[3] In 1904, the city received 50 acres (20 ha) of land from William and Anna Vilas under the conditions that it be used "for the uses and purposes of a public park and pleasure ground".

[citation needed] By 1911, 28 acres (11 ha) of the park were partitioned into an animal exhibit, marking the creation of the zoo.

The exhibit includes several sustainability features like solar panels, rainwater harvesting and an underground storage unit that saves over 2 million gallons of water.

The aviary is home to many tropical birds like blue-and-yellow macaws, blue-crowned motmots, laughing kookaburra, white-cheeked turaco and sunbittern as well as Geoffroy's marmoset, red-rumped agouti and fish like red-bellied piranhas and ocellate river stingrays.

The zoo houses African lions and Amur tigers in enclosures simulating their natural habitats in the wild with features like heated rocks to keep them warm during winter.

These yards are home to the zoo's larger hoofstock, Bactrian camels, Somali wild ass and white rhinoceros.

The Children's Zoo features the sustainably designed Red Barn, which houses their goats, which can be hand fed.

It houses giant African millipedes, lemur leaf frogs, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and Seba's short-tailed bats.