Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens — Jacksonville, Florida

The Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens occupies 122 acres along the Trout River on Jacksonville's Northside, near Heckscher Drive. The institution was founded in 1914, making it one of the oldest accredited zoological parks in the United States. It received formal accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in 1987, a status it has maintained through successive reviews. In May 2025, the institution adopted its current name — Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens — formalizing a dual identity as both a zoological and horticultural institution that its programming had long reflected. The zoo's campus incorporates the natural riparian landscape of the Trout River corridor, a tributary of the St. Johns River, and draws more than one million guests annually, per the zoo's own REZOOVENATION documentation.

The institution opened on May 12, 1914, under the name Municipal Zoo, in Jacksonville's Springfield neighborhood at the corner of 3rd and Broad Streets. Its first exhibit animal was a rescued red deer fawn. By 1916, the collection had expanded to include black bears, foxes, alligators, lions, bison, and a llama, reflecting the early-twentieth-century model of municipal zoological collections built from donated and rescued animals.

Persistent flooding and drainage problems associated with Hogans Creek prompted a relocation. On July 19, 1925, the zoo moved to its present site along the Trout River on Heckscher Drive, where the natural riparian corridor offered both more space and a more stable environment, as documented in the zoo's own historical records. The Trout River site has anchored the institution's operations for the century since.

A notable chapter in the zoo's documented animal history involved a male wild-born black — or melanistic — jaguar named Zorro, who arrived in August 1967. During his 19 years at the institution, Zorro fathered numerous cubs that were distributed to zoological parks across North America, contributing to captive jaguar populations at a time before formal Species Survival Plan frameworks were established. The zoo's AZA accreditation followed in 1987, aligning the institution with national standards for animal care, conservation programming, and professional management.

The zoo's About page documents several signature habitats developed across the institution's modern era. Range of the Jaguar, a Central and South American-themed habitat, opened in spring 2004 and was recognized with the AZA Exhibit of the Year Award in 2005. Its construction was funded in part through Mayor John Delaney's Better Jacksonville Plan, a capital investment referendum passed by Jacksonville voters in September 2000.

Land of the Tiger opened in 2014, introducing an innovative walk-through trail system designed to provide naturalistic encounters with Sumatran and Malayan tigers. The Plains of East Africa presents an African savanna habitat, and Primate Forest houses two of the four genera of great apes alongside several lemur species. The Giraffe Overlook, described on the zoo's About page as an award-winning habitat feature, provides eye-level viewing of giraffes. Lorikeet Landing, a free-flight lorikeet encounter area, underwent renovation in spring 2024. Wild Florida, a separate area of the campus, documents native Florida species in regional habitat settings.

As of the zoo's construction updates page, a botanical garden expansion was completed in summer 2024, and a new warthog habitat was added in winter 2025. The same page notes that a pier on zoo grounds, destroyed by hurricane damage, was subsequently replaced as part of recent capital improvements to the Trout River campus.

The zoo's most ambitious capital campaign in its history, named REZOOVENATION, encompasses five major projects with a total budget of $120 million, as reported in January 2026 by Jacksonville Today. The campaign's scope includes a new Manatee River habitat, a redesigned entrance called VyStar SkyScape, an elephant habitat redesign, an orangutan habitat, and additional infrastructure improvements across the 122-acre campus.

The Manatee River habitat, for which a groundbreaking was held in early 2026, will hold 330,000 gallons of water and expand the zoo's manatee care capacity from 6 to 20 animals — tripling the existing capacity, per the zoo's construction updates page. The habitat design draws from North Florida's natural river environments and will incorporate four treatment pools and three distinct animal habitats, as detailed by Blooloop in its coverage of the groundbreaking.

J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver served as Honorary Chairs of the REZOOVENATION campaign. The zoo's own REZOOVENATION documentation notes that prior donations from the Weavers supported the construction of both Land of the Tiger and Range of the Jaguar, establishing a pattern of philanthropic investment in the zoo's major habitat expansions spanning more than two decades.

The Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens participates in multiple AZA Species Survival Plan programs and maintains documented partnerships with international conservation organizations. Per the zoo's own Conservation page, these partners include Lola ya Bonobo, a bonobo rehabilitation organization operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo; GRACE, focused on Grauer's gorilla conservation in eastern DR Congo; and the International Rhino Foundation's Wildlife Protection Unit, which operates in Sumatra's Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park to protect both Sumatran rhinoceroses and tigers.

These partnerships align directly with species represented in the zoo's living collection — great apes in Primate Forest, Sumatran and Malayan tigers in Land of the Tiger — connecting the institution's on-grounds programming to field-based conservation efforts in the animals' range countries. The zoo's 2025 renaming to incorporate 'Botanical Gardens,' alongside the summer 2024 botanical garden expansion documented on the zoo's construction updates page, reflects an institutional strategy of expanding its horticultural identity in parallel with its zoological and conservation missions.