Get Your IRL Animal Cuteness Fix at the Oregon Zoo

With bathing elephants, romping painted dog pups and diving Humboldt penguins, you won't need to look up cat videos on social media.

Juvenile Asian elephant Samudra in the pool at Elephant Lands. IMAGE: Oregon Zoo / photo by Michael Durham.
By Shannon Gormley

During summer, the Oregon Zoo (4001 SW Canyon Road, 503-226-1561, oregonzoo.com) feels more like a concert venue. That’s because from June to September, the animals aren’t always the star attractions when the zoo also plays host to big-name artists almost every week. If you’re not chaperoning a field trip, why pay $18 to see some elephants and giraffes when you could pay an extra $20 and see Herbie Hancock as well? Still, recent PR nightmares aside, the zoo has enough IRL animal cuteness to keep you off Instagram for at least a week: Asian elephants bathing in their giant pool, a litter of painted dog pups playing with one another (the first endangered species to be born at the facility), diving Humboldt penguins that make up the largest collection of the species in the U.S., and fluffball baby mountain goats frolicking around their rocky habitat.

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