Featured Animals

Visit the New "Star" of the Zoo - Watch as Nikita swims in his 140,000 gallon 65 degree pool and explores the 10,000 square feet of customized exhibit space perfectly designed for an awesome Arctic adventure at Polar Bear Passage, now open!

Find out how you can support Nikita by Feeding the Polar Bear, putting your name on the Polar Bear Wall of Fame or Joining the Nikita Club today!





Prickly Cute Rodents

A female and male Prehensile-tailed Porcupine are exploring their new exhibit in the Tropics.  Hanging by their tails and using it as their fifth "hand", they easily navigate through the branches. Enhancing their cuteness is their round, squishy-looking noses. Visit them today in the Tropics!



While visiting the porcupines, look overhead and you may see these white-cheeked gibbons swinging over the Asian small-clawed otters.

The Tropics is full of animal excitement.



Baby Blue Monkey 

The Kansas City Zoo received a very special pint-sized, dark-blue-haired bundle of joy on Wednesday, November 4, 2009. A first in the new Tropics exhibit, a new Blue Monkey baby was born to mom Mom, Abby, who came to K.C. from the Omaha Zoo, and Dad, Indigo, who hails from Texas.

Abby and Indigo just met this spring and have bonded quite quickly, finally becoming a family in Fall 2009. They are on exhibit daily during regular Zoo hours.




Meet Kalijon!
The Kansas City Zoo's red-haired orangutan baby, Kalijon (kay-lee-JON), was born April 24, 2009 and hand-raised by humans for five months until, under the watchful eye of Zoo Keepers, she was introduced to her 33 year-old surrogate mother Jill in late September. Read more about them in the Kansas City Star.

Kalijon and Jill love to show off for the crowd together!





Wonderous Water Fun for the Animals at the Zoo!

Two North American River Otters welcome you to the Zoo!
Just inside the new Front Entry Plaza, Jackie and Bill are are romping and rolling. The North American River Otters, named by a 2009 Jazzoo donor, are especially entertaining during their meal times.

In the morning they are fed 8 oz. of natural balanced meat that is loaded with vitamins. They also eat a smaller meal, 4-6 oz. of the natural balanced meat each evening, and they enjoy a treat of either 4 capelin or 1 herring daily.

Jackie has a more outgoing and rambunctious personality, while Bill is more laid back and is more partial to playing with enrichment items. See the river otters swimming and playing everyday at the River Otter Exhibit located at the Front Entrance.