Famous for its baby giant panda Tai Shan and its many animals from around the world, the National Zoo offers so much more than most ordinary zoos. It blends together the beauty of a botanic garden, aquarium and nature reserve all in one place.
Besides being fun and free to visit, it’s also a great place to learn about the unique attributes and habitats of different animals and the challenges they face in the real world. You can start your visit at the newly opened Asia Trail, which is home to seven Asian species, sloth bears, fishing cats, red pandas, Japanese giant salamanders, clouded leopards, Asian small-clawed otters and giant pandas. It’s wonderful to watch the otters dive swiftly in and out of a small pool of water.
From there you can walk up the hill to the Bird House. There is an indoor flight room and an outdoor flight room where birds fly around freely. If you are lucky, you can catch the peacocks showing off its feathers. It’s also a treat to watch the colorful flamingos playing in the outside exhibit. You can easily spend a whole day just looking at all the bird exhibits.
Head back down the hill towards the Elephant House. Look for the baby Asian elephant, Kandula who recently celebrated his fifth birthday. Besides elephants, you will also find some hippos.
Continue down the Olmsted Walk to the Small Mammal House and the Great Ape House. Next you will find the Invertebrates Exhibit, located directly behind the Reptile Discovery Center. It’s easy to walk right past this building, so keep your eyes open. Here you will find the Giant Octopus, star fish, comb jelly and more. As you exit, you will enter into the Pollinarium, a magical place where you will see many different types of butterflies.
Afterwards, you can return to Olmsted Walk and continue down the hill to visit the lions and tigers. You can also stop by to see the seals swimming in the blue waters. Continue down the hill to Amazonia. This is one of my favorite parts of the zoo. Here you will see a re-creation of the tropical Amazon rainforest with baby rays, giant freshwater fish and more.
Here’s a brief overview of Amazonia from the zoo’s website.
Amazonia, the largest and most complex exhibit ever built at the National Zoo, opened to the public in 1992. The 15,000-square-foot rainforest habitat of the exhibit includes a cascading tropical river and a 55,000-gallon aquarium for the display of Amazon River fish. Within Amazonia’s dome, visitors find a living tropical forest with more than 350 species of plants, including 50-foot-tall trees, tropical vines, and epiphytes.
This habitat is also home to dozens of species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects typical of the Amazon Basin, all moving throughout the exhibit. Smooth-sided toads and silver-beaked tanagers breed freely, titi monkeys jump from branch to branch, a two-toed sloth hides behind large leaves, white-bellied hummingbirds zip about. Take a virtual tour.
I have only begun to scratch the surface in terms of what the National Zoo offers. There’s still so much more to see and experience.To find out about everything the zoo has to offer, visit the zoo website filled with web cams, photo galleries, educational resources and more.
As much as I love to visit the zoo and learn about animals and their habitats, I wonder what it’s like for the animals to be displaced from their normal habitat and live in cages. The zoo offers a great service to our community by educating people about different types of animals and how we can help to conserve their habitats, but I think it can do a better job of providing a safe natural habitat for the animals. In some cases, it might not be appropriate for the zoo to have certain types of animals like elephants. To learn more, visit SaveWildElephants.com.
In the last few years, several animals have died at the zoo, including red pandas, zebras and gorillas. It is not always clear how these animals died. The National Zoo is part of the Smithsonian, and it receives taxpayer dollars. We need to hold zoo officials accountable and ask them to provide a safe living environment for these animals. Learn more and get involved.
.....................................................................................................
SHARE YOUR ZOO STORIES
Comment below to share your thoughts about zoos in your city.
.....................................................................................................
TIPS FOR VISITING THE ZOO
Hours
The zoo is open every day, except Dec. 25.
Oct. 29 to March 10 - Grounds: 6 am to 6 pm, Buildings: 10 am to 4:30 pm; March 11 to Oct. 28 - Grounds: 6 am to 8 pm, Buildings: 10 am to 6 pm
Before you go
- Wear comfortable walking shoes.
- If you like to take photos, take a camera with a good zoom lens, so even if an animal is far away you can take a good photo.
- Start early in the day, so you can stroll at a leisurely pace. There’s a lot to see and experience!
- Click here to download the zoo map (pdf).
Getting there
The zoo is located at 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. The best way to get to the zoo by public transportation is to take the L1, L2 or L4 bus. Check out the bus routes and schedules. You can get this bus in Dupont Circle or right across from the Woodley Park/Zoo Metro stop. The zoo is about a 15 to 20 uphill walk from the Metro, so it might be worth it to wait for the bus and reserve your energy for the zoo. Click here to learn more.
After you get there
Find out what daily programs are going on the day of your visit. Programs include, feeding demonstrations, animal training and keeper talks. For example, you can check out eagle feeding, elephant bath and sea lion training.
.......................................................................................................................
JOIN THE FUN
Find out about & share the best local entertainment hot-spots in your area!
Visit entertainment.gather.com to join the conversation!
.......................................................................................................................
rate
email
print
link to this page
