Audubon Zoo
1 Walnut St, New Orleans, LA
New Orleans, LA
A century-old zoo tucked under the live oaks of Audubon Park, home to one of the country's finest Louisiana swamp habitats.
Audubon Zoo is one of the South's oldest and most respected zoos, set within the live oaks of Audubon Park in Uptown New Orleans. It is named, like the park, for the artist and naturalist John James Audubon, who painted many of his famous American birds in Louisiana, and it has grown over more than a century into a major center for animal care and conservation.
For all its global collection, the zoo is best loved for something distinctly local: its Louisiana Swamp exhibit, a re-creation of a Cajun bayou complete with alligators, a rustic camp, and the rare white alligators that have become a signature of the place. It is a rich, shaded, walkable escape a short streetcar ride from the busy heart of the city.
What Guests Love
- The award-winning Louisiana Swamp exhibit, a walk through a re-created Cajun bayou
- Rare white alligators, a striking symbol of the zoo
- The setting inside Audubon Park under enormous, moss-hung live oaks
- An easy Uptown outing reachable by the historic St. Charles streetcar
Worth Knowing
- New Orleans summers are hot and humid, so morning visits and water are wise
- The St. Charles streetcar is a scenic and popular way to reach Audubon Park
- The Louisiana Swamp exhibit is the signature stop, so leave time to explore it
- The zoo is part of a larger Audubon Nature Institute that also runs the downtown aquarium and insectarium
Details
New Orleans, LA
Learn about Audubon Zoo
A zoo grown from a great park
Audubon Park was laid out in the late 1800s on former plantation land along the river, and its zoo grew gradually from a small collection of animals into a full zoological park over the early decades of the 1900s. The land itself hosted the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in the 1880s, an event that helped shape the grounds visitors enjoy today.
The park and zoo carry the name of John James Audubon, whose detailed paintings of North American birds remain landmarks of natural-history art, and who worked in Louisiana in the early 1820s. The great live oaks that shade the grounds, some of them centuries old, give the zoo an atmosphere unlike almost any other in the country.
The Louisiana Swamp
The zoo's most celebrated exhibit is its Louisiana Swamp, a lush and detailed recreation of a Cajun bayou landscape. Boardwalks and paths lead past dark water, cypress trees, and a rustic trapper's camp, immersing visitors in the sights and sounds of the wetlands that define so much of the state.
The swamp is home to American alligators and, most famously, to rare white alligators, pale creatures whose unusual coloring makes them one of the zoo's best-known residents. The exhibit weaves together the natural swamp and the Cajun culture that grew up within it, teaching visitors about a landscape central to Louisiana's identity.
A global collection under the oaks
Beyond the swamp, Audubon Zoo houses animals from around the world across themed habitats, often including big cats, elephants, primates, reptiles, and a wide range of birds. Winding paths under the oak canopy connect the exhibits, giving the whole zoo a shaded, garden-like feel even on hot days.
As part of the Audubon Nature Institute, the zoo is deeply involved in conservation and animal care, and it partners with sister facilities across the city, including a riverfront aquarium and an insectarium. The institute's work reaches from local wetland protection to species-survival programs for endangered animals.
Audubon Park and Uptown
The zoo anchors the river end of Audubon Park, a beloved green space that stretches up to St. Charles Avenue and its historic streetcar line. Joggers, cyclists, and families fill the park's oak-lined paths and lagoons, and the whole area is one of the loveliest parts of Uptown New Orleans.
A visit pairs naturally with a ride on the St. Charles streetcar, one of the oldest continuously operating streetcar lines in the world, which rolls past the mansions and universities of Uptown between downtown and the park. Together the streetcar, the park, and the zoo make an unhurried, quintessentially New Orleans day.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near New Orleans
St. Charles Avenue Streetcar
At the park
A historic streetcar line rolling beneath oaks past Uptown mansions between downtown and Audubon Park.
Garden District
About 3 miles northeast
A neighborhood of grand nineteenth-century mansions, live oaks, and the historic Lafayette Cemetery.
French Quarter
About 5 miles northeast
The oldest neighborhood in New Orleans, with Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral, and centuries of Creole architecture.