Address: 6500 Magazine Street
Pricing: $13-8, combo ticket packages available.
Phone: (504) 581-4629 or 1-800-774-7394
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Mondays.
How To Get There:
From I-10, take exit 232/Carrollton, heading south. Cross Claiborne and St. Charles Avenues, turn left on Leake Ave./River Road. Leake turns into Magazine Street at a sharp left turn. Zoo is immediately to your right.Turn at the lions, follow Entergy Boulevard to the Zoo.
From downtown New Orleans, take Magazine Street away from the French Quarter about six miles. Park will be on your right, zoo on your left.
Or, take the St. Charles Avenue streetcar to Audubon Park; take the free Zoo Shuttle to the zoo. Shuttle runs Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-4:30 pm; until 5:30 p.m. Saturday/Sunday.
Parking:Free on site
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Audubon Zoo: They all asked for you
Jul 8, 2009
Nestled near an elbow of the Mississippi River in the old Garden District, on the site of of an 18th century sugar plantation is the Aududon Zoo, which has delighted natives and outsiders for generations with such unusual animals as white tigers, white alligators and the world's only urban swamp.
Evidence of the zoo’s status in New Orleans culture: the funky Meters wrote a song about it. “I went on down to the Audubon Zoo, and they all axed for you.”
One of the nation’s top-ranked zoos, the 50-acre Audubon Zoo entertains visitors with an international assortment of animals and the beauty of live oaks and lush landscaping . The zoo is part of the Audubon Nature Institute, which also operates the Aquarium of the Americas, the Insectarium and the nearby urban oasis of Audubon Park.
More than 750,000 visitors each year come to see the 1,500 animals representing 360 species at the zoo, named for famed bird painter John James Audubon.
Daily shows include performing elephants, chatting with apes and feedings of otters and alligators. At the Louisiana Swamp exhibit, you’ll see rare white alligators and other animals among the grey beard-like Spanish moss hanging from cypress trees.
In the World of Primates, visitors can see gorillas, lemurs and endangered Sumatran orangutans, including one born in 2009. Encounter snakes and lizards at the Reptile Encounter, or see the huge Komodo dragons nearby. At the “Embraceable Zoo,” visitors can touch endangered domestic animals
The sea lions, evacuated to the Houston Zoo after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, are back in their exhibit, with its distinctive Greek architecture a favorite location for weddings.
Kids will adore the five-level treehouse on Monkey Hill, built in the 1930’s to show the children of the flat city what a hill looks like. For generations, New Orleans kids have been rolling down this hill. The legendary tallest point in New Orleans also has a rope bridge, bronze lion sculptures.
Kids can ride the swamp train or the Endangered Species Carousel, visit dolphins, space, or race cars in the high-tech Safari Simulator Ride which undulates in sync to screen images.
The zoo also kicks up its heels with music and food for the Louisiana Swamp Fest, Soul Fest, Earth Fest and Mother’s Day.
- by Diane Loupe, New Orleans Reporter for HelloMetro
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Diane LoupeA resident of Decatur, Ga., and a native of New Orleans, Diane has a M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri. She has worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Associated Press, the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Yale Medical School. A freelance writer and editor, her work has appeared in The Sunday Paper, Women's eNews, the Agnes Scott College alumni magazine, eSchool News, and PTO Today.
