Summer nights
Wild Lights: Asian Lantern Festival
Hundreds of handcrafted, illuminated lanterns light the Zoo's paths after dark on select summer evenings.
The State Zoo of Kentucky · Est. 1969
Hunt the living Zoo.
Type one clue. The site should pull animals, habitats, events, access details, tickets, and visit routes into one visible trail.
Synonym-aware: “tickets” finds admission, “big cat” finds lion, tiger, puma, and snow leopard.
Hunt by sight
A gallery of faces before the first scroll
The rebuilt site should feel animal-first immediately: not a brochure with a few thumbnails, but a living collection visitors can recognize, search, and follow into a visit plan.
Note for reviewers
This is a working rebuild concept for the Louisville Zoo, built by Stoa (Website Rebuild and Ongoing Services). The palette is drawn from the Zoo's own canopy green; the photography is largely the Zoo's own, reused here in a clearly-labeled concept of the Zoo's site, with a few open-license stand-ins. Every page you can reach is real and runs in your browser, including a faceted Animal & Plant Finder over the Zoo's real roster, a synonym-aware site search, a live accessibility audit of the current site, and Spanish pages for the most common visit tasks. Ticketing, donations, and the events calendar would connect to the Zoo's existing systems (Accesso, its donation platform, and The Events Calendar) on a live build; those links are marked where they appear.
Start here
What would you like to do?
- Search the ZooHunt across animals, tickets, events, accessibility, and visit info.
- Plan your visitHours, admission, parking, dining, and directions.
- Build your routePick interests and get a printable day plan.
- Find an animalBrowse the collection by group, exhibit, region, or status.
- Open the mapChoose a zone and see who lives there.
- What's onWild Lights, Zoo Camps, and seasonal events.
- Become a memberA year of free admission, parking, and member mornings.
- Accessibility & sensoryWheelchair rentals, accessible routes, and KultureCity resources.
- DonateSupport animal care, conservation, and education.
Explore the Zoo
Nine worlds, one walkable loop
From a thawing northern coast to the African savanna and a walk-in lorikeet aviary, the Zoo's exhibit zones bring habitats from around the world to 130 acres in Louisville.
Glacier Run
Polar bears, grizzlies, sea lions, and seals with underwater viewing.
Explore zone →
Africa
Giraffe feeding, lions, white rhinos, zebras, and meerkats.
Explore zone →
Islands
Orangutans, siamangs, tigers, tapirs, and a Komodo dragon.
Explore zone →
Lorikeet Landing
Step inside the aviary and feed nectar to a flock of lorikeets.
Explore zone →By the numbers
A whole world to discover
1,100+Animals in the collection
130Acres of gardens & grounds
1969Welcoming Louisville since
AZAAccredited by the AZA
Figures drawn from the Zoo's published pages on louisvillezoo.org.
Happening today
A day that updates as you move
Static pages are fine for facts; a great Zoo site should also help guests make the next good choice. This concept highlights the next keeper talk, feeding, or event moment from a staff-managed schedule.
Today's trail
- 10:30Wallaroo WalkaboutGood first stop with kidsAustralia
- 11:15Big-cat prowlFind lion, tiger, puma, snow leopardFinder
- 1:00Lorikeet feeding windowNectar cups when availableAviary
- 7:00Wild Lights entrySummer lantern routeEvent
Illustrative schedule module; live times would come from Zoo staff tools.
Meet the animals
Find your favorite, by group, habitat, or how rare it is
The Animal & Plant Finder lets families and teachers browse the Zoo's collection and filter by animal group, exhibit zone, region of the world, or conservation status, all in the browser, no reload. Searching for "big cat," "endangered," or "Australia" just works.
What's on
Events all year
From summer lantern nights to the World's Largest Halloween Party, there is always something happening at the Zoo.
June–August
Summer Zoo Camps
Week-long day camps at the MetaZoo Education Center connect kids with animals and conservation.
October
World's Largest Halloween Party
A daytime, family-friendly Halloween tradition running each October for decades.
More than a day out
A conservation organization in your backyard
The Zoo takes part in AZA Species Survival Plan breeding programs and helps sustain one of only a handful of breeding populations of the black-footed ferret, North America's most endangered mammal. Every ticket and membership supports that work.