Founded in , it is the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi River. The acre 26 ha zoo is owned by the regional Metro government. It currently holds more than 1, animals of more than species, including 19 endangered species and 9 threatened species.
The Oregon Zoo is Oregon's largest paid and arguably most popular visitor attraction, with more than 1. The Oregon Zoo was founded in , [ 5 ] making it the oldest North American zoo west of the Mississippi. When caring for the animals became too large a responsibility he sought to sell them to the city of Portland. Instead of buying the animals, the city offered to give Knight two circus cages and allowed him to place the caged bears on the grounds of City Park now called Washington Park.
Care and feeding of the bears, however, still fell to the Knight family and friends. It was not long before Knight addressed the city council again regarding the bears. Just five months later, he offered to donate the bears, along with their cages, to the city.
In , the zoo moved to the site of the present Portland Japanese Garden , still within Washington Park. At this time, the Portland Zoo Railway was constructed to connect the zoo to its former site in Washington Park and other attractions there. The zoo's move to the new, much larger site was made in stages, over more than a year, with the first animals being moved in spring and limited public access being opened in June , one day after the first section of the Zoo Railway opened.
Meanwhile, the old zoo remained in operation, but in May was restricted to pedestrian access only, closed to automobile access, for its last months of operation. The zoo at its current site opened on July 3, The elephants and big cats were not moved to the new zoo until November. The zoo rose it popularity locally in , when Rosy the Asian elephant was acquired. The zoo became world-famous in when the Asian elephant "Packy" was born. He was the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years and was as of the tallest Asian elephant in the United States at A total of 28 more calves have been born at the Oregon Zoo, including seven sired by Packy two of which, Shine and Rama, remained at the zoo , making it the most successful zoo elephant breeding program in the world.
