Detroit Zoo - Detroit Zoo

Detroit Zoo

The Detroit Zoo is one of Michigan’s largest family attractions, hosting more than 1.1 million visitors annually. Situated on 125 acres of naturalistic exhibits, it provides a natural habitat for more than 3,300 animals representing 280 species. Opened in 1928, the Detroit Zoo was the first zoo in the United States to use barless exhibits extensively.

Accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the Detroit Zoo features many award-winning exhibits including the Wildlife Interpretive Gallery, National Amphibian Conservation Center, Great Apes of Harambee and Arctic Ring of Life, which was named the number-two best zoo exhibit in the U.S. by the Intrepid Traveler’s guide to “America’s Best Zoos”.

The Wildlife Interpretive Gallery is home to the Butterfly Garden, a tropical indoor habitat featuring hundreds of butterflies from Central and South America. Adjacent to the Free-flight Aviary, the facility also features a 90-seat theater and showcases the Zoo’s permanent fine art collection.

The National Amphibian Conservation Center is a $7 million, 12,000-square-foot facility situated on a two-acre Michigan wetland area and pond called “Amphibiville”. The exhibit boasts a spectacular diversity of frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and caecilians. The Wall Street Journal dubbed the attraction “Disneyland for toads”.

The Great Apes of Harambee is a four-acre indoor/outdoor habitat which houses chimpanzees, Western lowland gorillas and drills. The animals spend their days foraging, grooming and playing just as they would in their native African environment.

The Arctic Ring of Life is North America’s largest polar bear exhibit. The $14 million four-acre interactive facility features the Frederick and Barbara Erb Polar Passage, where visitors walk through a 70-foot-long clear underwater tunnel as polar bears and seals swim around them.

Among other highlights at the Detroit Zoo are the expansive Australian Outback Adventure featuring a walk-through with kangaroos and wallabies, the Giraffe Encounter where guests can feed the Zoo’s tallest creatures, the Penguinarium (the first facility of its kind created specifically for penguins), the iconic Horace H. Rackham Memorial Fountain, the Tauber Family Railroad, the Carousel, and the Ford Education Center which houses the Wild Adventure Ride and the Wild Adventure 3-D/4-D Theater.

The Wild Adventure Ride is an educational, action-packed thrill ride which offers an exciting you-are-there experience from the comfort of a specially equipped motion-simulated big-screen theater seat. The 126-seat Wild Adventure 3-D/4-D Theater, the only theater of its kind at any Michigan zoo, delivers a high-definition viewing experience in 3-D with 7.1 digital audio surround sound, enhanced with full-sensory 4-D special effects such as blasts of wind, mist and scents.

The Detroit Zoo is located at the intersection of 10 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak, Mich. It is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April through Labor Day (until 8 p.m. Wednesdays during July and August), 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. the day after Labor Day through October and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. November through March (closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day). Admission is $14 for adults 15 to 61, $12 for senior citizens 62 and older, and $9 for children ages 2 to 14; children under 2 are free.