Sedgwick County Zoo

The Sedgwick County Zoo is an AZA-accredited wildlife park and major attraction in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Founded in 1971, with the help of the Sedgwick County Zoological Society, the zoo has quickly become recognized both nationally and internationally for its support of conservation programs and successful breeding of rare and endangered species. Housing over 3,000 animals of nearly 400 species, it is the 13th largest zoo in the United States in both number of species and total animals, and 7th largest in total area. The zoo has slowly increased its visitors and now ranks as the number one outdoor tourist attraction in the state.

Sedgwick County Zoo opened to the public on August 25, 1971 as the result of a public-private partnership between Sedgwick County and the Sedgwick County Zoological Society. The zoo replaced a small, outdated exhibit in Central Riverside Park dating to the turn of the 20th Century. The zoological society formed in 1963 and by 1966 voters approved $3.65 million in bonds to purchase the land that would become Sedgwick County Zoo and Sedgwick County Park. Richard Blakey, director of the Brookfield Zoo, was hired as the zoo's first director.

The zoo originally opened with just two buildings, the American and Asian farms, although other exhibits opened over the next decade. The African Veldt exhibit opened in 1973, the Herpetarium (now Amphibians & Reptiles) opened in 1974, the Jungle (now Tropics) opened in 1977, the Australian Outback and South American Pampas (now Australia/South America) opened in 1980, and the Apes & Man building (now KOCH Orangutan and Chimpanzee Habitat) opened in 1982.

Additional major exhibit openings include the North American Prairie (now North America) in 1993, Pride of the Plains in 2000, Downing Gorilla Forest in 2004, Cessna Penguin Cove in 2007, Slawson Family Tiger Trek in 2009 (expanded to Slawson Family Asian Big Cat Trek in 2021), and Reed Family Elephants of the Zambezi River Valley in 2016. Major non-exhibit updates include the opening of Oliver Animal Hospital in 2000 and the 15,000 square foot Cargill Learning Center in 2006. The zoo currently sits on 247 acres, of which 115 are developed.

Opening in 2004, the Downing Gorilla Forest starts out in a recreation of a small Congo village with exhibits for colobus monkeys and white pelicans. Across a bridge is an exhibit for saddle-billed storks, as well as one for black crowned cranes and okapis. The main attraction is a large gorilla exhibit. They can be viewed in their indoor home, outside through large viewing windows or across a moat.

Opened May 29, 2000, A path winds around exhibits of lions, red river hogs, and two exhibits of meerkats. Each exhibit has several views from all sides. The whole area has a kopje theme with giant boulders. At the end is an exhibit for African painted dogs.

Opened in 2007, Penguin Cove is the zoo's first marine exhibit, and home to a colony of Humboldt penguins, Inca terns, and grey gulls. The $1.5 million exhibit features a 42,000-US-gallon (159,000 L) pool with rocky areas and coves on each side.

This exhibit as of August 2025 features two generic giraffes, eleven African bush elephants, two Grévy's zebras, one black rhinoceros, caracals, Marabou storks, and blue cranes. The zoo kept a pair of Nile hippopotamuses named Pudgie and Sweetie Pie for over 50 years, starting shortly after the inception of the zoo, until their deaths in May 2023 and August 2025 respectively.