Zoo Atlanta is empowered to exhibit, interpret, study, and care for wildlife in superior environments, to conserve biodiversity throughout the world,  to educate, enlighten and entertain the public and to contribute to the cultural life of the community. It’s home to nearly 1000 animals. They live among the trees, in the hills, alongside streams and watering holes, in naturalistic habitats that look and feel like their homes in the wild. This encourages the animals to “act naturally”.

Atlanta’s oldest cultural attraction began the day a circus came to town – and never left. In March 1889, a traveling show bound for Marietta, Ga., stalled just south of its destination when cash flow problems forced its owner into bankruptcy. Left to languish in their cages by defecting circus employees, the animals began to draw crowds of curious onlookers. Two weeks later, businessman George Valentine Gress purchased the collection at public auction and donated the animals en masse to the city of Atlanta. City leaders relocated them to picturesque Grant Park, a favorite local picnic and promenade destination. Featuring a jaguar, a hyena, a black bear, a raccoon, an elk, a gazelle, a Mexican hog, lionesses, pumas, camels and snakes, Atlanta’s first zoological venue opened to the public that April.