Today, I want to share my 5 favorite US zoo webcam sites. Granted, I realize there are those who don’t believe in keeping animals in confined areas like zoos. But, this is a blog about the computing world including all Internet-related tasks; it’s not a sociopolitical site. One of the great wonders of the Net is how it allows us to see, to “visit” if you will, places you might never get to see in person. Also, you can find places you wouldn’t know you should visit if you didn’t first see them online.

For those of you who follow me on Social Media or in real life, you know I’m a railfan. Of course, I have tons of railroad cams I view regularly but today, I want to share my 5 favorite US zoo webcam sites. I hope you’ll have a look as there is a lot to explore at each zoo. Just click on the sub-heading name of the zoo and you’ll be magically transported to an animal kingdom somewhere in the US.

Memphis Zoo Cams

The picture above comes from the Memphis Zoo Elephant Cam and was taken this morning. (You can click on the picture to view a larger image.) This zoo has four (4) cam areas available: the Panda Cam, the Hippo Cam, the Elephant Cam and the Flamingo Cam. The Panda Cam actually has three cams and you can almost always see a panda somewhere in one of them. One of the features I really like about these cams is that you are given the option to easily take a snapshot (like I did of the elephants.) Just look in the lower right-hand corner of any of the cams and you’ll see the camera option.

Maryland Zoo Cams

The Maryland Zoo also has four (4) webcam areas: the Penguin Cams 2 (sometimes 2 cams), the Elephant Cam, the Lion Cam and the Flamingo Cam.

San Diego Zoo Cams

This zoo has thirteen (13) animal cams – the Polar Cam, the Penguin Cam, the Panda Cam Archive, the Koala Cam, the Baboon Cam, the Ape Cam, the Hippo Cam, the Condor Cam, the Burrowing Owl Cams (2 cams), the Tiger Cam, the Elephant Cam, the Giraffe Cam and the Platypus Cam.

Houston Zoo Cams

At the Houston Zoo, there are eight (8) web cam areas: the Giraffe Feeding Platform Cam, the Giant River Otters Cam, the Gorilla Habitat Cam, the Elephant Yard Cam, the Leafcutter Ant Cam, the Rhino Yard Cam, the Chimp Window Cam and the Flamingo Cam. There are two nice features about these web cams. Like the Memphis Zoo cams, you can easily snap a picture (red arrow in the photo below). But, the Houston Zoo also allows you to control the web cam (orange arrow below). Yes, when it’s your turn after clicking the icon, you’ll get a list of positions to which you can move the cam. Pretty neat!

Smithsonian’s National Zoo Cams

My list of 5 favorite US zoo cams just wouldn’t be complete without the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Here, there are four (4) cam areas: the Naked Mole-rat Cam, the Lion Cam, the Giant Panda Cam and the Elephant Cam. Of my five favorites, this is the one site where the web cams don’t start automatically – you need to click the “play” arrow. A minor inconvenience in your quest to see the animals.

Important Notes About These Zoo Cams

Whenever you’re looking at zoo cams, you might run across some of the following conditions:

• Most animal cams are not on 24 hours a day. You need to check and see what times the cams are live.
• Some zoos will replay the daily live video during the night when the animals can’t be seen live.
• Some zoos will simply turn off the live cams during night-time hours.
• The Smithsonian cams will automatically stop after 10 minutes of live viewing as an effort to save their bandwidth usage.
• All zoos were hit hard financially by the pandemic so expect to see ads for donations.
• Most of these zoos, if not already re-opened have set the re-opening date and that date is posted.

Summing It Up

I hope you enjoy viewing my 5 favorite US zoo webcam sites. If you have a favorite of your own that I didn’t mention, feel free to let me know in the comments.