[9] The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) was founded as a registered charity in 1909 by an Edinburgh lawyer, Thomas Hailing Gillespie.

[10] Gillespie's vision of what a zoological park should be was modelled after the 'open design' of Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg, a zoo which promoted a more spacious and natural environment for the animals, and stood in stark contrast to the steel cages typical of the menageries built during the Victorian era.

[11] The design and layout were largely the product of Patrick Geddes and his son-in-law Frank Mears but Sir Robert Lorimer was involved in some of the more architectural elements including the remodelling of Corstorphine House at its centre.

The RZSS provides multiple ways for the public to help support its mission, including a membership club, animal adoption, donations, legacies and volunteering.

The main building features viewing galleries, a lecture theatre and interactive games and displays designed to teach visitors about the chimpanzee's lifestyle and social structure.

The zoo owns a bachelor herd of five male Nubian giraffes named Ronnie, Arrow, Gerald, Fennessy and Gilbert.

[26] Opened in 2017, "Wee Beasties" is an indoor exhibit displaying some the zoo's smaller species, including blue poison dart frogs, axolotl, pancake tortoises, partula snails, Chilean rose tarantulas, and a coral reef tank containing tropical fish such as percula clownfish, Lamarck's angelfish and yellow tangs.

Other notable mammal species in the zoo's collection include meerkats, red pandas, red river hogs, Kirk's dik-diks, L'Hoest's monkeys, Chinese gorals, Bagot goats, ring-tailed lemurs, red-bellied lemurs, buff-cheeked gibbons, pygmy hippopotamus, Asian small-clawed otters, crowned lemurs, banteng, greater one-horned rhinoceros, southern pudu, Azara's agoutis, sun bears, binturongs, Scottish wildcats, geladas, Visayan warty pigs, Visayan spotted deer, Przewalski's horses, Asiatic lions, Sumatran tigers, giant anteaters, Grévy's zebras, nyala and capybaras.

Other notable bird species in the zoo's collection include Chilean flamingos, waldrapp ibis, black storks, great white pelicans, East African crowned cranes, vulturine guineafowl, southern cassowaries, red-fronted macaws and Egyptian vultures.

[33] Living Links consists of a field station and research centre that was developed in a partnership with the University of St Andrews.

The National Trust for Scotland which own the island invested £500,000 employing exterminators from New Zealand to cull the estimated 10,000 brown rats.

in co-operation with RZSS, approximately 150 Canna mice were captured and homed at Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park.

[39] Before being acquired by the society, the Corstorphine hill site was a nursery, once owned by Thomas Blaikie, who planted many of the great French parks such as 'La Bagatelle'.

[9] Organisations that remain critical of Edinburgh Zoo's work include the Animal Liberation Front, who have voiced their distaste for the quality of the enclosure that formerly housed polar bears.

[42] Edinburgh Zoo received a public backlash on Twitter after the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) recommended that they should cull three red river hog piglets after an unplanned birth.

[45] A OneKind spokesman criticised the idea, largely due to the timing of the event, which was scheduled to take place two months after the zoo announced a £2 million loss in profits, making the necropsy seem like a "Money-making drive".

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) held an inquiry into the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, and one director was fired while two others were suspended.

[51][52] In May 2012, several hundred zoo visitors were forced to seek shelter after a family of red river hogs escaped from keepers and ran amok.

Those who had taken refuge in the monkey house later described scenes where zoo workers pursued the animals with various equipment including brushes and dart guns.

[53] In August 2012, a scarlet ibis escaped from the zoo and went on the loose in the city after a squirrel had chewed a hole in the netting at the top of the cage.

The 600 kg animal with three feet long horns was loose for over 40 minutes, until zoo workers and vets managed to restrain him by using tranquilliser darts.