Beginning today, June 1, The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens changes to its summer hours of operation. Take advantage of cooler desert mornings and enjoy the wildlife and gardens from 7:00am to 1:30pm daily.
NEW: To ensure you have enough time for a wonderfully wild experience, last admission will be at 12:30pm daily.
Coinciding with the summer hours, The Living Desert’s nature preserve hiking trails and carousel will be closed starting June 1 and will reopen in the fall.
Summer Keeper Connection Schedule
Make the most of your visit with a keeper connection! Throughout the day, you can meet our dedicated animal care team members to hear about various animals and habitats around the zoo.
Be sure to check out our summer schedule, below, so you can plan your visit around your favorite connections. Keeper connections are located at the animal’s habitat, unless otherwise noted.
Keeper Connections
7:30am- Giraffe Savanna at the Giraffe Care and Conservation Center
8:30am- Rhino Savanna at Rhino Savanna Boardwalk
9:00am- African Painted Dog Connection
9:30am- African Grasslands at the Cheetah Habitat
10:00am- Desert Reptiles at Elders Grove in Village Watutu
10:30am- Wild Americas at Eagle Canyon
12:30pm- Animal Connection at Discovery Center
12:30pm- Naked Mole-Rat at Life Underground
Giraffe feeding is available daily from 8:00am – 12:00 noon; feedings are $6/member and $8/non-member.
Australian Adventures is open daily from 7:00am – 1:30pm.
Your Adventure Awaits with
The Living Desert Travel Club
Travel is back! The Living Desert Travel Club offers extraordinary travel opportunities around the world. On each trip, Allen Monroe, President/CEO of The Living Desert, is your host; bringing his years of knowledge and experience of travel, biology, and conservation to help you make the most of your experience.
Each trip is limited to a few individuals who value nature and luxury and are seeking an authentic experience. Upcoming excursions include Botswana, Tanzania, Greenland, and India.
Email [email protected]to learn more about our upcoming trips and to get on the list for exclusive informational sessions.
Last month, members of The Living Desert’s conservation and animal care teams attended the International African Painted Dog Conference, held at the Endangered Wolf Center in St Louis, Missouri. There, they joined other painted dog experts from around the world to discuss animal care, social behavior factors, training trial and errors, reproductive considerations, and best practices learned from decades of field experience. As a proud collaborator in African painted dog SAFE (Saving AnimalsFrom Extinction) and home to two recent, large, and healthy litters of African painted dog puppies, The Living Desert was an important presenter in the conversation.
Back at The Living Desert, Dr. Greg Rasmussen, Founder and Director of the Painted Dog Research Trust, presented to The Living Desert’s staff and volunteers about a new initiative addressing wildlife mortalities across roads in Zimbabwe. The first focus is on the Kazungula Road: the main passage through Zimbabwe that connects Victoria Falls and Zambia to Botswana. The high mortality rate along this road is one that The Living Desert also feels passionately about addressing and ending.
Dr. Rasmussen, The Living Desert’s conservation team, and the Columbus Zoo teamed up to create a targeted campaign for drivers who utilize this roadway. The Living Desert created a pamphlet to educate drivers on the wildlife that inhabits either side of this road and includes a simple survey if the driver is involved in a wildlife collision. Mary Thomas, Assistant Conservation Scientist at The Living Desert, presented the poster to the right, summarizing the work on Kazungula road at the St. Louis conference.
Once Zimbabwe police and officials and the Painted Dog Research Trust finalize their operating procedure, these pamphlets will be printed and dispersed to drivers.
Whether it be with our own pack or working with partners from across the globe, The Living Desert proudly supports research and initiatives that increase the survival and well-being of these highly social canids. Click here to learn more on our blog.
Volunteers are critical to The Living Desert’s mission and we are grateful for their generosity and dedication to conservation. Each volunteer is an ambassador for The Living Desert and, together, they contribute thousands of hours each year assisting the Zoo with a variety of roles and programs.
During the past few years, many volunteers achieved important milestones, and now that we are able to gather together, The Living Desert hosted these incredible volunteers at a special dinner and awards ceremony.
A big thank you to all of our volunteers; your time means the world to us, and truly makes a difference! And a special congratulations to…
2020 Volunteer of the Year: Marilyn Forrest
2021 Volunteer of the Year: Mike Harris
2021 Rookie of the Year: Bernie Hale
30 Year Award
Daphne DeMartino, Jan Demarbiex, Lee Miller, Nancy Scott, and Tobe Strother
25+ Year Award
Tani Beckley
25 Year Award
Barbara Spencer, Carol Rochlin, Maureen McCarty, and Tani Beckley
20 Year Award
Carolyn Skinner, Kerstin Pollack, Sandy Funk, and Wendy Anderson
Service Over 400 Hrs/Season
Georgina Polizzi, Nancy Scott, and Roger Low
Explore With Us This
Summer At ZooCamp!
There are still a few spots left for Summer ZooCamp! Register your budding naturalist for this exciting summer program today.
5-6 years old
Sensing the Desert – July 11-15
Hop, Slither, Climb – July 25-29
7-8 years old
Destination: Exploration! – July 11-15
Animal MythBusters – June 20-24; July 18-22
9-10 years old
Zoo Designers – June 13-17
Presenting the Wild – July 18-22
11-12 years old
Junior Zookeeper – June 20-24
Junior Field Conservationist – June 27- July 1
New to ZooCamp? This week-long program is the perfect place for your child to have some wild fun while exploring the natural world. ZooCampers will be enthralled by special activities, arts and crafts, behind-the-scenes experiences, and animal encounters that can only be found at The Living Desert.
This annual celebration was created to support pollinator health and spread the word on how everyone can help protect these critters, who are critical to our food supply. More than 80% of all flowering plant species need the help of animals to move pollen grains from plant to plant for fertilization.
While most people primarily think of bees as pollinators, there are many others including more than a hundred thousand types of of beetles, flies, ants, and wasps, as well as a thousand different species of vertebrates, including birds, bats, and small mammals.
Want to help?
Visit your local nursery and ask for “native plants.” These are preferred by local pollinators.
Switch your garden care to pollinator-friendly pest control in place of persistently harmful chemical treatments.
Support organically grown food products and small farms who leave critical habitat for pollinators.
And bee on the lookout for special activities in the park during Pollinator Week!
Updated Membership Policy
A friendly reminder to our valued members:
As of April 1st, a valid photo ID (matching the name on the membership) is required to use your membership benefits, including entry to The Living Desert. The named individual on the membership must be present to use the membership benefits.
We’re celebrating the first fennec fox birth at the Desert Carnivore Conservation Center, our on-site research, breeding, and conservation facility. This is also the first fennec fox birth at The Living Desert in eight years.
On April 8th, a male kit was born to Malika (mom) and Jelani (dad.) The kit is in excellent health and now, almost two months old, is weaning and eating meat while building a relationship with the animal care keepers, as well as his parents.
This exciting addition is not only important to The Living Desert– but to the species as a whole! This birth was the result of a Species Survival Plan (SSP®) recommendation to ensure genetic diversity and sustainability of fennec fox in the human care population, and is one of few SSP fennec fox births during the past few years.
Appel Gift Shop
June Featured Items
Is there anything sweeter than these Me O My Earth footie onesies and swaddles?
In fact there is– their impact! Each footie saves five plastic bottles and each swaddle saves twelve plastic bottles from the oceans and landfills. PLUS, with every purchase, a donation is made to feed baby rhinos.
Don’t miss our other rhino items including The Living Desert hats made from recycled plastic bottles!
Rhino, you won’t want to miss these incredible new items that contribute to a greener Earth. Stop by the Appel Gift Shop on your next visit to see these and other wildly fun products.
Visit your local nursery and ask for “native plants.” These are preferred by local pollinators.
Switch your garden care to pollinator-friendly pest control in place of persistently harmful chemical treatments.
Support organically grown food products and small farms who leave critical habitat for pollinators.
