Allegations of animal abuse prompted an investigation into the elephant rides offered at the Santa Ana Zoo, and now several months after video purporting to show that abuse came to light, the Zoo has announced they will no longer offer elephant rides. more ›

A new promo for the L.A. Zoo shows an adorable, bald-headed orangutan with the tagline: "Let's just be friends." Perhaps the 6-year-old orangutan Berani was looking for a friend when she escaped from the mesh netting that stands between the orangutan and the public at the zoo around noon today. more ›

L.A. zoogoers, prepare to shell out a couple more bucks to see the caged animals. New fees will increase admission prices from $14 to $16 for adults, $11 to $13 for seniors and $9 to $11 for young people, ages 2 to 12. Students, do not fret. When part of a group, you will continue to have free admission. more ›

Anti-Panda sentiment? A loathing of pencils and rulers bedecked with animals? Triggered by T-Shirts targeted at tourists? The motive for a suspect to set a gift shop at the San Diego Zoo ablaze has yet to be determined, but police say the cause was indeed arson. more ›

The LA Zoo is debuting two baby koala bears, born March 1st and now making their way into the world. The twins, one male and one female, are called Peninsular pronghorns. According to a statement on the zoo's website, baby koalas are just 3/4 of an inch long when they're born, then climb into their mother's pouches for about six months before venturing out into the world. more ›

The largest zoo community in the world recently molted their old branding for a wild new look. The San Diego Zoo -- home to over 4,000 rare and endangered animals representing more than 800 species and subspecies, and a prominent botanical collection with more than 700,000 exotic plants (think Dr. Seuss -- Theodor Geisel is said to have spent many hours in the cactus garden sketching and drawing) -- also operates the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park (re-named Safari Park) and the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. more ›

The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association holds an evening of Music in the Zoo, featuring local bands tonight at 6 pm. On the bill are Happy Hollows, Voxhaul Broadcast, Useless Keys, The Lonely Wild, Walking Sleep and Slang Chickens, performing throughout the zoo. Bring a picnic, but there’ll be food and beverages available for sale, too. The event is from 6 to 9 pm, but the animals have to go night night at 8. Tickets are $16.50/$10.50 for adults/children, but there’s a discount for members of the zoo. more ›

Reggie the alligator made headlines in 2007 when the former pet was retrieved from his makeshift home in Harbor City's Machado Lake and taken to live at the LA Zoo. more ›

Although you can see them wandering around locally in the Angeles National Forest, it's not often you would come upon a baby bighorn sheep. Luckily, the L.A. Zoo is a partner in a program ensuring their endangered population's (.pdf) survival and today they announced the birth of a lamb. more ›

"There just aren't unlimited options here," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the L.A. City Council when he visited for a two-hour Q&A session. "We can't continue to say no to everything. We can't say no to layoffs, no to furloughs, no to department eliminations. . . . The fact is we can't sustain this business model." more ›

With a $98-million deficit still on the books for this fiscal year--a $408 million shortfall is predicted next year--Los Angeles city officials are likely going to be looking at more ways to balance the budget. In the past, we've all experienced these cuts with higher parking meter rates, more expensive parking tickets and the continuing loss of city services as 2,400 employees retire early with positions not being replaced, to name a few. more ›

The Los Angeles Zoo recently received a little surprise when a female Kikuyu colobus monkey on contraceptives gave birth on November 27th. The sex of hasn't been identified yet, but it weighed about a pound and measured around eight inches long. "Because breeding is closely monitored to comply with the Species Survival Program (SSP) and the L.A. Zoo*s colobus monkeys are genetically well represented in North American zoos, the mother was placed on implant contraceptives in October 2008," explained the Zoo's public information officer, Jason Jacobs, in a news release. "They were meant to be effective for a period of two years, which is why this adorable baby was such a surprise for the Zoo!" more ›

It’s classic rock night at the Zoo tonight from 6-9 pm. The "Music in the Zoo" program features cover bands: The Eagles Have Landed (Eagles music), The Rubber Souls (Beatles music), Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan music), Cubensis (Grateful Dead music), The Heist (The Who, The Doors, and Led Zeppelin music) and Up Stream (popular Reggae music). Food and beverage offerings and 10 interactive animal education and conservation can be found throughout the Zoo. Picnics are also permitted. Tickets are $16.50 for adults and $10.50 for children ages 6 to 15. Children 5 and under are free. The animals will be up and out until 8 pm. more ›

Okay, so these picks aren't related to Bastille Day...but if you must celebrate the storming of the Bastille, then we suggest grabbing a baguette and some fromage, and heading over to one of these events tonight: more ›

When former Mayor James Hahn visited China in 2002, hoping to get panda exhibit for the LA Zoo, he came back with the promise of three golden monkeys for 10 years. Now that is not even happening, according to the Daily News. "We did pursue it with the Chinese government, but our understanding is they were no longer responding to our inquiries," Zoo Commission President Shelby Kaplan Sloan said. "We are working to bring in other simians and think we can come up with something the public will respond to and be just as attractive." More than $7.4 million was spent on the exhibit, which will now be used for other Asian primates, birds and miniature deer. more ›

Yesterday to gear up for the annual Beastly Ball, the LA Zoo hosted a special event where the California bears were treated to special preparations by chefs from top L.A. restaurants. Chefs included Jason Park, chef, Yamashiro Restaurant; Erik Ritter, chef, Malo; Calogero Drago, chef/owner, Celestino Ristorante; Jack Rogers, chef, Spitfire Saloon; Patrick Luechai, chef, Typhoon; Akira Hirose, owner/chef, Maison Akira; Gerardo Ochoa, chef, El Cholo; Francoise Koster, La Poubelle, and Gloria Pink, Beverly Pink Wolfe, Tom West, of Pink's Famous Hot Dogs. more ›

Welcome a new baby saki monkey to the Santa Ana Zoo! Born on May 18th, the child's sex is still unknown, but zoo officials say it's healthy and full of energy. It is the fourth born to its parents Dakota and Aaliyah. The full family can be seen at the zoo's Tropical Rainforest multi-species exhibit. more ›

It was in 1915 when fourteen sculptures of lions and elephants graced the now-gone Selig Zoo in Lincoln Park. Movie producer William Selig had commissioned Carlo Romanelli, a sixth-generation sculptor from Florence, Italy, to create the life-sized concrete statutes that adorned the Mission Revival style entrance gates at the zoo. more ›

One of the six endangered California Condors released at Pinnacles National Monument in 2003 has died at the Los Angeles Zoo. After the bird was found shot, it was brought to Los Angeles to be treated, but died Monday due to complications from lead poisoning after the bird ingested lead ammunition from hunters (oddly enough, the gunshots and ingestion were not related). On the brighter side of things. Two condors (313 and 303 if you really want to be specific) have mated and are watching over their egg right now just outside the National Monument on a privately owned ranch. This is the first condor nest near the monument in 70s years, according to the National Park Service. more ›

Who knew distant relatives to the boar could be so cute? Last week Friday, three Chacoan peccaries were born at the zoo and are currently on exhibit. more ›

This past weekend at an Earth Day cleanup in the Valley, a few teenage boys came upon a rattlesnake while picking up trash. Unfortunately, the overzealous teens killed it, something you're not supposed to do (as the San Diego Zoo says, "these beautiful animals are important to the environment because they control rodent populations.") more ›

Two baby golden lion tamarin monkeys were born last month at the Santa Ana Zoo at Prentice Park. Interestingly enough, this is the second time in 2009 that twins of this species have been born at the zoo--twins were also welcomed in January. more ›

By 9:30 a.m., one half hour before opening time Saturday morning, a few rows of the LA Zoo's parking lot were already filled with cars. As families filled the ticket lines, snow donated by Union Ice began to fall onto four exhibits in the back of the park where the bears, tigers, leopards and takins live. more ›

The Santa Ana Zoo has a bunch of new animals including the aptly named bald eagle, Spirit, who "omes to Santa Ana from a rehabilitation facility in Alaska due to a wing injury that precluded her from being released back into the wild," according to a zoo statement. Last month, the zoo's monkey population increased to 52 when twin red-handed tamarin monkeys were born. The two will be available this weekend at the Zoo’s 57th Birthday Party event. Also: the zoo is preparing for the arrival of more animals including a pair of pretty pink roseate spoonbills for the walk-through bird aviary, a sloth, and a giant Amazonian centipede, supposedly one of the largest centipedes in the world. more ›

The LA Zoo is now home to two groups, or mobs, of Meerkats, who are native to southern Africa. Two reside in the cute-as-ever Winnick Family Children’s Zoo and four just arrived from the North Carolina Zoo making their home at the meerkat habitat. more ›

Last week, we introduced you to a group new baby animals at the LA Zoo. There actually was one more, but no photo was available... until now. In the zoo's own words, meet the newborn black duiker (along with photos shown last week): more ›

In an 11 to 4 vote, the LA City Council voted to continue construction on the the six-acre, $42-million Pachyderm Forest that has been a hot button issue between animal activists and well, other animal activists, since late October. The elephant issue dominated the meeting for more than two hours as both sides explained with extreme passion and reason why the council should vote their way. EARLIER: What celebrities including, Cher and Robert Culp, said at the meeting. more ›

The battle over Billy's future home at the LA Zoo is contentious today at city council. A group of celebrities were the first to speak today and they were all against the continuation of the zoo's Pachyderm Forest. They rather "free billy" and see him go to a more open space, which they believe is better to Billy's livelihood. Here are excerpts from what each celebrity said: more ›

The LA City Council is fielding general public comment right now, but behind them in a packed council chambers is are animal lovers, activists and experts waiting to speak on whether the six acre pachyderm forest exhibit for LA Zoo's lone elephant, Billy, should stay continue construction or continue to be on hold. more ›

It's all on now! The zoo and others, who want to keep Billy from being ousted to some elephant sanctuary or elsewhere, just enlisted Slash from Guns n Roses for this video (and most recently got Jack Hanna on their side, too). And to make it a Happy Gilmore moment, the "Free Billy" folks have Bob Barker. Now, tap gloves.. go! more ›