Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Prani Udyan

The zoo receives about 1,100,000–1,200,000 visitors annually. The zoo is home to 463 mammals, 298 birds, and 72 reptiles representing 97 species, including the royal Bengal tiger, white Bengal tiger, Asiatic lion, gray wolf, hoolock gibbon, Himalayan black bear, Indian rhinoceros, blackbuck, swamp deer, barking deer, hog deer, Asiatic elephant, giraffe, zebra, European otters, hill mynahs, giant squirrels, great pied hornbill, golden pheasant, silver pheasant etc. The zoo is successfully breeding swamp deer, blackbuck, hog deer and barking deer, white tiger, Indian wolf and several pheasants. It is one of the only two zoos in India to exhibit an orangutan (the other being the Kanpur Zoo).

A Toy Train was started in 1969. The rolling stock consisting of engine and two coaches is the gift of Railway Board. The train was inaugurated on the Children's Day 14 November 1969 by the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Chandra Bhanu Gupta. The track is 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) long and has crossings and signals. Rides start from Chandrapuri station and travel to almost every section of the zoo.

The glorious chapter in Lucknow’s history came to an end on Wednesday, 21 November 2013 as the journey of the ‘toy train’ that chugged in the city zoo for the last four decades, came to a halt. The 44-year–old toy train, that carried lakhs on it, was pulled out of service owing to plans of a revamp. The toy train has been parked in front of the state museum in the zoo premises.[5]

The New Toy Train, inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav

A new ‘Shatabdi–look–alike’ four–bogey toy train made by a Noida-based company started operating in the zoo premises on 28 February, 2014. The new track alignment laid from 22 November 2013 onwards ensured that the new train could cover maximum sightseeing areas of the zoo.[6]

A British-era train will be an added attraction for visitors to the city zoo. The train was shifted to the zoo from Maharajganj, where it was lying almost discarded. The train belongs to 1924-period and was mainly used for transportation of timber between Ikma and Chauraha over a track of 22.4 kilometres (13.9 mi). In 1978 it was brought over to the forest department for use but being an uneconomical option, it was decided in 1981 that it would be phased out.

The Uttar Pradesh State Museum (Timing: 10.30 am to 4.30 pm; Closed on Mondays and certain public holidays) in Lucknow, was earlier situated in the Chattar Manzil and the Lal Baradari. It was shifted during the year 1963 to the new building in Lucknow Zoo (Banarasi Bag or Prince Of Wales Zoological Garden).[8] The initial collection centered around the arts of Avadh and objects related to the customs, habits, mythology and contemporary objects of Awadh, but later on, it was expanded to more interesting, excavated antiquities from nearby places of Lucknow, particularly from Kapilavastu where Buddha grew up.

Today, the Museum has become a centre of Lucknow's (Awadh's) sculpture, bronzes, paintings, natural history & anthropological specimens, coins, textiles and decorative arts. The (1000 BC) Egyptian Mummy and wooden sarcophagus in the Prince of Wales Zoological Garden (Lucknow Zoo) are a centre of attraction. From the vast number of displayed objects, some hundred are rare and of great value. These include an inscribed wine jar bearing the name of Aurangzeb Alamgir (17th century), a jade chamakali with the name Jahangir and the date 1036 AD, a 16th-century painting of a scene from the Kalpasutra, a 16th-century copy of the Harivansha in Persian with nine illustrations, rare silver and gold coins.[8]