Leipzig zoo is internationally noted for its large building projects such as Pongoland (housing gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans) and Gondwanaland (the world's second largest indoor rainforest hall at 1.65 ha or 4.1 acres).

[8][9] The Zoo Leipzig hosts six different theme worlds; the Founder's Garden, Gondwanaland, Asia, Pongoland, Africa and South America.

Besides the explorer's arch, which is also used for educational purposes this part of the zoo includes compounds displaying koalas since 2016 in the former ape house as well as a budgerigar aviary and primate islands.

[13] Until they finally received an appropriate environment in 2017, the snow leopards lived in „traditional cages“ like the panther Rainer Maria Rilke wrote about in 1902.

[16] One of the main attractions of the African area is the 25,000 m2 (270,000 sq ft) Kiwara Savannah, a shared habitat occupied by Grévy's zebras, Rothschild's giraffes, Thomson's gazelles, Nile lechwes and ostriches.

[17] This area is scheduled to be redesigned to host a South American landscape with a large aquatic habitat will be opened for seals and penguins.