San Diego Zoo Vs LA Zoo Comparison in California

San Diego Zoo opened way back in 1916, taking abandoned exotic animal exhibitions from the previous year’s Panama-California Exposition as its starting point. Over a century later, it's the most-visited zoo in the US, welcoming over four million visitors annually to its 100-acre corner of Balboa Park, just north of downtown San Diego. As well as around 650 species and somewhere in the region of 12,000 animals, San Diego Zoo is also a designated botanic garden with well over half a million exotic plants, which really help bring the jungle/rainforest vibe to the various zones. Quirky fact time! Did you know that San Diego Zoo is also where the first ever YouTube video upload was filmed. No? Well now you do. Entitled ‘Me at the zoo’, this 19-second piece of internet history is commemorated by a marker near the elephant enclosure.

LA Zoo is an even bigger beast, covering some 133 acres of Griffith Park east of the Hollywood Hills, its permanent location since 1966. Also a designated botanical garden boasting everything from Mexican fan palms to Hong Kong orchid trees, the zoo is home to more than 2,100 mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles covering around 270 species, of which about a quarter are considered endangered, including regal snow leopards, brightly colored phantasmal poison frogs, and the famous California condor. Quirky fact time! In 2016, a California-based prankster left flyers containing comical fake facts all over the zoo. Highlights included the claim that southern crested screamers can see ghosts (‘that’s why they scream’) and that first US President George Washington was in fact ‘9 koalas stacked on top of each other’.

There are a number of ways to explore San Diego Zoo: on foot, by bus (which provides a guided tour of the entire zoo in around 35 minutes), on the aptly-named hop-on hop-off Kangaroo Bus, via miniature train or – best of all – aboard the Skyfari Aerial Tram, which soars over the treetops, affording epic views of the zoo and surrounding Balboa Park, with its many cool museum buildings, formal gardens and eye-popping pavilions. There are also loads of distinct zones to explore around the zoo. Get your giant lizard fix in the Komodo Kingdom, wander the Lost Forest to spot hippos, tigers, gorillas and more, and hit up the Northern Frontier for cute snow foxes and fearsome polar bears. You can also book special experiences like the early morning cheetah safari and exclusive VIP guided tours of the zoo.

LA Zoo has its own share of must-see attractions, too. You’ll want to check out the vast Elephants of Asia enclosure where you can watch these majestic creatures bathing beneath the waterfall, and the Rainforest of the Americas, where you can get up close (but not too close!) to tropical critters including jaguars, howler monkeys, red-bellied piranhas and Goliath bird-eating spiders. Like San Diego, LA Zoo runs an excellent program of special experiences, like wining and dining with spectacular nighttime views of the zoo and its inhabitants. Don’t miss the free bird shows, seal demonstrations and messy giraffe feedings, and check daily schedules for free talks, feedings and keeper shows at both zoos.