San Diego Zoo
In 1921, the City of San Diego set aside a permanent tract of land in Balboa Park initially to house the exotic animal exhibits abandoned after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, creating the San Diego Zoo. Its founders were determined to create open-air, cageless exhibits from the start, and the first lion area at the Zoo without enclosing wires opened in 1922. The zoo is active in conservation and species-preservation efforts, and the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research is the largest zoo-based multidisciplinary research effort in the world. Besides an extensive collection of birds, reptiles and mammals, the Zoo maintains its grounds as an arboretum with a collection of more than 700,000 exotic plants.
San Diego, San Diego County
Images by John Bare