Birmingham Zoo
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| Date opened | April 2, 1955 |
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| Location | Birmingham, Alabama, USA |
| Coordinates | 33°29′14.65″N 86°46′46.52″W / 33.4874028°N 86.7795889°WCoordinates: 33°29′14.65″N 86°46′46.52″W / 33.4874028°N 86.7795889°W |
| Land area | 122 acres (49 ha) |
| No. of animals | ~800 |
| No. of species | 200+ |
| Annual visitors | 470,000 (2006) |
| Memberships | AZA,AAZK |
| Website | www |
The Birmingham Zoo is a zoological park that opened in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama (USA). The 122-acre (49 ha) zoo is home to almost 800 animals representing over 200 species, including many endangered species from six continents.
The Zoo is managed by a private non-profit corporation. It is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), participating in AZA Species Survival Plans (SSP). It is located, along with the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, in Lane Park, a 200-acre (81 ha) city-owned park near the western terminus of U.S. Highway 280 at U.S. Highway 31 on the southern slope of Red Mountain.
The origins of the Birmingham Zoo start with a small menagerie of exotic animals kept in a Southside firehouse. As the collection grew, it was moved first to Magnolia Park (now Brother Bryan Park) and then to Avondale Park. At the time, the collection consisted mainly of non-exotic animals, except for "Miss Fancy," a lone elephant donated by the Birmingham Advertising Club which had purchased it as a promotional novelty from a struggling circus stranded in the city.
As the collection grew in size and scope, city leaders contacted the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm, which had drawn up plans for a system of parks in Birmingham, for advice about housing a zoological collection. They were put in contact with the few municipal zoos existing in that period and plans began for providing a new permanent home for the growing attraction.
Birmingham, under mayor A. O. Lane, had purchased land on the south of Red Mountain between 1889 and 1896. The former Red Mountain Cemetery, a pauper's cemetery was part of the parcel that was dedicated as a city park in 1934. The Works Progress Administration built a fish hatchery and a number of pavilions from the Hartselle sandstone quarried out of the mountain within the park's borders. The hatchery was fed by a natural spring and provided stock for recreational lakes in the region until the zoo took over the park.
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Wikipedia