Endangered Species Carousel

Ride on your favorite zoo animal on the new endangered species, hand-carved carousel.

Carousel Information

Hours: 10:00 AM TO 4:30 PM

Thursday-Tuesday

Cost: $2 PER PERSON*
*Price in addition to regular Zoo Admission

If you would like to schedule your group, please contact the carousel operator.

Visitors to the Jackson Zoo now not only can see some exotic animals during their visit, but they can ride them as well! The Friends of the Jackson Zoo are proud to announce the arrival of a new carousel offering visitors the opportunity to ride such animals as a giraffe, a lion, an elephant and our own native Mississippian, the catfish.

The carousel was hand carved from solid wood by Carousel Works from Mansfield, Ohio. Great care was taken to make each hand painted animal one of a kind.All carousel paintings were hand selected... some depicting items representing the state of Mississippi, such things as the state flower…the Magnolia, and state bird…the Mockingbird. There is no other carousel like this one in the country. Some of the paintings on the top rounding boards represent old photos from the Zoo such as the Monkey Castle, Livingston Lake and the old Zoo entrance from the 1920’s. The Friends of the Zoo began the planning stages of the project in September of 2003 and the actual installation of the carousel began in September of 2004.It took only three weeks to do all of the foundation work thanks to the hard work of Nall Construction. The fine staff of Carousel Works came in and had our carousel up and running in record time!This project has been a labor of love and is a beautiful new addition to the Jackson Zoo.

We invite you to become a sponsor of the Endangered Species Carousel or Join the Friends of the Jackson Zoo. For more information, please call us at (601) 352-2582.

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