He created and recruited a citizens group, the Lincoln Park Zoological Society, to support the Zoo's mission.

[21][22] Zoo administration is currently housed in the nearby building previously used by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, which moved to a new facility in 1999.

The Kovler Sea Lion Pool opened the same year after an extensive renovation, and it is now home to the zoo's harbor seals.

[24] Two years later, the zoo renovated its Great Ape House, opening the Regenstein Center for African Apes, which focused on the zoo's troops of common chimpanzees and western lowland gorillas, putting a special emphasis on researching the behaviors of both species and creating new, naturalistic habitats.

[26][27] In 2010, Lincoln Park Zoo transformed the adjacent South Pond to create the Nature Boardwalk, an ecological habitat designed by Studio Gang Architects that features native wetlands plants and wildlife.

[28] In December 2011, the Kovler Penguin-Seabird House, which had previously been home to rockhopper, king penguins, common murres and puffins closed down after thirty years at the zoo due to worries about the deteriorating condition of the building, prompting outcry from some Chicago residents.

[31] In 2016, the Zoo announced the Pride of Chicago fundraising campaign, which sought $125 million in funding, and lead to the construction of Regenstein Macaque Forest, Robert and Mayari Pritzker Penguin Cove and Walter Family Arctic Tundra, would conclude with a long-awaited $30 million renovation of the aging Kovler Lion House as part of the Pride of Chicago fundraising campaign, acknowledging the public perception problems with the exhibit, which had been constrained by its Historic Landmark status during previous renovations, most recently in 1992.

The new exhibit opened in late 2021 and focuses squarely on lions as opposed to other big cat species it had previously held, such as tigers .

[32] The zoo together with technological help from the Adler Planetarium is aiming to expand its survey of Chicago area wildlife with public assistance at an interactive website, Zooniverse.

The zoo has positioned motion sensing cameras in the Chicago area to catch images of wildlife, and the public is asked to help identify the animals.

The exhibit features a "hot spring", a trademark favorite of the species, which allows them to warm up in the winter and amuse guests.

Large skylights permit natural light into the indoor area, and guests are greeted[clarification needed] quickly by monkeys in a rainforest setting as they enter Africa.

The new center, opened in 2005, has over 29,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor living space for three ape troops, featuring dozens of trees, artificial vines, real and simulated bamboo, as well as skylights, waterfalls, moats, heated logs, and termite mounds for chimpanzees to illustrate their knowledge of tools to 'fish' for termites in their mounds.

Two additional exhibits—the Strangler Fig Forest and Dry Riverbed Valley—each with mesh netting to secure the animals, can accommodate either chimpanzees or gorillas.

Notable residents of this exhibit include Kwan, the current silverback in the zoo's gorilla troupe who appeared in the film Return to Me as Sidney, a chimpanzee named Optimus Prime, after the fictional character of the same name, and formerly Keo, the oldest male chimpanzee in a North American zoo at the time of his death in September 2013 at fifty-five.

[40] Custom-made stuffed animals of Kwan and Optimus in their likenesses are available in the zoo's Wild Things gift shop.

The new Pritzker Family Children's Zoo, which opened in 2004, features a number of native eastern American wildlife, and lets visitors of all ages connect with the wild creatures in our own backyard and engages them to think about how species survive in the wilderness.

Small amphibians and reptiles are featured in a small indoor exhibit, along with a leaf-themed climber play area for youngsters designed by Tom Luckey, with slightly larger indoor exhibits for birds and reptiles and large glass windows on each end so guests young and old can watch American beavers and the popular North American river otters swim gracefully underwater at eye-level in their outdoor habitats, with educational displays about how beavers build dams.

Statues of gray wolves and signs encourage guests to practice howling and teach them about wolf pack dynamics.

[44][45] Mammals Reptiles Amphibians Fish Birds Invertebrates This popular outdoor exhibit near McCormick Bird House allows visitors to observe powerful birds-of-prey through stunning outdoor aviaries that give them plenty of room to spread their wings or to perch on rocks or tree branches in their enclosures.

One large, lush outdoor habitat contains multiple specimens, including breeding pairs of cinereous vultures and white stork, while two adjacent aviaries contain the zoo's resident bald eagle and the next features a snowy owl next door.

Perhaps its most notable residents are a family of white-cheeked gibbons that have a spacious room inside as well as an outdoor habitat for playing in the warm winter months.

It has been redesigned multiple times, most recently in 1991, and is currently home to multiple habitats recreating the tropics, savanna, sea shore, desert, wetlands, and other biomes, with a tropical free-flight aviary allowing guests to become immersed with perching and aquatic birds without fences or glass.

[53] Some of the zoo's most notable birds include the famous laughing kookaburra in the scrub display, multiple scarlet ibis specimens in its swamp display and the Bali myna, a critically endangered bird that Lincoln Park Zoo breeds, while also maintaining the species' studbook.

The Farm-in-the-Zoo Presented by John Deere is across the South Pond from the rest of the zoo, and is designed to "give Chicago Kids a chance to experience a bit of the country in the city."

A historic zoo landmark first built in 1912, the Kovler Lion House building stands at the heart of the zoo near its entrance, and has housed a variety of big cat species over the years, most notably many lions as well as Siberian tigers, which inhabited two grottos on the northern exterior of the building, each having access to multiple indoor areas alongside the interior main hall, and a glass window viewing areas on the end of each grotto for guests to get a closer view.

[64][65] The indoor area also has a large gift shop where visitors can purchase plush toys of big cats, bears, and other animals.

[69] In 2016, the zoo announced a $30 million renovation of the habitat as part of the Pride of Chicago fundraising campaign, acknowledging the public perception problems of the historic building, and confirming that the focus would be a more naturalistic space for African lions, along with spaces for the Canada lynx, Snow leopards, and red pandas.

[71] The cub is named Pilipili, meaning Pepper in Swahili language, and he is the offspring of lioness Zari and male Jabari.

The second gallery featured tufted puffins, common murres and razorbills swimming in a 10,000-gallon pool based on the North Atlantic coast, where the birds made their homes on rocky cliffs.