Living Desert Zoo and Botanical Gardens - Palm Desert, California

Address:47900 Portola Avenue
Palm Desert, California
Tel: (760) 346-5694

More of an outdoor museum than anything else, the Living Desert Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Palm Springs celebrates the diverse plant and animal life of the desert and is a perfect place to gain a greater appreciation and understanding of the desert's ecosystem. The gardens showcase a wide variety of desert flora and fauna as well as amazing exhibits on the desert's geology, and native cultures. One of the showcases is the African wildlife exhibit, which features some famous African desert animals including gazelles, sand cats, camels, zebras, and warthogs. In the deserts of North America exhibit, you'll see all types of animals that live in the desert ecosystem of the region. A highlight is the after-sundown exhibit, showcasing nocturnal animals like owls, bats, and coyotes that hunt in the desert nights. The North American section also features a great variety of non-nocturnal animals, including birds like hummingbirds, falcons, eagles, and vultures. The largest exhibit of the North American section is Bighorn Mountain, which features endangered Peninsular Bighorn Sheep in a mock up of their natural desert mountain habitat. The botanical gardens are open daily from September 1st-June 15th, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and from 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in the summers.