Mesker Park Zoo

The Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden is a zoo that opened in 1928 in Evansville, Indiana, United States. It is located in Mesker Park on Evansville's northwest side and is run by the City of Evansville.

The Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

History

The zoo was founded in 1928 by Gilmore M. Haynie and other business leaders. Karl Kae Knecht, a local cartoonist for the ''Evansville Courier & Press'', helped popularize the idea of a zoo. It initially opened with two lion cubs, some antelope, and an elephant.

In 1933, a 1:3 scale replica of the ''Santa Maria'' was opened as a monkey exhibit. The "Monkey Ship" was originally home to rhesus macaques, and eventually housed capuchin monkeys, lemurs, and juvenile American alligators in the pool surrounding the ship. The exhibit was closed in 1991 as the animals were moved to naturalistic habitats, and the ship and pool were eventually restored as a bumper boat attraction for children.

In 2008 the zoo finished a major expansion including the $15 million tropical rainforest exhibit and a new entry complex. The new exhibit was credited with drawing more than 38,000 visitors in its first month. One of two existing lakes in the zoo was filled in to make the exhibit, which added more than 150 animals to the zoo.

In 2017, the zoo added Engelbrecht Carousel, with an adjacent bird aviary added in 2018. This is the zoo's second carousel; its historic original carousel was moved to Carowinds in 1979. The total cost for this project is $3 million.

The Penguins of Patagonia exhibit, featuring over a dozen Humboldt Penguins native to parts of Chilé and Peru, opened to visitors in late October 2021. Additionally, the zoo plans to revamp the African Rift area when funding becomes available.

Exhibits

Mesker Park was one of the first zoos in the United States to use a moat system to display animals in naturalistic exhibits resembling the animals' native habitat. Over the years, the zoo has continued to make improvements in habitat design.

Amazonia

''Amazonia'' is a Central/South American focused rainforest exhibit that opened in 2008. While there are large structures within the exhibit designed to look like vegetation, many of the plants seen within are in fact living plants, maintained by the zoo's grounds crew. As such, the exhibit grows and changes in time as plants are added and occasionally trimmed so as to not completely block out the sunlight. The exhibit added more than 150 animals to the zoo and is currently highlighted by jaguars, Baird's tapir, capybara, keel-billed toucan, bats, black howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, prehensile-tailed porcupines, Arrau turtles, Cuvier's dwarf caiman, and several fish species from the Amazonian River system. The open spaces of the exhibit also function as a free-flight bird aviary, and house over ten species of birds.

North America

North America includes a large Mexican gray wolf enclosure and several birds of prey.

Discovery Center

The Discovery Center is an indoor/outdoor exhibit that focuses on conservation, education, and endangered species. It also houses the zoo's education department and many of the animal used in educational programs, though some of these might not always be visible to the public. This exhibit contains Francois' langur, red pandas, clouded leopard, hyacinth macaw, and several smaller reptile enclosures. Of particular note is the hellbender salamander exhibit, where the zoo displays juvenile eastern hellbenders as part of a statewide conservation program in association with Purdue University and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

Lemur Forest

Lemur Forest was opened in 1999 to house the zoo's lemurs. It currently holds three species: ring-tailed lemurs, red ruffed lemurs and Coquerel's sifaka.

African Rift

The African Rift exhibit includes reticulated giraffes, Grant's zebras, sitatunga, and white storks in a large open areas. In July 2018, the zoo welcomed a new 10-month-old giraffe named Clementine.

Kley Building

The Kley Building was built in the 1950s and houses several exhibits. The upper floor contains a nocturnal exhibit, a reptile exhibit hall featuring rhinoceros iguana and Komodo dragon, and an exhibit hall used for traveling exhibits or special events. The lower floor contains the indoor portion of the zoo's Indian rhinoceros exhibit. This floor was once home to Bunny, an asian elephant and the world's oldest living hippopotamus in captivity, Donna, who was euthanized at the age of 60 in 2012, because of her failing health.

Asia & Australia

This area reproduces habitats for Asian and Australian animals. It includes the outdoor exhibits for the zoo's Indian rhinoceros, as well as Bactrian camels, sarus cranes, barasingha, Siberian tiger, Malayan sun bear, Sichuan takin, laughing kookaburra, and emus.

Children's Enchanted Forest

This exhibit is geared towards children and contains several playground elements and a seasonal petting zoo in addition to traditional zoo exhibits. It is home to North American river otters, eastern black-and-white colobus, binturong, De Brazza's monkeys, crested porcupine, and scarlet macaws. Nearby are the Engelbrecht Carousel a budgerigar aviary, a Müller's gibbon exhibit and seasonal exhibits for tortoises.

Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria is home to wild water birds and turtles. Visitors can walk all the way around this lake, or rent paddle boats to go out on the lake. This is the largest lake in the zoo, and is the feature around which the zoo was built.

African Panorama

African Panorama is a set of enclosures built around a large open African savanna exhibit, with overlooks for visitors. The main exhibit features Abyssinian ground hornbills, ostriches, greater kudu and springbok. Smaller exhibits feature a giant anteater, Patagonian mara, blue duiker and Stanley crane