Founded by naturalist Henry A. Snow in 1922, the Oakland Zoo became a nonprofit organization when his son took over. It was run by the East Bay Zoological Society with the original name of Alameda County Botanical and Zoological Society. The name changed to Oakland Zoo in 2017.
The Zoo has several regions like Gladys Valley Children’s Zoo, Flamingo Plaza, African Veldt, Tropical Forest and more. There are over seven hundred and fifty exotic and native animals that live in the naturalistic habitat.
You animals include elephants, chimpanzees, giraffes, lions, sun bears and more. The categories in the zoo are reptiles, birds, arthropods, mammals and amphibians.
My friends at Bay Area Hood Cleaning love to take their children to the Oakland Zoo. The reptiles have various tortoises, snakes, monitors and lizards. The birds range from Bald Eagles, California Condors to Blue and Yellow Macaws. The arthropods will make your skin crawl with scorpions from all over, spiders, cockroaches, beetles and more. Other Mammals there are camels, bison, lemurs, rabbits, zebras to name a few. Amphibians has toads from all over the United States including the Poison Dart Frog.
The Oakland Zoo encourages local support by having family days. They can help clean up Arroyo Viejo Creek and other projects. Halloween is popular as families can dress up and follow clues to get a goodie bag full of treats. They also have family concerts and guest performers.