Tulsa Zoo — Attraction in Tulsa

I would give this zoo 4.5 stars.

To preface, I LOVE zoos. I plan trips around zoos with animals I haven’t seen yet so I can go and learn about them.

I grew up going to the Tulsa zoo with my aunt every summer (early 2000s) and I remember it being a magical place. I loved the penguins and I think they had sharks at the time before the separate aquarium was built.

I moved off and hadn’t been in a while (10+ years), when I decided to go when visiting my grandparents in 2021. I dragged my 88 year old grandfather through the heat to see the animals, and honestly that was a magical experience. He was a cattle farmer most of his life, so he was fascinated by all the different animals and we spent several hours walking through the park talking about all the different animals. He especially loved the elephants. This is one of the last things I got to do with him before he passed so the Tulsa Zoo will always be a special place.

My husband and I moved back to the area this year (2024) and when our friends came to visit with their toddler, I knew I wanted to take them here. It was July, and hot, but we still had a good time. We all especially loved the interconnected buildings “life in” different habitats because it was a great break from the elements with cool animals like arctic foxes and southern screamers.

I will say, if you go frequently, it may feel a little bit small after a while. When I was there in 2021, I felt like we were there a while, and I still missed exhibits. But the most recent trip, we had budgeted 3 hours before our dinner reservation and it felt like we saw most habitats within 90 minutes. Want to preface again, I’ve been to a lot of expansive zoos (Columbus / San Diego) since the last time I was at the Tulsa zoo this may have impacted perception.

All-in-all. The ticket prices feel really affordable (to a dual income, no kids couple). They have lots of water stations, so I did not have to spend a lot of money at concessions and stayed hydrated. The zoo has practices seem ethical and to further species research and populations. They have some really cool animals that you wouldn’t get to see other places like snow leopards and bearcats.

I am planning to get a membership...

I've lived in Oklahoma the first half of my life. Been to the OKC Zoo a dozen or so times. This was my first time to visit the Tulsa Zoo as an out of stater. I gotta say, like some others have pointed out, it was a 5 ⭐ experience all day. One of my daughters bought tickets online about a month before coming here. She indicated it was a simple process to do. We arrived on Saturday September 9, about an hour after opening.

My first impressions was how nice the entrance and yard/picnic areas looked. Spotless it was. The zoo itself presented itself the same way. Majority of the exhibits were filled with the appropriate exhibits. Not to compare, but I live in SW MO and the Springfield MO Zoo has many exhibits empty. And little indicators that something will be coming soon. Honestly I thought the Tulsa Zoo may present the same issues. An unfair judgement from me. And the last time I was at the OKC Zoo I might have been 15 or 16. It was big and that's about what I remember.

The Tulsa Zoo is top notch. I've never been to the St. Louis Zoo or the Dallas Zoo. I get it's not fair to compare the Tulsa Zoo to these. I've got to believe the Tulsa Zoo would fair quite well in a comparison. I suppose the bottom line the zoo experience was excellent and very clean, including the bathrooms and eating areas.

The one eating area we went to was to get water only. It was also clean and very personable staff and it was moderately busy. The prices on the food...well it was ridiculously high and unfair based upon what I saw other ordered and the portion size. That would be my biggest complaint.

Thanks Tulsa for having this gem. I understand this zoo has been around for almost a hundred years. Tulsa citizens should be proud of this venue. In a side note, the exhibits that didn't have anything (only a few) there was visible construction to improve the exhibits with actual workers.

Definitely will make the 2 hour drive again in the future...

We've been to the Tulsa Zoo probably 5-6 times over the last 25 years. As with all places they go through times of upgrading, renovation, etc. This time, I'm being generous in saying that approximately 60% of the zoo was blocked off for renovations. There were less animals, less to see attraction wise and not once did I see a grounds keeper walking around cleaning or available for questions. They do have a couple areas that are newer construction but you can't get to a large portion of it or doors are locked to where you can't see the exhibition. This should be told to patrons when buying tickets or given an automatic discount for a lesser experience. We've loved contributing to this zoo but I think our next zoo adventure we'll be going to KC or Springfield. Also, the gift shop is severely lacking, gift shops are a huge money maker, there were 3 very boring styles of tshirts, 1 button down and a couple sweatshirts, that's it for clothing. It's just the same ol same ol stuffed animals, bubble toys, etc not much to choose from. Consider expanding your gift shop when you get the zoo up and running again. We bought tickets ahead of time so we went straight in, the newer food place we were told that we would be better off going to the older food place bc they didn't feel that the food was good at their restaurant. The menu was lacking so we opted to wait until we left the zoo. You need more spots to buy carni food or have food trucks, something more than the options given. We paid extra to walk down a winding sidewalk to look at animatronic dinosaurs that we could have seen by walking around the attraction for free. How about interactive encounters???? Maybe offer (for a fee) to hold a monkey, snake, bird or feed an elephant, penguin, etc. We went through the whole zoo (that we could get to in less than 2 hours. Let's make...