3. The African Plains Exhibit Was The First Of Its Kind

Since its inception, The Bronx Zoo has aimed to keep animals out of cages. The African Plains exhibit opened in 1941 and was the first zoo exhibit in the country to let visitors see predator and prey in a naturalistic setting. Lions, giraffes, gazelles, nyalas, and wild dogs are allowed to roam freely as they would in their natural habitat. In the African Plains exhibit, the animals are only separated by a series of deep moats, with the rest of the exhibit replicating the African environment in the Serengeti, everything from the fake rocks to the local trees have been tweaked to resemble the plains they come from.