The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, formerly the Living Desert Museum, is a non-profit zoo and desert botanical garden in Palm Desert, in the Colorado Desert, in California in the United States. It is set on 1,200 acres of land, with 80 developed as zoo and gardens, and is home to over 500 animals representing over 150 species and receives over 500,000 visitors annually.
The gardens of the Low Desert – Colorado Desert were established in 1970 as a 360-acre (150ha) wilderness preserve by several trustees of the Palm Springs Desert Museum. By 1974, the gardens housed a kit fox, tortoises, lizards, and two bighorn sheep. In 1974–75 the Mojave Garden was built, a replica of the High Desert – Mojave Desert. Additional facilities have gradually been constructed, including greenhouses, model trains, and designed landscape gardens. New animal introductions include rhim gazelles (1981); mountain lions, bobcats and badgers (1993); meerkats; cheetahs and warthogs (1995); striped hyenas (1998); giraffes and ostriches (2002). The 'Amphibians on the Edge' exhibit shows a variety of different species of frogs, toads, and salamanders (2007). The Endangered Species Carousel was constructed in fall 2009, and the Peninsular Pronghorn Exhibit was constructed in fall 2010. The Monarch of the Desert exhibit on the North America Trail holds jaguars. In 2020, Australian Adventures opened as a habitat for Bennett's Wallaby, Yellow-footed rock wallaby, kookaburra and more. The Living Desert opened the Rhino Savanna in Fall 2021.[5] The Living Desert is one of six accredited (AZA) private zoos in the United States and operates as a non-profit.
In 2023, the Animal Care Department voted to unionize.[6]
Animal habitats
The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is divided by continent into three sections.[7]
East African Garden – large collection of native East African plants, shrubs and trees; one of the larger collections of African plants in North America.
Mallow Garden – small collection of desert mallows.
McDonald Butterfly and Wildflower Garden – nectar (adults) and 'grazing' (larvae) plants that attract migrating butterflies, such as milkweeds (genus Asclepias) and butterfly-bush (Buddleja).
Mexican Columnar Cactus Garden – tall, columnar and sculptural cactus specimens, such as Mexican fencepost (Lophocereus marginatus).
Ocotillo Garden – nine of twelve known ocotillo species.
Yucca Garden – Yucca and Joshua tree species in a replicated native foliage garden.
Gallery
Other attractions
The zoo has a large LGB model railroad layout with 3,115 feet (949m) of track. The world's longest wooden G-scale model trestle, at 201.8ft (61.5m), lets trains travel between the upper and lower portions of the wash in which it was built – an almost 2-foot (0.61m) drop. The trains started in 1998 as part of the annual WildLights holiday program and ran only in the evenings. In 2000 the trains started running throughout the year and during the day and there are 18 separate train lines that can run simultaneously. The trains and track are managed by an all-volunteer team.[9][10]
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