in darkened exhibits, sea lions in a pool with a waterfall, and prairie dogs that dig burrows in mounds of dirt.
The newest exhibit, Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains (named after a wild troupe of chimps in Tanzania) allows visitors to watch up close with only a pane of glass between visitors and chimps, along with an open-air penthouse for the playful chimps. Scheduled to open in October 2000, the new Animal Health and Conservation Center will be a world class medical facility for animal care. Also in the works: a multi-level Central and South American rain forest exhibit, a saltwater exhibit for sea lions, and a modern reptile house.
Pick up a tour map at the main gate. The arrangement of exhibits lends itself to a leisurely walk around the park. What you will see during the circle loop of the Zoo is Adventure Island; World of Birds Show; the Reptile House; Rhinos, Tigers, and Bears; the Elephant Barn; Monkeys and Apes; Lions and Giraffes; Gorillas; Aquatics pool and back to the main gate.
The Los Angeles Zoo is about animals but the Zoo is also home to a unique collection of over 400 species of plants. The plant collection is a very practical application of beauty and an edible garden. Koala bears eat eucalyptus leaves and in the Australian section of the garden, plenty of eucalyptus trees grow strong and tall as a food source for these bears.
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