National Zoological Park

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park lies in Rock Creek Park north of central Washington, D.C., and is one of the oldest zoos in the United States. Congress chartered it in 1889 expressly for the advancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the people; the original mission was preserving the North American bison. The enclosures spread across 66 hectares laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted, the same landscape architect who shaped Central Park. The zoo is famous for its giant pandas, kept since 1972 as part of so-called panda diplomacy; two new animals arrived in autumn 2024 after a brief gap. Like all Smithsonian institutions the zoo is free; a second, non-public population of endangered species lives at the Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia.