The Giraffe House building is currently closed. The giraffe and okapi are viewable outdoors as weather conditions allow.
Cape Porcupine
Cape porcupines, also called South African porcupines, are common throughout central and southern Africa. They are highly adaptable and can survive just about anywhere that vegetation is available. They are more likely to be found in open rather than wooded areas, though, and seek out rocky crevices and caves for shelter. Porcupines are large rodents ...
Colobus Monkey
Black and White Colobus Monkeys live in all types of forest of equatorial Africa. You can see Colobus monkeys on exhibit at The Maryland Zoo in the Chimpanzee Forest. Colobus monkeys share the trees with each other and other species of monkey. Like all primates, they are highly social animals. They live in family groups composed of a dominant male, ...
Coquerel’s Sifaka
Coquerel’s sifaka are one of very few species of sifaka. All sifaka are lemurs, and all lemurs are prosimian primates — which, in a nutshell, means primates more primitive than monkeys — that are native only to the island of Madagascar off the southeastern coast of Africa. Coquerel’s sifaka live in the sparse remaining dry, deciduous forests of ...
Lesser Kudu
Lesser kudu live in dry, densely thicketed scrub and woodlands of northern east Africa. To see them at the Maryland Zoo, walk along the African Journey Boardwalk. Females tend to live in small groups of two or three, plus their offspring. Adult males, called bulls, are generally solitary. They leave their mothers after 1.5 to 2 years to be on their ...
Miniature Texas Longhorn
Miniature Texas longhorns are small Texas longhorns, as their name suggests. They are smaller in size but otherwise retain the characteristics and proportions of full-sized Texas longhorn cattle. Miniature longhorn bulls can stand no more than 48 inches tall at the highest point of the hips, or withers. Miniature longhorn cows can measure no more than ...
Nigerian Dwarf Goat
The Nigerian dwarf goat is a miniature dairy goat of West African origin. They are similar in appearance to larger dairy goats but ideally, the does stand no taller than 17 to 19 inches and the bucks stand no taller than 19 to 20 inches. The coat can vary considerably by color and pattern. Ideal weight is about 75 pounds. Now a domesticated breed, ...
Plains Zebra
There are four species of zebra: Plains, Grevy’s, Cape Mountain, and Hartmann’s Mountain. The Plains Zebra, on exhibit at The Maryland Zoo, is the most common and geographically widespread. It is also known as the Common Zebra or Burchell’s Zebra. Plains Zebras roam Africa’s grasslands and venture into woodland and marshy areas as well. Check ...
Red Ruffed Lemur
In the wild, red ruffed lemurs live only in the remote rainforests of northeastern Madagascar. Red ruffed lemurs very rarely descend to the ground. They spend almost all of their time in the high treetops. They live in female-dominated family groups averaging in size from 2 to 16 animals. They are active during the day and spend most of their waking ...
Seba’s Short-Tailed Bat
Seba’s short-tailed bats live in moist evergreen and dry deciduous lowland forests of Central and South America. At the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, visitors can see Seba’s short-tailed bats in the Maryland Wilderness Cave. They are not native to Maryland, but are similar in size and behavior to some Maryland bat species, and as fruit eaters can ...
Sitatunga
Sitatunga live in secluded, thickly vegetated, muddy swamps and marshes throughout central Africa. See them at the Zoo in the African Journey, across from the flamingos. Sitatunga tend to be solitary animals. Females may form loose herds but males keep to themselves. Sitatunga feed on bulrushes, sedges and leaves of bushes growing in the swamp or near ...
Eastern Tiger Salamander
Eastern tiger salamanders live throughout most of the United States, southern Canada, and eastern Mexico. They range more widely than any other species of salamander in North America. They are currently endangered in Maryland. At the Zoo, you can see tiger salamanders inside the Great Tree in the Maryland Wilderness. They are on exhibit seasonally ...
Panamanian Golden Frog
Panamanian golden frogs are native to the wet rainforests and dry cloud forests of the Cordilleran Mountains that run like a spine through western-central Panama in Central America. At The Maryland Zoo, Panamanian golden frogs are one of our primary conservation species. They are a featured species in the Animal Embassy collection, and can also be seen ...