Birmingham Zoo Travel Guide and Attractions

With an amalgamation of the best kind of animals and zoological existence the Birmingham Zoo in the Alabama region of North America is home to around 800 animals and more than 200 species, some of them even endangered ones which span the entire stretch of the six continents.

This zoo is today managed under the patronage of a nonprofit corporation and also belongs to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Today this lovely land of animals situated in Lane Park, is a beautiful 200 acre land which is inclusive of the Birmingham Botanical Garden, which lies in the western terminus of the U. S. Highway.

The Birmingham Zoo had an enclosure of small exotic animals which were kept in a Southside firehouse. Then it went to the Magnolia Park and later to the Avondale Park. The Birmingham Advertising Club donated a lone elephant which it had bought as a novelty from a circus after it was found stranded in the city.

The place grew in size and shape, and then there were plans for many such parks in Birmingham. Later it was decided that the zoo could be on a particular piece of land in a single place. So the land that lay to the south of the Red Mountain was purchased in the year 1889 and 1896 and  was a city park in those times. A fish hatcher was built and many pavilions  constructed from the Hartselle sandstone that was brought out of the mountain. A natural spring fed the hatchery and it gave stock for the nearby lakes in the whole region. Then gradually the zoo came in place of the park.

The Birmingham Junior Chamber of Commerce supported the cause for a new zoo and created this for Birmingham. Thus started the initiative for setting up the Birmingham Zoo.  There was a commission for the zoo that was established. The initial plan was to get the zoo built on 50 acres and the land chosen was the base of the Red Mountain. There was a fixed budget of $250,000 and the plot of land that was a park was then named the Lane Park. It thus started having the zoo as well as the botanical garden nearby.

It was decided that there would be six exhibits in the zoo and these were the “Monkey Island” , the bear moat, the elephant house, the snake pit , the seal pool and the birdhouse. Private donations, in kind donations, charter memberships and many other supporters helped in the contribution to the construction of all these exhibits within the zoo.

Earlier known as the Jimmy Morgan Zoo, the Monkey Island was the first public exhibit . After a lot of trials and efforts, the Birmingham Zoo came into being with the exhibits of koalas, bats, and Komodo dragon and black footed penguins, thus completing the Junior League of Birmingham.  In the year 2004, Babec became the first gorilla to have a pacemaker, thus paving the path for the zoo to becoming very unique.

Today with more than 450,000 visitors coming here every year, the Zoo is one of the top tourist destinations of the Alabama travel tours and has beautiful animals like the alligator, the baby giraffe, the camels, flamingos, kangaroos, lorikeet, reptiles, macaw, sea lions, secretary birds, waterfowl, tortoise, pachyderms, pelicans, and many other such unique and intriguing animals.

Today with a lot of expansion and more interesting animals coming here, safari trails are a common form of having a holiday here.