Place Archive

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo, established in 1916, features enclosures designed to simulate natural habitats for endangered species like Asian elephants and giant pandas. Visitor amenities include a large parking lot shaded by Southern California palm trees, supporting access to this long-standing center for animal conservation and research.

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San Diego Zoo Photo Locations

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San Diego Zoo parking lot with palm trees and visitor vehicles under blue sky. — The San Diego Zoo sits within Balboa Park, its parking areas tucked among palm trees and eucalyptus at the northern edge of the grounds. The zoo opened in 1916, growing out of a small collection of animals left behind after the Panama-California Exposition. Today it spans roughly 100 acres and draws several million visitors a year, making parking capacity here a persistent challenge for the surrounding neighborhood. The hills visible to the east mark the beginning of San Diego's inland terrain, a contrast to the coastal palms planted throughout the park.

Giant panda climbs wooden structure in San Diego Zoo habitat. — The San Diego Zoo ran a research partnership with China's Wolong and Chengdu panda centers from 1996 to 2019, housing giant pandas including Bai Yun, Gao Gao, and cubs born on-site such as Hua Mei and Su Lin. Its panda habitat was built with bamboo groves, climbing logs, and pools to approximate the bamboo forests of China's Sichuan mountains, the species' only native range. Giant pandas are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, with roughly 1,800 left in the wild. The San Diego program ended in 2019 when its last pandas were returned to China, closing out more than two decades of collaborative breeding and research.

Four Asian elephants walk across a sandy enclosure at San Diego Zoo in California. — The San Diego Zoo's Elephant Odyssey exhibit opened in 2009 on an 8-acre site in Balboa Park, built to house the zoo's herd of Asian elephants. The habitat includes pools, mud wallows, and varied terrain meant to encourage the kind of walking and foraging elephants do across large home ranges in the wild. Asian elephants are listed as endangered, with wild populations estimated at fewer than 50,000 across South and Southeast Asia. The San Diego Zoo participates in the Species Survival Plan for the species, coordinating breeding and care standards with other accredited zoos in North America.

San Diego Zoo Photo Locations

Minneapolis Photographer