[2] Founded in 1957 as a private menagerie for King Saud bin Abdulalziz and the Saudi royal family,[3] the zoo was opened to the public in 1987 and it's today home to more than 1,500 animals of around 196 different species, including endangered ones.

[5] Riyadh Zoo was set up by orders from King Saud bin Abdulaziz in 1957 as his private menagerie of exotic wild animals which he mostly received as gifts to the Saudi royal family.

[8] After signing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, by 1988, the zoo started receiving animals from countries like United States, Peru, Australia, Singapore, Kenya and Egypt.

[16] The zoo exhibits around 1,500 exotic wildlife animals from around the world, including seals, kangaroos, griffon vultures, lesser whistling duck, pelicans, demoiselle cranes, storks, tortoises, grey crowned cranes, scarlet macaws, parrots, cockatoos, chukar partridge, pheasants, quails, common snipe, owls, bats, kangaroos, emu, wallabys, red pandas, marmosets, giraffes, common elands, springbok, blackbucks, zebras, tapirs, striped hyenas, African lions, cheetahs, jaguarundi, lemurs, baboons, colobus monkey, siamang, monkeys, orangutans, bonobos, brown bears, coyotes, honey badgers, deers, alpacas, blackbucks, southern white rhinoceros, pygmy hippopotamus, gazelles, arabian oryxs, leopards, bobcats, sand cat, tigers, reptiles, crocodiles, sea lions, African elephants, greater flamingos, camels, pumas, and raccoons.

[20] On 21 December 2019, a 24-year old Sudanese national who came to the zoo as a visitor, threw himself into the enclosure of royal Bengal tigers at 10:30 (Arabian Standard Time) and was severely mauled by one of the female tigress.