Louisville Zoo

The zoo was awarded the 2003 Association of Zoos and Aquariums Exhibit Award for its 4-acre (16,000 m²) exhibit "Gorilla Forest".[9] The exhibit currently houses a troop of eight western lowland gorillas, and a pygmy hippopotamus. Inside the circular Gorilla Sanctuary, visitors are separated only by glass and can get nose-to-nose with the gorillas. Several different outdoor vantage points are available from which to see the gorillas playing and relaxing.[10] In October 2022 female gorilla Helen passed away, at the time of her death she was the second oldest gorilla in history being born in Cameroon in 1958, she was known as the "Grand Dame" of the gorilla world.

Albino alligator at Louisville Zoo, named King Louie

The HerpAquarium features over 100 species of reptiles, amphibians, and fish, from around the world including boa constrictors, Gila monsters, panther chameleons, Chinese alligators and black piranhas. A notable resident of the HerpAquarium is a 9.5-foot-long (2.9 m) rare albino American alligator named King Louie he is named after King Louis XVI of France, after whom the city of Louisville is also named.[11] Louie was hatched at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park. The Louisville Zoo currently houses a group of critically endangered Panamanian golden frogs. The zoo is working to preserve this species of frog from extinction. Their numbers have declined in the wild partly due to the chytrid fungus and habitat destruction. On March 31, 2006, the zoo added a group of seven common vampire bats obtained from the Philadelphia Zoo, and another ten from the Sedgwick County Zoo were added to the group in late May 2006. Eventually, the exhibit will house around 40 bats. The exhibit is designed to look like an old mine shaft. [12]

Sumatran tiger

The zoo has a distinctive zoological exhibit called "Islands," which is the first zoological exhibit in the world that uses a system of rotating a variety of animals into one exhibit. This way, the animals can explore different habitats throughout the day, as they would in the wild. This helps to give the animals needed stimulation and heightens their awareness. Moreover, the exhibit is the first to have natural predator and prey in the same space. It has three outdoor exhibit areas and one indoor area. All animals in this exhibit are endangered or threatened species. The animals on display here change from day to day so that visitors can have a new and different experience with each visit to the zoo. The animals that can be seen in this exhibit include Sumatran tigers, orangutans, siamangs, North Sulawesi babirusas and Malayan tapirs.[13] The zoo is home to four orangutans, two males named Teak and Segundo (aka Gunny) and two females named Amber and Bella. Amber and Teak are half-siblings sharing the same father and are hybrid orangutans, while Gunny and Bella are purebred Sumatran orangutans and are under breeding recommendation, though there has yet to be any successful breeding between them. The Islands Pavilion is an indoor area that houses many species of birds, including the white-throated ground-dove. The zoo was the first zoo in the world to hatch this rare dove in captivity. The first hatchling was born on October 17, 2006, and a second followed on December 1, 2006.[14] Some of the other bird species included in the Islands Pavilion are Victoria crowned pigeons, Nicobar pigeons, pied imperial pigeons, Jambu fruit doves, wompoo fruit doves, Asian fairy-bluebirds, red-crested cardinals, Indian white-eyes, black-necked stilts, Oriental storks, red shovelers, nene, African penguins and Inca terns. The pavilion also houses Rodrigues fruit bats, Aldabra giant tortoises, Cuban crocodiles, and Komodo dragons.

Red-necked wallaby

The new Wallaroo Walkabout that opened in 2007 lets guests walk directly through the exhibit, which is home to common wallaroos and red-necked wallabies, as well as some Australian birds including the emu, laughing kookaburra and Cape Barren goose. Visitors are able to interact with the wallaroos and wallabies if they stay on the walkway. Then after the wallabies and wallaroos, guests can go into the Lorikeet Landing, which is an Australian exhibit that is a walkthrough aviary filled with several brightly colored birds known as lorikeets. Currently, the zoo houses 56 Lorikeets in a mixed flock consisting of 5 species of bird. Visitors can feed nectar to the birds right out of their hands.[15] Wallaroo Walkabout is set to be renovated by 2025 to support Red kangaroo and Southern cassowary.

Finished in early 2011, this 4.3-acre (1.7 ha) outdoor exhibit is based on the theme of an old gold-mining town bordered by a glacier. It features polar bears, harbor seals, gray seals, California sea lions, grizzly bears, snowy owls and Steller's sea eagles. Outside the gold mine town are 3 exhibits for snow leopards, Amur tigers, and red-crowned cranes. The exhibit also has a splash park for children that opened in 2007, and was the first part of this $25 million exhibit to open.[16][17] The exhibit also includes classrooms, party rooms available for rental, viewing areas above and below water, and a 200-seat outdoor auditorium for watching animal training demonstrations. Steller's sea eagle Pytr is housed in his own aviary set behind the sea lion amphitheater going 50ft vertically. Alongside Pytr the aviary houses Azure-winged magpie, baer's pochard, and red-breasted goose in a small walk through enclosure.

This region of the zoo is based on the African Serengeti. Animals featured here include lions, dromedary camels, southern white rhinoceroses, common warthogs, addaxes, meerkats, naked mole-rats, Hartmann's mountain zebras, Masai giraffe, Rüppell's griffon vultures, gray crowned cranes, wattled cranes, eastern bongos, a boma petting yard for Nigerian Dwarf goats, ring-tailed lemurs, and a new [monkey exhibit that opened in 2019 with colobus monkeys and red-tailed monkeys. The zoo is one of the few zoos to exhibit African and Asian elephants together in the same habitat. The zoo is home to an Asian elephant named Punch, who was born in 1970 and is currently the oldest Asian elephant in North America, and an African bush elephant named Mikki, who was born in 1985 and her son named Fitz, who was born in 2019. In 2022 the giraffe yard underwent a renovation replacing the fence and outdoor holding, the new exhibit is set to house multiple birds alongside the giraffes like white stork and Rüppell's vulture.

This part of the zoo is next to the South America exhibit, and it has all rescued animals that cannot be returned to the wild. The animals include Canada lynxes, bald eagles, and pumas.

This exhibit of the zoo has animals from the Andes grasslands and Amazon rainforest of South America along with a botanical garden area. The animals contained in this exhibit include Chilean flamingos, maned wolves, Linnaeus's two-toed sloths, jaguars, and hyacinth macaws. In fall of 2022 the original hyacinth macaw aviary from 1969 was demolished and is being fully renovated, it is set to re-open in spring of 2023. In 2023 46 new Chilean Flamingos are to join the flock from the San Diego Zoo, with these additions the flock will be one of the largest captive flocks in the world.

A roughly $30 million Upland South Safari known Kentucky trails, built over roughly 20 acres in an under-developed portion of the property, the area will be dedicated to animals from North America. Kentucky Trails is being built in partnership with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife to house and exhibit native animals from the Appalachian and Cumberland Gap regions. Notable enclosers include two rotational Great Plains inspired woodlands that will house American bison, elk, American black bears, bobcats and other native animals. A large Rickhouse Hall inspired education center and restaurant is also to be built. Breaking ground is set in 2023 with the exhibit expected to open in 2025.[18]