Chicago Lincoln Park Zoo: A World of Wildlife Just Steps from Downtown

The last thing you might expect to find amidst Chicago’s skyscrapers is a lion or rhino. And yet, just steps from downtown, more than 1,100 animals from around the world make their home at the Chicago Lincoln Park Zoo.

Named for the neighborhood of Lincoln Park, the zoo sits on 49 acres of beautiful Chicago lakefront. Originally founded in 1868 with the donation of two swans from New York’s Central Park, the zoo’s collection has expanded over the years to include 200 rare and endangered species both great and small. 

Open 365 days a year, it remains one of the country’s only free zoos and welcomes about 3 million visitors annually.

Sightseers of all ages will find lots to explore at Lincoln Park Zoo. The lovely architecture of the 1927 Helen Brach Primate House is a wonder from the outside, but inside marmosets, howler monkeys and gibbons are a wondrous sight. The 1912 Kovler Lion House is considered a historical landmark, but it’s also home to pumas, leopards, lions and tigers.

Though no match in size to the big cats, the animals at the Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House are just as interesting. Watch out for pythons, poison dart frogs, bats and crocodiles, which share this habitat with hedgehogs, otters and sloths. 

The McCormick Bird House’s free-flight aviary, shelters 20 bird species, including the endangered yellow-throated laughing thrush. The Regenstein Center for African Apes and African Journey brings visitors face to face with rare and endangered animals such as gorillas, chimpanzees, black rhinos and pygmy hippos.  

If all of this isn’t enough for kids, then there’s always the zoo’s newest attraction — the Pritzker Family Children’s Zoo, featuring North American wildlife. Kids and adults can explore outdoor habitats housing black bears, red wolves and beavers, and can learn about local wildlife through interactive and educational activities developed by teachers and child-development specialists.

Education may be entertaining at the zoo, but it is just one part of the wide conservation efforts undertaken there. Employees work in cooperation with zoos and nations around the world to advance science research and wildlife preservation.

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