The Audobon Zoo

THE AUDUBON ZOO, 1993 The Audubon Zoo is located in New Orleans, Louisiana and is a 501(3)(c) non-profit organization. In 1914 the Audubon Commission was created to maintain and develop Audubon Park. In 1919 the Audubon Institute was established as the parent agency. Over the next several decades many changes would occur including the addition of a monkey cage, mammal cage and a deer paddock. Louisiana school children purchased the first elephant in 1924 and shortly thereafter an aquarium and sea lion pool was added. Through the Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s the zoo was barely able to keep its doors openand in the 1950s it was labeled an animal “ghetto” by the media. In 1970 the U.S. Humane Society insisted the zoo be brought to industry standards. In the early 1970s the Commission worked closely with Mr. Ron Forman, City Hall Liaison for Audubon Park, to pass a special referendum that generated close to $2 million in bonds. These funds were the beginning of the Zoo’s restoration project that enabled it to expand from 19 acres to over 55 acres. Volunteers at the Zoo formally became known as Friends of the Zoo. By the 1980s the Zoohad received accreditation from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and was noted as one of the nation’s top-rated zoological parks. And in 1989, Friends of the Zoo became known as Audubon Nature Institute where it remains today. Today, the zoo combines research laboratories with acres of pristine natural habitat where rare and endangered animals roam and reproduce (ANI, 2009). The Audubon Nature Institute’s mission to servesone purpose: Celebrating the Wonders of Nature. Its facilities carry on this mission through the Audubon Park, Audubon Zoo, Woldenberg Riverfront Park, Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center, Entergy IMAX Theatre, Audubon Louisiana Nature Center, Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species, Audubon Wilderness Park, Audubon Insectarium and