Baton Rouge Zoo — BREC

A WAFB TV personality known as "Buckskin" Bill closed his children's program in the 1950s and 1960s with the same line: "Baton Rouge needs a zoo." He helped rally the community to pass a millage election and run a penny drive that raised over 600,000 pennies to purchase the zoo's first two elephants, Penny and Penny Two. The zoo opened Easter Sunday, 1970, in Greenwood Park. It is owned and operated by the Recreation and Park Commission of East Baton Rouge Parish—a BREC facility funded through parish property taxes. The zoo was first accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 1977, the first zoo in Louisiana to be accredited. It lost that accreditation in March 2018 due to infrastructure issues and animal escapes. In 2013, the zoo had closed its original elephant exhibit, which held a maximum of two elephants; the AZA had announced in 2012 that elephant enclosures must support at least three elephants by 2016 for a zoo to remain accredited. In December 2018, the zoo announced a multi-phase, multi-million-dollar effort to update the zoo to regain its AZA accreditation—the first park-wide improvement plan since its opening in 1970. The zoo regained accreditation in 2024. Otter Pond includes a replica of a fishing cabin, from which visitors can see the zoo's North American river otters underwater. Realm of the Tiger opened in 2010 as part of a $5 million overhaul; it features four main enclosures for Malayan tigers and Sumatran tigers. The zoo participates in more than 30 Species Survival Plans, including those for the eastern black rhinoceros and golden lion tamarin, which have been successfully reintroduced into the wild. Education programs reach more than 45,000 children each year. The zoo works with departments of the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine when conducting research.