about 2 mi south of the current zoo site until it was closed in August 1966. Remnants of the original zoo remain. The Los Angeles Zoo opened in its present location on November 28, 1966. The site was formerly the location of Rodger Young Village, which was itself built on the land which had been used for the Griffith Park Aerodrome.

By the early 1990s, the zoo's infrastructure was deteriorating. In January 1992, a ten-inch water pipe burst, leaving half of the zoo without water. The next day,