Before Asian Highlands opened in 2006, the swans even had their own pond in the old Desert Tortoise yard, which in turn, originally provided suitable swimming space for black-footed penguins.

For example, sand cats have large ears which radiate heat from bodies, and the naked mole-rats, which made their debut in August 2024, are eusocial and spend most of their lives underground.

As part of adaptations to bird flu it also exhibited Cape porcupines and a pair of female Von der Decken's hornbills which had been in the Desert Zone when the turkey vultures were relocated there.

Husani was brought to Hogle Zoo in 2010 to form a bachelor troop with Tino, another male who lost his longtime mate Muke the year prior to cancer.

The new home featured three female African bush elephants Hi-Dari, Christie, and Misha, as well as southern white rhinoceros half-siblings Princess and George.

Starting in 2006, attempts were made by a team of German veterinary scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin to artificially inseminate female elephant Christie.

The exhibit sought to convert the dated indoor Feline Complex's barred concrete cages into lush outdoor habitats for cats from the colder regions of central Asia.

A large catwalk connects from the holding areas (the renovated existing Feline Complex) to the main habitat allowing the cats, usually reserved for tigers, to walk over guests.

The central plaza, themed with prayer flags, includes Cat Wok Cafe and Grandma's House, an indoor interpretive area with a window into one of the habitats.

[34] After a two-year construction period, the $18 million Rocky Shores exhibit opened in a ribbon cutting ceremony with Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker on June 1, 2012.

The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Tidewater Cove provides underwater views of California sea lions, harbor seals, and polar bears.

In October 10, 2024, zoo officials opted to introduce a second breeding male giraffe named Bakari to the herd, two years after Ja-Raffe arrived to replace the late Riley.

This new facility currently focuses on smaller Utah native species including brine shrimp, Triops, western fence lizard, wandering garter snake, northern flying squirrel, Phidippus audax, western screech owl, yellow-bellied marmots, common raven, Pituophis catenifer deserticola, Lampropeltis pyromelana, as well as the aforementioned burrowing owl, desert tortoise, and common chuckwalla.

Hogle Zoo's train ride closed on September 26, 2022, in preparation for construction of a new and larger track which surrounds the Wild Utah exhibit, completed on May 9, 2024.

This resulted in a pushback leading zoo officials to reluctantly pause care for decades of housing free-roaming Indian peafowl after receiving complaints from the guests' parents about any disregard for safety and intervention.

[65] Without the banning of DDT in 1972 and reintroduction efforts made by organizations like Utah's Hogle Zoo, the bald eagle would have not recovered and been taken off the endangered species list in 2007.

On February 4, 1994, Bagel was introduced into the Poço das Antas Biological Reserve in southeastern Brazil, one of three small areas left in the wild that are home to the critically endangered species.

Born through a recommendation made by the Species Survival Plan, the twins were well-represented genetically in the North American population and therefore were considered good candidates for release into the wild.

After completing a standard quarantine, they were released alongside the four other lemurs into the natural reserve on November 25, 1998, helping to boost the critically endangered species' numbers.

A number of iron bar aviaries were built from 1931 to the 1950's, and until recently they were always found throughout the zoo featuring a variety of birds such as macaws, vultures, hawks and even cockatoos.

Lemurs and baboons, meanwhile, are being considered for eventual returning to the zoo's collection, possibly in the south pathway where the Animal Ambassadors building (now in Wild Utah) was originally planned to be built in 2019.

This three acre site was once home to exhibits like Bear Grotto, Penguin Cove, and the African Savannah, as well as habitats for Chacoan peccary, mountain lion, red panda, and llama.

The African Savanna covered one acre of the northwest section of the zoo, replacing chain-linked yards that once held many species including blackbuck, common eland, sitatunga, and wallaroo.

The Sea Lion Pool, originally built in 1964, was dedicated to former zoo director Gerald deBary who had died earlier that year from a fatal bite by a puff adder.

In 2012, after two years of freely roaming the zoo grounds, a pied guineafowl named Chicken and his wild-type mate would later be moved in with the other savanna birds, soon after the elderly springbok passed and the Cuvier's gazelles were relocated.

Desert Canyon featured a recreated Anasazi cliff dwelling which provided views to a small mesa for angora goat and Navajo sheep.

Hogle Zoo would also pause continued care for the cougars, wolf spiders and gray foxes until 2024, when Discovery Land reopened under the new name Wild Utah as the definitive, public train-loop exhibit, complete with a new Woodland Edge where the plains bison habitat was.

The exhibit featured around 350 free-flight birds from Oceania including budgerigar, cockatiel, eastern rosella, Papuan eclectus, salmon-crested cockatoo, and zebra finch.

In 2013, Creatures of Habitat featured 32 Lego sculptures by Sean Kenny depicting life-size animal scenes including Humboldt penguins, polar bears, and golden lion tamarins.

The plan laid out the blueprints for the Main Entrance (1999), the Wildlife Theater (2004), Elephant Encounter (2005), Asian Highlands (2006), Oasis Plaza (2008), the Animal Hospital (2009), Rocky Shores (2012), the African Savanna (2014), and Creekside Playground (2016).