Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
The place behind the detail.
An exposition’s legacy, habitats without bars and a garden of plants as well as animals offer several ways into the story of the San Diego Zoo.
On this page
Founded in 1916
The zoo grew out of animals left after the Panama–California Exposition of 1915. Dr Harry M. Wegeforth founded the Zoological Society of San Diego in 1916, and the zoo moved to its site in Balboa Park from 1922.
It occupies about 100 acres of the park, leased from the City of San Diego, and welcomed about four million visitors in 2018.
Open habitats
The zoo pioneered open, moated exhibits, beginning with a lion area without enclosing wire in 1922.
It is also an accredited botanical garden, with more than 700,000 plants, and a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Science and conservation
The zoo founded its Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species in 1975, which became the Institute for Conservation Research in 2009. The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, a non-profit, runs both the zoo and the Safari Park.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
