{"id":203482,"date":"2026-05-27T13:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/203482\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:55:11","slug":"philadelphia-zoos-renovated-bear-country-opens-to-public-in-june-nbc10-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/203482\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Zoo\u2019s renovated Bear Country opens to public in June \u2013 NBC10 Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philadelphiazoo.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia Zoo<\/a> is inviting you to be among the first to explore its new $25 million Francis J. Carey Bear Country exhibit, a state-of-the-art facility focused on animal care and conservation for endangered bears.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcphiladelphia.com\/critter-corner\/philadelphia-zoo-bear-country-expansion-renovation-renderings\/4008728\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This project broke ground in 2025,<\/a> marking the zoo&#8217;s largest and most transformative project in over a decade. <\/p>\n<p>The new exhibit includes refreshed and upgraded habitats, as well as a third, brand-new habitat, and dedicated behind-the-scenes indoor and outdoor den spaces to support breeding programs. <\/p>\n<p>Bear Country also features a new Zoo360 trail that allows the bears to explore throughout the space.<\/p>\n<p>You will also be able to get closer to the bears than ever before with the new cave-like glass viewing areas. <\/p>\n<p>Officials said there will be interactive, educational signage throughout the space to tell the stories of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philadelphiazoo.org\/animals\/andean-bear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Andean bears<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.philadelphiazoo.org\/animals\/sloth-bear\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">sloth bears<\/a>, the two endangered bear species you will see when visiting. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Philadelphia-Zoo-Bear-Aversa-PR.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   alt=\" \"\/><\/p>\n<p>Credit: Aversa PR<\/p>\n<p>The zoo said that while Bear Country will open to general admission guests on\u00a0Thursday, June 4, at 11:30 a.m., zoo members can enjoy exclusive previews on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 2 and 3, from 9:30 a.m. to noon, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 5, 6, and 7, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. before the zoo opens to the public.<\/p>\n<p>Bear Country will be\u00a0open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Friday, June 5. <\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philadelphiazoo.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.philadelphiazoo.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Zoo is inviting you to be among the first to explore its new $25 million Francis&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2600,17685,69,71,70,2357],"class_list":["post-203482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-animals","tag-animals-and-wildlife","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-zoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}