Brookfield Zoo
- Address
- 8401 31st Street
- Brookfield, IL 60513
- Phone
- 708-608-8000
- Area
- Neighborhood
- Price
- $11, $8 parking
- Web Page
- http://www.czs.org/czs/Brookfield/Zoo-Home
Type of Makom
- Museums Type
- Zoo
Semi-useful stuff
Mikomos rating
Description
The Brookfield Zoo is a zoo located in the Chicago suburb of Brookfield, Illinois. The zoo covers an area of 216 acres (874,124 m²) and houses around 450 species of animals.
Brookfield Zoo, also known as Chicago Zoological Park, opened on July 1, 1934 and quickly gained international recognition for using moats and ditches, instead of cages, to separate animals from visitors. The zoo was also the first in America to exhibit giant pandas. In 1960, Brookfield Zoo built the nation's first fully-indoor dolphin exhibit, and in the 1980s the zoo introduced Tropic World, the first fully-indoor rain forest simulation.
One of the zoo's most well-known current residents is Binti Jua, a female Western lowland gorilla. On August 16, 1996, a young boy fell into the gorilla exhibit of Tropic World, and Binti Jua carefully cradled the boy and brought him to her trainers. The incident received international attention, inspiring a lively debate as to whether Binti Jua's actions were the result of the training she received from her keepers (who had taught her to bring her own baby, Koola, to zoo curators for inspection) or some instinctive sense of animal altruism.
Another current resident of the zoo as of 2007 is Cookie, a Major Mitchell's Cockatoo who has been part of the zoo's collection since the opening in 1934, making him at least 72 years old. Cookie was already an adult when the zoo opened, so he may well be older than 72. [1]
Tips
- Zoo admission is free on Tuesdays and Thursdays through February 2009. Free zoo admission is good only during normal zoo hours. Zoo admission fees apply to Holiday Magic dates. [2]
Hours Subject to change. Always verify.
Indoor animal exhibits close one half hour before the zoo closes.
- Daily: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
