[21] The world's only albino koala in a zoological facility was born September 1, 1997, at the San Diego Zoo and was named Onya-Birri, which means "ghost boy" in an Australian Aboriginal language.

The San Diego Zoo has had several notable escapees through the years; the most noteworthy of them is Ken Allen, a Bornean orangutan who came to be known as "the hairy Houdini", for his many escapes.

[citation needed] In March 2013, the zoo, which was hosting a private party at the time, had to initiate a lockdown when two striped hyenas somehow got past their barriers.

Many exhibits are "natural", with invisible wires and darkened blinds (to view birds), and accessible pools and open-air moats (for large mammals).

This approach has brought the Safari Park much-breeding success, and (in an effort to maintain fresh bloodlines) animals are regularly relocated between the two locations.

The San Diego facilities also actively exchange animals with other zoos around the world, in accordance with Species Survival Plan (SSP) recommendations.

[36] There is also a pair of pygmy hippopotamus named Elgon and Mabel, who share their underwater-viewing pond with a large school of African cichlids and tilapia.

Some of the horticultural highlights of Monkey Trails include several massive Banyan fig (Ficus) trees (viewable in public areas as well as in animal exhibits), cycads, and a bog garden with Sarracenia, Drosera, Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants.

The waterfall churns up mist, and cool steam fills the aviary with ambient humidity; additionally, the outside of the structure is painted a dark green color, which helps to block any excess sunlight from penetrating inside.

The entire aviary is lushly landscaped and thick with palms, ficus, Araceae species (such as Monstera deliciosa and Thaumatophyllum), Clivia sp., ferns and many more varieties.

The varied collection of bird life includes the Chinese hwamei, eclectus parrot, black-naped fruit doves, common emerald doves, red-billed leiothrix, Victoria crowned pigeons, Bali mynas, Nicobar pigeons, the blue-crowned laughingthrush, white-rumped shamas, the maleo, Himalayan monal, Indian peafowl, and great argus pheasants.

[38] The Scripps Aviary was built in 1923[39] and is home to many colorful birds from Africa such as the violet-backed starling, African gray parrots, blue-bellied rollers, tambourine doves, great blue turacos, hamerkops, superb starlings, black-headed weavers, white-headed buffalo weavers, white-faced whistling ducks, African spoonbills, Madagascar crested ibises and southern bald ibises.

[citation needed] In November 1984, the Chinese Wildlife Protection Association, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Construction and Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Forestry, and the Chengdu Zoo formed a Chinese delegation to the United States to carry a pair of Sichuan snub-nosed monkeys to the San Diego Zoo for a 13-day exhibition of snub-nosed monkeys.

[51] The Urban Jungle houses different animals including a small herd of Masai giraffes, Soemmerring's gazelles, American flamingos, a Grant's zebra, a miniature donkey and Indian rhinoceroses.

Many of the Zoo's animal ambassadors live there including a binturong, southern ground hornbills,red kangaroos, fennec foxes, South African cheetahs and Cape porcupines.

More animals that make their home in the Plunge include reindeer, arctic foxes, racoons, eurasian lynx and an underwater viewing area is available to observe the polar bears swimming in their 130,000-US-gallon (490,000 L) pool.

[55] The Rainforest includes Naked Mole Rats, Goats, binturong, Burmese star tortoises, sloths, caracals, ocelots, wombats, Brazilian porcupines and southern tamanduas.

Some of the species housed here are axolotl, Chinese giant salamanders, Cuvier's dwarf caimans, Fiji banded iguana, leopard geckos, Indonesian blue-tongued skinks, common chuckwallas, yellow-spotted river turtles, freshwater angelfish, giant danios, pinktail chalceus, threadfin acara, multiple Lake Malawi cichlids, South American lungfish and sunburst diving beetles.

As of July 2022,[57] animals at the reptile house include Mertens' water monitors, Ethiopian mountain adders, flower snakes, Mangshan pit vipers, king cobras, Gila monsters, timber rattlesnakes, Philippine sailfin lizards, Santa Catalina Island rattlesnakes, eyelash vipers, blue-spotted tree monitors, black tree monitors, Madagascar tree boas, Mexican beaded lizards, ringed tree boas, Angolan pythons, emerald tree monitors, green tree pythons, snouted cobras, eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, shinglebacks, Mary River turtles, red-bellied short-necked turtles, fathead minnows,African bush vipers, black-headed bushmasters, Central Fijian banded iguanas, Pascagoula map turtles, philodryas baroni, Madagascar ground boas,yellow-spotted monitors,monocled cobras, banded water cobras, mangrove vipers, Gray's monitors, woma pythons, pancake tortoises, West African gaboon vipers, western green mambas, Solomon Islands skinks, puff adders, spider tortoises, simalia boeleni, bothriechis lateralis, banded rock rattlesnakes, twin-spotted rattlesnakes, western diamondback rattlesnakes, Chiapan beaded lizards, crotalus willardi, yellow-blotched palm pit vipers, Chinese crocodile lizards, and Sulawesi forest turtles.

Elephant Odyssey also features a glimpse of the past, with the Fossil Portal and life-size statues of ancient creatures of Southern California next to exhibits of their modern-day counterparts.

The ancient life represented include the Columbian mammoth, the saber-toothed cat, the American lion, the Daggett's eagle, a Merriam's teratorn, the dwarf pronghorn, the dire wolf, the short-faced bear and the Jefferson's ground sloth.

The oblong sun bear exhibit straddles the path along the rest of the complex, and an aviary houses some species of birds,[80] including Asian fairy-bluebird and Red-billed leiothrix.

[82] From the top of the canyon, It proceeds to another pavilion, this time flanked by a bunch of aviaries which feature Asian fairy-bluebirds, Baikal teals, blue-crowned laughingthrushes, Edwards's pheasants, common emerald doves, tricolored parrotfinch, red-billed leiothrix, and there are also exhibits for fishing cats and rare coconut crabs.

Farther down the canyon is an exhibit for Malayan tapirs, North Sulawesi babirusas, Indian pythons and the 1⁄4-acre (0.10 ha) tiger habitat, which has a hillside stream, waterfall, and glass viewing window.

The new area includes other Australian marsupials, such as parma wallabies, brush tailed bettongs, Goodfellow's tree-kangaroos, common ringtail possums, & short-beaked echidnas, though they are monotremes as well as Australasian birds, such as kagus, laughing kookaburras, blue-faced honeyeaters, common emerald doves, fawn-breasted bowerbirds, metallic starlings, masked lapwings, Gouldian finches and palm cockatoos.

The San Diego Zoo participates in the Amur leopard Species Survival Plan, a breeding program that focuses on preserving the genetics of this endangered cat.

The exhibit also features African silverbills, African pygmy geese, violet-backed starlings, splendid sunbirds, blue-naped mousebirds, common waxbills, emerald-spotted wood doves, golden-breasted starlings, exclamatory paradise whydahs, magpie mannikins, Namaqua doves, pin-tailed whydahs, purple grenadiers, red-billed firefinches, red-cheeked cordon-bleus, snowy-crowned robin-chats, village indigobirds, white-bellied go-away-birds, white-headed buffalo weavers, yellow-crowned bishops, yellow-mantled widowbirds, and zebra waxbills.

Its Institute for Conservation Research (formerly the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species) raises California condors, tigers, black rhinos, polar bears, orangutans, peninsular pronghorn, desert tortoises, African penguins, mountain yellow-legged frogs, Pacific pocket mice, dholes, Francois' langurs, giraffes, quino checkerspot butterflies, Hawaiian crows, light-footed clapper rails, Gray's monitors, tree lobsters, clouded leopards, Galapagos tortoises, Tahiti lorikeets, lion-tailed macaques, mhorr gazelles, gorillas, Przewalski's horses, koalas, burrowing owls, elephants, African wild dogs, ocelots, Tasmanian devils, okapi, Southwestern pond turtles, Pallas's cats, and 145 other endangered species.

By carefully managing the condors’ population, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance helped bring back the species from the brink of extinction.

It employs numerous professional geneticists, cytologists, and veterinarians and maintains a cryopreservation facility for rare sperm and eggs called the frozen zoo.