Zoo Miami
Miami-Dade County. It is the only tropical zoo in the continental United States, and that single fact shapes the collection: animals that would need heated houses further north live outdoors here all year.
Open the guide →Ask 1stFlorida
Where are the zoos and aquariums in Florida?
Zoo Miami is the largest zoo in Florida: almost 750 acres, more than 2,000 animals of over 375 species and 4 miles of walkways, and it describes itself as the only subtropical zoo in the continental United States.
Other zoos include Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, ZooTampa at Lowry Park, Brevard Zoo, the Palm Beach Zoo, the Central Florida Zoo in Seminole County and the Naples Zoo, and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay keeps more than 200 animal species alongside its rides. The Florida Aquarium in Tampa opened on March 31, 1995 and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a nonprofit that rescues, rehabilitates and releases marine animals, and was home to Winter, the dolphin of the film Dolphin Tale. On the Gulf coast there are also Mote's aquarium in Sarasota County and the Gulfarium in Okaloosa County.
The places named in this answer.
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
Duval County. The zoo opened on May 12, 1914, as the Municipal Zoo in Springfield, with one red deer fawn. It moved to its present ground at the mouth of the Trout River in 1925, started a long redevelopment in 1992, and changed its name to Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens on May 19, 2025.
Open the guide →ZooTampa at Lowry Park
Hillsborough County. The zoo grew out of a small animal exhibit at the University of Tampa in the 1930s and moved to its present site beside Lowry Park in 1957, when it was called the Tampa Fairyland Zoo.
Open the guide →Brevard Zoo
Brevard County. Brevard Zoo on North Wickham Road in Melbourne is run by the East Coast Zoological Foundation and accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. What sets it apart is that you can get onto the water inside it: guided kayak tours run down the Nyami Nyami River past giraffe and rhinos in Expedition Africa, and self-guided kayaking crosses the restored wetlands in Wild Florida.
Open the guide →Palm Beach Zoo
Palm Beach County. The Palm Beach Zoo sits in Dreher Park in West Palm Beach, which was a landfill and a tent-city campground until the 1928 hurricane flattened the camp. The city bought the land from the state for one hundred dollars in 1951 and named it after Paul Dreher, the parks superintendent they called the Johnny Appleseed of Palm Beach County for replanting the place with trees nobody else wanted.
Open the guide →Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens
Seminole County. The Sanford Municipal Zoo started in 1923 with animals donated to the local fire department, moved twice, and settled at the present site beside Lake Monroe on July 4, 1975, with Jack Hanna as its first director there.
Open the guide →Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens
Collier County. Henry Nehrling, a botanist and ornithologist, made the first plantings here in 1919 to save his collection after frost killed what he had elsewhere. The gardens went to ruin after he died in 1929.
Open the guide →The Florida Aquarium
Hillsborough County. The Florida Aquarium opened on March 31, 1995, in the Channel District, in a building of about 250,000 square feet under a glass dome. The galleries follow a drop of water from a Florida spring out to the open Gulf, so a visitor moves through a wetlands walk with otters and free-flying birds, then bays and beaches, then a coral reef, and finally the ocean.
Open the guide →Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Pinellas County. The aquarium is a nonprofit founded in 1972, and it is a working animal hospital that the public is allowed into rather than a display collection. The building was a water treatment plant.
Open the guide →Mote Science Education Aquarium (Mote SEA)
Sarasota County. Mote SEA opened on October 8, 2025, at Nathan Benderson Park, serving Sarasota and Manatee counties, and it replaces the aquarium Mote ran for decades on City Island. The building runs to 146,000 square feet on a twelve-acre campus.
Open the guide →Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park
Okaloosa County. Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park opened in August 1955 at 1010 Miracle Strip Parkway SE on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach. It keeps dolphins, sea lions, harbor seals, otters, penguins, alligators and sea turtles, with scheduled shows and animal encounters through the day.
Open the guide →Where this comes from.
- Zoo Miami, about the zoo ↗ Read September 23, 2026
- The Florida Aquarium, about us ↗ Read September 23, 2026
- Clearwater Marine Aquarium ↗ Read September 23, 2026
- Busch Gardens Tampa Bay ↗ Read September 23, 2026
More questions like this.
Where are the art museums in Florida?
The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg holds more than 2,400 works by Salvador Dali, in every medium he worked in; it opened in 1982 and moved into its present building on January 11, 2011.
Where is baseball spring training in Florida?
Fifteen Major League teams train in Florida, in the Grapefruit League. Around Tampa Bay: the Yankees in Tampa, the Phillies in Clearwater, the Blue Jays in Dunedin, the Pirates in Bradenton, the Orioles in Sarasota and the Tigers in Lakeland.
What is the oldest city in Florida?
St. Augustine, in St. Johns County. Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore there on September 8, 1565, and the city describes itself as the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and African-American origin in the United States.
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