The first time I ever visited New Orleans, I went to the Audubon Zoo. I was ten years-old, and even then I remember feeling awfully impressed at the huge, lush grounds filled with animals and sculpture. Part of the city’s Audubon Nature Institute, the zoo is almost a century old but one of the most popular and progressive ones in the country.
Describing the Audubon Zoo probably won’t accomplish as much as photos will, so I’ll use just a few words. It sprawls over 58 acres of southern landscape, features statues from the early 20th century much like the city itself, and houses 2,000 animals including very rare white alligators in its Louisiana Swamp exhibit.
Just beyond the entrance, past the Asian exhibit and before the bulk of the zoo grounds, you’ll see one of my favorite statues, the elephant fountain.
You can’t have a coastal zoo without flamingos, and you generally can’t talk to my kindergartener without her making this face at some point in the conversation.
These are palmettos growing around a live oak tree, two plants you’ll find all over my part of the country.
Another enduring symbol of the Deep South: Spanish moss. It’s draped all over the trees here and where I live three hours to the east, too. Very beautiful, very Southern Gothic.
A white tiger, one of two in the zoo.
You know what I realized on this particular trip? How I find a closed peacock tail much more beautiful than an open one.
What do you think?
AG must indulge in the tourist photo.
Zoos make me ask myself all sorts of thorny questions. They offer protection, sanctuary, and a safe place to breed for injured or endangered animals, sure, but there’s just something creepy about sticking animals on display. Half the time I feel like it should be enough simply to save them without turning their whole lives into entertainment, and the other half of me recognizes that human beings (including me) don’t always care about the abstract concept of an endangered species. They’ll write checks to save the cute panda family at their local zoo instead.
This she lion kept growling and halfheartedly roaring and lunging at all the people watching her from a safe distance, and the crowd responded by laughing and waiting for her to do it again. Which of course made her angry enough to do it again. She obviously wanted to be left alone and, feeling guilty for watching the spectacle, I walked away.
I just don’t know about zoos sometimes, even the stellar ones.
John Charles Olmstead, landscape architect and son of Frederick Law Olmstead of Central Park fame, designed this park next to the sea lion exhibit.
The statue in the middle is Hygeia, goddess of cleanliness.
An orangutan. I can’t lie: Mr. Asthma Mom took this one, not me.
Remember those live oaks? They can get really big over time, a necessity since the entire Gulf Coast falls victim to hurricanes pretty much every summer. This is no redwood, but still.
But mere toddler of a tree compared to this one, which is 200 years-old.
Tomorrow, the other side of New Orleans. The French Quarter, Jackson Square, the music, the food, and a few words about hurricanes.
Wow Amy! Those pics are fabulous! Thanks so much for posting them
. And funny thing about your asthma girl and my asthma girl……they both do the exact same thing with one eye!! I still dont know how they are able to move just one eye crossed?! But our ag does that in pics too! Too Funny! 
Those Oak Trees are spectacular! And your girls are adorable
Thanks for sharing!
What beautiful pictures! Your youngest is a hoot!
And those trees are huge… thanks for a peek at an area of the country I’ve never seen!
Blessedmom,
I didn’t even realize she was doing that—after your comment I looked at the photo closer. What a goofball.
Thanks to both of you! The trees truly make the zoo beautiful—they’re all over the South, but usually not this massive. I’d like that 200 year-old right in my backyard.
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