Oregon Zoo
Oregon Zoo Portland OR is one of the oldest zoos in North America. It’s located in a beautiful natural setting amongst forested trails.
The Oregon Zoo is open to the public and offers a wide range of animal exhibits. The zoo’s animal welfare programs include species survival plans for endangered animals. Click for more.
Mountain Goats
Kids love to run around the Oregon Zoo, getting up close and personal with some of the wildest animals on earth. From racing a cheetah to standing like a flamingo, there’s so much to do for the whole family here, and many of the animal exhibits have behind-the-scenes tours and other educational activities.
The first amazing enclosure I saw was for the mountain goats which are found throughout the Cascade Mountains and Oregon’s Great Northwest region. Here, they have a massive naturalist enclosure with plenty of trees, rocks, and places to hide.
On a walk through the Great Northwest Exhibit, I saw black bears, river otters, and more native creatures from Oregon. I also saw a beautiful, pristine pond that’s home to the zoo’s bald eagles. They’ve been rescued from wildlife rehabilitation centers because of injuries they sustained in the wild that left them unable to fly. There’s a wonderful walk-through aviary with high tree branches for them to perch on and watch the pond full of salmon below.
Beavers
The zoo’s two beavers, Maple and Filbert, are kind of celebrities here. They’ve offered a behind-the-scenes tour of their cozy pond lodge, complete with a swimming area and gnawing logs. It looks like every beaver’s dream!
The Great Northwest exhibit features beavers, North American river otters, and Western-painted turtles. Cougar Crossing houses two cougars, while Condors of the Columbia is home to three California condors (Kaweah, Tyrion, and Unnamed #432).
There’s also an African Savanna with giraffes, lions, cheetahs, and hippos, along with the new Nature Exploration Center with an insect zoo. And, don’t forget to ride the 1-mile Zoo Train! The zoo collaborates on species recovery projects for imperiled animals including California condors, Oregon silverspot butterflies, and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies. Located in Portland’s west hills in Washington Park, the zoo attracts more than 1.6 million visitors each year. You can drive, bike, or take MAX light rail to get there. The zoo has fun events year-round. Here is another spot to visit.
Polar Bears
In recent years, zoos have shifted from being places of entertainment and spectacle to being a place where animal care can make a difference in the lives of the animals under their care. The polar bears at the Oregon Zoo are no exception to this.
In addition to their naturalistic habitat, the polar bears at the Oregon Zoo play in pools and on the ice, giving visitors a glimpse of what they would see in the wild. They also support polar bear research by participating in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.
Nora, the polar bear at the Oregon Zoo, wears a ‘burr on fur’ tracking device that will help scientists better understand how much energy polar bears require in the Arctic environment. She is one of about a dozen polar bears in the world with this type of less-invasive tracker. She and her half-sister, Amelia Gray, enjoy romping in a tub full of ice. Up next is Mt Tabor Park.
Driving directions from Allure Window Coverings to Oregon Zoo
Driving directions from Oregon Zoo to Mt Tabor Park
