Wish List

Support the critical care, community, and conservation work that takes place at your free zoo every day.

Did you know that more than 20,000 crickets, 20,000 mealworms, 12,000 waxworms, 12,000 superworms, and 100 nightcrawlers are fed at Lincoln Park Zoo every week? These insects provide nutrients to many resident zoo insectivores, like the green tree python at Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House. Make this March extra special and purchase a buggy feast for your favorite insect-eater.

Healthy plants need good dirt! Compost and soil amendments improve the health and vigor of zoo gardens. Keep the gardens growing from root to tip with an infusion of new soil!

Egyptian fruit bats are always on the hunt for a sweet treat. Their long muzzles help them chow down on favorites, like pears, apples, grapes, and bananas. You won’t need echolocation to find this perfect item—select a share of a delectable fruit medley for the bats!

Axolotls, a species of salamander, will eat anything from fish to arthropods. Lincoln Park Zoo enhances the resident axolotls’ diet with nutritious abystoma pellets—spongy pellets made of fish meal and other seafood. Supply an axolotl with a superior salamander snack today!

Snow leopards are fierce predators powerful enough to take down prey as large as a yak. Here at the zoo, resident snow leopards Kennedi and Ozzy enjoy a carnivorous diet that includes snacking on meaty bones. Put a spring in the leopards’ steps with bounty of bones.

The Jamaican iguanas at Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House enjoy a smorgasbord of fresh produce, leafy greens, and insects in their diet. To ensure the reptiles get balanced nutrition, keepers dust insects with a superfine calcium powder, then let the iguanas hunt for them throughout their habitat. Help keep the iguanas healthy and strong by providing them with some calcium powder.

Fresh leaves and plants are perfect treats for many herbivores, from the tallest giraffe to the slowest tortoises. Saplings are pulled from a dedicated browse garden on zoo grounds in order to provide the freshest locally-grown leafy greens possible. Browse is a perfect snack to encourage each animal’s foraging behaviors while providing a nourishing meal. Share a “salad on a stick” with your favorite herbivore by helping us plant a new crop of leafy and delicious trees!

Although many animals at Lincoln Park Zoo are active throughout the day, nocturnal armadillos nestle in their beds and snooze until the sun goes down. Armadillos nest in raw materials and close their shells into balls to retain heat while they sleep. Provide some cozy new bedding material for the armadillos this spring!

March 22 is International Day of the Seal. Help us celebrate at Lincoln Park Zoo with tasty gelatin snacks. The seals at Kovler Seal Pool are naturally curious, excellent swimmers, and avid puzzle solvers. To pique the seals’ curiosity, keepers will place yummy treats like gelatin into cap feeders and throw them into the pool. The savvy swimmers will use their problem-solving skills to get to the tasty morsels inside. Celebrate the seals with some gelatin snacks.

To create an exciting challenge for the Asian small-clawed otters at Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House, keepers put live fish and squid inside grapevine balls, challenging the otters to “fish” out their meal with dexterous paws. Make mealtime an enriching experience with the purchase of some delicious squid!

In the wild, Hoffmann’s two-toed sloths are nocturnal, feeding on lettuce, leaves, and fruit. Though the sloth is one of the slowest-moving animals at Lincoln Park Zoo, you’d be surprised how quickly Oro can move for his favorite snack—crunchy lettuce! Show your love for Oro with lots of leafy lettuce.

This month, African lion Pilipili celebrates his third birthday. It seems like only yesterday Pilipili was taking his first steps outside with his mom, Zari. Now, the nearly full-grown lion spends his days with his two younger brothers, Pesho and Sidai, as their own pride in their habitat at Pepper Family Wildlife Center. Help us celebrate Pilipili with meaty bones and other delicious treats!