Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Mountain zoo in Colorado Springs, US
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is a park for animals at over 6700 feet elevation in Colorado, home to roughly 750 creatures from 170 species across 140 acres. The grounds spread along a steep slope, so paths wind between rocks and pines and climb or descend from one enclosure to the next.
Spencer Penrose founded this park in 1926 after receiving a bear as a gift and then collecting more animals. In the decades that followed, the grounds grew and developed programs to breed threatened species, including black-footed ferrets.
The name comes from the mountain where the grounds sit, once named after an Indian tribe who knew this region as home. Today in summer you often see families using the playground beside the enclosures or resting on benches overlooking the rocks.
The grounds open daily from 9 in the morning and close in the early evening, wheelchairs can be rented and a shuttle helps visitors move along the slopes. Because of the elevation the air may be cooler than in the city, so bring a jacket and drink plenty of water.
This place runs a plasma bank for giraffes that helps other parks provide medical care for these animals. Since opening, more than 200 giraffe calves have been born here, strengthening the population worldwide.
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