The zoo and park are named in honor of artist and naturalist John James Audubon who lived in New Orleans starting in 1821.

[7] The small prison-like cages made of bricks and steel bars constructed by the WPA were no longer considered appropriate environments for many of the animals displayed within them.

More improvements and expansions continued into the 21st century, making the Audubon Zoo popular not only with locals but also drawing substantial numbers of tourists visiting from other states and from abroad.

In 1987, an alligator nest was discovered with 18 freshly hatched babies with white hides—an extraordinary natural mutation called leucism, not to be confused with albinism.

During the hurricane, zoo staff found refuge in the reptile house, which was designed to withstand major weather events.

[16] For a period around 2011 the Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans (LFNO) used three rooms at the zoo as classrooms on a temporary basis.

Also living in this area are Amur leopards, sun bears, Asian small-clawed otters, North Sulawesi babirusa, Malayan tigers and barasingha.

[20] World of Primates houses a variety of primates like a troop of western lowland gorillas, mandrills, black-and-white colobus monkeys, Wolf's guenons, black howler monkeys, golden lion tamarin, black-and-white ruffed lemurs, siamang and the only Angolan talapoins in North America.

[23] A new nocturnal house named "Criaturas de la Noche" was opened in 2019 featuring Seba's short-tailed bats, Nancy Ma's night monkeys, ringtails, common vampire bats, Anthony's poison arrow frogs, red-eyed tree frogs, Central American giant cave cockroaches and Costa Rican zebra tarantulas.

This free-flight aviary features more than 30 species of birds from around the world such as the blue-crowned laughingthrushes, Indian peafowl, Nicobar pigeons, scarlet ibises and Taveta golden weavers.

Many other animals are also housed here, including the panther chameleon, Gila monster, false gharial, green anaconda, gaboon viper and quite a few other reptiles and amphibians.

Two females named Ayah and Jolee arrived at the zoo in 2017 from the Marine Mammal Care Center Los Angeles.

Both were found stranded and were rescued; Jolee was suffering from cataracts and flipper abrasions and Ayah had a small-caliber bullet in her brain, resulting in the loss of her left eye.