About the Zoo

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Swope Park
Located in the historic and beautiful Swope Park, the Kansas City Zoo's 202 acres are nestled inside valleys and rolling hills and is home to than 1,000 animals.

In 1896, Thomas Swope donated 1,334 acres to the city of Kansas City, Missouri for use as a public park. With property acquisitions made over the years, the park has over 1,805 acres and is one of the largest city parks in the United States. It includes picnic areas, an outdoor theatre - Starlight Theatre, two golf courses, swimming and fishing.

Kansas City Zoo
The Zoo is divided into several sections: Australia; Tiger Trail (Asia); Tropics, an indoor rainforest; KidZone, which includes the Discovery Barn, Peek-A-Boo Tree and an Endangered Species Carousel; and a 100 acre-African Plains. The new Tropics, an indoor rainforest, opened in 2009 in the orignal Zoo building and polar bears will return in 2010.  

Three historic features within the Zoo are:

The 1909 Zoo Building:  Opened as the first building in the Zoo, the Bird and Carnivora House housed the entire animal collection. Altered in 1969 and again 1974, it housed traveling exhibits and education programs. Rennovated with city bond money, it re-opened as the Tropics, an indoor rainforest in 2009.

Suspension Bridge: Built in 1907 by the Midland Bridge Company, this bridge was originally meant to span a nearly inaccessible area of dense underbrush and to connect the Grand Entrance with a proposed athletic field. It was rennovated in the 1990s. The 227 foot long bridge connects the African plains area of the Zoo to the Congo area.
 
Lagoon and Boathouse: The lagoon once was on Wildcat Hollow Road and Lewis Road, sat near the Swope Park swimming pool. In 1912 the first boat was allowed and a boathouse was built on the west bank. In 1922 a beach area opened near the original boathouse; in 1949 a new boathouse was built on the beach and the original boathouse was torn down.  In 1994, the lagoon became a focal point for the African plains exhibit.

 
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An Award Winning Zoo!

The Kansas City Zoo has won numerous awards!
See a sample of the honors.

The Kansas City Zoo was one of sixty Zoos honored in “America’s Best Zoos 2008,” and was ranked number one in the nation for “African Animals and Exhibits,” and ranked among the top 10 in the nation for “Australian Animals and Exhibits” and for “Pachyderms: Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos.”

Additionally, famed ape expert Jane Goodall’s complimented that Kansas City has “one of the finest chimpanzee exhibits in North America.” In fact, “America’s Best Zoos 2008” ranks the Kansas City Zoo as the number one zoo in the nation to see both chimpanzees and kangaroos.