Qualla: Riverbanks Zoo

Riverbanks Zoo: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr. Blazer, CC BY-SA 4.0. The footbridge over the Saluda River carries you from one county to another mid-stride. Step off on the east bank and you are in Columbia, Richland County. Step off on the west and you are in West Columbia, Lexington County. Riverbanks Zoo is one of the only zoos in the country whose acreage straddles a river boundary that way, and the unusual geography is the reason it exists at all. In 1969, when Columbia businessmen finally turned a long-discussed civic dream into law, they had to invent a new kind of government to do it. The Rich-Lex Riverbanks Park Special Purpose District, a joint venture between the city, Richland County, and Lexington County, is still the entity that runs the place.

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Image: Dr. Blazer | CC BY-SA 4.0

Riverbanks Zoo: Five Years of Planning

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jennifer, CC BY 2.0. The zoo opened on April 25, 1974, but the years before that opening day were not idle. The property along the Saluda holds four archeological sites, and the planning team spent five years figuring out how to build around them rather than over them. When the gates finally swung wi...

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Image: Jennifer | CC BY 2.0

Riverbanks Zoo: Bottomland and Botanical Garden

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David.Cole, CC BY-SA 3.0. On June 10, 1995, Riverbanks did something unusual for a zoo: it opened a 70-acre botanical garden across the river. The $6 million project added more than 4,200 species of native and exotic plants, woven through bottomland and upland mixed hardwood forests. Trails meander past s...

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Image: David.Cole | CC BY-SA 3.0

Riverbanks Zoo: The Last Original Animal

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charles Barilleaux from Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, CC BY 2.0. In March 2014, a female Caribbean flamingo died at Riverbanks. She had been there since opening day in 1974 - the last of the original animals, the final living link to the institution's first day. A month later, two male African lions named Pesho and Sidai arrived from Lincoln P...

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Image: Charles Barilleaux from Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America | CC BY 2.0

Riverbanks Zoo: Waterfall Junction and Bridge to the Wild

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Charles Barilleaux from Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America, CC BY 2.0. In April 2016, Waterfall Junction opened on the botanical garden side: a children's play area with a splashpad, playhouses, and a dinosaur dig pit. It was the largest expansion to Riverbanks since the botanical garden itself. Then in May 2022, the zoo announced Bridge to the Wild...

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Image: Charles Barilleaux from Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of America | CC BY 2.0

Riverbanks Zoo: The View From the Saluda

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Congaree National Park from Hopkins, SC, USA, CC BY 2.0. Riverbanks today draws more than 1.3 million visitors a year and ranks as the most visited zoo in the Southeast. The Saluda runs cold and fast below the bridge, dropping toward its confluence with the Broad just downstream, where the two rivers form the Congaree. From the air, th...

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Image: Congaree National Park from Hopkins, SC, USA | CC BY 2.0