Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Zoo, botanical garden and museum in Tucson, United States.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a combination zoo, botanical garden and natural history facility on the outskirts of Tucson in Arizona, covering around 98 acres (40 hectares). The grounds connect outdoor enclosures for mountain lions, wolves and otters with cactus gardens, mineral displays and an open-air hummingbird aviary.
William Henry Carr founded this facility in September 1952 to protect and study the ecosystems of the Sonoran Desert. Over the following decades, the site expanded with underground galleries for reptiles and caves and a cat enclosure that emerged in the 1970s.
The museum's name links Arizona and Sonora, the Mexican state sharing the desert it interprets. Its collection brings plants and animals of that single region together in shared exhibits, an approach William H. Carr had earlier developed at the Bear Mountain Trailside Museum in New York. The grounds hold over 230 animal species and 1,200 plant varieties.
The facility opens earlier in summer to beat the heat and closes at sunset, while in winter it starts slightly later and stays open until evening. Paths climb gently and pass through shaded areas with benches, and most stations are accessible by stroller or wheelchair.
The Warden Aquarium, opened in January 2013, covers 1,100 square feet and focuses on the Colorado River and the Gulf of California, whose monsoon-borne moisture sustains the Sonoran Desert. The Desert Museum also publishes and runs an art gallery, and its Desert Speaks series, made with KUAT and The Nature Conservancy of Arizona, ran for 19 seasons in 200 markets.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,659 contributors worldwide.
