Sequoia Park Zoo

Zoo in California

Sequoia Park Zoo was founded in 1907 and is the oldest zoo in California. The zoo is located on the land of the native tribe of the Wiyot people, who are a federally recognized tribe in California with over 600 members. The city of Eureka, where the zoo is located, is a city on Humboldt Bay, where the Wiyot tribe has lived for thousands of years. Since 1907, the zoo has housed an array of animals including large hoof stock, exotic birds, and small mammals. The zoo achieved accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in 1995. Since accreditation the zoo has prioritized conservation, including Species Survival Plan breeding programs and education programs. After 100 years of free entry, the zoo started charging admission in the summer of 2008. The zoo is partially supported by a foundation which operates a gift shop, café and zoo facility for rentals in addition to fundraising and community outreach.

The zoo exhibits brown headed spider monkeys and white handed gibbons. Joh leen the white handed gibbon died in 2019 of old age. Her partner Bono was moved to the Santa Barbara Zoo in February 2020 where he was partnered with a female widow. The zoo used to exhibit chimpanzees, one of which lived for fifty years at the zoo, dying at age 62. The zoo's "Barnyard" is an educational exhibit that teaches about where food comes from and interact with domesticated animals including: goats, sheep, chickens, red jungle fowl, rabbits, llamas, alpaca, donkeys, and a cat. Non interactive exhibits include mice, skunk, opossum, a beehive and spiders. Birds in the walk in free flight aviary include scarlet ibis, spotted whistling ducks, band tailed pigeons, green heron, Guira cuckoos, Nicobar pigeons, grey parrots, California quails, and Golden pheasants. Sequoia Park Zoo's educational building is named "Secrets of the Forest", which features the animals and organisms in the redwood forest. A number of insects, reptiles and amphibians species exhibited in the Secrets of the Forest building. More exotic animals include crested screamers, Patagonian maras (cavies), Orinoco geese, flamingos, bush dogs, red pandas, Indian muntjac, yaks, Chacoan peccaries, and rheas. The Sequoia Park Zoo has received top honors from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) 2016 award for Exhibit Design (within zoos operating with a budget under $5 million) for watershed heroes.

In 1982, Sequoia Park Zoo was home to a family of four black bears, two parents, and their two offspring. The bears lived in an old fashioned metal bar exhibit. The local community raised money to build a modern bear exhibit. During the construction of the new exhibit, the two bear cubs were sent to live at the Woodland Wildlife Park in Cave Junction, Oregon. The two adult bears were euthanized. Public reaction to the bears being euthanized was extremely negative, with protesters gathering and picketing in front of the zoo, and a petition calling for the zoo's closure gathered 5,000 signatures in the local community of 24,000. The incident received national media coverage. The zoo's director was subsequently replaced. In 2012, the zoo faced steep criticism because of its budget. The zoo's budget had doubled in size since 2002 while other departments within the City of Eureka had faced multimillion dollar budget cuts in the same period of time. Closure of the zoo was proposed by multiple local media sources and by prominent local politicians.