The Detroit Zoo isn't in Detroit — it's Royal Oak's backyard

Here’s a fact Royal Oak residents enjoy correcting: the Detroit Zoo is theirs. The zoo opened on August 1, 1928 at Ten Mile and Woodward, straddling Royal Oak and Huntington Woods. It made history on day one as the first zoo in America built without bars. That followed German designer Carl Hagenbeck’s then-radical idea: animals should roam open habitats bounded by moats and sculpted rock, not cages.

Nearly a century later, it’s one of Michigan’s biggest family draws and a recognized leader in animal welfare. There’s a celebrated penguin conservation center. There’s an arctic tundra exhibit where polar bears swim overhead through a glass tunnel. There’s the summertime Wild Lights, now a metro Detroit tradition. For the surrounding neighborhoods it works like a giant park with zebras. Memberships pay for themselves by June, and the holiday light walks bookend the year. Living near “the Detroit Zoo” while paying Royal Oak taxes — locals consider that a fair trade.