Oregon Zoo Informations

The Oregon Zoo, originally the Portland Zoo and later the Washington Park Zoo, is a zoo located in Washington Park, Portland, Oregon, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of downtown Portland. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi River.

The 64-acre (26 ha) zoo is owned by the regional Metro government. It currently holds more than 1,800 animals of more than 230 species, including 19 endangered species and 9 threatened species. The zoo also boasts an extensive plant collection throughout its animal exhibits and specialized gardens. The zoo also operates and maintains the 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge Washington Park and Zoo Railway that previously connected to the International Rose Test Garden inside the park, but currently runs only within the zoo.

The Oregon Zoo is Oregon's largest paid and arguably most popular visitor attraction, with more than 1.6 million visitors in 2016. The zoo is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

The Oregon Zoo was founded in 1888, making it the oldest North American zoo west of the Mississippi. It all began with two bears purchased by Richard Knight – one brown bear and one grizzly. A former seaman turned pharmacist, Knight began collecting animals from his seafaring friends. He kept his collection in the back of his drug store on Third and Morrison streets. When caring for the animals became too large a responsibility he sought to sell them to the city of Portland. Instead of buying the animals, the city offered to give Knight two circus cages and allowed him to place the caged bears on the grounds of City Park (now called Washington Park).

Care and feeding of the bears, however, still fell to the Knight family and friends. It wasn't long before Knight addressed the city council again regarding the bears. Just five months later, he offered to donate the bears, along with their cages, to the city. Portland City Council accepted his offer on November 7, 1888, and thus began the Portland Zoo. Located in Washington Park, it was sometimes referred to as the Washington Park Zoo.

By 1894, there were over 300 animals in the zoo’s collection. In 1925, the zoo moved to the site of the present Portland Japanese Garden, still within Washington Park.

The zoo moved again in 1958–59 to its current site, designed by Lawrence, Tucker and Wallmann. This was located in Hoyt Park, west of Washington Park, but some years later the two parks were combined as Washington Park. At this time, the Portland Zoo Railway was constructed to connect the zoo to its former site in Washington Park and other attractions there. The zoo's move to the new, much larger site was made in stages, over more than a year, with the first animals being moved in spring 1958 and limited public access being opened in June 1958, one day after the first section of the Zoo Railway opened. During the transition period the new zoo was only open on weekends, as most animals were still at the old site awaiting completion of their new enclosures. However, the new railway operated six days a week until mid-September. Meanwhile, the old zoo remained in operation, but in May 1959 was restricted to pedestrian access only, closed to automobile access, for its last months of operation.

The zoo at its current site opened on July 3, 1959. It was renamed the Portland Zoological Gardens at that time, but remained commonly known as the Portland Zoo. The elephants and big cats were not moved to the new zoo until November. A new interchange was constructed on the adjacent freeway, the Sunset Highway, for better access to the new zoo.

The zoo became popular locally in 1953, when Rosy the Asian elephant was acquired. The zoo became world-famous in 1962 when the Asian elephant "Packy" was born. He was the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years and was (as of 2010) the tallest Asian elephant in the United States at 10.5 ft (3.2 m) tall. A total of 28 more calves have been born at the Oregon Zoo, including seven sired by Packy (two of which, Shine and Rama, remained at the zoo), making it the most successful zoo elephant breeding program in the world. On August 23, 2008, Rose-Tu, the granddaughter of the zoo's first elephant Rosy, gave birth to a son named Samudra. The birth made Samudra the first third-generation captive-born elephant in North America.

Attendance in 1962, the year in which Packy was born, was 1.2 million people. Over the next several years, the number of animals declined, from 450 (representing 150 species) in 1962 to 386 (representing 123 species) in 1976, and annual attendance also declining over the same period, reaching its lowest point in 1975, with 448,198 visitors.

Until 1971, the zoo was operated by the City, and then by the Portland Zoological Society under contract to the City. In 1976, area voters approved a tax levy plan under which the zoo was taken over by the Metropolitan Service District (or MSD, now known as Metro). Ownership of the zoo passed to Metro on July 1, 1976. Metro has continued expansion projects, aided by donors, sponsors and volunteers.

Later in 1976, MSD renamed the zoo the Washington Park Zoo after a naming contest. The railway was renamed the Washington Park and Zoo Railway two years later.

The decline in attendance seen in the 1960s and 1970s eventually began to reverse, and the zoo recorded 752,632 visitors in 1984 and 897,189 in 1986.

The Metro Council changed the zoo's name from the Washington Park Zoo to the Oregon Zoo in April 1998. In September of that year, the zoo became accessible by the region's MAX light rail system, with the opening of a Westside MAX line featuring an underground Washington Park station. In 2003, the zoo began participation in a California condor recovery program started by San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo. The program is designed to breed California condors to be released into the wild and save them from extinction.

In November 2008, regional voters approved a $125 million bond measure to improve infrastructure, enhance older exhibits and increase access to conservation education and the degree of sustainability. Attendance at the zoo reached a record 1.6 million visitors for their 2008 to 2009 year. The record was due in part to the birth of another baby elephant. A new record was set the following year with 1,612,359 people visiting the zoo. The zoo again brought in more than 1.6 million visitors in 2016.

On February 9, 2017, Oregon Zoo staff decided to euthanize Packy after a long struggle with drug-resistant tuberculosis. He was laid to rest at an unidentified city-owned "wooded, grassy area" that is not open to the public. At the time of his death, Packy was 54 years old.

Opened in 1991, the Africa Rainforest exhibit covers 1.3 acres (5,300 m2) and was built at a cost of $4.3 million. In addition to animals, the exhibit includes artwork and the Congo. Ranger Station, a mock up of a safari expedition. Animals in the exhibit include Rodriguez fruit bats, straw-colored fruit bats, colobus monkeys, Allen's swamp monkey, hadada ibis, Sacred ibis, Patagonian mara, African spoonbills, Helmeted guinea fowl, white-faced whistling ducks, slender-snouted crocodile, African lungfish, scorpions, lesser flamingos, geckos, African crested porcupines, African clawed frogs, and an African rock python. The rainforest includes four main areas: the Bamba Du Jon Swamp, which houses the lungfish, frogs and reptiles; the rainforest aviary, which houses the birds; the monkey habitat which houses the monkeys and chameleon; and the bat habitat.

The Africa Savanna exhibit first opened in April 1989 and is 4 acres (16,000 m2) in size. This exhibit includes animals typical of East Africa and includes an aviary and areas for large mammals. These include bontebok, De Brazza's monkeys, naked mole-rats, masai giraffe, reticulated giraffe, Wattled cranes, Speke's gazelles, southern ground hornbill, weaver birds, Cape thick-knee, Brown house snakes[disambiguation needed], red-crested turaco, hamerkop, buffalo weaver, African spurred tortoises, and spiny-tailed lizards. The zoo kept a plains zebra named Citation until her death in 2013. The zoo had also kept a pair of hippos named Poppy and Bubbles until March 2018, when they were moved to the Fort Worth Zoo so the zoo could expand their Eastern black rhinoceros habitat.

Predators of the Serengeti, a $6.8 million exhibit which opened in September 2009, expanded the Africa Savanna 2.5 acres (10,000 m2) into the site of the former Alaska Tundra exhibit. Animals in the exhibit include lions, cheetahs, African wild dogs, Veiled chameleons, Prehensile-tailed porcupines, ring-tailed lemurs, black and white ruffed lemurs, red ruffed lemurs, dwarf mongooses, and red-billed hornbills. The zoo previously had lions, but closed the exhibit in 1998 to build Steller Cove. The three new lions come from zoos in California, Virginia and Wisconsin. On September 4, 2013, it was announced that five-year-old Neka, one of the zoo's two female lions, was pregnant and would likely soon give birth, it then happened in late 2013, as she gave birth to three cubs, named Kamali, Zalika and Angalia respectively. In August 2014, it was announced that the other lioness, Kya, was due herself. On September 8, 2014, Kya gave birth to a litter of four lion cubs. Three days later, however, one of the cubs had to be humanely euthanized due to an untreatable leg injury.

Built in the remaining portion of the 1959 feline building (the rest was demolished to make way for Steller Cove), the Amur Cats exhibit is planted to evoke a northern Asian forest. The Amur cats exhibit now houses red pandas and Amur tigers.

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