Lincoln Park Zoo (2026) (Part 1)
Fondest greetings!
Today I'll be posting about Lincoln Park Zoo, a free public zoo in downtown Chicago. I usually visit Lincoln Park Zoo about once a year - I still have pictures from last year (2025) that are on backlog. My previous series of Chicago posts (from 2024) ran into some writer's block but in order to keep some momentum going I'm skipping ahead to this 2026 zoo review.
Due to size limits, this post is broken up into two. This first portion covers the main zoo while the second portion addresses the farm, nature boardwalk, and gift shop.
Here are my other downtown Chicago posts:
B1: Chicago Overview, CityPASS, & Millennium Park
B2: Field Museum of Natural History
B3: Shedd Aquarium
B4: Museum of Science and Industry
B5: Art Institute of Chicago (Part 1)
B6: Art Institute of Chicago (Part 2)
B7: Lincoln Park Zoo (2026) (Part 1) (this post)
B8: Lincoln Park Zoo (2026) (part 2)
I have a more modest to-do list for Chicago tourist attractions:
Willis/Sears Tower Skydeck, the Rookery, Chicago Fed Money Museum, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago Cultural Center, & Design Museum of Chicago
Medieval Torture Museum (NSFW)
Museum of Contemporary Art
Lincoln Park Zoo (2025)
All of the pictures in this post were taken by me except for the map of the zoo. If you want to use any of my photos, please contact me to first obtain permission.
LINCOLN PARK ZOO
2400 N. Cannon Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60614
Website: https://www.lpzoo.org/
Hours:
Weekdays: 8 AM - 5 PM
Weekends & Holidays: 8 AM - 7 PM
While the gates open at 8 AM, the buildings don't open until 10 AM. The buildings close 30 minutes before the rest of the zoo closes.
Also Farm-in-the-Zoo closes at 5 PM even on weekends when the rest of the zoo is open until 7 PM.
Cost (as of 2026): FREE!
You will likely have to pay for parking though. If you are lucky or arrive early in the morning you may find free parking on Cannon and Stockton Drive, north of the zoo, but those spots are very limited. You may otherwise find some moderately priced metered spots on the street. The final option is expensive parking lot rates. While the Lincoln Park Zoo lot is free for the first 30 minutes, the rate quickly climbs reaching $35 - $45 per day.
Estimated Time: 1 - 2 hours for the main zoo. You can optionally add 15 - 30 minutes for Farm-in-the-Zoo and 30 minutes for the Nature Boardwalk if you want.
Lincoln Park Zoo is a medium size zoo. You can get through it in under 2 hours if you go at a brisk pace. A lot of the enclosures may be empty so if you spend more time, a lot of it is revisiting exhibits hoping to see an animal you didn't see earlier.
I spent 3 hours on the first day, 30 minutes on the second day, and 2 hours on the third day but much of it was retreading the same ground hoping to see elusive critters.
SUMMARY
Chicago has two main zoos. Lincoln Park Zoo is a free zoo in downtown Chicago while Brookfield Zoo is a nicer paid zoo in the suburbs. The good thing about Lincoln Park Zoo is it free but the lack of revenue results in being not as clean or maintained as many private zoos.
My biggest issue with Lincoln Park Zoo is that it can be hard to see many of the animals. For example, even though the zoo gates open at 8 AM, that is way too early to see many of the animals, who won't come out until later. Most of the animals have free access to both indoor and outdoor spaces, so if they want to stay inside all day, you probably won't get to see them. While I appreciate zoos caring about the animals and giving them the choice of where to go, better designed zoos have ways around this - they design the enclosure so that the animals want to hang out in highly visible areas or they create indoor viewing opportunities through buildings or video cameras.
This year, despite multiple attempts, I was not able to see any of the lions, polar bear, aardvark, bats, or beaver though I was able to see all of them last year. Last year I didn't see the pygmy hippo despite multiple tries and I failed on my first attempt this year but I did finally see it on my third day. I was able to see more of the red panda than I did last year, and also the seals. I didn't get to see most of the farm animals, but I spent more time with the birds and reptiles than I did last year. And I only got brief glimpses of the African painted dog, alpaca, and sloth. I usually visit the zoo in the summer and am never able to see the wolves because that part of the zoo is cordoned off seasonally to allow native black-crowned night herons to nest.
So my overall experience is spending a lot of the time walking past the same empty enclosures multiple times and occasionally getting lucky through persistence. The situation was similar to that of the Detroit Zoo.
For me, the highlight of any zoo is always going to be the red pandas. I also enjoyed finally seeing the pygmy hippo. Lincoln Park Zoo also has a baby Grevy's Zebra born June 22nd, 2026, so it was only a few weeks old when I saw it.
I got some surprisingly good pictures of the snow leopards, grizzly bears, meerkats, bushbaby, otters, and seals. I also took way more pictures of scenery and flowers than I had originally planned to.
Although the online schedule makes it seem like there are a lot of daily events, many of the entries are just notifications of when things open or opportunities to feed farm animals. There are only a handful of training and demonstration events. Despite spending 5.5 total hours at the zoo, I was only able to make it to one - a seal training demonstration.
Overall, I would rate Lincoln Park Zoo at 3 stars because it is free. If it was a paid zoo, it would just be an average 2 stars. Here is how other zoos compare:
5 stars:
- San Diego Zoo (San Diego, CA)
- Brookfield Zoo (Brookfield, IL)
- Taipei Zoo (Taipei City, Taiwan)
4 stars:
- San Diego Safari Park (San Diego, CA)
- Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden (Cincinnati, OH)
- Oklahoma City Zoo (Oklahoma City, OK)
- Milwaukee County Zoo (Milwaukee, WI)
- Houston Zoo (Houston, TX)
- Oakland Zoo (Oakland, CA)
3 stars:
- Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago, IL, Free)
- Zoo Atlanta (Atlanta, GA)
- Buttonwood Park Zoo (New Bedford, MA)
- Butterflies of Cape Cod (Bourne, MA)
- International Crane Foundation (Baraboo, WI)
- Henry Vilas Zoo (Madison, WI, Free)
- Indianapolis Zoo (Indianapolis, IN)
- Sacramento Zoo (Sacramento, CA)
- Santa Barbara Zoo (Santa Barbara, CA)
- Fort Worth Zoo (Fort Worth, TX)
- Fort Wayne Zoo (Fort Wayne, IN)
- Zoo Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
- ZooTampa (Tampa, FL)
- Busch Gardens (Tampa, FL)
- Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens (Los Angeles, CA)
- Detroit Zoo (Detroit, MI)
- Virginia Zoological Park (Norfolk, VA)
- Virginia Living Museum (Newport News, VA)
- Minnesota Zoo (Apple Valley, MN)
2 stars:
- Audubon Insectarium (New Orleans, LA)
- Audubon Zoo (New Orleans, LA)
- Sarasota Jungle Gardens (Sarasota, FL)
- Save Our Seabirds Wild Bird Learning Center (Sarasota, FL, Free)
- San Francisco Zoo & Gardens (San Francisco, CA)
- Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo, CA)
- Franklin Park Zoo (Boston, MA)
- Capron Park Zoo (Attleboro, MA)
- Taylor-Bray Farm (Yarmouth Port, MA, Free)
- Racine Zoo (Racine, WI)
- Ochsner Park Zoo (Baraboo, WI, Free)
- John Ball Zoo (Grand Rapids, MI)
- Potter Park Zoo (Lansing, MI)
- Antalya Zoo (Antalya, Turkey)
- Marine Mammal Center (Sausalito, CA, Free)
- Santa Ana Zoo (Santa Ana, CA)
- San Antonio Zoological Society (San Antonio, TX)
- Cameron Park Zoo (Waco, TX)
- Dallas Zoo (Dallas, TX)
- Caldwell Zoo (Tyler, TX)
- Peoria Zoo (Peoria, IL)
- Miller Park Zoo (Bloomington, IL)
- Scovill Zoo (Decatur, IL)
- Potawatomi Zoo (South Bend, IN)
- Como Park Zoo & Conservatory (St. Paul, MN, Free)
1 star:
- Cosley Zoo (Wheaton, IL)
- Stone Zoo (Stoneham, MA)
- Timbavati Wildlife Park (Wisconsin Dells, WI)
- Binder Park Zoo (Battle Creek, MI)
- Happy Hollow Park & Zoo (San Jose, CA)
- CuriOdyssey (San Mateo, CA)
- Columbian Park Zoo (Lafayette, IN)
RED PANDA
(Located outside the Wildlife Center)
The red pandas at Lincoln Park Zoo were constantly on the move, hence why several of the pictures are blurry.
Red Panda
Ailurus fulgens
PYGMY HIPPO
(Located in African Journey)
Pygmy Hippopotamus
Choeropsis liberiensis
BABY ZEBRA
(Located in South Loop)
Baby with mom
Grevy’s Zebra
Equus grevyi
Baby by itself
Presumably the father
WILDLIFE CENTER
Lion water fountain
Empty habitats on this visit!
Snow Leopard
Panthera uncia
Canada Lynx
Lynx canadensis
NORTH LOOP
The windows of this enclosure were not very clean. In addition, they had special dots so that birds could avoid hitting the windows.
Grizzly Bear
Ursus arctos horribilis
Identity crisis! This grizzly bear thinks it is a polar bear!
Eastern Black Rhinoceros
Diceros bicornis michaeli
African Painted Dog
Lycaon pictus
Red River Hog
Potamochoerus porcus
(The Macaque Forest is part of the North Loop)
Japanese Macaque
Macaca fuscata
No polar bear sightings on this visit!
Insect hotel for pollinating insects
AFRICAN JOURNEY
Giraffe
Giraffa camelopardalis
Plains Zebra
Equus quagga
Meerkat
Suricata suricatta
Diana Monkey
Cercopithecus diana
West African Dwarf Crocodile
Osteolaemus tetraspis
Nicely camouflaged
Blue-bellied Roller
Coracias cyanogaster
Abdim’s Stork
Ciconia abdimii
Crested Guineafowl
Guttera pucherani
Lake Malawi Cichlid
Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
Gromphadorhina portentosa
Termite mound that kids can play in
BIRDS
(Penguin Cove is outside African Journey, and across from the Bird House)
African Penguin
Spheniscus demersus
(The Birds of Prey are outside right next to the Bird House)
Cinereous Vulture
Aegypius monachus
European White Stork
Ciconia ciconia
Bald Eagle
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Here are the birds within the Bird House:
Jambu Fruit Dove
Ramphiculus jambu
Kagu
Rhynochetos jubatus
White-Headed Buffalo Weaver
Dinemellia dinemelli
Snowy-Headed Robin Chat
Cossypha niveicapilla
The exhibit containing the American Avocet and Black-Necked Stilt was covered by a privacy curtain, presumably because it is nesting season. You can just barely make out the silhouettes for the two birds:
American Avocet
Recurvirostra americana
Black-Necked Stilt
Himantopus himantopus mexicanus
Tawny Frogmouth
Podargus strigoides
Green Broadbill
Calyptomena viridis
Luzon Bleeding Heart Dove
Gallicolumba luzonica
Sunbittern
Eurypyga helias
Bali Myna
Leucopsar rothschildi
Masked Lapwing
Vanellus miles miles
Nicobar Pigeon (Nicobar Dove)
Caloenas nicobarica
Inca Tern
Larosterna inca
Baer’s Pochard
Aythya baeri
Guira cuckoo
Guira guira
Helmeted Curassow
Pauxi pauxi
Laughing Kookaburra
Dacelo novaeguineae novaeguineae
Guam Kingfisher
Todiramphus cinnamominus
McCormick Bird House Kitchen
SEAL POOL
Grey Seal
Halichoerus grypus
Harbor Seal
Phoca vitulina
CHILDREN'S ZOO
Taxidermy Black-Crowned Night Heron
Nycticorax nycticorax
North American River Otter
Lontra canadensis
Ornate Box Turtle
Terrapene ornate
Three-Toed Box Turtle
Terrapene carolina triunguis
Spotted Turtle
Clemmys guttata
Blanding’s Turtle
Emydoidea blandingii
Beaver statues
Playground
PRIMATE HOUSE
De Brazza’s Monkey
Cercopithecus neglectus
Francois’ Langur
Trachypithecus francoisi
Bolivian Gray Titi Monkey
Callicebus donacophilus
Southern Black Howler Monkey
Alouatta caraya
Black-and-White Colobus Monkey
Colobus guereza
Pied Tamarin
Saguinus bicolor
White-Cheeked Gibbon
Nomascus leucogenys
CENTER FOR AFRICAN APES
Western Lowland Gorilla
Gorilla gorilla gorilla
Chimpanzee
Pan troglodytes
SOUTH LOOP
Chacoan Peccary
Catagonus wagneri
Sichuan Takin
Budorcas tibetana
Père David’s Deer
Elaphurus davidianus
Alpaca
Lama pacos
SMALL MAMMAL - REPTILE HOUSE
Asian Small-Clawed Otter
Aonyx cinerous
Hoffmann’s Two-Toed Sloth
Choloepus hoffmanni
Moholi Bushbaby
Galago moholi
Prehensile-Tailed Porcupine
Coendou prehensilis
Naked Mole Rat
Heterocephalus glaber
Axolotl
Ambystoma mexicanum
Spectacled Caiman
Caiman crocodilus
Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle
Podocnemis unifilis
White-Blotched River Stingray
Potamotrygon leopoldi
Oriente Knight Anole
Anolis smallwoodi
Prehensile-Tailed Skink
Corucia zebrata
Black Tree Monitor
Varanus beccarii
This young Black Tree Monitor was born on July 26, 2025. You can just barely see it poking out of the log.
Jamaican Iguana
Cyclura collei
Rio Fuerte Beaded Lizard
Heloderma horridum exasperatum
Aruba Island Rattlesnake
Crotalus unicolor
West African Gaboon Viper
Bitis rhinoceros
Emperor Newt
Tylototrition shanjing
Anthony’s Poison Dart Frog
Epipedobates anthonyi
Oriental Fire-Bellied Toad
Bombina orientalis
Solomon Islands Leaf Frog
Ceratobatrachus guentheri
Northern Walkingstick
Diaphermoera femorata
SWAN POND & WATERFOWL LAGOON
Chilean Flamingo
Phoenicopterus chilensis
Juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron
Nycticorax nycticorax
CONTINUED IN LINCOLN PARK ZOO (2026) (PART 2)