The Denver Zoo is an 80 acres (32.4 ha) facility located in City Park

City Park, Denver

City Park is an urban park and neighborhood in Denver, Colorado. The park is and is located in east-central Denver. The park contains the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Ferril and Duck Lakes, and a boathouse. City Park is also the name of the neighborhood that contains the...

 of Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

, USA. Founded in 1896, it is owned by the City and County of Denver and funded in part by the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District

Scientific and Cultural Facilities District

The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District is a special regional tax district of the State of Colorado that provides funding for art, music, theater, dance, zoology, botany, natural history, or cultural history organizations in the Denver metropolitan area.In 1988, voters in the Denver region...

 (SCFD). It was the most popular paid attraction in the Denver metropolitan area in 2005.

The Denver zoo was started with the donation of an orphaned American black bear

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

. With the construction of Bear Mountain, it became the first zoo in the United States to use naturalistic zoo enclosures rather than cages with bars.