Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo is located in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

and part of the City of Palo Alto's Community Services Department (CSD). It was founded in 1934 by Josephine O’Hara in the basement of a local elementary school. The small zoo holds approximately 200 species of mostly indigenous wildlife such as

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. The ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

snake Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...

s and more. The museum has an interactive scientific exhibition that is changed every few years. They offer science classes to local students, over 14,000 students a year. In December 2017, Palo Alto's City Council unanimously approved plans for a $25 million reconstruction project. The museum re-opened to the public in 2021.

References

External links

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Friends of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo
Educational buildings in Palo Alto, California Tourist attractions in Santa Clara County, California Educational organizations established in 1934 Zoos established in the 1930s Zoos in California 1934 establishments in California {{SantaClaraCountyCA-struct-stub