ZooTampa traces its origins to a small animal exhibit that was located on the campus of the University of Tampa in downtown beginning in the 1930s.

It moved to its current location in the Seminole Heights neighborhood 1957 and become known as the Lowry Park Zoo, with various small rides and other entertainment facilities added in the following years.

In the 1950s, city council member and (later) mayor Nick Nuccio led the push to establish a larger zoo at a more spacious location.

and the city chose a plot of land across the street from existing Lowry Park, a public greenspace in the neighborhood of Seminole Heights along the Hillsborough River.

The park had been created in 1925 and named after Sumter de Leon Lowry Sr., a Tampa city commissioner and gubernatorial candidate who was a somewhat controversial figure for his vocal support of segregation and his active membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The zoo shared the park with Fairyland, where concrete statues depicting fairy tales and nursery rhymes were along a winding maze of paths beneath the limbs of sprawling oak trees.

The area also has a Sulawesi aviary, which includes bleeding-heart doves, mandarin ducks, giant Asian pond turtles, and Reeve's muntjac deer.

There is also a wide array of other primates, including Angolan black-and-white colobus monkeys, golden lion tamarins, ring-tailed lemurs, and mandrills.

It is home to an array of Australian-native species including koalas, yellow-footed rock wallabies, Australian singing dogs and emus, along with a varying collection of cockatoos, and flying foxes.

The Ituri Forest, a later addition to the Safari Africa section, brought in the concept of a washed-out African river bank.

Inside, the whole area is covered head-to-toe in free-flight birds and waterfowl, including great hornbills, red-legged seriemas, toco toucans, boat-billed herons,[13] African openbill storks, scarlet ibises, white-faced whistling ducks, guineafowl, Raggiana Birds-of-paradise, an array of ducks and tanagers, and two-toed sloths.

This show, held twice a day at the Zooventures Theater, is an experience that provides kids and adults alike with fun facts of birds of prey and what we can do to protect them.

These include chimpanzees, Bornean orangutans, mandrills, siamangs, black-and-white colobus monkeys, golden lion tamarins, Indian rhinoceroses, clouded leopards, sloth bears, babirusa, red wolves, African elephants, Bali mynah, Victoria crowned pigeon, great Indian hornbills, palm cockatoo, and Komodo dragon programs.

In April 2008, 15 patas monkeys escaped from Safari Wild, a for-profit animal attraction under development east of Tampa in rural Polk County.

[18] This brought media attention to the venture, which is owned and operated by long-time Lowry Park Zoo director Lex Salisbury.

[20][21] The city of Tampa, which provides a portion of the zoo's annual budget, demanded an audit detailing the relationship between Lowry Park, Salisbury, and his outside business ventures.