Living Desert Zoo and Gardens

Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is a desert botanical gardens and a zoo located at 47-900 Portola Avenue, Palm Desert, California. They are open daily with an admission fee of about $12 for adults (2007).

The gardens were established in 1970 as a 360 acre (1.46 km²) wilderness preserve by the Palm Springs Desert Museum. By 1974 the gardens housed a Kit Fox, tortoises, lizards, and two Bighorn Sheep, and in 1974-75 the Mojave Garden was built, a replica of the high California desert. Additional facilities have gradually been constructed, including greenhouses and a number of built landscapes, as well as animals including Rhim Gazelles (1981); mountain lions, bobcats and badgers (1993); cheetahs and warthogs (1995); model trains (1998); giraffes and ostriches (2002). Opened November 10, 2007 the Amphipbians on the Edge exhibit shows a variety of different species of frogs, toads and salamanders.

Today, the gardens claim to be the only American zoo and garden dedicated solely to the deserts of the world, and provide environmental education, native wildlife rehabilitation, plant propagation and captive breeding of both native and African species including the area's iconic bighorn sheep. Their unique meerkat exhibit served as inspiration to Walt Disney Studios animators in the development of "Timon", The Lion King's comic meerkat character.

The holiday season signals the start of the zoo's "WildLights" celebration in which more than 275,000 miniature lights illuminate animated holiday scenes. It is also the site of one of the world's largest LGB model railroad layouts; the layout includes the world's longest model trestle span.

Of particular interest are the re-creations of a variety of desert environments. The North American desert gardens include:

• Mojave Desert–Joshua Tree area and East Mojave (Cima Dome)
• Chihuahuan Desert — south of Big Bend, Texas and into Mexico
• Sonoran Desert — foothills of Sonora (Sonora, Mexico); Yuma Desert (south-central Arizona); Vizcaíno Desert (central Baja)
• Colorado Desert – Upper Colorado (represents 2,000-3,000 ft. elevation); Palm Oasis; Cahuilla Ethnobotanic Garden; Lower Colorado; Sonoran Pond (a desert riparian area)

Specialized gardens include:

• Agave Garden – agaves from throughout the Western Hemisphere
• Aloe Garden – African aloes
• Aviary Oasis – Coachella Valley palm oasis set around walk in aviary
• Barrel Cactus Garden – Ferocactus species
• East African Garden – Large collection of native African plants and trees, one of the best collection of African plant species in North America
• Euphorbia Garden – African euphorbias
• Hummingbird Garden – plants that attract hummingbirds
• Johnston Cactus Garden – various cacti
• Madagascar Garden – native plants found only on Madagascar
• Mallow Garden – small collection of mallows
• McDonald Butterfly and Wildflower Garden – plants that attract migrating butterflies
• Mexican Columnar Cactus Garden – tall column cacti collected from around the desert southwest
• Ocotillo Garden – nine of twelve known ocotillo species
• Opuntia Garden – various chollas and prickly pears
• Palm Garden – over fifty species of palms from around the world, several hundred palm trees in all
• Primitive Garden – plants from the Jurassic period, cycads and ferns
• Sage Garden – Salvia species
• Sheep Food Garden – plants that are food sources for bighorn sheep
• Smoke Tree Garden – smoke trees in natural wash setting
• Sonoran Arboretum – trees from the Sonoran Desert in garden setting
• Wortz Demonstration Garden – Southwest landscape design
• Yucca Garden – yucca species

from wikipedia.org
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