Wonders of Wildlife
518 W Sunshine St, Springfield, MO
Springfield, MO
An immersive walk through recreated habitats and towering aquariums, where you round a corner into a swamp, a mountain, or an ocean tunnel.
Wonders of Wildlife is one of the largest attractions of its kind in the country, an immense museum and aquarium in Springfield that plunges visitors into recreated habitats from around the world. You walk from a Missouri swamp to an African plain to a coral reef, passing live animals and lifelike dioramas at every turn, with towering aquariums holding sharks, rays, and thousands of fish, including a tunnel you can walk through as the sea passes overhead.
The complex grew out of the vision of Johnny Morris, the founder of Bass Pro Shops, whose original flagship store stands next door in Springfield. What began as a modest museum was rebuilt into a sprawling destination that blends entertainment with a serious message about wildlife, conservation, and the outdoors, all rooted in the Ozarks where the Bass Pro story began.
What Guests Love
- Walking through immersive dioramas that put you inside a swamp, a mountain, or an African plain
- Aquarium galleries with sharks, rays, and countless species, including a walk-through tunnel
- Live animals throughout, from fish to birds to reptiles
- The link to the original Bass Pro Shops flagship next door, a destination in itself
Worth Knowing
- It is enormous; give yourself several hours to see the museum and aquarium
- Tickets and hours vary, so check the current schedule before you go
- The adjoining Bass Pro Shops flagship is worth exploring on its own
- Weekends and holidays are busiest; arrive early for a calmer visit
Details
Springfield, MO
Learn about Wonders of Wildlife
An immersive journey through habitats
The museum is built as a journey. Rather than viewing displays in cases, visitors walk through full-scale recreated environments, a cypress swamp thick with the sounds of frogs and birds, a mountain scene with mounted big game, an African savanna, an Arctic landscape, and more. The dioramas are detailed and atmospheric, designed to make you feel dropped into each place.
Woven through the habitats are stories of hunting, fishing, and conservation, and galleries devoted to the history of the outdoors in America. The overall effect is part natural-history museum, part theme attraction, immersive enough that children and adults alike lose track of time wandering from one world to the next.
The aquarium adventure
The aquarium side of the complex is vast, holding a great many species across dozens of exhibits and enormous tanks. Visitors move through galleries of freshwater and saltwater life, coming face to face with sharks, rays, sea turtles, eels, and colorful reef fish, with touch pools and close encounters along the way.
A highlight is a walk-through tunnel where water surrounds you overhead and on both sides, so sharks and rays glide past just beyond the glass. The scale and variety of the aquarium make it a destination in its own right, and combined with the habitat galleries it adds up to one of the largest wildlife attractions anywhere.
Conservation and the outdoors
For all its spectacle, Wonders of Wildlife carries a conservation mission at its core. It is closely tied to the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and celebrates the role that hunters and anglers have historically played in funding wildlife conservation in America, through licenses, taxes, and stewardship.
Exhibits highlight conservation heroes, endangered species, and the ongoing work of protecting habitat, aiming to send visitors home more aware of the natural world and the effort it takes to keep it. It is a place that wants to entertain and to inspire care for wildlife at the same time.
Springfield and Bass Pro
Wonders of Wildlife sits beside the original Bass Pro Shops, the flagship outdoor store that Johnny Morris grew from a small counter in his father's Springfield liquor store into a national retail empire. That first store, itself a sprawling attraction full of aquariums, waterfalls, and displays, is the reason the museum rose here.
The whole complex anchors Springfield, the largest city in the Missouri Ozarks and a hub for exploring the region. Downtown, with its Route 66 Birthplace marker, lies a short drive north, and the surrounding Ozarks offer caves, lakes, and back roads that carry on the outdoor spirit the museum celebrates.
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 Springfield
Bass Pro Shops flagship
Adjacent
The original Bass Pro Shops store, a sprawling outdoor-gear destination full of aquariums, waterfalls, and displays.
Route 66 Birthplace
About 2 miles north
Park Central Square in downtown Springfield, where Route 66 was officially named in 1926.
Fantastic Caverns
About 10 miles north
A cave near Springfield toured entirely by riding tram, the only ride-through cave of its kind in the country.