Current/Former Koala Holders - North America

I'm interested to see what zoos hold or previously have held koalas. Here's a list of the current ones i know. Feel free to comment if I'm wrong on anything

USA
Albuquerque
Cleveland
Columbia (Riverbanks)
Columbus
Los Angeles
Miami
San Diego
San Francisco
Tampa
Toledo?

Former Holdings
Cincinnati ?
Dallas ?
Fort Worth ?
Indianapolis - 2008, 2015 - ?
Kansas City ?
Phoenix - 2010 - 2011
San Antonio ?
Santa Barbara - 2018-2019
Sioux Falls ?
Tulsa ?

CANADA

Former Holdings
Calgary
Toronto - 2002ish?

Obviously a lot of work to be done. Please feel free to add on cities and dates. Mexico and Central America are included, I just don't know if there have been any there

 

Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina keeps Koala as well.

~Thylo

 

Milwaukee has held Koala in the past.

 

The Philadelphia Zoo has temporarily held Koalas once or twice. I wish they kept them.

 

Yes, that was on the list

 

St. Louis kept some time ago. The Victorian subspecies.

 

So it was Sorry I skimmed over Columbia.

~Thylo

 

Just to be clear, there are no koala subspecies, just a cline. In Australia we would simply refer to them as "southern koalas".

 

Minnesota had Koalas from 1989-1994.

Lincoln Park had them for quite a few years starting in 1988. Not sure when they left but a dedicated exhibit was constructed for them in the Small Mammal-Reptile House and that opened in 1997, so they were there at least into the late 1990s.

Of the zoos you have with question marks, Sioux Falls had them for a summer in 2017, and Toledo has had one since 2017, plus had koalas at earlier dates as well.

 

Palm Beach still has one I believe

Both Stone and FPZ in Massachusetts had them for summer exhibits

Busch Gardens was the first place I ever saw them

 

Would anyone be interested to see a list of all the individual koalas in North America? If so, I could make one sometime. It wouldn't take long.

 

Omaha had an exhibit for summer of 2000
Koalas appear at Omaha's

 

For the Fort Worth Zoo, the exhibit Koala Outback opened in 1998. I can't remember exactly how long they had the koalas, but they left before 2005 (which was when the Great Barrier Reef opened). The Dallas Zoo opened Koala Walkabout back in 2012, and closed in 2017.

 

Toledo had their koala for a few years, then was transferred to Riverbanks very recently.

 

I'll try to throw together a list of all the individuals in North America later this week.

 

The Houston Zoo had koalas when I visited in 2007.

The San Diego Zoo used to send koalas out on tour where they would visit zoos for a short time, like a few weeks (in contrast to the years-long loans that I assume they still do with several zoos). The Sacramento Zoo did this in the summer of 1987.

 

I think Santa Barbara's Koalas were a temporary exhibition lasting less than a year.

~Thylo

 

They were on loan from the L.A. Zoo. You are correct that they were there for about a year before they went back to LA.

 

Oh yeah, the San Antonio Zoo did that too. It was last year, from May 25th - Sept. 2nd

On loan from the San Diego Zoo of course, just like at Fort Worth and Dallas.

 

I know in 2013 Stone had them, but when were they at Franklin? Stone was the first place I ever saw a koala.