Zoo Knoxville, formerly known as the Knoxville Zoo or Knoxville Zoological Gardens, is a zoo located just east of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, near exit 392 off Interstate 40. The zoo is home to about 1,200 animals and welcomes over 585,000 visitors each year. Zoo Knoxville is notable for having bred the first two African Elephants born in the Western Hemisphere in 1978. The zoo also has bred more endangered red pandas than any other zoo in the world and is a leader in the breeding of endangered tortoises. The zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). History In 1923, an initiative was started by a local newspaper to start a park for poor children, driven by a Birthday Fund. After slow progress, the Birthday Park was established in 1935 with help from the city of Knoxville and the New Deal. The park included a stone shelter, small playground, and a wading pool on a hillside in Chilhowee Park. Discussion started about introducing a zoo, but funding again became an issue, and the Birthday Park fell into disuse and neglect before being closed in 1946. In 1948, the News Sentinel aimed to revitalize the property as the Birthday Park Zoo using some leftover money from the 1923 initiative, plus more help from the city of Knoxville. In 1951, the zoo was opened and renamed the Municipal Zoo, with the first attraction being an American alligator named "Al". Around 4,000 people visited in the first day of opening. In 1963, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus donated a particularly troublesome seven-ton bull elephant named "Louie", or "Old Diamond". While this initially raised public interest, conditions and funds soon deteriorated, and Old Diamond contributed more problems by tearing up his early enclosures. In 1966, the Metropolitan Planning Commission announced plans to revitalize and modernize the zoo, but a lack of funds once again grounded the project through 1970. Following an effort by the Knoxville Journal to "Save Old Diamond", successful television executive Guy Lincoln Smith III bought a lion cub and took care of it until a proper facility could be built, while Dr. Bill Patterson helped found the Appalachian Zoological Society to oversee the formation of an educational zoo. With these two efforts, the modern Knoxville Zoo was founded in 1971. In the following years, Old Diamond was successfully mated to two younger female